After all but one of my religious "strings" had been cut I was home alone one night and had the house to myself. I was getting pissed that I had been lied to my entire life...so I turned off all the lights, turned off the TV/phones and had a show down between me and God. I challenged him to show up, give me a sign, to do anything that would provide evidence for his existence...nothing. I called him every filthy name you could call someone to goad him out...nothing. Then I turned my attention to Satan and repeated the process...nothing. After about 2 hours of this I was getting tired so I called it a night and went to bed. About 20 minutes later I heard a noise and it was getting closer, I opened one eye and wondered "oh shit, what did I do?" It turned out to be my cat Harry. I laughed, closed my eyes and fell asleep. In the morning I woke up an atheist.
At least you didn't think, "hey Satan sent my cat to scare the shit outta me"... It does piss you off when you realize that everything you have been taught as a child is complete bullshit. I'm in a better place now anyways... hope you are as well
I did the same thing and God/Jesus did not appear but Satan did! I told Satan I was just kidding and he disappeared. That's when I realized I was creating these characters inside my own head.
Although I had my doubts for a long time about the bible (because of the Genesis story), what truly cemented everything for me, was a UA-cam video I stumbled across titled "Why I am no longer religious." From there I began exploring skeptic and atheist channels, and watching religious videos being debunked by the different hosts. Now, I proudly declare myself to be an atheist. This is one of the top channels I now view, along with AronRa as well. I have also helped a close friend of mine to deconvert, by leading him to channels such as this one, and he now considers himself an atheist. I have learned a lot and am still learning as I go along. It's a great comfort to know I'm not alone. Let's keep opening eyes and minds! Great work TTA, and Seth, you are a fabulous host, so very relatable, and a great voice. Keep up the great work!
Nearly every listener story touches me in one way or another, but man... the guy that told his wife he wanted to remarry her. It really is astonishing the change in perspective that is experienced in the moment we realize that this is all we get and how, from that point on, we just want to do all we can to make this short existence better for those we love.
I love those, "huh..." moments. Where something in your mind has been trying to work itself out and only then does all cognitive dissonance stop. The suddenness of the realization of things has a certain feeling. Almost like an "ah ha!" but more gradual and humbling.
I can empathize with the "silence" brought up by one of the callers. Back when I "truly believed in god", I was going through the most painful experience of my life. I was grieving like no other time in my life. But the unmistakeable silence was too much to overlook. It brought to light all the times I "went down to the alter to pray, yet felt nothing". I couldn't have been more sincere, at that time in my life, but the silence was thick. I'm agnostic now, basically an atheist.
"They have this sillyputty god that they just mould into whatever shape they need" ^ That is the truest observation of religion I have ever heard. Nicely done Seth.
I told a friend that I did not believe god would consign little Hindu children to hell And asked him if that meant that I was also going to hell With surprisingly little regret, he confirmed my horrible fate At that point I was forced to decide whether I took him... and religion seriously I struggled to find some reason for concern about my fate ultimately I could no longer take religion seriously And then I discovered that I REALLY resented the explicit blackmail that is the threat of being condemned to hell I HATE feeling manipulated And therefore felt increasing repugnance for the underlying structure of religious faith
My tipping point occurred in what would be my last visit to the Mormon church. I had already learned about Joseph Smith's dirty secrets such as his 40+ wives, and I also knew of Brigham Young's horrifying doctrine of 'Blood Atonement' and his crazy idea that people lived on the moon. Someone gave their testimony, and they ended up quoting Brigham. It was something to the effect of "There is not one word that has proceeded out of my mouth that is not Scripture". At that moment, the beliefs I held for 14 years shattered. I walked out of the church and went home immediately. I tried to research other Christian denominations to see if they made any sense, but to no avail. The Old Testament was always troubling to me, but there was a verse referencing someone steadying the Ark of the Covenant as it was falling. I thought that was a good thing, and yet God killed him for this act! I knew that if a God existed, he was pure evil. I have been an open agnostic atheist for the last two years, and I now know that rejecting belief in any deity was the best decision that I'd ever made.
My tipping point was: 1) The realization that if God's best way of dealing with his creation was Hell, he is not a very smart god, and is definitely not a GOOD god. 2) If people can still go to hell, Jesus' supposed sacrifice was completely pointless, as the devil is still winning. 3) If God is allowing the devil to win in any way, what good is he as a god? After those realizations sank in, I realized how horribly human-made Christianity is.
MA L God is a representation of us. We are the judges, the punishers of others and ourself, we go through all the crap. We either gain knowledge through it or we condemn ourselves to a life of hell. The book is written in a way that if you read beyond the literal the entire story of life is in there. The wars the hate etc. the Bible is the story of us.
So what about the stoning of women to death for not being a virgin on their wedding night? What is the deep metaphorical truth in that? If you want a moral guide, go read actual moral philosophers. Searching for metaphorical truth in literal bronze age barbarism is jumping through unnecessary hoops. Its also attempting to forcibly square a circle. When you read metaphors into literal stories you are mostly just reading in your own morality. Skip the unnecessary nonsense fairy tales and just develop your own moral character yourself, free from nonsense that most take at least partially literally. @@lindacurtis1580
Mine was when I realized that the concept of "free will" was both upheld and denied by religion at the same time. On the one hand the very son of god had to die because god gave man free will and man chose evil instead of good. But it turns out that the same sacrifice pays the price required to buy free will back, and only by submitting in full obedience to God's precepts, one could be saved. It was the perfect scam.
Seth, this podcast is one of the best imo. Just loved the stories sent in, esp. the gay guy. What a relief that his partner really can understand his (their) torment. Keep going, your shows are awesome and the message is getting out there. The Netherlands
Handpuppets omg lol I never really had a tipping point that got me out of religion, since I was never religious. But I did have a moment where I knew for sure I'd never get INTO religion. Got invited to a community gathering when I still lived in Canada. It was a religious group. All the adults had this eerie smile on their face, like the man in the Viagra commercial. Even as a kid of maybe 8, I was like "these people are fuckin creepy!" and vowed never to have anything to do with whatever was sucking their brains out.
When I was like 4, when they kept talking about heaven in church I thought they were referring to the old choir loft that was blocked off above our heads in the pews. When I realized they weren't, and that it was some magical place in the sky, it was over because by that age I had already read some space books for little kids and I felt confident I knew what was in the sky. I think that is perhaps why I have been so argumentative with my parents my whole life. We have a good relationship but the idea that adults were always right was shattered at a very young age.
My first tipping point was the realization I had in my early teens that there's no way to show any part of the Bible to be divine or even accurate. It might have been dictated by Satan for all we know, or by a trickster god of some other religion. Unfortunately while that freed me to evaluate things with common sense and reject the concept of the devil and the divinity of Jesus, that wasn't enough to free me from theism altogether. Largely due to religious fears I ended up spending more than a decade as some kind of an agnostic non-christian theist, hanging on to the modernized version of the Abrahamic god. The true tipping point came when I learned about the history of Judaism, it's origins in polytheism and how the god of the Bible was once just one of many in a pantheon of very fallible anthropomorphic small gods, not much different from the deities of the dead religions of antiquity. That was what finally freed me, realizing that all of the "Abrahamic exceptionalism" was bullshit and there was nothing special about the god of the Bible in comparison to all the other gods I had not the least amount of belief in. It was then that I became a true atheist.
***** I hope you realize that agnosticism and atheism aren't mutually exclusive. Even if you're an agnostic, you're still either atheist or theist. Either way, though, I am actually not a true agnostic because I believe that today thanks to combined knowledge from severa sciencs we have a sufficient explanation for the human god concept that doesn't involve invoking something as unlikely and ultimately unfalsifiable as a supernatural intelligence.
***** One term speaks to belief, the other to knowledge, are not mutually exclusive (as OnnaKonna pointed out), or helpful if I asked you "Do you believe in god(s)?" and *not* "Do you *know*, evident and conclusively, there are god(s)?". There are those self-labeled "agnostic" only. The "agnostic only"'s that are just as much an atheist in definition, as I am. Sad that those "agnostics only" have been successfully indoctrinated to have some kind of visceral aversion to the term "atheist" and the baggage they believe it brings, as god-buyers do. I, myself don't have that particular hang-up. Not even being a southern black chick, do I run away from a thing that makes me up as a whole; that's being an atheist. Oh, and why the re-direct? Make your comment here. Maybe OnnaKonna doesn't feel like scrolling through comments on some other vid page when you could've expanded your already reply or not have replied at all. Your reply gives me "Appeal to Authority" vibes. Yes, Neil is someone that has, generally, a lot of respect from us atheists. But, just because he shares your aversion to being labeled an atheist, doesn't give your position any more merit or weight.
