@@Hchris101 If someone crashed into my house and were in a state of mind to tell me that god sent them, then yes I would call the cops. Because if they can tell me that they're probably not too injured and if they say something like that I can suspect they're high or something if the sort.
To build on the reply above, it's literally evolution. Religious ideas compete to survive, and what we see in the most established religions are the ideas that do best at gaining and keeping believers.
@@nothanks6549 Well, well, lets not talk down on Religion, shall we? The 'plot holes' come from 'details made by Humans', after all. Theres plenty of Healthy Theists, all around the Globe. So dont forget this. ...Though i have to say... people like 'Kent Hovind' outright disgust me, to the point of vomitting...
I’m gonna give god a parenting lesson here. As a parent if my child asks me for something, possible options include - granting their request - without ambiguity, clearly articulating why the request cannot be granted - clearly explaining what it would take to grant the request - if it will take some time I do my best to provide a reasonable timeframe to which I can be held to account Despite being a weak, squishy, not all powerful human without access to omnipotence and omniscience, I manage to use clear communication with words, in their language, verbally or by text. I don’t just silently ignore them and hope they figure out the mysterious lesson I’m trying to teach them, or ignore them because they’re misbehaved and hope they introspectively figure that out. Coz Y’know, that would be shitty parenting.
As a parent, if your child was being abused by your neighbor, would you even wait to be asked to intervene? "God" is the exact opposite of a good parent.
BRAVO. 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 "Gawd" would be a PATHETIC human parent. A total DEADBEAT LOSER parent. Nobody would trust them with a child. Abusive, neglectful, petulant, cruel, vicious, selfish... All the people making EXCUSES for "gawd" are excusing abuse, exploitation and lying. That is who they are. They "obey" those who promote abuse, fraud and exploitation.
My dad recorded a goodbye video the day before he past away, a couple hours before falling into a coma. I struggle to watch that video not so much because of grief, but because he talks about how “people may think he did not have enough faith or pray enough but god knows his heart and this must be his plan.” However, knowing my dad, I could see the doubt in his face. I had already deconverted a couple years before at that point but was still “in the closet” about it. I cannot tell you how unhelpful and honestly, infuriating, it is that people use that video to tell me how much my dad “loved god and trusted in his plan” like it’s a good thing. I see it as a tragic story of someone who was confused about how he had spent his life serving god (his was a missionary) and rewarded with a painful and early death.
The poor man. I'm so sorry that even at the end, he had to defend himself against people's suspicions that he died bc of lack of faith. Sounds like the story of Job's friends, blaming the dying man. I'm sorry they pulled that garbage on him.
@@peterpulpitpounder yeah, I’m not going to trust in something that doesn’t exist My lack of belief in God isn’t to do with this event. It predates that and has to do with the lack of evidence. This was just an insult to injury. I promise you, I know the Bible way better than you do. It was actually the more deeper I delved into it and learned apologetics to strengthen my faith that kickstarted my journey to unbelief. I went into it with the biased eyes of a believer, and god still failed the test
@@Likeicare96 So you think there is a lack of evidence for God? And you also guarantee that you "know the bible way better than I do?" I disagree, of course, with your former statement, and, um, that latter statement sounds extremely proud and quite arrogant, as you know nothing of the theological training I have received. The irony is that scores of people who delved "deeper" into the realm of theology/apologetics, etc., have come to the very opposite conclusion as yourself. These are bright, intelligent, well-read, educated, highly competent individuals who have had their faith strengthened and solidified in the process of probing the credibility of God and the Bible. And why do you think their conclusions were radically different than you own? That's something to ponder. Of course, both positions can't be correct. So, you now deem yourself to be a glorified frog, living, breathing and thinking, and all by time and chance? Wow, that's pretty inspiring. And you have a few days on earth to do whatever you want, before lapsing into non-existence and nothingness? Those gazillions of galaxies, with their gazillions of stars, just "popped" into existence all on their own? Hmmm, this godlessness of yours doesn't seem to have much in the way of that substance and proof you said the intelligent design position lacks. In fact, it's a rather silly, illogical, absurd and dark viewpoint, to say the least. Design demands a designer, and your own DNA is testimony to this fact.
