Hey /u/HyperMissile, thank you for your post at /r/autism. Our rules can be found **[here](https://www.reddit.com/r/autism/wiki/config/sidebar)**. All approved posts get this message. If you do not see your post you can message the moderators [here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fautism). Thanks! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/autism) if you have any questions or concerns.*

I sometimes read the Bible out of curiosity but I find it difficult to reconcile the idea of a god with the amount of suffering there is in the world.

It’s hard to believe a god would condemn humanity to suffering and pain for two peoples sins. That isn’t something a loving god would do

I don’t believe in any higher beings, but respect others do even if it makes no sense to me. I like to ask questions about religion, but when I was younger that often got me in trouble at church lol

“That’s a good question” amirite

“I’ll ask Him when I get there” was a go-to

I never asked because I was told not to and noticed nobody else did so I stayed quiet to fit in. I started questioning my parents when I was 6/7 because I noticed some historical inaccuracies. I couldn't really communicate them because I wss 7 and didn't really have proof or anything to really explain myself so I ended up just going to my room. I've struggled with religion my whole life

I grew up in a half Catholic half Buddhist household. This thankfully allowed my sibling & I a kind of unspoken freedom (we were neither encouraged or discouraged) in what we chose to believe on the subject of religion. That said my NT sibling tends to follow Christianity generally. My belief however is similar to yours. I always explained it as being too logical to believe in things/ideas that I could find little to no definite proof or explanation for.

Why not Buddhism though? Buddha was agnostic and I've always found Buddhism to be pretty logical.

I had to attend church until I was 14, although starting around the age of 9 I had serious doubts and gradually realized that the whole idea of God didn't make any sense to me. For a few years I kept up the guise partly to appease my older relatives but also because I thought that the Bible had good moral ideals. The biggest thing that made me sever my relationship with religion altogether was learning about how much harm Christianity did and does to society, especially to marginalized groups in the US.

And how much it’s put us behind, the destruction of religions people deem the wrong one has put us back many years scientifically and socially

Yes, that touches on a lot of the issues I had with it around the time I entered my teens. I didn't like the whole impetus to try to convert everyone to the same religion, especially since I had Jewish friends and the thought of trying to convert them made me deeply uncomfortable. This was also during the later years of the George W. Bush administration so the Christian community was most vocal in opposition to Muslims and the LGBT population. This was also the era of no federal funding for stem cell research because something something "pro-life." In a way I guess it's funny how little has really changed since then.

"especially to marginalized groups in the US." In the US? Believe me, the harm Christianity does to marginalized groups in the US and Western Europe is no match for the harm it does to marginalized groups elsewhere. American Christianity is not the problem. The problem is Christianity, or rather, religions in general, especially the Abrahamic ones, but I digress.

My family stopped going to church about the time my parents got divorced. No less than a year ago my grandparents tried to convince me to go to church with them by bribing me with food. I managed to turn that conversation into an argument about the validity of Christianity over other religions, and I've started thinking about "converting" to another religion just to spite my close minded grandparents. edit: spelling

I’m not a fan, at all. While I am borderline anti-religion, I do acknowledge everyone’s right to practice. My main problem with it is that children are indoctrinated with it at a very young age. I believe that is wrong. If that were to stop, religion would practically cease to exist. Before y’all downvote, please understand that this is my opinion, and I do acknowledge everyone’s right to practice.

Honestly I don’t like any of the current religions people practice, the information streams have gotten too corrupt and controlled by people who should have never been put in power. Religious freedom is something that I agree with, people have the right to it. I think a lot of people assume just because I don’t agree with a religion personally means I think everyone should have the same opinion (seems like they are projecting mainly?) Everyone has a right to their opinion even if they are religious or don’t like religion

I am still pissed I was at an evangelical kindergarten, as far as I remember it never was like intolerant or anti-science but we got read so many Bible/Jesus stories for children (for a lack of a better term) and I liked them as well as the church until I was grown up and noticed how much it feels like a sect. Now those Bible/Jesus stories were, as far as I remember, also all pretty progressive but I wonder how much they influenced me anyway, often when I question my beliefs I notice that I end up being lead to humanism by religious arguments.

I feel like a lot of people use the church as a babysitting service and other social supports. If our governments actually worked for us, church services would not be necessary.

I hate that it exists

Growing up our family attended a pentecostal church that was basically a cult. We left there when I was 11 and went to a church of similar beliefs but without the cultish nonsense. All religions are cults to some degree though. I attended there with the family until I moved out of my parents house (20 maybe), at which time I mostly stopped going except for when they'd ask me to go. After my dad passed away a couple of years later I never went back. I'm a natural reader so I absorbed it all. I could recite scripture and talk about theology, knew about all the intricate differences between different sects of Christianity and how to go through all the motions. I'm sure there was a time maybe when I was very young, but I can't remember a time when I actually believed any of it. The more you learn about these things the easier it is to find all the flaws. Aside from the direct conflicts in the bible, the biggest flaw is how everyone interprets their religion how they want to, but they all think the others are wrong. The sheer number of sects that exist in Christianity proves that is all very vague and open to a lot of different and sometimes radical interpretation. Look at how many printed translations of the bible there are. That's because language and the understanding and translation of it changes a lot depending upon region and the time which it was written AND the times in which it's interpreted. The bible is also all scrambled together from different times and places that are sometimes decades after the events they supposedly depict. That would make them an anthropology paper at best. That's not to say the religion doesn't have a meaningful philosophy. But if it's anything it's only an exercise in philosophy. Applying absolute truth to it is nonsense, and doing just that has caused a lot of damage over the millennia. To the question about the existence of a higher force my opinion this: if anything exists, whatever exists, it is not understood by any person that claims to understand it. We should be discussing and theorizing about it perhaps, but no more than any other philosophy that exists. We're just as likely to find out that life on our planet was designed by a more technologically advanced civilization like ourselves and seeded here without any real intent. Even scientists think it's entirely possible were all living in a simulation inside someone else's creation. We will probably never know, as a person or a species, but it's still foolish to lock ourselves into any one way of thinking.

The anti-questions of a lot of religions really bug me. Currently in a cult-like religion and it’s very much don’t ask and even the answers are half baked. It’s strange

Every debate about the existence of god with a member of one of these religions ends with them giving up and saying "god works in mysterious ways; who can know him?" You know if you get to that point of the argument you've stumped them, but you'll still both walk away from the conversation believing that you've won the debate. The whole premise of their belief is that there is no evidence of god's existence. You're faith in god without evidence is how your eternal soul is supposed to be "saved". Some also believe that your "good works" are part of earning a place in heaven, but that one without the other is not enough. All you have to do is look around you at the world today to realize the great dichotomy of the god they believe in. To accept the state of the world's events you have to either admit that god is all-knowing, but not all powerful, or god is all-powerful, but not all-knowing, or that they are simply unwilling to do anything, which makes them culpable. Here's the thing about that last one: you can't blame god, it's not acceptable. It's the sin of mankind that is to blame for evil in the world. And who created sin? According to the bible: god did. "God works in mysterious ways; who can know him?"

The simulation argument is pretty stupid and I can kind of disprove it easily. Computing power in a simulation should drop off the more simulations there. Going by the original argument it says we are likely to be in a simulation in a simulation. We would probably detect some sort of inaccuracy or weirdness. Because computers will have less and less power the more simulations are nester in each other.

I'm agnostic. How would we know if there was a higher power? You're put on this earth and obviously people are going to want explanations, so that's where religion comes in. Do I think it's logical? Not really, but it's just a belief.

We're not 'put' on this earth. The verb demands an agent. We are OF this earth. Quite literally. The stuff we are made of was something else before we existed and will be something else after we are gone.

By "put" I just meant born

I think it's all bullshit. The only belief system people need is respect the planet and it's inhabitants. I don't think there's some omnipotent being in the universe that has my life all planned out. If it can be proven to me I'll believe it, until then it's lies.

I dislike that people think that religion is the only way to have morals, we are born with empathy for other humans and logical thoughts. It’s not like people would go insane without believing in religion.

Exactly. No one is born racist, homophobic, sexist, etc. Those are learned behaviours. Every person is a blank slate at birth. It's environmental factors that either make us well adjusted, or disgusting humans. Religion can have alot to do with it also. But pretty much every religion has the same core value. Respect others and the earth. Take no more than you need, give that which you don't need. People have fucked up alot of the meaning of religion I think, that's why there's so many different variations of Christianity for example.

I grew up Methodist Christian, but I no longer consider myself religious. I don't have any religious trauma or anything, but I slowly got to the point where I didn't really feel like I believed in God the same way Christians do. That said, I've taken two theology classes at my Catholic university, and I do find learning about religion very interesting. Honestly, I recommend learning about theology, even if you're not religious yourself.