Beautiful. Thinking helped you find your way clear just as it helped me and just as I hope it helps others. Because of all the fears that accompany religious indoctrination, it is unfortunate that the shedding process often takes much longer than the indoctrination process. That's why the churches like to get 'em while their young.
My tipping point: 13 years ago my fiancé at the time broke up with me. We got back together a year & a half later. But during that gap I began to really look at atheism. I had a few years of college experience by then & had met openly atheist people who weren't at all like my religious high schools presented them. I used a class writing assignment about groups as a justification to look at eastern religions & atheism, get some books from Amazon. I realized all the apologetics I had been taught were straw men or had been thoroughly discredited years before I learned them. I felt foolish & angry. I had life-long doubts, but had learned to fear questioning & hell. I became one of those spiritual but not religious atheists when I got back with my ex. It took me 10 years to realize the breakup was one of those narcissistic silent treatments & that he was using my mental illnesses as reasons for why I deserved abuse, which was easy to believe due to being mentally ill. I had also given up the spiritual part & began saying "atheist" instead of "free-thinker" to my then-fiancé, who was still a creationist, which ushered in more death threats & accidents that look suspicious in hindsight. I went no-contact 2 years ago & am still working on healing from the chronic ptsd. My new fiancé is very patient & understanding. I had also began to pay attention to science, which I abandoned as a kid for various reasons. I joined woo culture 10 years ago believing it was a viable mix of science & art that would also help me mentally. I really believed It just needed more research. The woo did help until I learned more about real science & began to break away from the brainwashing & conspiracy theories my ex implanted. I felt foolish & angry all over again. One of the episodes on this podcast was the tipping point for me about chiroquacktors, so I looked more into that. I'm currently a massage therapist subcontracting at a massage place that's partnered with a chiroquacktor business that mentions Pasteur's [fake] deathbed recantation of germ theory. I never knew germ theory denialism was a thing & barely knew the word "pseudoscience" until I looked into chiroquacktic. It makes work frustrating, & I'm currently trying to find a way out & into a better career before I mouth off too much. But it's reassuring knowing I've come this far.
The story of the guy who hated himself for being gay made me so emotional. I feel for him. I can sort of relate to it only I'm not quite out of the woods yet.
My first tipping point was when I was researching Christianity. I had been a Christian for nearly 20 nears and I had never read the Bible. I was never really adamant in my faith...but I had faith anyway. When I started reading, I was fact checking everything because I wanted to know if it was true. I first noticed the 2 different creation stories in Genesis 1 and 2. I was astounded that I noticed contradictions in the first book. I read the whole Bible twice. When I put it down, I realized the whole thing was a load of crap. I immediately rejected Christianity. I started looking at other religions and realized they were full of it too. That was my tipping point.
This was a wonderful episode! Definitely one of my favorites. I am so grateful for people like Seth and the rest of you who can relate to the things I have experienced as a result of religious influence in my life. I have very few people in my area who understand my non-belief.The two Christian pastors (mentioned in my email on the show) with whom I tried to discuss some of my concerns about religion are both extremely nice and friendly people who were sincerely trying to help (and I'm grateful to both of them for trying) but I question the degree to which they really understood where I was coming from because of the beliefs they held. This podcast and this community has really helped me to understand that I'm not alone and I'm not crazy! Thanks everyone!
Speaking of balony detection kits; I rejected god the instant a church tried to impose one on me. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was 4 years old, mid 1960s. My wonderful but xtian grandma on dad's side, Edna, convinced my m&d that us 2 oldest grandkids were ready to attend church. Consequently my older brother by 3 yrs & I were instructed to walk to the nearest Anglican church one Sunday morning to attend 'Sunday School'. The mere mention of 'Sunday School' already set off alarm bells in me, because any 'schooling' beyond Monday - Friday smacked of 'total control' to me - even at that age I was wary! On that day, the instructing nun was seated in a chair at the top of the stairs (sorry I forget the correct term, will edit later) and I instantly & I'm certain 'naturally', recognized the overbearing 'body language', she has positioned herself to overwhealm us little kids, and I did not 'fall for that', whilst it seemed to me all around me were falling for it. I was immediately frightened and deeply concerned. I shot my hand up in the air and said " Well miss...if god is a grey-haired old man who sits on a cloud - he would fall through and die". This was not well received, not by my elbow jabbing older brother, nor by the 'class' of 20+ kids and certainly not by the dominatrix nun. Back at home an hour later, I stood ajointly and firmly at my mum & dad's feet...stared all the way up to their high distant and almighty faces and bravely announced " I'm never going back there....they tell lies...they are liars and not nice!" I won't go even if you send me again!". Thankfully - my loving parents never made that mistake again. Though you are gone now, I thank you mum. And thank you dad for listening to me on that one most important of all occasions.
This show is a friend to me😊its like Goliath the gargoyle bridging the gap between me and everyone who understands the black sheep feeling. Science bless, and may your sabbath be black✌
i never regretted leaving christianity and i didn't mind letting go of buddhism. i HATED leaving wicca. it was so romantic and beautiful and non-restrictive. then i realized there was no reason to leave it entirely behind as one can keep their awe and love of nature and the universe and maybe even more as an atheist. my tipping point was when i realized that i was better than the god/s. i would never punish people for being what i made them; i would fix them and everyone would have paradise. then i realized paradise would be BOOOOOORING after a while.
I will make this brief. My main tipping point began with the hardest experience of my life, the death of my four year old daughter in 2007 who suffered from brain cancer. I would ask other Christians why my daughter? Their response, "God works in mysterious ways" or "It was in Gods plan". I thought, what about my daughters plan not to die? What about my daughters plan not to suffer? I rationalized it at first that didn't blame God. I thought, well man (humans) brought suffering and death upon themselves with the fall in the Garden of Eden. (to be continued)
i see now my tipping point was the judgment and seperation in the church that i tried to cover in grace for years and even thought that god would not come back until his children were one. this led me to studying the bible more and more to prove that law was not gods way. I settled there for years and didn't rock the boat any more than that. until my husband started demanding better evidence from god and proclaiming that from what he sees god can not be a good all powerful god but a silent non tangible one. i could not deny that my prayers changed nothing but how i feel and so i began to study the reliability of the bible and found little to no evidence outside of my faith, which was shocking to me. the flood gates have been open now and I'm learning more everyday.
I didn't really have a singular tipping point. Coming out of belief was a very gradual process for me and even now I'm probably not rid of some of the habits of thought. I grew up attending a United Methodist church and my parents insisted on my going through Confirmation in junior high even though I didn't want to. I never was very good at taking any of it seriously; I always put off the book work until the last possible moment, I had a tendency to get the giggles at inappropriate times, and I'd look around during group prayers wondering if anyone else was as bored and unconnected as I was. At the end of Confirmation we had a camping weekend which culminated in a sort of youth revival experience around the campfire. I remember being told by our youth minister to be quiet and thoughtful returning to our cabins, so we wouldn't interrupt anyone if they were having a spiritual experience. I remember being vaguely disappointed at having no particular "spiritual experience" of my own. In my first couple of years of college, I hung around the Methodist student ministry as a "safe" way of finding some new friends, and participated in several of their activities, but my faith was fading, and I didn't dare confess it to the minister or any of the student ministers. I was afraid I'd lose what friends I'd made. My faith was further shaken when one of the students who was a regular attendee had something akin to a nervous breakdown my second year; he'd been sheltered in a more conservative church and community than he'd grown up in, and I remember him pacing around nervously asking us if we were all really "real" Christians. I remember how I felt like a wolf in sheep's clothing at that moment--I WAS one of the non-real Christians he was afraid of. I think it was really the idea of Hell that drove the final nail in the coffin for me. I just never understood the point of it. Even if humans were naturally bad, so that we deserved punishment by default, what's the point of punishing us forever? You punish a child who commits some really bad act in the hope that he will learn from it and won't commit that act again, but if we're in hell forever, obviously we aren't going to learn anything from it. Could we REALLY be so bad that almost all of the people who had ever lived were going to burn for eternity? During my brief stint as an evangelical Christian after college, I remember seeing a picture in our local paper of Muslim children celebrating one of the Muslim holidays. I found myself unable to stop thinking about those kids. Many of them would grow up believing the Muslim religion and they'd have no sensible reason to switch over to believing in Christianity just because some random Christian told them their religion was wrong. Could I really believe that if those Muslim kids died, they were going to go to hell just for believing what their parents taught them? In the end, my answer to that turned out to be, "No."
Well I caved and got the Nature Box sampler. At first I was like, meh, I'll just cancel it after the sample box comes in, but then once it actually came I was totally converted (pun possibly intended?). They just have so much stuff that looks amazing. Thanks for recommending it, Seth.