@@peterpulpitpounder Hopefully this demonic mind cult will someday be expunged from your mind, and you can learn to live a real life instead of existing as a puppet; another vessel to facilitate the spread of this cancerous, mentally imprisoning cult.
Precisely, that’s what you’re supposed to do in heaven anyways (at least according to the traditional theology) and prayer is just training you for that.
I heard a quote from a video by the friendly atheist that I like. “Believing in God is like doing a group project where God does none of the work but gets all the credit”. I like this quote a lot because it reminds me of how I felt about prayer when I was Christian. Anything bad that happened wasn’t God’s fault but the things that you or the people around you worked hard to achieve is all Gods doing. When you think about it feels kind of messed up.
I remember seeing something like "Thank God the hurricane changed directions!" on Facebook once. It was a few years ago. But it was such an expert moment in "God fucks some people and not others based on your prayers." I spoke to another Christian, who basically said she was okay if God murdered non-believers by the millions. Props to her standing for the strengths of her convictions. But I'm pretty sure that's how a lot of Christians see the whole prayer thing. The bad luck and chaos and suffering goes to people you don't like.
@@Droemar of course I seriously doubt a Christian cries and mourns when they hear of nonbelievers being killed, after all they’ve perfectly fine with believing nonbelievers will burn in hell just because they rejected god. But most have to pretend that their cult is all about love forgiveness and understanding.
I grew up in a church that taught mental illness was demonic oppression or possession. Growing up with an intense fear of hell and demons didn't help my anxiety as you can imagine. Because I had no way of knowing what anxiety or depression actually was, (growing up taught psychology was basically witchcraft) when I would feel overwhelmed to the point of a panic attack, I believed it was a demon trying to get into my soul, which made the panic attack 10 times worse. I used to pray on my knees every night, begging for God to take my mental illness from me, but it would never leave. There was nothing more dehumanizing then praying for something fervently for years, while everyone, family especially, would blame the unanswered prayer on your own lack of faith. I appreciate your videos so much, thank you for posting!
@@marvelous971-j6m Hard to take a side against your parents when you're 13, and they won't let you have any other influences in your life. but yeah I'm in my 20's now, I've been an atheist for 4 years.
I grew up being taught the exact same thing. It was a "spiritual issue." I hope you found the peace you were looking for... I feel ten times better, but now I am a lost soul trying to figure it out all over again.
my current wallpaper: “Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.” - Markus Aurelius
Makes me wonder though: If you want to live good and help others, why dont you use the reportbutton of youtube? I mean, that button exists... and open racism, obvious sexism, p0rn, n-dity, Scammer, spam-bots, and fusions of the listed, all exist. ??
@@nucleargoofball8043 'At least' its 'objectively good' to destroy Spam-Bots... obviously... That much is the very least and most obvious, and if your stuck at that level, ok, fine for you, but i am a bit above that, tbh.
After 26 years of waiting for an answer from God, he finally answered my prayer last night; I said: God, if its your will that I become an atheist, say nothing........... Well amen!
If prayer works, it means either god can be swayed by human desires, or that god requires begging before he heals baby cancer. Both of which are horrifying
Related but not blood-related Topic (if you allow me): Not enough people use the reportbutton of youtube. Maybe because 'Cancel-Culture' scared them so much that they know (wrongly) think that Abuse of the System 'existing' means they 'cant cannot' abuse the System themselves... which is of course dumb... So yeah: I wished more people would do as originally intended: Help UA-cam. Finding obvious Racists, Open Sexism, Scammer or spam-Bots, is actually fairly easy, tbh. ...Why not give it a Try? A Try to help out?
When my aunt passed away (she was my mother figure, raised my sister and I) she was battling cancer. She passed away and that Sunday I went to church and the pastors wife came up to me saying she was praying for my aunt and knew she was going to be healed. I told her she passed away and her face went blank. She didn't even know what to say. I was so shocked that someone so "spiritual" could be so wrong... I knew her intensions were for good, but it was just so shocking.
The word "knew" is the worst...she automatically said knew your loved one was going to be healed instead of asking how she was or asking if there was anything she could do to help.