Religion is a really interesting topic, Greek mythology is very similar. If you like learning about how people thought the world came together and works it’s a very good research topic

I’ve been an atheist since becoming a teen. None of it made sense. And people in these cults (because that’s what all religions are) are odd to me. I’ll never understand people who don’t dig deeper for truths and instead believe something because someone told them to. I’ll never understand why those same people will be threatening to others for being different, gay, or questioning their delusions. Religions have hurt a lot of people throughout history. I want nothing to do with it.

It helped me feel like the bad things I was going through as a teenager didn't matter, and as such it was useful, but after growing up some and learning more about evolutionary biology, I simply can't believe in it anymore. Once you understand the "why", you have to intentionally fool yourself to go back to it. I can't.

It’s very comforting to believe in something, but I agree as soon as I learned more about the world I stopped believing in a god no matter what I say to myself I will never be able to believe in a higher being. Been this way for as long as I can remember

I'm atheist, yet my Nana attempted to push her Catholic beliefs onto me. She told me that if I wore my baseball cap backwards that Jesus would slaughter me (absolute BS) because "Jesus didn't approve of it" and every movie we watched had to be religious, even if it caused me to have a mental breakdown due to the themes. And I had to watch. It. All. She'd drag me to church and give me a Bible and rosary, oh, and this all happened when I was 9 OR YOUNGER. :)

Religious trauma is Rough, I’m sorry you had to go through that. I was dragged into the bathrooms and beat for being overstimulated. It pushed me even further away from belief

I got screamed at for being overstimulated. -_- I'm sorry that happened to you, dude. I hope you're doing better :)

I have more room to avoid situations that cause me to get in trouble, but I still am forced to go to religious events. Actually I’m currently in a all day church event, it’s rough

Not trying to compare our experiences, just sharing. Even before I was diagnosed with ASD my family knew something was 'off' about me, and they tried on various occasions to essentially have the weird prayed away especially after I was diagnosed with ADHD (at 12). It wasn't really abusive by most standards, but going to what amounts to a a social event where dozens of strangers are literally touching your head and shoulders (and each other, "laying on of hands" and all that) and asking a bunch of personal questions was sickening.

I was raised a Jehovah’s Witness and only realised it was a cult at the beginning of this year, I’m trying to get out. Almost there. Sadly I will lose all of my friends and some of my family. But relieved I can finally be myself as I am gay and JWs are intensely homophobic. I’m now agnostic.

I’m in the same situation, went to one of those all day conventions earlier today and they kept spouting homophobic and transphobic bull. I wish you all the luck and I’m glad you’ve figured their indoctrination out. Being queer and in a JW family is hard

Oh wow. I’m sorry that you’re also in the same situation & that you had to go to the convention and listen to that. I’ve been fading and am close to being inactive so gratefully am not attending convention or anything anymore.

Yeah, it's more than a double whammy, growing up, exJW, autistic, and queer

I'm exJW. Are you living with JW family? If they don't know you don't believe anymore, work on finding ways to support yourself financially and socially before you tell them. Good luck with getting away from that cult

Hi! Not living with my family but my dad does help me out a lot financially and he is an elder. Unfortunately because of my autism I can only really work part time so it’s a bit of a struggle. He basically helps keep a roof over my head. I’ve been fading for a while & I’m well on my way to being inactive. I believe my fam will be ok with me being inactive and my dad will still help support me (this is why I went inactive route rather then DA) but I don’t think that will be the case if I come out to them. I’m just focusing on one thing at a time right now, my main priority is to be POMO and then I can figure the rest out! Thank you so much 👐🏻

Well, I wish you the very best with it. I know it's a difficult process and it will take time, but I hope you can be well free of it all in time

Thank you 🙏 I’m glad you were able to get out.

Religious freedom is essential, but I prefere freedom from religion to freedom of religion. I'm an agnostic atheist who knows way too much about theology and has driven away quite a number of would-be-missionaries.

God doesn't exist, it's just an excuse for the chaos and destruction humans are themselves responsible for. Religion keeps people from questioning and/or adjusting their economy and societies for the benefit of every sentient being.

It’s also an excuse for all the damage these people have done to progress socially and economically. Like the burning of any religion they didn’t agree with

I wish, we could live in a secular world without people believing in things that aren't proven by facts and science.

Empathy too, I find a lot of religious people lack empathy for others. Including people in their own community

And that's exactly what I can't get my head around, no matter how hard I try. If ppl do religion, they should adhere to the rules and have empathy for everyone. Yet this rarely shows in reality and their actions.

I mean, if we got together and made a country, it'd be larger than France in terms of population. If it was only the members of this subreddit, it'd only be 12k people short of iceland.

Yeah absolutely, was raised Catholic (kind of, my parents weren’t even religious but sent me and my brother to them cus they were close/convienient) and had mental health issues when I was young that made me not really wanna believe anymore. I respect anyone who’s religious but struggle with it myself

When I was at primary school in the 90s every assembly included a prayer and songs and one of my earliest memories is being extremely uncomfortable being forced to join in, from a very young age I disagreed with that kindof treatment, I always felt people have as much right to not believe as people do have the right to believe, I just found the whole experience very wrong and I was only 5-7 myself at the time. I personally think that the world would be a far better place without any religions at all

Raised strict Catholic. Atheist for 30+ years now.

Abandoning Catholic ideology and the guilt associated with it has improved my OCD in so many ways. I live in Idaho. Growing up, I dated a very nice LDS boy. My friends would incessantly pressure me to convert. They would say things like, “he really loves you, but he’s afraid for his immortal soul.” They gave me what I like to call “Sky Daddy Issues.” Their efforts only further distanced me from organized religion. Now I’m agnostic, because I can’t reconcile the idea of a merciful God with the kind of cruelty and injustice I see in the world. It works for me. My mental health has improved so much by letting go of religious ideologies altogether.

I can't believe there is a God who is supposedly stronger than us in everyway, simply because we have a select few senses chosen by them, and they have much more. like we're just a speckle of dust compared to what it is, so we would never know. So I'm an agnostic atheist. As for the religion side, I get the community stuff. Not so much the belief. With how many there are and how questionable the writings are, it tends to make me question people's intent. I know there are people who jump to being Muslim to indulge in pedophilia. It's really quite scary.

I struggle with authority figures and dogmatic rules that fly against all reason: you can probably guess that my relationship with religion is not particularly strong.

I was raised in a secular household. I guess I consider myself agnostic but really u just pull ideas from different religions if they make sense to me. Like reincarnation.

I'm basically anti-religion. Anti-organized-religion, at least. Then again, I "believe" in "ghosts" because the house I grew up in, and currently live in, is insanely "haunted". Quotes because I'm not sure I subscribe to the whole spirits who've passed on, thing. But, once you've witnessed enough shit with your own eyes and other family members have experienced the same thing at the same time, I can't chalk it up to just a hallucination. Maybe there is some greater power. Maybe these "ghosts" are just some sort of string theory cassette tape being replayed through space and time, and we just haven't discovered the science yet. Do I think God/Jesus is some white man with blue eyes and a beard who sends those who wear mixed fabrics to hell? Definitely not. I grew up going to Catholic school even though my parents aren't religious, and I'd never put my kids in Catholic school.

I'm mixed. It's a special interest, and I really dislike a lot of religion and a lot of what Christianity and Islam says regarding marginalised communities, such as the LGBTQ+, and what they say about women. Pagan religions are cool though.

I went through Catechism, 1st Communion and, Confirmation. Communion occurred around age 7 and I really didn’t understand it (thought it was dumb). When I finished Confirmation around 13ish, I was mainly going through the motions for my maternal grandparents. At age 47 I have been an Atheist for 34years now, and proud to be one. My belief is that if you can’t live a decent life without the threat of eternal damnation you are not an inherently good person.

I think a lot of people have the idea that religion is definite thing that either a god exists or they dont. That is certainly the case for some but not for everyone. While I myself am not religous I have family members who are, and they believe more in the ideas that their religion upholds rather than a god itself.

it’s really hard for me to understand and grasp compared to anyone else in my family or their friends who are religious. my friend is religious (he’s also autistic he just doesn’t know it-) and he struggles the same way i do, tho i left and he’s currently going on a mission. (which good for him) but he’s just as lost as i am, we don’t get it and the people around us aren’t helping. it also sucks how apparently i’m not accepted into it, even tho their god is supposed to be loving he is very much depicted as hating a lot of people including the disabled. why would i worship a god who doesn’t love me? seems like a scam. personally. if someone else loves it and is happy with it go right ahead, you do you just don’t force me into it. so it’s complicated at the moment, even if i was accepted it’s still so complicated and not direct at all- it leaves me lost more then anything

I am an atheist. However, I do respect people's right to practice their faith as long as they don't put it on me.

