this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2024
36 points (97.4% liked)
Atheism
4048 readers
4 users here now
Community Guide
Archive Today will help you look at paywalled content the way search engines see it.
Statement of Purpose
- This is a support and conversation community for people who don't believe in gods.
- Superstition hucksters have no reason to subscribe or post here at all.
- If you are looking to debate or proselytize, options will be linked lower in the sidebar.
Acceptable
- Honest questions or conversations.
- Discussions on parenting or advice.
- Struggles, frustrations, coming out.
- Atheist memes. We can have fun!
- News headlines relevant to atheism.
Unacceptable
Depending on severity, you might be warned before adverse action is taken.
- Anything against site rules.
- Illegal and/or NSFW material.
- Troll posts and comments. There will be no attempt to explain what that means.
- Leading questions, agenda pushing, or disingenuous attempts to bait members.
- Personal attacks or flaming.
Inadvisable
- Self promotion or upvote farming.
- Excessive shitposting or off-topic discussion.
Application of warnings or bans will be subject to moderator discretion. Feel free to appeal. If changes to the guidelines are necessary, they will be adjusted.
If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathizer or a resemblant of a group that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of any other group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you you will be banned on sight.
Provable means able to provide proof to the moderation, and, if necessary, to the community.
~ /c/nostupidquestions
If you want your space listed in this sidebar and it is especially relevant to the atheist or skeptic communities, PM DancingPickle and we'll have a look!
Connect with Atheists
- Matrix: #atheism:envs.net
Help and Support Links
- Freedom From Religion Foundation
- The Secular Therapy Project
- Secular Students Alliance
- Black Nonbelievers
- The Clergy Project
- Atheist Alliance International
- Sunday Assembly
- Atheist Ireland
- Atheism UK
- Atheists United
Streaming Media
This is mostly YouTube at the moment. Podcasts and similar media - especially on federated platforms - may also feature here.
- Atheist Debates - Matt Dillahunty
- Rationality Rules
- Friendly Atheist
- Making Sense with Sam Harris
- Cosmic Skeptic
- Genetically Modified Skeptic
- Street Epistemology
- Armored Skeptic
- NonStampCollector
Orgs, Blogs, Zines
- Center for Inquiry
- American Atheists
- Humanists International
- Atheist Republic
- The Brights
- The Angry Atheist
- History for Atheists
- Rationalist International
- Atheist Revolution
- Debunking Christianity
- Godless Mom
- Atheist Freethinkers
Mainstream
Bibliography
Start here...
...proceed here.
- God is Not Great (Hitchens)
- The God Delusion (Dawkins)
- The End of Faith (Harris)
- Why I Am Not a Christian (Russell)
- Letter to a Christian Nation (Harris)
Proselytize Religion
From Reddit
As a community with an interest in providing the best resources to its members, the following wiki links are provided as historical reference until we can establish our own.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Bow before me!
Yeah, that's frustrating. Reminds me of learning my grandfather attributed me being accepted to my collage of choice to the fictitious despot rather than my own ability (at least in spite of being religious he's kind, this kind of thing with him tends more to be by way of unfortunate implication rather than intent).
Does she think that her prayers are changing God's plan or will? If not, then why is she wasting the time when it's already going to happen.
But since she knows that it's you doing the work, that suggests she thinks that people are inherently evil and can't possibly do good things without some higher influence. That's a harder one to address, especially when it's family. I'm just glad that believers have someone in their head guiding them to do good things, otherwise we'd really be in a mess. /s partially
Yeah I don't get it. My mom calls up her prayer warriors and starts praying for things. And yet God is omniscient and all seeing why do you have to pray? And when something good happens, is a prayer answered from God. If something bad happens then it's just the will of God. And humans can't understand the mind of God. It's like a big circle jerk.
I see what's happening here.
You're face to face with greatness, and it's strange.
That seems like a question for theists.
Wow, I can visualize their heads exploding.
I can visualize them nodding and agreeing with your mother.
God works in mYsTeRiOuS wAyS!
The cognitive dissonance is strong with them.
In her mind, god is what empowered you to do the work necessary, but I don't think that has to devalue your work altogether. I try to appreciate my own mother's prayers in that she is expressing a need for a nebulous aid in the face of largely unanswerable, even spiritual issues, like mental health. Of course more directly answerable situations, whether uncomfortable or unjust, can be more annoying with that sort of mindset.
If you mean she's saying her prayers are answered when it was just you taking care of things for her, that's even more aggravating.
Prayer's useful in the same way meditation is. No god need actually be out there for it to work.
Praying has never solved mental health concerns.
Therapy and possibly psychiatric help has, or at the very least helped people come to storms with it.
In fact, religion typically needs you to be anxious, fearful, and broken. Because if you were actually in a good place you don’t need to pray.
Well, no, but it's more about the thought, as long as they're actually supportive otherwise. I won't ask her not to pray for me.
Prayer is easy. Solutions are hard.
Actually, I’m pretty sure there’s a few throw-away-lines in their book about that.
If Christians stopped praying school shootings and started doing something about, we’d have a lot less school shootings. Same too for child hunger. Homelessness. Virtually every social issue you can name.
(And remember, the whole point of tithing is because the temple was the original welfare… it was not so snake oil salesmen could have new-model private jets.)
Theists would have to explain why a human does better than their idea of a god.