I almost never prayed because I was told that God was omnipresent and always knew what was in my heart. Prayer just felt like God forcing me to say "please"
At least according to the Catholic theology I was taught, that’s the whole point. You’d be kissing his butt and sing praises for eternity if you made it to heaven so prayer is just training for that.
yeah, but still, can you imagine, "give me a wife!" and then a beautiful woman wearing nothing but a ribbon wrapping that says "i'm yours" what a treat, eh?
Well, well, lets not talk down on Religion, shall we? The 'plot holes' come from 'details made by Humans', after all. Theres plenty of Healthy Theists, all around the Globe. So dont forget this. ...Though i have to say... people like 'Kent Hovind' outright disgust me, to the point of vomitting...
@@loturzelrestaurant yeah i always say religion has no power on its own, humans write it and interpret it to suit whatever their intentions are to begin with. If there were no religion humans would still suck.
I got tired of praying to God, for an honest, loving, supporting, & respectful wife. Such women, are like the mythical unicorn, they may exist, but the likelihood of finding, & making such a being your partner...well let's just say, lightning will strike you first, before that happens. That's why I chose the waifu laifu, instead. She may not be real, in the traditional sense, but neither is unconditional love from a woman, or that of a God, for that matter.
Prayer does work. I once prayed for god to never allow anyone else's prayers to ever come true, unless of course they prayed for something that could naturally occur on it's own (i.e rain on a cloudy day, chemo patient's cancer going away, etc), and sure enough my prayer was answered. Praise be too he.
The whole "haven't prayed enough" thing really destroyed me as a Christian. I used to really struggle with prayer because I always felt like I wasn't saying enough, so I just had to keep on praying until it felt right... which can take a long time... Also, I'm still loving these videos
Same. I am bipolar and it was undiagnosed until my adulthood, so my teenage years were spent with me wondering what was wrong with me and I thought I must just not be a good enough Christian. I was constantly praying these elaborate really long prayers. Sometimes I would fall asleep praying and then wake up feeling like I must have let Satan lure me into sleep (bipolar paranoia can be a real bitch, especially when you add religion to it). I would be praying for every person I ever said I would pray for. Praying for forgiveness for anything I may have possibly done wrong. I spent countless hours in a prayer journal. I prayed with friends at the Christian Club after school. I'm glad he's doing videos like these. It helps with some of my healing from religion and I'm sure others can say the same.
@@youtoo2233 The real problem is "God" wont even grant the wish to tell you that he's there, so you know that you aren't just praying to yourself. Almost like he's not there, and you *are* just praying to yourself. No wonder God always agrees with his followers so long as they move with the herd.
That's awful they said that. It also implies that it's the suffering person who has the ultimate power (it's not God's will at all, it's that whichever John/Jane Doe hasn't prayed enough or they'd automatically be happy). If me praying enough could get me everything, that's just the prosperity gospel all over again.
When people tell me that I never was truly Christian, all I can say is that I spent a lot of gut wrenching hours on my knees trying to make it work for me. I think maybe I always knew that I was atheist in the same way I have always known I am gay. Prayer, no matter hard I tried, always felt forced, fake, and futile. Other believers would come out of a prayer meeting exclaiming how strong the Spirit of the Lord had been present, and I thought, "Where? When? How come I missed it?"
To me, being a child in Church, was terrifying as I was very afraid of God. Later, as an older child and as a teen, it often felt like being in the asylum: I'd look around to everyone swaying with emotion over Jesus and go, "holy shit, they've all took leave of their senses!". Occasionally, it was funny enough. More often than not, it was truly scary. Because there were so many of them.
It is a really strange idea to me to pray up to someone. Like, how can you feel good after submitting and begging someone to show you mercy? Like, I can imagine praying adjacently, or making requests. But praying up is so strange.
@@Nocturnalux so, idk if you know what pentacostal do in church, but it's honestly one step down from snake handling.... my parents were never religious, but each come from VERY southern baptist families. Since they were on a mission to save my soul, I ended up going to church with my grandma a lot. When I was 11 or 12 and was allowed to sit in service with her, the speaking in tongues, passing out, truly terrifying!