To keep it short, I'm an ex-muslim (was born into a Muslim family but my parents are not that religious like my other relatives) and now I'm currently Agnostic. It was hard to accept and I cried and reverted back to islam out of fear before sleeping at the day I decided to leave islam but then managed to come demands with it.

I was raised Christian but I don't practice any religion. I'm agnostic as far as my beliefs go. I do have a slight interest in religion from an academic perspective so I might read some of the holy texts in the future though.

I wasn't particularly raised to be religious (there was vaguely religious stuff in school, but never had adults telling me I needed to believe in God. Never heard any argument for the existence of any sort of god that I thought was convincing, so I've just been atheist by default for as long as I can remember

I can't believe in anything no matter how hard I try

I relate to this so hard

I grew up in a household where my dad was Christian but we were not expected to go to church and he rarely went himself. My mom is atheist. We only went to Sunday school one year while living on base and it was because my dad volunteered to drive the Sunday school bus for the base. So we went because we wanted to ride the bus and help him because we thought it was cool. There was really no push for religion or anything of that nature in my household. Conversely my uncle married a woman who was insanely religious and as a result he became far more intense and that woman and I had a lot of problems. The moment they separated my uncle was far more like my dad and I didn't have to hear about religion at all from him. I hate that it was towards the end of his life that he started having that mindset and I didn't get to fully enjoy his company into he has a year oeft I myself am more in tune with Buddhist beliefs without really being a practicing Buddhist. It's more to help me with my mental health in terms of acceptance and understanding there is going to be struggle no matter what I do. I don't see Buddhism as a religion like that however it often is a religion depending on how you practice it. In terms of my feelings on religion, I don't really care one way or the other what you do with your life when it comes to religion just as long as you don't try to force it on me. The only people that have really done this to me are Christians and as a result I have learned a lot about the Bible so I can counter their arguments and really that's about it. A lot of my friends are religious but they don't try to talk to me about it. There's a kind of Christians that accept you and don't try to tell you how to live. Basically as long as you don't bother me with your religion I'm not going to say shit about it. And I think that's a reasonable middle ground that everyone should try to attain if possible. I do however know a couple of autistic people who are really deep in Christianity and I am no longer friends with them because they would not stop trying to "save me"

I’m atheist

I grew up catholic and studied almost a decade in a catholic school. I respect religious people but despise religion. It is an outdated and heavily abused social technology. We have better options now.

Realistically science is a lot more understandable then some man who cursed us to damnation

Agree. Although science can't solve all of our dilemmas, it is definitely one of our best tools in the reason toolbox.

I think what I like about it is that it’s constantly changing and expanding, religion has stayed pretty much the same for as long as I can remember. Science always changes and we are always learning it’s incredible

Grew up mormon and i couldn't forgive myself for not believing unless i knew for absolute certain it was wrong, then after that I moved on to the bible and there's a lot of inaccuracies in that too. I didn't feel like trying to disprove every religion and came to the conclusion that as long as you try your best that's what matters and worrying about something when there might really just be nothing is pointless and that if there is an afterlife a god worth following would be understanding of that. So basically agnostic but don't plan to be religious at all unless there was some church out there I had a absolute certainty that it's true because so far religion has been more harmful to me than good. It's fine if religion is comforting to others and I'm fine with people believing whatever they want it just bugs me when people use it for harm. I view religion as being a thing to fill in the blanks since people fear the unknown, a comfort to those who fear death, or a means for some a-holes to control and exploit people.

I wasn’t raised in any particular religion, grew up with my mom and sister and I don’t remember every believing in god or anything like that. I did explore a bit in middle school, went to different churches with different friends but I could never actually believe any of it…even though I’d like to. I see how much it comforts people and brings them together and I think that’s nice…but to me it’s fairytales, like I equate it to grown ass adult’s believing in Santa🤷🏻‍♀️ I also have lost friends because I didn’t believe, I had friends try to baptize me and get me to be their sister in Christ and ditch me when I didn’t want to, I also had to rescue my best friend from her abusive evangelical Christian parents and she ended up living with me toward the end of high school and after. Christians especially have an air of entitlement and holier than thou attitude that’s just factually so uneducated and ignorant I can’t see it as a positive most of the time. It’s divisive, I don’t like that people thank god for accomplishments they did all on their own, or blame god for bad things happening…it’s just not real. We made it up to feel better about death. People want to get into heaven so they devote their entire lives to something that isn’t even real🥴 it’s hard to witness. But I’m sure they feel the same about me🤷🏻‍♀️ I do admit though that the blissful ignorance must be nice. I WISH I could believe in something that would make me feel like I had a purpose, like there’s something after this, that this isn’t it…but I just can’t

i was raised in a catholic family, and my parents sent me to ccd classes weekly, as an add on to my regular, public school. luckily for me, my parents are very progressive catholics. eventually i stopped going to ccd, and when i found out christianity was associated with homophobia, i became an atheist. my family is ok with me being an atheist, and they think that i will still go to heaven, as my family believes that you only have to be a good person in order to achieve salvation. they do wish i was still religious, but they still love me. edit: also, i believe that people have a right to believe what they want to believe as long as its not hurting anybody tl;dr, i was born in a progressive catholic family, but i left religion

Mum took me to church but gave up after I snuck in gaming magazines and read them instead of listening.

I went to catholic school for 8 years. i think I was showing signs of depression by 8? 8-10 maybe. anyway, I learned how to daydream, and now whenever I'm stressed I tend to daydream a lot more, sometimes it just happens. when I moved out, I left my religious things at my parents. it may not mean anything to me, but I kinda feel guilty cause it might have been hurtful when they noticed. oh well.

Maladaptive daydreaming is a common coping mechanism, I’m glad you were able to get out and I’m hoping you’re doing better

I'm atheist. Historically, religion used to be used to control the people. I think it's been a construct for people to find purpose, solace and community. I think it's barbarian to hold onto these ancient beliefs, and any step to facilitate religions further is IMO a step backwards to the stone age. I understand why people may turn to religion as a form of self growth, reflection and whatnot. Some religions are less offensive than others because they don't force it upon someone else. But still, I don't like it.

I want to believe in specific things, but I feel like I hate authority so much, and even pagan religions I'm really drawn to make almost unable to follow because there are restrictions depending on what you worship. That and, I feel like unless I have clear communication, I cant interpret signs.

i dont like religion. i was also raised in religion but my parents used it as a disclipinary tool rather than teaching us how to grow and become adults. i believe in a higher being but right now im pissed at it.

I was forced to sit though church, Catholic school, ccd, youth groups, etc... it was all pointless and a waste of time. If anything it helped me settle with being an atheist at an early age. I caught on when adults would punish me for asking genuine questions or when they refused to answer them.

I grew up as a Christian. I used to go to church almost every Sunday as a kid and teenager, but no longer go as an adult due to my work schedule. I'm also more of a logical person than a religious person nowadays, so there's that too.

My viewpoint on religion is that at one point of time it did serve a useful function to give people living a shitty life a reason to continue to live, but in modern religion it has been so corrupted over time having been taken over by conmen that it has lost even it's original function and is nothing more than a way for conmen to steal money from vulnerable people who are just wanting religion to deliver the same sense of purpose that religion was originally intended to do.

I have much visceral disdain for it but I could be here all day explaining my opinion on it but i keep it to myself and respect other peoples beliefs as ling as they dont try to justify or shove it down my throat

I used to be quite religious until a couple months ago I've been looking at things in a much more secular way and idk how to feel about it. Idc what you believe as long as it's not being forced on me

>I find it very difficult to believe in any kind of higher force. Ditto!👍👍

I respect other’s religions, there’s nothing I can do to stop harmful ones anyway. They just end up paying out like the Catholics jehova witnesses and the Mormons. I survived religious abuse because mom is autistic too and religion is her special interest. I hope she’s right and god does exist and I hope she goes straight to hell when she dies for what she did to me.

I was raised in an atheist home. The complete absence of religious dogma in my life was, on reflection, quite liberating. I respect people's right to be religious but to be honest I'm going to think there is some sort of cognitive deficit operating there. Especially if they live in a secular country. The tooth fairy, the easter bunny, santa, god. It's a join the dots with only four dots! I get that faith can be quite comforting. I don't get the obvious self-delusion required to have it. I think that's why many religious types demand everyone to be like them. They don't want anything to upset the apple cart. Religious extremism is straight up toxic and as dangerous as any other form of fascism.

