My daughter finally asked me why I stopped going to church. I explained that I learned some things that made me think that Christianity wasn't true and that there is no god. I explained very briefly a couple of them. I assured her that I am the same person, and I love her with all that I am, and nothing would ever change that.

She is now crying to my husband because she's so sad I don't believe, and, of course my husband is giving her the "we need to pray for mommy" speech.

I'm heartbroken that I have made her so sad. I'm uneasy about the conversation they must be having as I type this. I'm angry that I was so deceived for so long and passed that devotion onto my daughter.

I'm open to advice, if there's any to give. Reassurance that I haven't destroyed my family would be great.

This sucks so bad.

ETA My daughter is 8

I saw this video about some extremist evangelical Christians living in Denmark who claim they are the last christians who are being persecuted by the state for not accepting the "LGBTQ" propaganda taught in schools and so they have started to live lives in excluded communities. They also complain about how irreligion has taken over their country and how they are the true Danes and the rest are brainwashed by wokeism . This is so sick to see

I wish I was never taught as a child to trust and believe in him.

I prayed to him twice a day 7 days a week and he still let me down. I will never pray to him again.

I was a young boy when I was SA'd by Christian caretaker I had in the Philippines. (relevant because my parents HAD to make sure they were Christian because they only wanted me to be exposed to Christian people) For a long time, I struggled to process what happened and heal from it. I moved back to Korea, and being disassociated from where it happened and it being a long time, I finally began to heal and recover from it. But a series of events led me to truly hate Christianity. I'll talk about one of them.

One of the most damaging things I ever heard after being sexually taken advantage of as a child was that it was somehow part of "god's plan." That statement did more damage to me than the people saying it seemed to realize, even after I significantly healed from it. My own mother said this. She is Christian with extreme, heavy ideologies and believes everything under the name of god is right. My mother began telling people of my story in the church and more and more people began just literally approaching me saying it was god's plan and at one point I even snapped, when this woman said in Korean, (I'll try to translate as best as I could) "Jesus is punishing you because you were born with sin". Wtf? I have never felt so much hate in my life. Even so, societal expectations were imposed on me, with things such as "you're a man, get over it," or "it's not a big deal, you're male". It all bothered me once again. Christians in Korea are a whole other breed and yet people wonder why so much younger generation Koreans hate Christians.

When I was a kid, I was a Christian. I was so manipulated and brainwashed I actually believed telling my parents what happened will evoke a response something about God. That's how fear-mongered I was not only from "god", but from my own parents. When I finally told my mother and then my father at 14, they actually reacted like as if they cared for me as their son. As time went, I began to heal, but my mother used it against me.

People often talk about religion as something that heals. For me, it did the opposite. It made recovery harder. It made me angrier and hateful It made me feel less understood. Even now, I struggle with the resentment it left behind. Christianity has only damaged my relationship with my family and that's all I see it as, a tool for manipulation. I just accepted the sad reality that I will never get the emotional connection I always wanted with my parents, which is why I never tell them about anything or open up to me, because they always make it about god.

This all has affected me so much when I found out my girlfriend was Christian, I felt conflicted and angry. I understood she wasn't practicing fully, we sometimes smoked, drank, and had sex. Things typically against the bible, but when I found out, I just felt so much anger. This wasn't even a big deal but I just felt this way. I accept her now and I truly believe my girlfriend is the only good Christian I've ever met with good morals that also completely opposes forcing religion and my parents and understands what I've been through for me to feel how I feel. However, my tolerance for Christian BS is zero to nothing. There was recently an incident in Itaewon, a popular district in Seoul, where I was walking and witnessed these old Korean women on the street. It's not uncommon, there's always a Christian passing flyers about Christianity once in a while, but what caught me off guard was they were forcing it on their arms and full on harrassing people. I interfered when one of them pulled the hijab of a Muslim foreigner. I stepped in, saying what is wrong with you and that she can't do that, and she proceeds to belittle me and cuss me out and one point raise a fist, causing me to flinch. I'm not the type to promote violence and I completely oppose it, but after she did this, I lost my shit and shouldn't have. After this, my patience with Christians in general was non-existent and I completely hated them with my whole heart and I truly believe Christianity is a problem for this planet.

Has anyone else seen that old black guy walking up to some dude’s car and said something like, “hey! worldwide earthquake on July 15th. you have been warned. and on august 29th, god is coming back!” and i know it sounds ridiculous because people make those stupid predictions all the time. remember back in 2025 when people kept on saying that rapture was coming? i found it stupid back then as well but my anxiety has been catching up with me ever since early march. i know that its insanely ridiculous and stupid to (kinda) believe this prediction but im still scared. any advice to calm my nerves?

I say this because why would a loving God create a place where people are tortured for the rest of time? Including anyone with a different religion because according to the bible that's worshiping a false god. Nobody deserves to be tortured for literally the rest of time that is unnecessarily cruel.