@@madisoncannoles4907 Oh, I can well imagine that. I was introduced to that kind of craziness around age 13 when the hotel my family was spending the holidays in had access to TBN. It blew my mind. I would laugh until I fell out of my seat but every now then, I'd think, "but being in that congregation must be TERRIFYING". Honestly, if it were me, I'd probably try to blend in because just the thought of all those holy rollers zeroing in on the one person who isn't slayed in the spirit is utterly terrifying. Did you try to go along with the madness?
"God, if it's your will to let John win the lottery, let it be. But we will trust you whatever the outcome and know that you provide for us." Aka, "John stfu. God ain't gonna give you that."
@@j.kaimori3848 that sounds exactly like some people I know when they're praying about someone's terminal injury/illness. aka "yeah we know the medically proven outcome, but at least we tried praying just in case"
I'm a trans woman. When I was younger, before I fully understood what I was feeling or what being trans is, I used to pray that I would wake up as a girl. When that didn't work after years, I prayed that I wouldn't feel the way I did, because it made me hate myself and my life and I was told that it was wrong to feel that way. It never worked. Now, years later, I'm an atheist and a woman and happier than I've ever been. That wasn't any god that made that happen. It was me.
And having you discovering that for yourself is god’s wisdom manifesting in the plan he had for you (is the mental gymnastics a religious person would try and do)
@@Legorreta.M.D a religious person would prob say smth more along the lines of "this is not God's plan for you, he made you a specific gender so you should just stay that way and not try to change and alter his creation for you are fearlessly and wonderfully made in His image...you may enjoy you temporary time here on earth now but you will burn and be tortured in hell later forever..." totally wasn't told stuff like that before...
One time I went to church with my partner and they had a missionary lady talking about her experience in Africa with her family. They were not very successful so the lady prayed to God asking what she had to do to start converting people. Apparently she had a dream which she thought symbolized her husbands death. She and her family prayed for months for her husbands health. Her husband later got cancer and died. She told their story and somehow got a lot of people to convert. So her whole message was basically “god” made her SACRIFICE HER HUSBAND so they could push religion on a couple people who would be fine without it. Even more fucked up everyone clapped afterwards and didn’t seem to realize how screwed up that is. It seriously pissed me off.
The podcast is fun, but I want to express how much I enjoy these features, and how much I appreciate the amount of work and effort goes into the script and editing. I appreciate the personal perspective you bring to these videos.
One thing about prayer that didn't occur to me while I was a Christian: we only pray for things that could come to us naturally, without supernatural intervention. For example, we might pray for money to fix a broken window, but we don't pray for the glass to become whole again. We pray for a cure to a disease but not for the return of an amputated limb. It's as if we are subconsciously doing our part to help perpetuate the myth that praying works.
Mark 11:22-24 22"Have faith in God," Jesus answered. 23"Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. 24Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
@@TimH-pu2dd This, any many more things can be done by prayer. This generation fails to understand the power of God, so they do not understand the power of prayer. Do you not believe in the most high? With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.
@@TimH-pu2dd It has already been verified to you. For our own existence without God, is impossible. But with the lord it is possible. To formulate such a question, is proof of God's will. Have faith in God, and much will be revealed. Have a great day! (I used to be an atheist as well).
15:37 That's disgusting. Imagine making someone feel like maybe they are the reason God might let their mom die. Absolutely despicable. I don't even think that's biblical. Doesn't the Bible say that you only need faith "the size of a mustard seed"?
also says that "if two or more are gathered the prayer is being heard" so I don't think it would have mattered if one of them didn't have faith. if one of the brothers had faith, and the prayer group had faith it woulda been done. the contradictions those people make are horrible :(
***trigger warning*** That one about the abuse really hit home for me. I used to sit up & cry my eyes out begging to God to help me escape my abuser who was also my step father. Nothing ever happened & I just felt like I was crying out to no one who was ever listening. After 13 years I was finally able to escape with no help from some miracle or higher power … but from me finally getting the courage to come out with my story & take him to court. Everyone prayed for him to get found guilty , he was found not guilty. Everyone prayed for my mom to be cured of her cancer, mom still died. The whole thing is nuts.