Don't believe in anything and I think I often feel embarrassed for those who do. I just can't understand how rational adults can but have no problem with them doing it. Whatever floats their boat lol

I myself would love to believe in religion, as it would comfort me with the unknown that comes after death, but sadly, I haven't been able to convince myself of it due to lacking proof. The unknown scares me, and death is probably one of the biggest unknowns, and I am therefore scared of death. Not to long ago I had a panic attack while I realized that one day, I WILL die, and there is nothing I can do to stop it. It may take a very long time if some promising technology is developed, but statistics says it will eventually happen, and I don't know what happens after. I sought comfort from my friend, but he was only able to help so much. I WISH I could believe, as it would quell one of the biggest fears in my life.

Ive had an interest in some religions, but never really taken the time to properly try and practice any of them (except almost trying with Satanism when I like… 10?) And along the lines of religion, I also like mythology, which you could say is somewhat related to Religion depending who you ask (As for relationship, I personally just stick to the science side, not like those Scientology dickbags)

I was raised by Jehovah's Witnesses, which is a great source for some nifty CPTSD. It teamed up with logic to make me utterly incapable of faith in any kind of monotheism. That said, I am extremely envious of faith and those who have it. I try to avoid bringing up issues that might damage it unless specifically asked, because that kind of faith (read: real faith, not hippocrits) is a beautiful thing, and I'd rather not take it from anyone. I did develop my own "religion" which, like all religions, seems completely ridiculous when viewed from the point of view of a non-believer, but mine has the added benefit of it being completely ridiculous to a believer as well. However, it does provide a logical answer to all the questions that make me incapable of monotheism, so I love it. I've shared it a few times, even been told that it is somewhat similar to some works of fiction whose names I cannot recall. If any want details, feel free to ask, I've described it to a group of people who didn't want to hear about it enough times 😆

Go ahead! I’d love to hear about it

Very well! Initiating ramble 7.23! [Part One - character limit] The entire premise of my belief system is that fiction is only fiction when viewed from an outside perspective. That is to say that the act of creation is a literal, if unintentional, creation. Whenever a being with imagination thinks up a world and puts pen to paper (or keyboard to... monitor?) to bring that world to others, a world is made. When Tolkien wrote of Middle Earth, it stopped being a place in his head, and became reality. Of course, to us, and and who read it, it is fiction. But to Legolas, Gandalf, even Sauron, it is the only world that has ever been real. Our world is one such story. A tale written by a being from another realm, a tale that was intended to be a fictional story to share for enjoyment. Their act of creation brought about this world and everything in it-though some was indirectly, but more on that later. When writing a work of fiction, each author is different. Some will describe every detail down to each blade of grass with the utmost enthusiasm, while others will gloss over appearances of entire countries. One thing that is generally agreed upon, however, is that you need only write the laws of physics into your world if they differ from what people expect. No story-teller weaves tales of dragons and knights only to pause and remind you that gravity exists, and that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, those are expected conditions of the world unless told otherwise. For that reason, I believe most worlds inherit the majority of physics from the world of their author. Why does gravity work? Because it did in our author's world, and it did in their world because it did in that world's author's world, and so on, until you backtrack it to its source: an author inventing something a little different: what if the very ground would pull you to it? Why do humans have two legs instead of three? Or four hundred? Or none? Same reasoning. Because someone either described us as such, or left the number of legs assumed in a world of Bipeds. [Continued]

[Part 2 of 3] Now then, the idea of writing billions upon billions of characters for a world may seem ludicrous, and that's because it is. I don't think our author is some super genius who develops that many characters. I think that the act of creation does just that: creates. Then, when the author puts down their pen/keyboard/stylus/ whatever, the world is born, much like a baby. And like a baby, it grows. It grows within the confines of what it was born to be. A human baby will not grow up and naturally form into a chair, that's outside of our DNA. Likewise, a world born with a certain set of physics will continue to grow along those defined terms. The original "characters" of the world will go on with their lives. Some will inevitably breed, and those offspring will breed, and over thousands of years, a handful of fleshed out characters becomes world full of descendents. Patterns that defined the world continue onward, some even recognized by the inhabitants of the world as though they were laws. Things like Karma, Murphy's law, Moore's law, they were written (or inherited) and then the pattern simply continues as though it were a law of physics. There are many questions about monotheism that pulled me away from faith, but none more than is exemplified by the book of Job. Here is a faithful servant of a loving God, and he gets to watch as everything he holds dear is ripped from his life. *Why do bad things happen to good people*. The answer was simple: Plot. Nobody wants to read a book where there is no conflict, so conflict must be included. These bad things are written in to keep readers enticed, not because some all-powerful being wants to teach us a lesson. Then the patterns outlined above cause the world to grow along that same path, where bad things happen all the time. Good things do too, of course, but the bad can seem like a priority to focus on-because that is what the author focused on in writing their story. But that isn't to say that "God" (or Allah, Zeus, Odin, Krishna, et cetera) aren't real. Like many wonderful books, those gods were written into being. But they are not the all powerful beings we assume they are, they are bound by one of the most important laws of physics there are: plot. Nobody reads a book where each and every problem is solved with a quick prayer to an omniscient, omnipotent being. "War came. They thought better of it and peace prevailed. The end." It doesn't make for a good story. So instead, these beings are given very specific circumstances under which they can act, and in only that instance are they truly gods. Then the patterns that grow our world take those very few instances that gods were permitted action, and lose them to infinity, trapping the gods by the very laws of physics that created them. There are, of course, worlds out there where the gods take a more active role in day to day life, but ours was not written that way, and thus the realness of a living, loving god escapes us-answering another question that always plagued me: *if God is real, where is He?* [Continued]

[Part 3 of 3] There are little things as well, of course. Inconsistencies in the make up of the world. Things like Egyptian Historians reading often of a neighboring city that, search as they might, they can find no evidence of it ever existing. Things like the lost city of Atlantis. Things like a Bible that assures us that magic is not real going on to tell us how it is a sin to perform it. The fact that we can only guess at what an appendix, an organ that still resides in our body, ever did. Stuff like this just doesn't really add up if viewed from the perspective of intelligent design -or- purely evolutionary beliefs. Where they do make sense, however, is in a story. Plot holes happen all the time in storytelling, try as we might to avoid them, and here we are in a world that has a few, and we simply consider them mysteries of the world. The simplest solution is that they were simply an oversight by an author. Now, three parts is enough rambling to get you started. If you have any questions, please, fire away! Point of clarification: writing is not the only way to create a world. Some might do it through song, or paint, any time the creative energy is flowing and a world is conceptualized and brought into our world as fiction, somewhere out there, a world is brought into fact.

I'm an atheist but I do believe to each their own. It just doesn't make any logical sense to me to believe in a deity of any kind.

Yeah, raised catholic and around my early teens had some moral tantrum or whatever and stopped believing in the church after finding about the inquisition or something like that. I don't recommend that shit to anyone specially young kids. You either turn into those Dawkins Witnesses type of atheist asshole that believes in "science" like it's some sort of ethereal entity, been there done that. Met a lot of people that went from self-righteous little shits to born again in a q anon cult jesus assholes. Thank god for autism moral inflexibility! I just got depressed, became a shut in for 2 years and read about actual science, philosophy and all fictional books I could get my hands on. Nice but didn't help much on the existential crisis department, all those highbrow classic literature shit and the books that helped me accept the emptiness and lack of meaning of existence was the Discworld series. GNU Terry Pratchett. Words to live by: >The philosopher Didactylos has summed up an alternative hypothesis as "*Things just happen*. What the hell". >I meant," said Ipslore bitterly, "what is there in this world that truly makes living worthwhile?" Death thought about it. **CATS, he said eventually.** **CATS ARE NICE.** Did some personal changes because dogs are clearly a superior reason to keep living. And that's how you stare the right into the cosmic horror of existencial nihilism and come out as a decent human. Autism and dogs. Still don't recommend, 1/5

I'm agnostic and I think organized religion is awful and does way more harm to the world than good. 🤷‍♀️

I'm open to it but I don't believe anything written by human hands is able to encapsulate the truth and it shouldn't effect people's day to day lives. If you believe something, cool, good for you. No one else has to and it shouldn't be something that you feel the need to turn into systemic power. Religion today is mostly a scam and used as a reason to be complete pieces of shit.