My tipping point was when my 2 year old niece sang a 'cute' little song about the second coming. That scared the hell out of me. That was several years ago, And I thought that that looking forward to the end of all things and all problems solved. To be honest I was never really religious, I was nominally christian. My mom raised me right, allowing me to embrace science and reason.
I'm so interested in next week's show - back when I went to church I attended a large (1000+ Sunday attendance) church that practiced both Quiverful and taught parenting classes using the Babywise methods. *shudder*
My tipping point was more of a domino tipping point 1) honestly reading the Bible from the beginning to end and not reading it in bits and pieces 2) researching more about the history of the Bible and how it was composed 3) honestly confronting my doubts that I had for years 4) hearing other deconversion stories 5) listening to atheists and reflecting on what they have said and pointed out regarding religion 6) contemplating what would happen to me if I had been born into a different region of the world what would my religion be. Out of all the thousands of religions how can we tell which is the one true religion?
I never had a tipping point since I never believed in a God and all the magic stuff but it is interesting to hear people talk about the point they stopped believing or stopped believing specific parts of their religion.
The tipping point for me was actually reading parts of the Bible as a child, around the age of 12. The stories seemed nearly identical to the fantasy novels I was fond of, in terms of factualness. I couldn't understand how everyone believed these stories of magic were history.
I had been pretty skeptical from about 12 years old. You know that questioning period in kids where I was asking, "where is the universe? Like in what kind of container is the universe in?" I would get the same kind of response to this question that I got when questioning the 'Noah myth'. So I just went along not believing but not saying anything about it until I was in the Canadian Air Force. I was in officers school and was ordered to attend church. My tipping point, the minister chastized the congregation becuase we were not making large enough donations. He spent most of the time ragging on about giving. I got up and left, never to return.
My tipping point was when i was about 9 when i found a fossil and was told that it was millions of years old. Before then from about 6 years old i only thought that it didn't feel right praising an invisible god who didn't seem to do anything.
My tipping point came when I was asking tough questions and was told that I should never look outside of the Bible for the answers I seek. All the answers were in the Bible. Red flag!!!!
I would love find quality jewelry with your logo on them. :) Hard to find atheist pendants that are beautiful and tasteful, I wish there was more on the market for us.
Before i continue the video, i'd like to ask if there is some stuff like this on people that weren't brought up religiously in the first place? I know it sounds a bit strange, but in a world where cities are covered in churches and chapels, even if not brought up with the bible one but has to wonder what might be and what not might be. my own experience is a bit complex, my grandparents on my mother's side were of the watchtower denomination of the christian faith. after 1975 when that 'cult' proclaimed the end of the world in that year, my uncle and my mother left that group of people. My mother hooked up somehow with my father, not going to church or anything, they divorced and my mother remarried (wonderful stuff for a family, yay), which brought back the bible to the equation. At an age of 13 it seems it was too late to catch me. I had enough critical thinking skills to be able to say: no i don't believe the stuff that is written in the bible. I had several months of fights with my step-dad (sorry if my spelling is crap, correct me if i am wrong) and my mother about having to read from this very bible. I did not want to participate in the reading of the bible before every supper. At some point my mother saw what it was doing to me when they tried to force the issue too much and decided to let it go. (for this i am thankful today) Slowly but steadily (not being sure about anything) i grew into the idea of being an atheist. The more i searched, the more i became convinced of my belief there was no god. My idea: there should be some stuff about this that is for the lack of better words: more serious than for example Darkmatter2525's animations. Something that includes people who are searching for answers for themselves, and not just the ones that have fallen from their faith (which seem to denounce it with the biggest fervor, like ex smokers denounce smoking with the same fervor, has to do with self image i believe) cheers and thanks for the works
I'm someone who has never been brought up religiously. My story: I'm not religious. The end :-P To expand. I have always been an atheist. Always. That never changed. I did have my moments of 'religiosity'. I was always a bit more busy with the idea that 'nature' or the earth itself moved around lifeforce. For the people who have played final fantasy 7, the idea of the lifestream came very close to what I believed. (in short, a kind of new age crap) The idea itself was already there before that game came out tho. And the game reaffirmed my 'believe', in that I clearly wasn't the only one that thought the world could work this way. I don't really know how I got rid of those believes. I think I was simply too emerged in science to really keep a hold to these thoughts for long. I do know that by age 18 I already started disliking religion in general and would only accept things when they had sufficient evidence
I never saw religion in my family while growing up. It was never even an interesting topic to us. I was 30 something years old before I discovered my father was an atheist and my mother was a lapsed catholic. I saw religion around me ...we were an air force family so I saw european religion mostly, I guess you'd say during the formative years. I never seem to have needed to ask those kinds of questions religious people think are being answered by their religion. Where did we come from? Who cares? It's interesting, but how does it affect my decision on what to have for dinner tonight? I suspect that religion itself teaches you that you need to know things, you know: inflict the malady then offer the cure. I don't know is a good answer to lots of questions.
I was brought up in a religious household, going to church every week until I was 10. I never paid attention in church and never believed what I was told. In Sunday school I was very interruptive, asking awkward questions like "Where did all the water go?" (from Noah's flood) to the teacher. After a couple of years of this (and a fistfight or two with the other children) I stopped participating in Sunday school. When I was in second grade, there was one Monday morning when I was in the car with my mother, waiting for the school bus. I don't remember why, but I mentioned that I didn't want to go to church anymore. I believe I also mentioned that it was boring. She turned to me and angrily yelled at me that refusing the love of God was "EVIL! EVIL! EVIL!" over and over again. It was terrifying. When I first got onto the internet at age 7, I discovered Wikipedia. I finally found a source which helped me with my arguments against going to church (which at that point had become a regular thing) and I started educating myself on religion, philosophy and science (adding to what I learned in school, to be precise) and never looked back. Today I want others who haven't been as lucky as me to be able to learn about the world and see real science. That's why I make videos, though I must disguise myself so I can continue to live here with my parents until I can afford my own place.
Incredible Igtheist "She turned to me and angrily yelled at me that refusing the love of God was "EVIL! EVIL! EVIL!" over and over again. It was terrifying." Fucking hell... "though I must disguise myself so I can continue to live here with my parents until I can afford my own place" Fucking hell... part 2 Hope you getting close to that own spot there?
Shangori Nowhere's close, I'm afraid. I just got a job in September and they're refusing to let me get a driver's license, even though I'm almost 20...
"there is no god" has helped me immensly with accepting life and the reality we live in. I dont want to die, I dont like dwelling on death but death happens around me and accepting that there is no supernatural force that watches over me is making it easier to cope with loss and the inevitability of my own shortcomings, failings and ultimate deterioration. You might call it "fatalistic" but I think its just accepting the inevitable. It also makes me focus on the NOW and what I m actually doing with my life. Not in terms of career or becoming rich but enjoying my existance according to the qualities I deem valuable.
I was grinning throughout the Monster part. It is part of my future career to design logos like that. Will I get additional jobs if I hide clues in my CV that I'm a satanist? Or will contractors just show me jewish numbers and tell me to hide a 666 in the logo with that? It's important that the target audience (satanists) recognize it, but at the same time you cannot be too obvious. Or maybe, it's my job to propose such things? "Hey guys, speaking with your CEO and checking your energy drinks, I noticed that you guys are into occult satan worship and that satanism is a strong part of your corporate identity. So I snuck it into this design. See the jewish sixes? I've also put a tiny illuminati pyramid in there, can you see it?" My tipping point was the story of Abraham and Isaac. It is personal to me because my mother used to tell me she couldn't have killed her kids even for God, she loved us too much. At the time, like her, I thought that was remarkable. When we had that story in school, I thought I was missing a part. The part that made Abraham look less like a monstrous, delusional piece of vile shit, as I seemed to be the only one who thought so. The teacher (best religion teacher we had) didn't even glance over these fishy parts about the story. He wouldn't discuss it, he needed to tell us how this showed his deep devotion to God, I wondered how God could even consider this asshole, and I thought the test was supposed to be if Abraham would NOT jump to human sacrifice for an unknown voice in his head. But apparently, I was the crazy one. That brought me to first open a real bible and reread the story. And all the others. Read the whole thing several times over and couldn't believe how different it was from my expectations and the way people think it is, or present it to me. The internet was a hail of nails for that coffin.
Like Hitchens I began to disbelieve the teachings from the nuns as early as first and second grade. So many things they would say I thought was wrong, such as anyone who wasn't catholic was going to hell. I remember looking around at my classmates and wondering if they believed this stuff too. There were so many things over the years that made me realize it was all a made up fantasy.