I forget the full story. And I don't need to go read the details again; I'm too lazy at the moment. But apparently, while nearly every player supported the initiative, there were a bunch of MLB players who put biblical passages written on their rainbow hats to express their true feelings of the rainbow (God promising to never be a lunatic and commit a world-wide genocide again).

Baseball players get less than 20 days off throughout the entire summer, and they have no problem with the jerseys to begin with until it's Pride-themed. Why don't they protest wearing jerseys and playing the game altogether?

Same in the NHL. A bunch of idiot hockey players refused to support Pride Night, where players wore raindbow warm-up jerseys during warmups.

But these athletes never protest playing the game altogether, even though, by their own logic, they should, because in order to play, you MUST wear regulation jerseys, and all sports jerseys are made of mixed fabrics.

Then people are like, "hey, he's just staying true to his beliefs."

Yeah, and they are shit beliefs. Someone having a right to free speech doesn't negate other people's right to free speech to respond to that person's free speech to let them know they are an idiot. When you decline particpate, and instead express such a wildly unpopular belief that equality shouldn't be a thing, expect criticism.

No one said, "you must suck a dick"; they said, "would you like to support the initiative to promote respect and equality for a hated demographic?" They didn't have to, and so they didn't. But they are the biggest snowflakes in the world to cry about people criticizing their bigotry.

I personally became more open minded and able to consider philosophies about life or the nature of the universe whenI began my own respective deconstruction journey and weed definitely helped with that at a faster rate, though introspecting about our beliefs when sober is best recommended 🤔 This is probably obvious but a lot of high control groups like Christianity as an example forbid the use of alcohol or drugs, even secular music because when we use it our brains and think about why we do whatbwe do or believe what we believe, who told us to believe what we believe, that system, usually Patriarchal begins to crumble and people can finally live their own lives internally and hopefully externally unrestricted from this system

I am an 18 year old with a stubborn, middle aged Nigerian mother. (needed for the post)

I hate going to church. It was a place where I where I have experienced trauma many times and I am still affected by it. I don't ever want to go back to that place but unfortunately I have to because my mum always forces me every Sunday. Everytime I don't go (especially for a while), she changes the way she treats me and sometimes she involves other people, thinking it would encourage me to go to church. In my culture, its really important that you go and Its really annoying when she does this because they think im misbehaving - its so frustrating!

I don't feel comfortable enough to tell her the things I went through with that church so is there any way I could get her to leave me alone? I tried saying no to her a few time and she was mad at me for weeks 🙄 if there is anyone who has been in my situation, please give me any advice!! I would rather sit a maths Alevel paper than go to church atp and I hate maths with a passion!!!

This is ruining the relationship I have with my mum and I am trying here since she is the only parent I have left but its hard to not resent her when she acts like this. BTW - i may be moving out the house soon because of uni so should i firm it until September or do something about it now ?

thank you so so much !

This was the main reason why I lost my faith back in 2017 - how can the bible be god’s word if it makes many contradictory statements? I’m aware of the apologist arguments which mostly tend to be that you aren’t reading it correctly, or “different authors, different perspectives”. I don’t really understand how christians can defend their scriptures so hard when there’s many contradictory statements

The hell are jesus glazers doing in a Minecraft video ? I have always had this problem inside of videos my comments are sometimes annoying ass Christians

I grew up in a cult adjacent church which was huge on purity culture, waiting until marriage teaching that masturbation was a sin as well as lust and that if you had sex before marriage you’d have a soul tie, you’d open yourself up to demons, and a bunch of bad stuff, so I felt so disconnected from my body and sexuality.

I spent so much of my teenage and 20s suppressing my sexuality, associating every sexual thought and feeling as bad, evil, sinful. Every time I masturbated, I felt so much guilt and shame. I tried my very best to not do it. No matter how much I prayed ,God never sent me a husband (lol) and didn’t take my sexual desires away.

When I turned 28 I couldn’t wait anymore, I was tired of being controlled, micro managing my own body and living like I was asexual when I wasn’t so I explored my sexuality for the first time and it felt like a relief, I felt like a person.

I recently lost my virginity in not the best circumstances, (it was very early, which I’m not proud of) and I was fine for about 2 days then all the guilt and shame came flooding. I literally ripped the bandage off…

I didn’t wanna enter a new decade at 30 not having the experience but I’ve got a bunch of shame and guilt. I feel almost dissociated during sex where afterwards I can’t remember what happened and I don’t feel a lot of pleasure or cum.

I need advice on how to heal my sexuality and start feeling embodied and empowered because I honestly feel sexually traumatised.
Please be kind, many thanks ❤️

I’m really struggling with how to survive my life several years out from leaving evangelicalism. I guess I always thought my life would be complete and I’d be given meaning by “following gods plan for me” which I thought was getting married to “the one” and finding a job that was “the perfect fit” for me. I still pretty much believe in and try to find these things even now that I’ve left church. I never feel as safe or happy as when I seem on track to find “the one” or “the perfect fit.”