I am autistic , suspecting ADHD! I grew up in a very anti religious household. Despite that, I've always thought that maybe there was some force or forces out there that were more divine than us humans. Deities that were one with nature and so much more. I've always adored nature and space and just life and found it to be so much more. I never also believed there was just one higher up, like one single god like in monotheistic religions. I've never believed one being could have created all of this, and have such power. I have always believed that there were multiple. Upon learning about Hellenism, I found that it really suited me. I believed (and still do) in the Greek Gods and Goddesses. They're everywhere in life, in their domains, and it's like how I thought it would be. I find peace with my religion, despite taking a break for a bit to focus on myself and mental health (as worship is difficult in my household still and I can't move out yet), but still, Hellenism has just been right for me. My beliefs lign up with Hellenistic beliefs, and such. My religion makes me feel closer to life itself, and life itself is something I value even if I struggle with mental health. Of course, I'm still respectful of all religions (or lack of there of). I don't care what you consider yourself, as long as you're not disrespectful. Also, Hellenism in general is accepting. One of the main beliefs we work towards is Xenia the hospitality, kindness extended towards people (stranger or not) no matter social class or background to create a special bond stronger than friendship. Another principle of Hellenism is to cleanse before doing worship and such (some revivalists/reconstructionists (idk which means which, sorry) don't incorporate this into their practices as well (which is considered Lyma and Miasma). The main value of Hellenism is eusebeia, often translated as piety. This implies a commitment to the worship of the Hellenic Gods and action to back this up. It's basically reverence, loyalty, and sense of duty toward the Gods. This is one of the values of modern day Hellenism. The others are: Hagneia – the maintaining of ritual purity by avoiding miasma Nomos Arkhaios – observance of ancient tradition, religion, law, and customs, Sophia – the pursuit of wisdom, understanding, Arete - excellence, the total utilization of one's abilities, the fulfillment of one's potential, and truth, Sophrosune - self control through contemplation, Xenia - hospitality and guest host relationship, Kharis - building a relationship with the gods, Eudaimonia - to achieve personal happiness, Phronesis - intelligence of practical action, practical, wisdom, moral or ethical strength, Gnothi safton - know thyself. Know your place in this world and in your society (radical acceptance of your life, your circumstances, your past). Don’t undersell yourself, don’t be prideful and hubristic. there's actually a list of the terminology commonly used [right here!!](https://baringtheaegis.blogspot.com/p/hellenic-terminology-page.html?m=1) (link taken from the r/ Hellenism subreddit) Overall, I find this religion very suiting only own beliefs and I find peace with my practices. One main thing I will say is Hellenism is not worshipping Greek Mythology!! We believe those from greek mythology to be real, such as heroes, nymphs, underworld gods, and other greek gods, but greek mythology as a whole is just mythology, myths. Also, Hellenism is polytheistic, and we are allowed to worship other gods from other pantheons. I don't do this, however, I know some people do this and that's fine! The main reason for Eusebeia is that your main worship is on the Greek Gods themselves, that you don't forget about them as well.

I was raised an Atheist, became an agnostic in college and have since taken to studying Theology, Philosophy, Gnosticism, and the Occult. The only thing it's revealed to me is that we desperately want something to exist, some rhyme or reason to the universe and our place in it. I don't think anything will ever come close to the reality of...reality. I'm not spiritually inclined but new age beliefs are way more my speed, less dogma and vitriol funneled through religious institutions when it's just a person and their view of life.

I'm a Hedonistic Zen Buddhist who Laughs in the Face of Chaos.

I don’t hold any religious beliefs but on occasion I will act accordingly to a fake religion I thought up while planning a DnD campaign. It’s comforting

I'm atheist. The concept of a higher power, especifically one like those of Abrahamic religions, is absolutely absurd to me. The world is too fucked up to have been created by a benevolent entity. I'm also antireligion and believe a world without religion would be ideal. On the other hand, I must admit religion is still necessary in the current world. I also don't think religion should be persecuted or outlawed.

So I'm more Pagan than anything, was raised christian but after leaving that hellhole for college I just saw everything about it authoritarian and hated the "holier than thou" bs that they preached while saying that they're wretched. I look at it that we live on this Earth and should treat it right along with all creatures.

I had an atheist/agnostic phase from the time I got out of high school to the time I started attending a semi-traditionalist Anglo-Catholic church only because I grieved for my grandfather and it became my spiritual comfort. Then 2016 came and went with all the current events and I went to church every Sunday until the pandemic hit. I still “attend” church via livestream but due to health problems I have my church’s priest visit me and my family as we are all immunosuppressed from the virus.

I’ve been a Christian most of my life. My faith is completely anecdotal (if that’s the right term) and to me Jesus telling the truth makes the most sense. In light of that, I’ve tried to keep my eyes and ears open for opportunities to love my neighbor as myself. Lately, though, I’ve been slammed with my personal limitations. Before this point, I was trying to **LOVE MY NEIGHBOR** ( *whisper* loving myself optional) and now I’m trying to love my neighbor **AS/WHILE LOVING/etc** myself ( *whisper* because that’s way more sustainable LBR) So yeah, IDEK, I’m just a God nerd that’s trying to get by

I was raised evangelical (Pentecostal). I remember being very afraid of God as a child. Eventually I stopped believing when I started learning about science and other religions in high school, and became apathetic to the whole idea for many years. I experienced a strong resurgence of belief in a Christian God after I got sober. Now I would say I’m somewhere between an atheist and an agnostic. I just don’t experience whatever religious people tend to experience. I never have. It’s just me and my thoughts in my head. I’m cool with religious people doing their thing as long as they don’t try to shove it down my throat. With that said, I find the Intelligent Design discussions very interesting. I don’t think that they point to the existence of any kind of God as we have come to understand the concept. If there is something beyond us, I’m sure we would not be able to even come close to understanding it. The God question is interesting, but I really don’t think there is an answer. And I’m okay with that.

Agnostic and I find atheism and religion both equally frustrating. I respect everyone's right to practice and believe what they want but organized religion is very problematic and I would be wiling to go as far as saying that historically it has had a net negative impact on humanity.

Grew up religious in the south and am now atheist. It is hard to wrap my mind around a god with all the science we have available. There are and will always be unexplained things, but religions just don't provide logical answers. Considering the fact that most religions treat women a second class, citizens and don't believe that queer people deserve to exist. It's not really my bag. The picture from the hubble telescope showing how many galaxys there are is mind-blowing. I'm supposed to believe that all those galaxys are created by different gods and / or one god, with the purpose of controlling the life on the planets, with an endpoint of giving them external salvation or damnation based off a set of archaic rules. I think it's even more infuriating when people use god or satan as an excuse for human actions. I don't personally need a religious system in my life to be a morally sound person. I've had people tell me the devil's in my brain, and that's why i'm sick. Excuse me, no, I have mental health issues, not a demon controling my mind. Now, christian nationalism is on the rise in the states and creating a current hell for a lot of people. While personal spirituality can be a beautiful thing. Organized religion has proven time and time again that its aim is to control people, not lead them, to salvation. This world is a tough place, so whatever someone needs to get them through the day, whether it's faith or not, as long as it's not impeding or hurting someone else.

I mean, maybe multiple habitable worlds could be an argument for polythiesm.

Grew up Catholic but drifted away from that in my late teens. Became an indifferent atheist for a bit, but I was feeling unsatisfied with that. Spent a great deal of time seeking answers about "why anything exists" and what other religions' viewpoints were. It wasn't until I experimented with a few different psychedelics that my viewpoint shifted entirely. I would say, right now, where I'm at is mostly agnostic but lean towards there being a higher power of some kind. However, I don't believe any single religion is 100% correct in their view.

If there's one thing that stumps me, is how I would be different from an atom to atom copy of myself, because our consciousness may be the exact same, but it would still be two separate conciousness... consciousnesses? I don't understand what would be unique between the two. maybe the only thing missing would be the fact they aren't connected, but still.

I don’t believe in god nor a higher power but I believe in reincarnation because the concept of death is too difficult for most people to comprehend, so to help this I picked what I felt was a comforting belief in what happens after and run with it.

Humans are born with a fear of the unknown, death happens to be under that umbrella. It’s terrifying to think about and if people can find comfort and something to believe in then that’s a positive

Exactly. I realised I will probably never get rid of that fear and even if you don’t believe in a god finding something the conceptualise rather than the unknown makes things a little more bearable.