I was always kind of doubtful if any god and or gods existed but my tipping point was when I realized that no true, loving, and just god would damn someone to eternity in "hell" for being born a certain way. You see I used to also believe being gay was a choice people made. But then I realized that with the exception of the few who "experiment," Gay people are in fact born gay. This is what made be come to the definite conclusion in my mind that there cant be a god. And if a god that would torture someone for eternity for the way HE supposedly made them, by the way, then that is no god I would want to serve ANYWAY.
27:12 Someone actually said that? Green is my least favorite color. As in a color I generally despise. The only time I even once owned ANYTHING with it was as a kid when I had a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (one from the original series of course) t-shirt and a Michaelangelo toy but even then the shirt was mostly reddish/orange with only parts of the turtles obviously being green. Oh, and the Pokémon versions whose cartridges were green. Other than those instances where the color wasn't the focus anyway green is a terrible color. I prefer fall/winter when most trees are no longer green for that reason too. I have a small photography part of me and it's ALWAYS winter when I go at it because nothing interests me with all the trees around most of the year.
I don't have a great story. I got lazy and wanted to sleep in on sunday after a while. I hated wearing the whole tie and dress clothes get-up. I went through the typical teenaged angst at 13 and didn't want to be around family, crap like that. Luckily it got me to thinking "why do I even bother going?" I never really believed, I only went for my dad and grandparents. My mom never went with us and never pushed it on me and I lived with her. She turned out to be agnostic until I told her I was an atheist. She was convinced she's actually atheist after that. My sister is still LDS/mormon and doesn't like talking about it. She is close minded and refuses to debate it. It is sad.
To be fair I have never been religious. Born in to a secular family and born arguing. Religion has always seemed to me to be absurd bordering on dangerous. I do however feel so awful hearing people's individual experiences escaping religion. Heartbreaking traumas and so damaging what belief does
Mine was when I was 13 at a church event listening to tell tale talking about Jehovah's Witnesses or something it was one of the videos on cults and I realized that the stuff that he was describing was very similar to the stuff that was around me which got me questioning a lot more and from that point on I just sorta went deeper into the rabbit hole and I'm better off for it now
Anyone who thinks of the benevolenvce of God is shown throughout the Bible needs to read it a bit more thoroughly. Not only does he endorse the genocide of villages, entire groups of people supposedly evil just for being born in that certain culture but even if you have been a really just individual such as job then God will have no problem allowing tons of bad and evil things to take place in your life just because he can. Which if you don't know is the actual reason he gives, basically "I can because I can "
When I was still religious I would try and find the devil in everything. (mostly song lyrics) Today I still catch myself thinking, if the devil sung the opening song to victorious (the nickelodeon show) it would have a completely different meaning. My tipping point was when my mom started calling me the Devils son and denouncing that she birthed me, because she couldn't have a non Christian son.
wow :/ I'm sorry that your mom's that crazy, thankfully even though my dad is a bit religious, he doesn't go to church but he believes in it all, they let me decide for myself if I wanted a religion or not and didn't force it on me, unfortunately I chose Islam for a few years (even lived in a muslim country) because of my ex, and you can imagine that's more crazy and it made me more crazy than any other religion could have, now I'm agnostic atheist, a lot more accepting of other people and happier.
About those "productive" couples - did anyone hear about the couple who decided not only to remain virgins until marriage - but AFTER marriage too? Yep, married, and intend to remain total virgins for the rest of their lives. O_o (And whatever happened to "be fruitful and multiply"?)
My father's last name is Miller (6 letters), my last name is Miller (6), and my brother's last name is Miller (6). OMG! We are collectively the devil!!! However my mom's name is Baker (5) which subtracts from 666 to 661. So that is the first year of the Ummayad Dynasty. And Dynasty was a prime time soap opera that ran on American TV from 1981 to 1989. 1989 was a turning point in political history because a wave of revolutions swept the Eastern Bloc, starting in Poland that with the beginning of a move towards private enterprise, coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin Wall in November, embracing the overthrow of the communist dictatorship in Romania in December. Yup, everything is connected.
The televengalist who claimed in the 1980's, god would call him home unless his viewers donated (I think) $7 million dollars in seven days was what tipped me over. I tried reading the bible after that, I could not believe anything I read. I saw it as a bunch of mythological stories, and not anything else. I've been an atheist ever since.
I just started listening to your podcasts and got to the part about Joseph Smith having as many as 40 wives. I got to wondering how one man could be so sexually potent that he could keep 40 women happy. Of course there is the possibility that most or all were lesbians. I also wondered how long he could stay sane having 40 mothers-in-law?
Seth, I'm thrilled you 3 are coming to Australia in March 2015, BUT please make the content relevent to Australia. That is to say, the hidden xtian/islamist agenda in this country - please wake my fellow Aussies up from their apathetic slumber. Thank you so much!
Man I don't see how you could watch BB again. It's a great show and all but imo there were A LOT of parts where just not much was happening and was rather boring(that one ep with the fly in the lab comes to mind). I actually stopped watching it around the 3rd season and only ended up finishing it since my gf wanted me to watch it with her, glad I did but still that shouldn't happen.
***** Can you do a show one day on "worship"? This is something I truly have never understood. There's worship of this god or that god, the usual worship, but there's also worship of the beatles or some rock star or sports hero. Is this the same kind of worship, I mean the same mental algorithms? As far as god worship - are christians convinced that if they don't kiss their god's ass that he's going to do evil things to them? I just don't get it.
〉Barm I never understood the idea of worship either even if there was a real god, why in the world would that god need or want worship, it just seems like such a primitive thing. Plus a god that demands worship doesn’t deserve it and a god that deserves respect would never ask for worship, once again the entire idea just seems very primitive.
Breaking bad is so lame. I don't understand the hype. The acting is so heavy handed. Main side is supposed to be badass, but he just comes across as this dorky yet creepy tryhard. Walking dead's ok for like 2 seasons.
didnt watch the video, because the answer is clear, yes, yes you should be able to mock religion. If you are stupid enough to be religious you must accept the fact that you will be mocked. If you do not want to be made fun then dont believe in stupid stories.
Tipping point? So, what you've done is essentially create an "Atheist of the Gaps." So, you come to a point in your life where something happens to you that you have no explanation for, so you say that "there must be no God." Well, just because you do not understand something, that's no reason to immediately dismiss the existence of God.
Atheist: "Boo hoo! The world isn't a big safe bouncy castle! If there was a God, he would have made it that way!" What a bunch of whiners. No wonder God let you walk out the door.
After all but one of my religious "strings" had been cut I was home alone one night and had the house to myself. I was getting pissed that I had been lied to my entire life...so I turned off all the lights, turned off the TV/phones and had a show down between me and God.
I challenged him to show up, give me a sign, to do anything that would provide evidence for his existence...nothing. I called him every filthy name you could call someone to goad him out...nothing.
Then I turned my attention to Satan and repeated the process...nothing. After about 2 hours of this I was getting tired so I called it a night and went to bed. About 20 minutes later I heard a noise and it was getting closer, I opened one eye and wondered "oh shit, what did I do?" It turned out to be my cat Harry. I laughed, closed my eyes and fell asleep. In the morning I woke up an atheist.
At least you didn't think, "hey Satan sent my cat to scare the shit outta me"... It does piss you off when you realize that everything you have been taught as a child is complete bullshit. I'm in a better place now anyways... hope you are as well
Benjamin Hammond Thanks...I am. That night was my "Tipping point". That was the end point of a culmination of many years of deprogramming.
The reason why you didn't hear from God, is because he's an atheist.
Alan W my cat likes this comment!!
I did the same thing and God/Jesus did not appear but Satan did!
I told Satan I was just kidding and he disappeared.
That's when I realized I was creating these characters inside my own head.
Although I had my doubts for a long time about the bible (because of the Genesis story), what truly cemented everything for me, was a UA-cam video I stumbled across titled "Why I am no longer religious." From there I began exploring skeptic and atheist channels, and watching religious videos being debunked by the different hosts. Now, I proudly declare myself to be an atheist. This is one of the top channels I now view, along with AronRa as well. I have also helped a close friend of mine to deconvert, by leading him to channels such as this one, and he now considers himself an atheist. I have learned a lot and am still learning as I go along. It's a great comfort to know I'm not alone. Let's keep opening eyes and minds! Great work TTA, and Seth, you are a fabulous host, so very relatable, and a great voice. Keep up the great work!
Love this topic. It gives me moral support to hear other people's experiences. Thanks everyone for being so generous!
Nearly every listener story touches me in one way or another, but man... the guy that told his wife he wanted to remarry her. It really is astonishing the change in perspective that is experienced in the moment we realize that this is all we get and how, from that point on, we just want to do all we can to make this short existence better for those we love.