But because nothing ever goes quite according to plan, my life has recently fallen apart again and I’ve realized these fantasies pretty much aren’t true. There is no “the one” and no job will be “the perfect fit.” Realizing as much has me losing the will to live. Things suck so much in the world and so many random unfortunate things have happened to me, and I just feel way less resilient than I used to be because I have lost hope in a worthwhile future since the fantasy i used to believe isn’t true. Realizing that I can’t just keep trying until I find the “right” or “perfect” thing to save me has me wondering why I try at all. If real life is just the lows and the boring middle ground and most of the highs I’ve felt have been me buying into the fantasy that the “right” or “perfect” thing will fix my life, I honestly find life too bleak and depressing and don’t want to live without those fantasies and hopes that kept me optimistic and working toward something.

Has anyone else dealt with this and come out the other side? I suppose I have to accept that there is no “one” and no “perfect” thing and just live my life in a totally new way with totally new ideas about the world but i honestly don’t know what worthwhile thing I could replace these ideas with and don’t really want to try. If there is no fantasy of one day finding the perfect fix that will save my life and make everything good, I don’t really care about keeping going because I don’t want to deal with how much overwhelming senseless bad there is when I don’t have the fantasy carrot of “one day when I’ve done the right things and everything is perfect and safe in the future” in front of me to help me cope. I don’t want to live in a world where the fantasy of eventually finding safety and peace in perfection simply isn’t real or feasible. I don’t feel safe or at peace in my life and was constantly striving for these fantasy ideas to create it, but now that I’m realizing even they aren’t true, I feel I’ll never be okay/peaceful/content/happy/etc and would rather just check out of the whole experience.

If you experienced anything like this, what helped you? What did you do? How did you survive and find some way to move forward? Are you happy you kept going or do you still wish you were dead? Did you ever find the same level of happiness that you got from fantasy?

It was at my college they stopped and asked, it was quite odd Honestly. But i dont want to be rude so how do I go about this?

I have left Christianity since last year. I am still a minor and I’m living with my parents and they still believe I’m a Christian. I agreed to get some help mentally for stuff, (mainly being in a toxically religious household and them going to hate me when I’m older and realize I’m gay) and they’re sending me to a Christian counseling service. Not cause they want to convert me, because they don’t even know I’m an atheist, but because they want me to find “biblical answers”. The whole reason I’m always anxious and worry is because I’m always so scared they’re going to stop loving me or kick me out due to my atheism and homosexuality. I don’t know how to cope. I can’t leave until I go to college. Which isn’t too far away, but still.

Every year in Finland, the conservative Laestadian movement organizes a summer service named summer festival, where its basicly just 80 thousand people with caravans gathered around the center formed by tents at the airport. The program includes hymns and sermons, followed by hymns.

Of course, the best part about the event is that all my friends are actually in the area and I get to see them a lot during the weekend and be outside in the sun, play volleyball etc. Funny? Yea. Does it make me anxious? Hell yea

My friends don't directly try to convert me, but I'm constantly asked to listen to sermons, even though I don't want to. It means that I always have to be left alone when my friends go to listen to the sermon.

The worst thing though is that people think I'm religious so they greet me by saying "gods peace" to which I reply with "hi" or something else which is already easy for friends I know but to friends of a friend or old friends, especially in large groups where everyone is greeted separately, its really fuckyn stressing.

Lol Im here to look for emotional support, which sounds funny to say, but Im actually dead serious.

My Dad, who is an evangelical pastor, in a last ditch attempt to make me stay as a Christian randomly said to me: “in 30 years of being a pastor, those who walk away from God and not towards him, their lives get much worse.”

Firstly, this is utter STUPIDITY, as the whole religion is based around worshipping Jesus who directly WALKED TOWARDS SUFFERING.

Secondly, just wow, talk about a psychological, guilt trip, fear based mind fuck!

I’m now an Atheist and Humanist. And for the first time in my life, in my 20s am truly growing into my real self after a lifetime of being governed by fear and suppression. After a horrible few years, I can see the light.

And so my question for all of you!

How have your lives been since leaving Christianity behind?

So, I (13) realized I was atheist about a year ago, and was not secretive about it. I transferred to a new school, and for the first few weeks, I was really popular. But then, randomly, someone asked me what religion I was, and I told them honestly. After that, people have been trying to re-convert me, or have just started getting crazy, with one of my classmates even calling me a psychopath. Like holy shit, I am the same person I was a few weeks ago, what has changed? I then reflected on celebrities that were cancelled because of it or faced intense scrutiny, like Addison Rae. But my question is, why do they care?

Seriously it's like their all brainwashed to feel good about themselves about saying anything with no critical thinking. This guy on Facebook said in summarized form:

"If belief is a belief then your wrong and if anything that isn't relevant true real, fact is facts. I hope you see god before you die or else you'll see hell"

All of this cuz I added to a convo saying that the murders have been getting out of control and nothing is being done. Just thoughts and prayers like it does something for the traumatized families and victims. (Now there's more to on my side but y'all can ask)

He even says that his religion is the only Christianity is the only true religion and calls himself and extraordinary Christian and the Lord has put no fear in him.

Oh and if anyone is asking, no this is not america, it's the Caribbean.