English is not my first language so I hope I'll be able to accurately express my thoughts. I'm prefacing because I can sense the downvotes coming in, caused by an inevitable accuracy in my choice of words. I don't *respect* people's religious beliefs. I can *understand* them believing, I can *explain* them believing, I can perhaps *coexist* with them... but I can't have *respect* for what I think is basically believing a blatant lie. Let's make a thought excercise. Imagine a charlatan, a clear and undeniable charlatan, that starts a cult and is successful in preying upon vulnerable people. Absolutely nobody outside of the cult itself questions it's all bollocks. And you can even see the pattern in the victims' profiles. They all have some emotional weakness and the charlatan guru/"leader" is skilled at maliciously exploiting it for his profit and power gain through absolute lies that nobody but a very vulnerable person could believe. You and I know this is happening right now all over the world. People transfer all of their assets and properties to the cult and swallow the most unbelievable tales. How often people surrender their own kids to the leader for sexual exploitation believing that they're doing a good thing. Would you ***respect*** the religious belief of those poor vulnerable exploited people, knowing their sense of spirituality/religiosity is being used and abused to hurt them? That same feeling I have for anyone who truly believes made up tales to be true just because they were ingrained into their brains before they developed critical thinking, or because some other vulnerability/immaturity was exploited by someone else to convince them into believing something that can't be proven. Cults and sects become "religions" simply because they succeed in converting enough people. Often times through massacring anyone who didn't subjugate to their dogma. Since religious dogmas are totally incompatible with one another, it's literally impossible to say that they all hold a possibility of being true. Also, there are historical records of at least 6,000 gods and deities. Those are the known ones, we don't know how many religions were lost to time with no surviving records. How could we be sure that the REAL god wasn't one of those? Or perhaps the old Egyptians had the true gods? This is growing too long. There's simply no way to believe, confidently, in any religion. Doing so is proof of mental weakness, and I can't respect that.

Honestly I get where your coming from, i personally respect what people choose as free will is amazing but I can’t respect how most of those religions came about or have become. Mostly because of all the bigotry that’s so deeply ingrained in it. And all of the holes in their stories

Are they really free to choose if they have been indoctrinated when they were unable to challenge it? (Wether because their brain was insufficiently developed, or because they were emotionally vulnerable). Rational grownups don't turn to religion just because. On the other hand, many religious people open their eyes and detect they had been lied to, and that's a door that can't be closed. 

I grew up as a christian. While I do believe that God is a real being, I don't indulge in things such as praying every day or going to church every Sunday. I've never really liked the environment of a church and I always space out during prayers. I only pray as a last resort to things as well

Jewish, and I Iove it. My religion has given me a genuine community, comfort during difficult times, and a meaningful purpose for my life. I also appreciate that Judaism has clearly stated rules for what you should and shouldn’t do. It’s very forgiving of mistakes; just presence of these rules helps me structure my life.

Nah I don't believe in any religion

I personally don't have one. I'm interested in a lot of Buddhist ideas and ways of living, but I don't practice anything myself. I grew up with very Christian grandparents, but my parents personally didn't care either. I believe in religious freedom though. Sometimes I like learning about the different religions, kind of like I do with historical mythologies, but that's really as far as I go with it. Just to learn about it so I have more information about life lol

Complicated. That's putting it mildly.

So I was raised catholic until I was about 10 years old. I grew up with alot of Mormon friends who I was always respectful of. I am however now 14 years old (ftm) and I don't think I could ever belive in a higher power. Unfortunately I fully understand and crave the sense of security and community that religion brings. I constantly have panic attacks and freak the f*ck out because I don't want to die but I don't have a purpose to live for. Death is just nothing and that is so scary.  And life has no big reason or greater purpose. I wish I could be religious but I know I couldn't ever believe in somthing enough to for that.

Death is a fear you’re born with, it’s the reason people turn to higher beings. You can find a way to be happy without it though, teen years are tough even more so when you’re trans. From one transguy to another I’m wishing you so much luck and joy. These things take time

Thanks. I'll try to keep that in mind.

I don’t subscribe to religions, I prefer philosophies. Buddhism offers so much to my life, this is my chosen practise when I need some guidance.

I was raised LDS Mormon and honestly it never really resonated with me on a spiritual level, not to mention the racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, and transphobia ingrained in Mormon culture. The rules felt stifling to me, I didn’t like tailoring my life and my behaviors to fit someone else’s moral ideals. I love drinking coffee, dressing how I want, defining my own gender and relationships, and I ESPECIALLY love not wasting 4 hours of my weekend going to church. I will say there is a difference between religion and spirituality. You can have both, neither, or either one without the other. Lots of people conflate them but there is a marked difference. Personally I am spiritual without being religious, and I need to maintain that spirituality if I want to stay clean (and I do). Believing in a benevolent power greater than myself allows me to let go of things I can’t control, which has been essential to me in finding peace and serenity.

I escaped from a pentecostal cult (Foursquare church) a little over a year ago. They went low(-church). I went high(-church). I'm ELCA now and no longer depressed. So far :)

Well, I'm happy with it

It was hard for me to just believe In God, like If you asked me I'd say yes, because I do. I'm a Christian as I believe In God, Jesus dying for our sins, and all that good stuff. Fell asleep every time I went to Church, or played games so didn't hear much teaching. I can't prove with physical evidence they do, but I still have faith. Because why not? Pascals Wager Is my answer, even If God doesn't exist, living his, Jesus, teachings Is still good. Those who blindly bash religion are just as bad as those who blindly follow whatever someone says of their religion. Jesus Loves You, even when you've done wrong In life.

While I believe in a god, I believe something started the big bang and was probably a god or something. I align more with Christianity as I was raised Pentecostal but I think the Bible shouldn't be treated as absolute truth as it was translated between multiple languages and is a recollection of stories passed down between generations with values from that time period shoved in too. I don't take it as fact, nor do I like Christians that take it as 100% fact also. I also don't like most Christians as they will try to biblebash you and most of the ones I have met are giant hypocrites that think that if you pray to good you get good things happening to you and if you don't then that's why bad things are happening to you. I prefer to just treat everyone with respect and dignity, regardless of race, gender, how much money they have or religion. I'll help people wherever I can and try to do good in life

I was just thinking about something along these lines. I was raised an evangelical Christian. Became a Christian when I was 5 or 6. I went to a Christian college and majored in youth ministry and basically failed at it. Due to the modern behavior, cult influences of the church and Christian Nationalism. I have become a more progressive Christian. But I often feel unable to connect to God the way I see others do. This emotion experience that they get in worship. It is difficult to feel I have a relationship to God the way I should. When I pray I’m not always sure if it’s God or my head. I often have difficulty with building strong relationships with others. I think it’s more difficult to have a relationship with someone who I can’t see with my eyes or hear with my ears. I have faith that God is there, but sometimes I feel like there’s a barrier between us. I really think it has to do with my autism. Sorry about the long post. I have difficulty being concise and tend to ramble.

This post was meant to get people rambling about their experience, I love hearing everyone’s personal experience with faith thank you for sharing !

Thank you. I always ramble in my posts for some reason, maybe it’s an autistic or ADD thing Idk.

I remember going to church as a kindergartener. I could never believe it. I was OBSESSED with dinosaurs at the time and the fact that the Bible never mentions them just made me unable to believe. I also thought Noah’s Ark was such poppycock because as an Australian, I couldn’t understand how the kangaroos and koalas got onto a boat in the Middle East. Only thing I was able to believe was that Jesus seemed like a really nice dude

It's very hot-and-cold, due to religious OCD and a lot of baggage from a mentor I had in high school. Rationally, I do believe the Gospel and Christ's forgiveness. A lot of the time, however, it feels like the Bible was specifically designed to jerk me around on how far that extends, and the majority of sects seem okay with it when I'm not. I've been trying to get a handle on my own issues for the last few years, and lately I find myself attracted to Quakerism. Whether I officially convert or not to that denomination remains to be seen, but it increasingly seems like the best answer I can find.

It doesn’t really click for me I’ve tried to really get into it several times, but it’s never really resonated with me the same way that it does with normal people- I’ll attend church services if I’m visiting the members of my family who work at said churches(I am related to two methodist pastors), and I’ll try to internalize their sermons, since it’s something they are passionate about and I want to support them in that, but it never really clicks for me. If putting faith in some sort of higher power makes people more comfortable with life, then there’s no problem with that(as long as they are not using their faith as a cudgel to beat down others, obviously) Outside of established religion I will say I think of myself as a fairly spiritual person, in the sense that I believe in fate, as well as a sacredness of life, art, knowledge, freedom, and the concept of the human journey, but I am unattached to what most people would think of as faith.