I love those, "huh..." moments. Where something in your mind has been trying to work itself out and only then does all cognitive dissonance stop. The suddenness of the realization of things has a certain feeling. Almost like an "ah ha!" but more gradual and humbling.
I can empathize with the "silence" brought up by one of the callers. Back when I "truly believed in god", I was going through the most painful experience of my life. I was grieving like no other time in my life. But the unmistakeable silence was too much to overlook. It brought to light all the times I "went down to the alter to pray, yet felt nothing". I couldn't have been more sincere, at that time in my life, but the silence was thick.
I'm agnostic now, basically an atheist.
Wonderful email from Derek to start the show - such clarity of self-perception, intellectual honesty, and so eloquently expressed. Thank you!
"They have this sillyputty god that they just mould into whatever shape they need"
^ That is the truest observation of religion I have ever heard. Nicely done Seth.
I told a friend that I did not believe god would consign little Hindu children to hell
And asked him if that meant that I was also going to hell
With surprisingly little regret, he confirmed my horrible fate
At that point I was forced to decide whether I took him... and religion seriously
I struggled to find some reason for concern about my fate
ultimately I could no longer take religion seriously
And then I discovered that I REALLY resented the explicit blackmail that is the threat of being condemned to hell
I HATE feeling manipulated
And therefore felt increasing repugnance for the underlying structure of religious faith
My tipping point occurred in what would be my last visit to the Mormon church. I had already learned about Joseph Smith's dirty secrets such as his 40+ wives, and I also knew of Brigham Young's horrifying doctrine of 'Blood Atonement' and his crazy idea that people lived on the moon. Someone gave their testimony, and they ended up quoting Brigham. It was something to the effect of "There is not one word that has proceeded out of my mouth that is not Scripture". At that moment, the beliefs I held for 14 years shattered. I walked out of the church and went home immediately. I tried to research other Christian denominations to see if they made any sense, but to no avail. The Old Testament was always troubling to me, but there was a verse referencing someone steadying the Ark of the Covenant as it was falling. I thought that was a good thing, and yet God killed him for this act! I knew that if a God existed, he was pure evil. I have been an open agnostic atheist for the last two years, and I now know that rejecting belief in any deity was the best decision that I'd ever made.
My tipping point was:
1) The realization that if God's best way of dealing with his creation was Hell, he is not a very smart god, and is definitely not a GOOD god.
2) If people can still go to hell, Jesus' supposed sacrifice was completely pointless, as the devil is still winning.
3) If God is allowing the devil to win in any way, what good is he as a god?
After those realizations sank in, I realized how horribly human-made Christianity is.
Infinite punishment for finite crimes is the best proof that Yahweh is, if He is as the Bible describes Him, NOT benevolent.
MA L God is a representation of us. We are the judges, the punishers of others and ourself, we go through all the crap. We either gain knowledge through it or we condemn ourselves to a life of hell.
The book is written in a way that if you read beyond the literal the entire story of life is in there. The wars the hate etc.
the Bible is the story of us.
A man or group of men* @oops
So what about the stoning of women to death for not being a virgin on their wedding night? What is the deep metaphorical truth in that?
If you want a moral guide, go read actual moral philosophers. Searching for metaphorical truth in literal bronze age barbarism is jumping through unnecessary hoops. Its also attempting to forcibly square a circle.
When you read metaphors into literal stories you are mostly just reading in your own morality. Skip the unnecessary nonsense fairy tales and just develop your own moral character yourself, free from nonsense that most take at least partially literally.
@@lindacurtis1580
***** Seth this is one of the best shows you have ever done. Some of those callers nearly brought me to tears.
Mine was when I realized that the concept of "free will" was both upheld and denied by religion at the same time.
On the one hand the very son of god had to die because god gave man free will and man chose evil instead of good.
But it turns out that the same sacrifice pays the price required to buy free will back, and only by submitting in full obedience to God's precepts, one could be saved.
It was the perfect scam.
Seth, this podcast is one of the best imo. Just loved the stories sent in, esp. the gay guy. What a relief that his partner really can understand his (their) torment. Keep going, your shows are awesome and the message is getting out there.
The Netherlands
Handpuppets omg lol
I never really had a tipping point that got me out of religion, since I was never religious. But I did have a moment where I knew for sure I'd never get INTO religion.
Got invited to a community gathering when I still lived in Canada. It was a religious group. All the adults had this eerie smile on their face, like the man in the Viagra commercial. Even as a kid of maybe 8, I was like "these people are fuckin creepy!" and vowed never to have anything to do with whatever was sucking their brains out.
Rowdy Roddy Piper in "THEY LIVE" "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum" One of the best movie quotes ever.
When I was like 4, when they kept talking about heaven in church I thought they were referring to the old choir loft that was blocked off above our heads in the pews. When I realized they weren't, and that it was some magical place in the sky, it was over because by that age I had already read some space books for little kids and I felt confident I knew what was in the sky.
I think that is perhaps why I have been so argumentative with my parents my whole life. We have a good relationship but the idea that adults were always right was shattered at a very young age.
I'm from Louisiana, I think the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was my tipping point.
There is no god and Nature does not care about me.
I adapt to that.
My first tipping point was the realization I had in my early teens that there's no way to show any part of the Bible to be divine or even accurate. It might have been dictated by Satan for all we know, or by a trickster god of some other religion. Unfortunately while that freed me to evaluate things with common sense and reject the concept of the devil and the divinity of Jesus, that wasn't enough to free me from theism altogether. Largely due to religious fears I ended up spending more than a decade as some kind of an agnostic non-christian theist, hanging on to the modernized version of the Abrahamic god.
The true tipping point came when I learned about the history of Judaism, it's origins in polytheism and how the god of the Bible was once just one of many in a pantheon of very fallible anthropomorphic small gods, not much different from the deities of the dead religions of antiquity. That was what finally freed me, realizing that all of the "Abrahamic exceptionalism" was bullshit and there was nothing special about the god of the Bible in comparison to all the other gods I had not the least amount of belief in. It was then that I became a true atheist.
***** I had no need for that hypothesis.
***** I hope you realize that agnosticism and atheism aren't mutually exclusive. Even if you're an agnostic, you're still either atheist or theist.
Either way, though, I am actually not a true agnostic because I believe that today thanks to combined knowledge from severa sciencs we have a sufficient explanation for the human god concept that doesn't involve invoking something as unlikely and ultimately unfalsifiable as a supernatural intelligence.
***** One term speaks to belief, the other to knowledge, are not mutually exclusive (as OnnaKonna pointed out), or helpful if I asked you "Do you believe in god(s)?" and *not* "Do you *know*, evident and conclusively, there are god(s)?".
There are those self-labeled "agnostic" only. The "agnostic only"'s that are just as much an atheist in definition, as I am. Sad that those "agnostics only" have been successfully indoctrinated to have some kind of visceral aversion to the term "atheist" and the baggage they believe it brings, as god-buyers do. I, myself don't have that particular hang-up. Not even being a southern black chick, do I run away from a thing that makes me up as a whole; that's being an atheist.
Oh, and why the re-direct? Make your comment here. Maybe OnnaKonna doesn't feel like scrolling through comments on some other vid page when you could've expanded your already reply or not have replied at all.
Your reply gives me "Appeal to Authority" vibes. Yes, Neil is someone that has, generally, a lot of respect from us atheists. But, just because he shares your aversion to being labeled an atheist, doesn't give your position any more merit or weight.
Beautiful. Thinking helped you find your way clear just as it helped me and just as I hope it helps others.
Because of all the fears that accompany religious indoctrination, it is unfortunate that the shedding process often takes much longer than the indoctrination process. That's why the churches like to get 'em while their young.
My tipping point: 13 years ago my fiancé at the time broke up with me. We got back together a year & a half later. But during that gap I began to really look at atheism. I had a few years of college experience by then & had met openly atheist people who weren't at all like my religious high schools presented them.
I used a class writing assignment about groups as a justification to look at eastern religions & atheism, get some books from Amazon. I realized all the apologetics I had been taught were straw men or had been thoroughly discredited years before I learned them. I felt foolish & angry. I had life-long doubts, but had learned to fear questioning & hell. I became one of those spiritual but not religious atheists when I got back with my ex.
It took me 10 years to realize the breakup was one of those narcissistic silent treatments & that he was using my mental illnesses as reasons for why I deserved abuse, which was easy to believe due to being mentally ill. I had also given up the spiritual part & began saying "atheist" instead of "free-thinker" to my then-fiancé, who was still a creationist, which ushered in more death threats & accidents that look suspicious in hindsight.
I went no-contact 2 years ago & am still working on healing from the chronic ptsd. My new fiancé is very patient & understanding.
I had also began to pay attention to science, which I abandoned as a kid for various reasons. I joined woo culture 10 years ago believing it was a viable mix of science & art that would also help me mentally. I really believed It just needed more research. The woo did help until I learned more about real science & began to break away from the brainwashing & conspiracy theories my ex implanted. I felt foolish & angry all over again.
One of the episodes on this podcast was the tipping point for me about chiroquacktors, so I looked more into that. I'm currently a massage therapist subcontracting at a massage place that's partnered with a chiroquacktor business that mentions Pasteur's [fake] deathbed recantation of germ theory. I never knew germ theory denialism was a thing & barely knew the word "pseudoscience" until I looked into chiroquacktic. It makes work frustrating, & I'm currently trying to find a way out & into a better career before I mouth off too much. But it's reassuring knowing I've come this far.
The story of the guy who hated himself for being gay made me so emotional. I feel for him. I can sort of relate to it only I'm not quite out of the woods yet.
My first tipping point was when I was researching Christianity. I had been a Christian for nearly 20 nears and I had never read the Bible. I was never really adamant in my faith...but I had faith anyway. When I started reading, I was fact checking everything because I wanted to know if it was true. I first noticed the 2 different creation stories in Genesis 1 and 2. I was astounded that I noticed contradictions in the first book. I read the whole Bible twice. When I put it down, I realized the whole thing was a load of crap. I immediately rejected Christianity. I started looking at other religions and realized they were full of it too. That was my tipping point.
I'm a nature box customer now. So far I'm liking it.
This was a wonderful episode! Definitely one of my favorites. I am so grateful for people like Seth and the rest of you who can relate to the things I have experienced as a result of religious influence in my life. I have very few people in my area who understand my non-belief.The two Christian pastors (mentioned in my email on the show) with whom I tried to discuss some of my concerns about religion are both extremely nice and friendly people who were sincerely trying to help (and I'm grateful to both of them for trying) but I question the degree to which they really understood where I was coming from because of the beliefs they held. This podcast and this community has really helped me to understand that I'm not alone and I'm not crazy! Thanks everyone!
Speaking of balony detection kits; I rejected god the instant a church tried to impose one on me. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was 4 years old, mid 1960s. My wonderful but xtian grandma on dad's side, Edna, convinced my m&d that us 2 oldest grandkids were ready to attend church. Consequently my older brother by 3 yrs & I were instructed to walk to the nearest Anglican church one Sunday morning to attend 'Sunday School'. The mere mention of 'Sunday School' already set off alarm bells in me, because any 'schooling' beyond Monday - Friday smacked of 'total control' to me - even at that age I was wary!
On that day, the instructing nun was seated in a chair at the top of the stairs (sorry I forget the correct term, will edit later) and I instantly & I'm certain 'naturally', recognized the overbearing 'body language', she has positioned herself to overwhealm us little kids, and I did not 'fall for that', whilst it seemed to me all around me were falling for it. I was immediately frightened and deeply concerned. I shot my hand up in the air and said " Well miss...if god is a grey-haired old man who sits on a cloud - he would fall through and die". This was not well received, not by my elbow jabbing older brother, nor by the 'class' of 20+ kids and certainly not by the dominatrix nun. Back at home an hour later, I stood ajointly and firmly at my mum & dad's feet...stared all the way up to their high distant and almighty faces and bravely announced " I'm never going back there....they tell lies...they are liars and not nice!" I won't go even if you send me again!".
Thankfully - my loving parents never made that mistake again. Though you are gone now, I thank you mum. And thank you dad for listening to me on that one most important of all occasions.
This show is a friend to me😊its like Goliath the gargoyle bridging the gap between me and everyone who understands the black sheep feeling.
Science bless, and may your sabbath be black✌
That letter was great, very heartfelt and compelling. I hope he continues to have a great life!
i never regretted leaving christianity and i didn't mind letting go of buddhism. i HATED leaving wicca. it was so romantic and beautiful and non-restrictive. then i realized there was no reason to leave it entirely behind as one can keep their awe and love of nature and the universe and maybe even more as an atheist.
my tipping point was when i realized that i was better than the god/s. i would never punish people for being what i made them; i would fix them and everyone would have paradise. then i realized paradise would be BOOOOOORING after a while.
I will make this brief. My main tipping point began with the hardest experience of my life, the death of my four year old daughter in 2007 who suffered from brain cancer. I would ask other Christians why my daughter? Their response, "God works in mysterious ways" or "It was in Gods plan". I thought, what about my daughters plan not to die? What about my daughters plan not to suffer? I rationalized it at first that didn't blame God. I thought, well man (humans) brought suffering and death upon themselves with the fall in the Garden of Eden. (to be continued)
*psychic hug*
I'm so sorry, man. That's a terrible thing to happen.
I respect your train of thought.
My heart is with you. I hope there will be some peace with time.
i see now my tipping point was the judgment and seperation in the church that i tried to cover in grace for years and even thought that god would not come back until his children were one. this led me to studying the bible more and more to prove that law was not gods way. I settled there for years and didn't rock the boat any more than that. until my husband started demanding better evidence from god and proclaiming that from what he sees god can not be a good all powerful god but a silent non tangible one. i could not deny that my prayers changed nothing but how i feel and so i began to study the reliability of the bible and found little to no evidence outside of my faith, which was shocking to me. the flood gates have been open now and I'm learning more everyday.
I didn't really have a singular tipping point. Coming out of belief was a very gradual process for me and even now I'm probably not rid of some of the habits of thought. I grew up attending a United Methodist church and my parents insisted on my going through Confirmation in junior high even though I didn't want to. I never was very good at taking any of it seriously; I always put off the book work until the last possible moment, I had a tendency to get the giggles at inappropriate times, and I'd look around during group prayers wondering if anyone else was as bored and unconnected as I was.
At the end of Confirmation we had a camping weekend which culminated in a sort of youth revival experience around the campfire. I remember being told by our youth minister to be quiet and thoughtful returning to our cabins, so we wouldn't interrupt anyone if they were having a spiritual experience. I remember being vaguely disappointed at having no particular "spiritual experience" of my own.
In my first couple of years of college, I hung around the Methodist student ministry as a "safe" way of finding some new friends, and participated in several of their activities, but my faith was fading, and I didn't dare confess it to the minister or any of the student ministers. I was afraid I'd lose what friends I'd made. My faith was further shaken when one of the students who was a regular attendee had something akin to a nervous breakdown my second year; he'd been sheltered in a more conservative church and community than he'd grown up in, and I remember him pacing around nervously asking us if we were all really "real" Christians. I remember how I felt like a wolf in sheep's clothing at that moment--I WAS one of the non-real Christians he was afraid of.
I think it was really the idea of Hell that drove the final nail in the coffin for me. I just never understood the point of it. Even if humans were naturally bad, so that we deserved punishment by default, what's the point of punishing us forever? You punish a child who commits some really bad act in the hope that he will learn from it and won't commit that act again, but if we're in hell forever, obviously we aren't going to learn anything from it. Could we REALLY be so bad that almost all of the people who had ever lived were going to burn for eternity?
During my brief stint as an evangelical Christian after college, I remember seeing a picture in our local paper of Muslim children celebrating one of the Muslim holidays. I found myself unable to stop thinking about those kids. Many of them would grow up believing the Muslim religion and they'd have no sensible reason to switch over to believing in Christianity just because some random Christian told them their religion was wrong. Could I really believe that if those Muslim kids died, they were going to go to hell just for believing what their parents taught them?
In the end, my answer to that turned out to be, "No."
Well I caved and got the Nature Box sampler. At first I was like, meh, I'll just cancel it after the sample box comes in, but then once it actually came I was totally converted (pun possibly intended?). They just have so much stuff that looks amazing. Thanks for recommending it, Seth.
My tipping point was when my 2 year old niece sang a 'cute' little song about the second coming. That scared the hell out of me. That was several years ago, And I thought that that looking forward to the end of all things and all problems solved. To be honest I was never really religious, I was nominally christian. My mom raised me right, allowing me to embrace science and reason.
+J T Peebles There is something about those songs of god and jesus when sung by children that is creepy and scary, almost demonic.
Listened to this. Really hit my nerves with the message. Thankyou.
I'm so interested in next week's show - back when I went to church I attended a large (1000+ Sunday attendance) church that practiced both Quiverful and taught parenting classes using the Babywise methods. *shudder*
My tipping point was more of a domino tipping point
1) honestly reading the Bible from the beginning to end and not reading it in bits and pieces
2) researching more about the history of the Bible and how it was composed
3) honestly confronting my doubts that I had for years
4) hearing other deconversion stories
5) listening to atheists and reflecting on what they have said and pointed out regarding religion
6) contemplating what would happen to me if I had been born into a different region of the world what would my religion be. Out of all the thousands of religions how can we tell which is the one true religion?