edit: oh my god why is this so long. can you tell i have a lot of thoughts on the subject? tldr i was raised catholic and find comfort in catholicism and their traditions but i have never felt a genuine belief of god. i am interested in spirituality and witchcraft but cant find any genuine belief in those either. i have, however, had more experiences that point to spirituality than the existence of god. i was raised catholic. my moms side of the family have always been catholics, so my siblings and i were cradle catholics even though our dad was a baptist. i never once believed in god. i find catholicism comforting because i was raised in it, and even if i didnt believe in god i felt mass was very meditative. everything is scripted out and predictable. i enjoy the old fashioned style/latin catholic hymns. i enjoy nunneries and abbots and cathedral architecture, i find it all very interesting and beautiful. every year im tempted to go to midnight mass on christmas eve because thats what we did growing up and it was my favorite mass of the year. i was raised mostly in the south, and had attended church with some friends occasionally. any other church besides catholic mass makes me uncomfortable. its very overstimulating and uncomfortable for me. theres a lack of predictability. many of the new-age baptist churches have a lot of concert-like vibes, a whole light show and high energy bands who sing very loudly. people having emotional reactions in church make me uncomfortable, so i hated the raising arms and shouting along to songs. i hate them. i remember realizing as a kid that i didnt have a genuine belief in god. as i grew up, when we began having expectations to give answers and responses to scripture and learning the catechism, i started to panic. i overcompensated by focusing my energy into learning the history of the catholic church and the events of the bible. that way i could answer questions around those in class, so there would be less pressure to be picked for a question that focused on faith or emotion based answers. whenever those kinds of questions or lessens happened, i felt as if i was being asked to behave a certain way or say certain things, but i didnt know what they were. it felt like there was something expected of me that i couldn’t fulfill. the catholic church kind of ramps up participation as you age. when i was very little, the kids at my church left during the sermon section to go to a separate room. there we were told stories or read books so we werent bored and disruptive during the sermon. when we got old enough we went to sunday school as well. by the time i was in high school, about to have my confirmation ceremony, i was at church for about 12 hours every sunday. i was the youngest, so by then my mom would drop me off in the morning and pick me up at night. it was confirmation classes, mass, then youth group. by then i was bitter about being forced into this, and losing half of my weekend on something that i didnt even genuinely believe in. i had to attend confirmation classes, as they were classroom size and i couldnt fib on attendance. i skipped mass by showing up before anyone else and putting the check in the offering basket and hiding out somewhere. i showed up again for youth group, which was pretty much all of the high school aged kids who attended the church, so there was a much bigger crowd to blend into. dinner was always served there beforehand as it started at 5, so i would grab some food, let myself be seen by the leaders who knew my name, signed the attendance sheet, and then in the mass shuffle to the cafeteria where it was held, i would slip out of the doors or into the bathroom. i would wait out of sight, then eventually it would end and my mom would roll up at 8 pm to pick me up. as an adult i still own a bible and a rosary because i feel uncomfortable not owning them. i never attend mass and i enjoy grocery shopping on my completely free sundays, but i find myself praying whenever im in a situation that makes me extremely anxious. i cant free style prayers, so i say the memorized ones, mainly hail mary or our father. i find myself attracted to spirituality, paganism, and witchcraft, but i cant find any genuine belief in those either. i just enjoy the practices because i feel a lot more connected to the earth and life, which is something that helps my depression. i have personally experienced a lot more proof that spirituality exists than god does.

Raised Baptist, don’t believe in any higher power or connection

Agnostic leaning towards pantheism.

I grew up with religion but I never felt connected to it. Rn I don't have any religion, but I do believe in paranormal stuff because of personal experience

I have a lot of difficulty respecting/following rules if I don't understand why they exist. I think that's part of why I have such an issue with religion. Lots of things that people just take for granted make me go "but why? why would God want that?" (also doesn't help that it's often something that was really convenient for people in power)

I have a great relationship with the protestant church, they helped me in my darkest times.

I would probably be considered atheist or agnostic. I can't wrap my head around how it's possible for there to be an invisible man in the sky who created and controls everything. And if god is real, he's no god of mine because he lets some truly cruel things happen in this world. If a childhood full of abuse leading into an adulthood full of mental illness is god's test, then that's fucking cruel. I am interested in learning about other faiths though, particularly the ones that are more unusual and/or cultish. Amish/Mennonites, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Scientology, for example.

I wasn't really raised in religion but my family belives in God. I think there might be something out there but I think it's more likely aliens and not a God. I do think the lore of religions are very interesting. I dont belive any of its true but the stories themselves are very fascinating. Abrahamic religions have some good stories but I find most other religions are much more interesting to read about. Hinduism, Egyptian, Taoism, and Buddhism have some of my favorite stories.

It just always creeped me out for some reason

I’m Jewish and I don’t believe in God, but I do feel very strongly culturally connected to Judaism. I like all of the holidays and traditions we have and I like how the prayers and services are predictable, and I can go to a synagogue I have never been to in a city I have never been to and still recognize all of the prayers. I also connect a lot with most of the Jewish values. One that I think was really good for me to be raised with is the value of always asking questions and not just taking things at face value. Because I was raised this way, I am never afraid to ask questions, and that has helped me in many aspects of my life. Edit: also, reading comments on this type of post is so interesting to me, because it makes me realize the extent to which people who are raised Christian think about the entire concept of religion in a completely different way from how I do as someone who was raised Jewish. Like it seems like most people here see being a part of a religion as synonymous with believing in God, and to me, at least based on my experience with liberal Judaism, that’s not really the main point. The main point is the community and the values and the traditions. This is also why it bothers me a little bit when people state opinions they have on religion as a whole when they are actually only familiar with one religion. Like personally, I would never claim to have an opinion on Christianity, because I don’t know enough about it.

I’m an Episcopalian.

I had a very religious upbringing, but I’ve always questioned the supposed moral reasoning found in both the Old and New Testaments. Very little of it seemed moral to me, even as a kid. In high school I finally read the Bible cover to cover and was in tears most nights, trying to reconcile what I read of “God’s laws” with what I knew to be right. Stoning women/girls to death for being raped in the city (where their screams would have been heard—hence, someone would have rescued them) was where I drew the line for good. Then I read about God having pregnant women ripped open and little ones “dashed in pieces,” and I never looked back. "I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another's flesh during the stress of the siege imposed on them by the enemies who seek their lives." - God, Jeremiah 19:8-9 "...the east wind, the wind of the LORD, shall come, rising from the wilderness...Samaria shall bear her guilt, because she has rebelled against her God; they shall fall by the sword, their little ones shall be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open." - Hosea 13:15-16 "For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me..." - God, Exodus 20:5 "If a man really believes that God once upheld slavery; that he commanded soldiers to kill women and babes; that he believed in polygamy; that he persecuted for opinion's sake; that he will punish forever, and that he hates an unbeliever, the effect in my judgment will be bad. It always has been bad. This belief built the dungeons of the Inquisition. This belief made the Puritan murder the Quaker." - Robert Ingersoll

My stepmom would drag me to church semi regularly. The pentecostal type. I’ve been an atheist for decades. None of it made logical sense to me.

I think my opinion is very colored by living in the US for most of my life. But I do not like many things about religion as a whole. I can appreciate the comfort it can give to people in the face of the uncertainty of death (specifically the potential afterness of death, not its current inevitability), or its potential to create community based on compassion and empathy. But so often, it is used as a cudgel by othering swaths of people, and encouraging the idea that the in-group is superior by virtue of unfalsifiable rightness and righteousness. I do not believe that religion has a place at the table when building a good social structure based in facts and evidence, and tuned for the wellbeing of its participants. I also do not believe that having or practicing religion makes one a bad person, or makes one less intelligent or worthy of respect and decency just by its own virtue.

am i the only dude here thats still a christian (i actually am ok with authority)

There’s actually a lot of other people who believe in the Christian god! Along with other religions, if you have the time it’s really cool to read responses to this, great insight on others beliefs

I’m agnostic, with many close friends who are religious (Islam) I don’t think you can really prove or disprove god, it’s only faith and belief. I’ve gone back and fourth in believing, tho I don’t hold the mentality that believing really matters, and we should just focus on being good people. I definitely don’t connect with the ‘mainstream’ approach to god I’ve seen in abrehamic religions.

I was raised loosely Catholic (am probably considered more agnostic now) and went to a Catholic high school. I never really bought into any of it and my parents never enforced anything. But I was terrified of any depictions of the crucifixion and was full of existential dread when I was young (still am.) I don't believe in what organized religion(s) portrays God to be like (God wants xyz for you, God wills this, God provides, etc), but it is hard for me to not believe in a "higher power", like the universe as a force or something. I don't really believe in Hell, but I feel immensely guilty for my past failings and feel like I have to atone or else I'm a horrible person who should never have anything good happen ever and all my suffering is my own. As I've gotten older, I've discovered how deeply that religious guilt runs and how it's affected the way I think. I'm not sure if it's because of autism, though, or if it's just standard ol' religious trauma. Probably both, tbh.

I used to be a devout but progressive Christian but when the MAGA type Christians became too embarrassing to ignore I studied the bible very closely and found that the bible is in fact a hideous book and the Abrahamic god is a monster not worthy of worship. It led me to deconstruct and realize that I actually had no good reasons to believe that any of it is true anyway and a lot of evidence that it's in fact not true. Now I'd call myself an antitheist to a degree, I'm very scientifically minded and try to apply science and logic whenever I can.