I never had a tipping point since I never believed in a God and all the magic stuff but it is interesting to hear people talk about the point they stopped believing or stopped believing specific parts of their religion.
Beautiful show I love this one!
It's actually like 40 degrees here in AK. Way too warm for this time of year.
The tipping point for me was actually reading parts of the Bible as a child, around the age of 12. The stories seemed nearly identical to the fantasy novels I was fond of, in terms of factualness. I couldn't understand how everyone believed these stories of magic were history.
I had been pretty skeptical from about 12 years old. You know that questioning period in kids where I was asking, "where is the universe? Like in what kind of container is the universe in?" I would get the same kind of response to this question that I got when questioning the 'Noah myth'. So I just went along not believing but not saying anything about it until I was in the Canadian Air Force. I was in officers school and was ordered to attend church. My tipping point, the minister chastized the congregation becuase we were not making large enough donations. He spent most of the time ragging on about giving. I got up and left, never to return.
My tipping point was when i was about 9 when i found a fossil and was told that it was millions of years old. Before then from about 6 years old i only thought that it didn't feel right praising an invisible god who didn't seem to do anything.
My tipping point came when I was asking tough questions and was told that I should never look outside of the Bible for the answers I seek. All the answers were in the Bible.
Red flag!!!!
Fred Flintstone Lol. I once to my Shame got duped by a scam. They told us even our best friends would lie to us we should only trust the scam leaders.
I have half a mind to show this to my parents, to better explain my transition and current position.
I would love find quality jewelry with your logo on them. :) Hard to find atheist pendants that are beautiful and tasteful, I wish there was more on the market for us.
Before i continue the video, i'd like to ask if there is some stuff like this on people that weren't brought up religiously in the first place? I know it sounds a bit strange, but in a world where cities are covered in churches and chapels, even if not brought up with the bible one but has to wonder what might be and what not might be.
my own experience is a bit complex, my grandparents on my mother's side were of the watchtower denomination of the christian faith. after 1975 when that 'cult' proclaimed the end of the world in that year, my uncle and my mother left that group of people. My mother hooked up somehow with my father, not going to church or anything, they divorced and my mother remarried (wonderful stuff for a family, yay), which brought back the bible to the equation. At an age of 13 it seems it was too late to catch me. I had enough critical thinking skills to be able to say: no i don't believe the stuff that is written in the bible. I had several months of fights with my step-dad (sorry if my spelling is crap, correct me if i am wrong) and my mother about having to read from this very bible. I did not want to participate in the reading of the bible before every supper. At some point my mother saw what it was doing to me when they tried to force the issue too much and decided to let it go. (for this i am thankful today)
Slowly but steadily (not being sure about anything) i grew into the idea of being an atheist. The more i searched, the more i became convinced of my belief there was no god.
My idea: there should be some stuff about this that is for the lack of better words: more serious than for example Darkmatter2525's animations. Something that includes people who are searching for answers for themselves, and not just the ones that have fallen from their faith (which seem to denounce it with the biggest fervor, like ex smokers denounce smoking with the same fervor, has to do with self image i believe)
cheers and thanks for the works
I'm someone who has never been brought up religiously.
My story: I'm not religious. The end :-P
To expand. I have always been an atheist. Always. That never changed. I did have my moments of 'religiosity'. I was always a bit more busy with the idea that 'nature' or the earth itself moved around lifeforce. For the people who have played final fantasy 7, the idea of the lifestream came very close to what I believed. (in short, a kind of new age crap)
The idea itself was already there before that game came out tho. And the game reaffirmed my 'believe', in that I clearly wasn't the only one that thought the world could work this way.
I don't really know how I got rid of those believes. I think I was simply too emerged in science to really keep a hold to these thoughts for long. I do know that by age 18 I already started disliking religion in general and would only accept things when they had sufficient evidence
I never saw religion in my family while growing up. It was never even an interesting topic to us. I was 30 something years old before I discovered my father was an atheist and my mother was a lapsed catholic.
I saw religion around me ...we were an air force family so I saw european religion mostly, I guess you'd say during the formative years.
I never seem to have needed to ask those kinds of questions religious people think are being answered by their religion. Where did we come from? Who cares? It's interesting, but how does it affect my decision on what to have for dinner tonight?
I suspect that religion itself teaches you that you need to know things, you know: inflict the malady then offer the cure.
I don't know is a good answer to lots of questions.
I was brought up in a religious household, going to church every week until I was 10. I never paid attention in church and never believed what I was told. In Sunday school I was very interruptive, asking awkward questions like "Where did all the water go?" (from Noah's flood) to the teacher. After a couple of years of this (and a fistfight or two with the other children) I stopped participating in Sunday school.
When I was in second grade, there was one Monday morning when I was in the car with my mother, waiting for the school bus. I don't remember why, but I mentioned that I didn't want to go to church anymore. I believe I also mentioned that it was boring. She turned to me and angrily yelled at me that refusing the love of God was "EVIL! EVIL! EVIL!" over and over again. It was terrifying.
When I first got onto the internet at age 7, I discovered Wikipedia. I finally found a source which helped me with my arguments against going to church (which at that point had become a regular thing) and I started educating myself on religion, philosophy and science (adding to what I learned in school, to be precise) and never looked back.
Today I want others who haven't been as lucky as me to be able to learn about the world and see real science. That's why I make videos, though I must disguise myself so I can continue to live here with my parents until I can afford my own place.
Incredible Igtheist
"She turned to me and angrily yelled at me that refusing the love of God was "EVIL! EVIL! EVIL!" over and over again. It was terrifying."
Fucking hell...
"though I must disguise myself so I can continue to live here with my parents until I can afford my own place"
Fucking hell... part 2
Hope you getting close to that own spot there?
Shangori Nowhere's close, I'm afraid. I just got a job in September and they're refusing to let me get a driver's license, even though I'm almost 20...
Oh, little Henry, you will be missed! RIP 1/15/19
I was a Mennonite too. Rarely do I meet other Mennonites who are apostates. Thanks for the email that Seth read.
"there is no god" has helped me immensly with accepting life and the reality we live in. I dont want to die, I dont like dwelling on death but death happens around me and accepting that there is no supernatural force that watches over me is making it easier to cope with loss and the inevitability of my own shortcomings, failings and ultimate deterioration. You might call it "fatalistic" but I think its just accepting the inevitable. It also makes me focus on the NOW and what I m actually doing with my life. Not in terms of career or becoming rich but enjoying my existance according to the qualities I deem valuable.
I was grinning throughout the Monster part.
It is part of my future career to design logos like that. Will I get additional jobs if I hide clues in my CV that I'm a satanist? Or will contractors just show me jewish numbers and tell me to hide a 666 in the logo with that? It's important that the target audience (satanists) recognize it, but at the same time you cannot be too obvious.
Or maybe, it's my job to propose such things? "Hey guys, speaking with your CEO and checking your energy drinks, I noticed that you guys are into occult satan worship and that satanism is a strong part of your corporate identity. So I snuck it into this design. See the jewish sixes? I've also put a tiny illuminati pyramid in there, can you see it?"
My tipping point was the story of Abraham and Isaac. It is personal to me because my mother used to tell me she couldn't have killed her kids even for God, she loved us too much. At the time, like her, I thought that was remarkable.
When we had that story in school, I thought I was missing a part. The part that made Abraham look less like a monstrous, delusional piece of vile shit, as I seemed to be the only one who thought so. The teacher (best religion teacher we had) didn't even glance over these fishy parts about the story. He wouldn't discuss it, he needed to tell us how this showed his deep devotion to God, I wondered how God could even consider this asshole, and I thought the test was supposed to be if Abraham would NOT jump to human sacrifice for an unknown voice in his head. But apparently, I was the crazy one.
That brought me to first open a real bible and reread the story. And all the others. Read the whole thing several times over and couldn't believe how different it was from my expectations and the way people think it is, or present it to me. The internet was a hail of nails for that coffin.
Like Hitchens I began to disbelieve the teachings from the nuns as early as first and second grade. So many things they would say I thought was wrong, such as anyone who wasn't catholic was going to hell. I remember looking around at my classmates and wondering if they believed this stuff too. There were so many things over the years that made me realize it was all a made up fantasy.
I'm from Poland and that what was said is true - THERE EVERYTHING IS ABOUT CHRISTIANITY
I was always kind of doubtful if any god and or gods existed but my tipping point was when I realized that no true, loving, and just god would damn someone to eternity in "hell" for being born a certain way. You see I used to also believe being gay was a choice people made. But then I realized that with the exception of the few who "experiment," Gay people are in fact born gay. This is what made be come to the definite conclusion in my mind that there cant be a god. And if a god that would torture someone for eternity for the way HE supposedly made them, by the way, then that is no god I would want to serve ANYWAY.