Not just higher force, but logical and rational thinking get in the way too, huh?

Same here. I was forced to go to church by my parents every Sunday growing up. I don’t think I ever actually believed in a God but it was frowned upon to question anything so I played along. It looked like I was all in though because I was very good at remembering bible verses and won all sorts of candy for it. It wasn’t until I realized I was queer and came out that I was allowed to stay home. Ever since then I’ve considered myself an atheist. Other people can believe whatever they want but don’t try and force your beliefs on everyone else.

hi i was raised in the Mormon church and am autistic. I had a similar problem. I just really wanted to have a relationship with god so i pretended to read my scriptures and listen to the church talks. Looking back i didn't feel anything like i didnt even know why i was trying after a asked that question the church just seemed like and uncomfortable place. And i didn't feel the 'spirit'. It started to really wear on my until i cut it off now im happy to be me and i think if there is a god or a right religion it will speak to me. If there is a religion for me it wont make me feel like i have to act like others if there's a religion for me i can be my true self. I hope this helps!!!

Not a fan, I guess I'm an atheist

Unitarian Universalist. I am fully aware that they're mostly considered a joke in more popular religion circles. But at least we don't try to strip people of their human rights just for existing as they are. When people ask what it is, I jokingly describe it to people as "the one where God ACTUALLY loves everyone instead of playing favorites based on who sucks his dick the most."

I was raised religious. I remember being 7 years old learning about god & the bible. I thought a man in the sky was absolutely ridiculous 😭

I was around the same age when I stopped fully believing in a god. Made no sense even back then

I was raised Catholic. After years and years of preying to God for the bullying that I endured from 5th to 12th grade would end, I pretty much realized if God existed he didn't give a flying frick about me so why should i worship him. I'm now an agnostic borderline atheist.

Buddhist. The highest powers I believe in are: impermanence, actions and consequences, and myself.

Who cares, can’t find out in this lifetime so why burden yourself. That’s my take

i’m an atheist and always have been. with my understanding of humanity and the world, it makes the most logical sense that there isn’t a god, at least in the way people imagine. it’s all tied in with a limited human understanding of the universe, and all traits of gods you’re told about are just extensions of the human condition. hypothetically, if any god does exist, my understanding would be that the current definition of what the term “god” even means would have to be expanded to accurately describe wtf this “god” would even be, and that expanded definition would most likely be entirely incomprehensible at this moment in our species’ existence. i’m against organized religion because of the control, hatred, and violence that comes with it. i support people being entitled to their beliefs though, so long as you’re active in understanding harm you may be causing to others. i don’t mind if someone believes in a god, just understand that humanity should always come before your religious ideology.

Yeah very similar experience. Also autistic and was raised very strict as a Jehovah's Witness. I now have no clue what I believe but definitely don't believe in a God. I'm Searching and trying to learn and educate myself but I keep going down different paths and not sure what I'm doing with my life at the moment. Currently exploring reiki.

"Aw, hell no" pretty much sums it up. Religion has been weaponised against me my whole life, but if you respect me, I'll respect you.

I can't. We can track the development of all of them, how can you claim one god is the real one when we can track the development of his existence? And ofc you can't talk about it because the followers go "NO!!!!!" It just leads to so much cognitive dissonance. Like Muslims pretending they follow pure islam, zero cultural influence. Bitch if you follow "pure islam no cultural influence" then why are you wearing cultural garments? Or the Israeli government basically promoting the idea that people in what is now Israel were always picture perfect Jews, even before Judaism existed. And of course the old Testament is 100% factual. Makes studying the actual history of the region a nightmare. I study the ancient middle east, including the development of Abrahamic religion and boy does it get me heated. Dated a Muslim guy for a while. Most brain dead guy I've ever met.

I believe there’s a higher being but I just don’t care, it may be god or a may be something as dumb as a house fly but I believe that we are here as a test to see if we go to a better place or not when we die.

I was raised very un practising Catholic but a lot of my family is really hard core. I myself am a hellenic pagan

I was raised with predominantly Christianity, Judaism, and Hoodoo family. There are a few other religions in there but I didn’t pay enough attention. I believe in the Highest Power (aka God/uNkulunkulu/the Universe) and the Holy Trinity (Holy Spirit/Ancestors)and in my heart the concept of Jesus Christ makes sense. His teachings are “how to be a decent human 101”. I particularly like how many times the Bible references not judging others… I feel God when I swim in the ocean or dig my bare feet into the grass. I feel Him when the sun shines on my face. I feel Him when I have a meltdown because the texture of something grossed me out and I need to self regulate. I don’t believe in the guilt all religion bring, because I don’t like modern religion as it is nothing more than an attempt to make spirituality profitable. I believe in my own spiritual journey, I believe in the beauty of a sunset and the existence of a Higher Power. I also believe that if I want something and I am praying for it/manifesting it - I need to actually DO something about it. I also practice Hoodoo, in so far as botanical workings. Plant medicine, grounding, praying in nature with the sky as my roof and not in a building that costs enough it could have fed a village for a decade if it was invested in agricultural development. I think we lost something in this individualistic world that only the old ways can heal. I believe I was born with a brain this way for a reason. I believe.

Still waiting for one of them to be even one iota convincing

I am a devout Catholic. I always recommend the book "God Loves the Autistic Mind" written by an autistic priest, Fr. Matthew Schneider. He also touches upon how Autistics are statistically much more likely to be atheists, and why that's the case for some individuals

I learned lots of the Bible by heart because I can. I am shocked at how people who claim to be Christians have no idea of what is in the Bible. I go to a local church which is good and I have a lanyard which I present if they try and touch me with "The power of my lanyard compels you to back off", which I normally say in a "I'm casting a demon out of you" kind of voice. It's quite effective. Yeah, I think I have faith. I believe in all the stuff but I have to be careful because I view things as black and white and I learned a few years ago you can't read the Bible or other old documents like that as we don't understand the culture that the text was written in. For example, in my country, if you call someone a Ladykiller, they are one for the ladies. However, if we were translating that 2000 years later we might think that the guy spent all his time killing women. - The same happens in the Bible with odd sayings that would make perfect sense to people back then but don't today. ,

I'm currently in the process of converting to Judaism :) I was raised non-religious but found it unsatisfying. Explored various religions til I ended up gravitating to Judaism, and now I find a lot of comfort from it.

Finding something to believe in is a vital part of a lot people’s lives, I’m glad you found comfort in it. Anything specific that caused you to gravitate towards Judaism?

There's a lot of things that made me want to check it out: Major movements that are queer-accepting, clear rules and guidelines even for niche stuff, monotheistic (I looked into polytheism, it just never clicked), a strong emphasis on preserving life. But ultimately what made me decide to convert was just that i went to a synagogue and it felt like home. This feels like where I'm meant to be :D

I was raised as a jehovahs witness. I believe organized religion can be very damaging and predatory. I'm fine with people believing whatever they wish as long as they don't force their opinions or beliefs onto others. I myself am a spiritualist , a witch. I believe in deities, spirits and such but am otherwise agnostic.

Hi! Same I’m trying to leave now… it’s very difficult 😥

It definitely is difficult - takes a lot of time to unlearn the subconscious teachings and mannerisms , I'm here for you! My inbox is always open if you'd like to chat about it ♡

Autistc people have dificult tô abstraction só that means is more dificult tô believe in god And traumatic experience can make this gets worse

I’m a Christian. The existence of God makes sense from a logical perspective, for the idea of the universe spontaneously coming into existence from nothing makes zero sense. Additionally, the fact that random chemicals can somehow come together to form functioning and conscious beings implies a creator. It takes more faith, if you ask me, to believe things like that happened by accident. As for why I’m a Christian as opposed to another religion, it’s because Christianity balances justice and mercy like no other religion. With Christianity, God is both just and merciful. He makes sure all sin gets paid for, which makes Him just, but because He took our punishment on the cross in our place, He is merciful, as if we accept Jesus’s atonement for our sins on the cross, we are forgiven. No other religion can balance justice and mercy like that.

Is this the right room for an argument?

Close to none, my mom is Jewish and my dad is Catholic so I really wasn’t raised on it. That said I do align myself with a lot of the cultural aspects of being Jewish

I left my religion ( islam) But i do believe in a higher being because in my opinion How the universe is cant be random But other than that I hate all religions 💀 And i think they are the source of all evil

If I can’t even feel the tangibility of human relationships, then how could I feel the tangibility of something that is intangible? But I do think religion is nice.

Raised Catholic but I've been pagan for 20 years now. Right now it's all solitary practice and I don't do a whole lot. I to take an annual trip to Yellowstone as part of my practice though.

What’s brought you to paganism?