Atheist sleepless in Seattle over here, such a sweet story! :-)
Great podcast!
Josh, AZ. Your Makin my day with the idea of remarry your wife. I'm too became atheist later in life. I'm livin as a free human being
27:12 Someone actually said that? Green is my least favorite color. As in a color I generally despise. The only time I even once owned ANYTHING with it was as a kid when I had a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (one from the original series of course) t-shirt and a Michaelangelo toy but even then the shirt was mostly reddish/orange with only parts of the turtles obviously being green.
Oh, and the Pokémon versions whose cartridges were green.
Other than those instances where the color wasn't the focus anyway green is a terrible color. I prefer fall/winter when most trees are no longer green for that reason too.
I have a small photography part of me and it's ALWAYS winter when I go at it because nothing interests me with all the trees around most of the year.
I don't have a great story. I got lazy and wanted to sleep in on sunday after a while. I hated wearing the whole tie and dress clothes get-up. I went through the typical teenaged angst at 13 and didn't want to be around family, crap like that. Luckily it got me to thinking "why do I even bother going?" I never really believed, I only went for my dad and grandparents. My mom never went with us and never pushed it on me and I lived with her. She turned out to be agnostic until I told her I was an atheist. She was convinced she's actually atheist after that. My sister is still LDS/mormon and doesn't like talking about it. She is close minded and refuses to debate it. It is sad.
That letter you read was so incredibly eloquent and engaging. Is it available online anywhere?
Sorry, I'm referring to the first letter :-)
To be fair I have never been religious. Born in to a secular family and born arguing. Religion has always seemed to me to be absurd bordering on dangerous. I do however feel so awful hearing people's individual experiences escaping religion. Heartbreaking traumas and so damaging what belief does
I don't live in Alaska, I live in Minnesota, so I will still laugh at you for calling that cold xD
When my church ignored me because of my disability. Treated me like a witness opportunity instead of an equal
Mine was when I was 13 at a church event listening to tell tale talking about Jehovah's Witnesses or something it was one of the videos on cults and I realized that the stuff that he was describing was very similar to the stuff that was around me which got me questioning a lot more and from that point on I just sorta went deeper into the rabbit hole and I'm better off for it now
But I had been questioning for a while before that
Anyone who thinks of the benevolenvce of God is shown throughout the Bible needs to read it a bit more thoroughly. Not only does he endorse the genocide of villages, entire groups of people supposedly evil just for being born in that certain culture but even if you have been a really just individual such as job then God will have no problem allowing tons of bad and evil things to take place in your life just because he can. Which if you don't know is the actual reason he gives, basically "I can because I can "
That story nearing the end about the gay individual...ugh. Such unnecessary suffering. Glad it worked out in the end for them.
I laugh so hard every time you talk about your animals!
Silly Putty god. Great phrase!
When I was still religious I would try and find the devil in everything.
(mostly song lyrics)
Today I still catch myself thinking, if the devil sung the opening song to victorious (the nickelodeon show) it would have a completely different meaning.
My tipping point was when my mom started calling me the Devils son and denouncing that she birthed me, because she couldn't have a non Christian son.
wow :/ I'm sorry that your mom's that crazy, thankfully even though my dad is a bit religious, he doesn't go to church but he believes in it all, they let me decide for myself if I wanted a religion or not and didn't force it on me, unfortunately I chose Islam for a few years (even lived in a muslim country) because of my ex, and you can imagine that's more crazy and it made me more crazy than any other religion could have, now I'm agnostic atheist, a lot more accepting of other people and happier.
If only the Monster doomsayer lady meme came up before Halloween... Think about the costumes that would from that!
About those "productive" couples - did anyone hear about the couple who decided not only to remain virgins until marriage - but AFTER marriage too? Yep, married, and intend to remain total virgins for the rest of their lives.
O_o
(And whatever happened to "be fruitful and multiply"?)
My father's last name is Miller (6 letters), my last name is Miller (6), and my brother's last name is Miller (6). OMG! We are collectively the devil!!! However my mom's name is Baker (5) which subtracts from 666 to 661. So that is the first year of the Ummayad Dynasty. And Dynasty was a prime time soap opera that ran on American TV from 1981 to 1989. 1989 was a turning point in political history because a wave of revolutions swept the Eastern Bloc, starting in Poland that with the beginning of a move towards private enterprise, coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin Wall in November, embracing the overthrow of the communist dictatorship in Romania in December. Yup, everything is connected.
The televengalist who claimed in the 1980's, god would call him home unless his viewers donated (I think) $7 million dollars in seven days was what tipped me over. I tried reading the bible after that, I could not believe anything I read. I saw it as a bunch of mythological stories, and not anything else. I've been an atheist ever since.
Thank you for that information.
Hey NatureBox, can you make a pentagram pretzel? HAHAHAHAHA! Too funny, Seth!
When and at what percentage of atheists did Europe tip to secular?
My dog has a striped sweater that she loves she gets all excited when it comes out of the closet in winter
Check out 'Hell on Wheels' Another great show from AMC. I like this better than S.O.A. and Breaking Bad
A mortal man didn't want a lot of women but the Angel of the Lord made him do it? (Howls of derisive laughter)
My tipping point was when I read the bible. I couldn't believe what I read, and still do not.
I just started listening to your podcasts and got to the part about Joseph Smith having as many as 40 wives. I got to wondering how one man could be so sexually potent that he could keep 40 women happy. Of course there is the possibility that most or all were lesbians. I also wondered how long he could stay sane having 40 mothers-in-law?
Seth, I'm thrilled you 3 are coming to Australia in March 2015, BUT please make the content relevent to Australia. That is to say, the hidden xtian/islamist agenda in this country - please wake my fellow Aussies up from their apathetic slumber. Thank you so much!
Man I don't see how you could watch BB again. It's a great show and all but imo there were A LOT of parts where just not much was happening and was rather boring(that one ep with the fly in the lab comes to mind). I actually stopped watching it around the 3rd season and only ended up finishing it since my gf wanted me to watch it with her, glad I did but still that shouldn't happen.
I thought The Fly was a great episode because it really showed how unstable Walter had become, the direction was great too.
♥
Lying to children is immoral.
I've watched breaking bad 3 times through.. Now I'm watching it with my oldest son 👿😈🤓☠️💀
I’d like to know why you have to buy the word of God. Why aren’t we born with it? Inherently in our brains if this being actually exists.
They live is a documentary
I don't think dinosaurs are fiction xD
***** Can you do a show one day on "worship"? This is something I truly have never understood. There's worship of this god or that god, the usual worship, but there's also worship of the beatles or some rock star or sports hero. Is this the same kind of worship, I mean the same mental algorithms?
As far as god worship - are christians convinced that if they don't kiss their god's ass that he's going to do evil things to them? I just don't get it.
〉Barm
I never understood the idea of worship either even if there was a real god, why in the world would that god need or want worship, it just seems like such a primitive thing. Plus a god that demands worship doesn’t deserve it and a god that deserves respect would never ask for worship, once again the entire idea just seems very primitive.
Quiverful? Next week? Calendar set. Okay. Carry on...
cracked.com has a personal account of a former quiverful member.
Oh Seth, watch family guy, Quagmire's chest hair is 3 sixes..i swear to Ra!!!
11 dislikes. All the apostles but Judas!!
Breaking bad is so lame. I don't understand the hype. The acting is so heavy handed. Main side is supposed to be badass, but he just comes across as this dorky yet creepy tryhard. Walking dead's ok for like 2 seasons.
didnt watch the video, because the answer is clear, yes, yes you should be able to mock religion.
If you are stupid enough to be religious you must accept the fact that you will be mocked. If you do not want to be made fun then dont believe in stupid stories.
Don't fuck with the Penguins.
Re: satanic monster energy: If you look up parendolia in the dictionary....
Thank goodness for religious teachers putting their feet in their mouths xD
The amazing atheist turned me to the darkside :}
I believe in God a higher power but not religion of ant kind
Tipping point? So, what you've done is essentially create an "Atheist of the Gaps." So, you come to a point in your life where something happens to you that you have no explanation for, so you say that "there must be no God."
Well, just because you do not understand something, that's no reason to immediately dismiss the existence of God.
Atheist: "Boo hoo! The world isn't a big safe bouncy castle! If there was a God, he would have made it that way!"
What a bunch of whiners. No wonder God let you walk out the door.
Acelya Summer What a loving God you praise 🙄