Can't even count how many times I prayed for my mental illnesses to go away and they did not. Still have them but getting actual mental health care from trained professionals helps a lot more than prayer ever did.
When I was a child, I always wondered why god wouldn’t answer my prayers for help when I was being sexually abused by my stepfather and stepbrothers. I remember praying so hard to god to keep them from coming into my bedroom at night. Maybe it wasn’t god’s will and I HAD to be molested?
Hey lala, as a Christian I’m just going to start off by saying that this is absolutely disgusting what they did to you and god absolutely did not want that to happen to you. The devil was working in your step brothers and father and it was just terrible. God loves and cares for you and can heal you from the emotional pain you’ve been dealing with!!! Never doubt the lord!
"Why do you only talk to me when things are bad?" I dunno, God, you saddled me with original sin and told me I'm hellbound without You, so maybe it's your fault things are little dark. Haha, just kidding, I'm agnostic and not Christian.
@@Questionablexfun I am atheist I believe. I am not sure the difference between agnostics and atheists, but I believe agnostics are a little less certain and more neutral than atheists? Is it like, atheists believe that there is reason to believe there is no god until evidence appears, but agnostics have little opinion until good evidence appears? If anyone wants to join in, please do, as I am curious.
When i was still a Christian, one of the things that haunted me for years was the death of one of my closest friends' mother. I was a dumb kid who believed in God and was convinced that if you 'ask and it shall be given unto you', God will answer. She was in the hospital, and i told my friend that she didn't have to worry, because i was praying for her mam and that meant everything would be okay. You can probably guess what happened that night The guilt over promising that to my friend and our failing ended up pushing me into a depression that lasted years. There were other factors ofc, but i remember everything feeling shitty after that. And then every time my friend expressed any atheist belief, I would blame myself for being so stupid as to promise something like that and make her unable to trust God Im over it now, but damn that guilt was painful
That's a horrible experience. I just want to point out, you weren't a dumb kid, you were indoctrinated. You were just acting according to how you were taught. I'm glad you realized that and moved past the guilt tho
Well, well, lets not talk down on Religion, shall we? The 'plot holes' come from 'details made by Humans', after all. Theres plenty of Healthy Theists, all around the Globe. So dont forget this. ...Though i have to say... people like 'Kent Hovind' outright disgust me, to the point of vomitting...
I'll trash talk religion all I want. Does it give some people hope? Sure, I'm happy they're happy But as soon as religion is allowed to gain power in society, its conservative elements (who are, frankly, the most politically motivated people) inevitably take power. I was hurt, and abused by religion, and the response of religious folks to me leaving is to claim that I'm 'immoral' or 'really do believe in God', or am a 'fool'. Religion kills. Religion crushes human freedom. Liberal Christians/Muslims/Jews are only liberal because of the secularised societies we live in; its no surprise that even those strands of religion only became accepting of gay people, for example, after secular civil rights movements. Im sorry but however many 'healthy' religious folk there are, as soon as religion is allowed the place in society it used to have, it will empower the unhealthy ones
One of my common prayers as a kid was asking for the wisdom of Solomon. Nearly 20 years later, I'm an atheist. Either my prayer was answered and it led me to atheism, or prayers don't get answered.
i used to ask god to give me "the gift of discernment". it was the top "godly gift" i asked for. after coming to my own conclusions, i became an agnostic. god works in mysterious ways indeed lmao
If god “has a plan for you” meaning your destiny is determined beforehand. Why do we even pray? The future is determined already, how could it change because you pray? Paradox.
I've heard it said that God looks into the future to see if you'll pray for certain things and adjusts your destiny accordingly. Not a perfect explanation, but I think it's p creative.
@@rgfella Yeah, I've heard that one. Problem is that god seeing into your future and knowing that you'll pray still locks you into a future where you'll pray or not. Therefore people have no free will and prayer still can't change anything because you didn't choose to pray.
@@MrYondaime1995 The cookie-cutter response being that God knowing the future doesn't mean he causes it. I always find it funny when you can tell that a person listens to apologists because they say the same responses every time XD
When I was a child, I was a spiritist. My mom woke up with a huge headache, and wanting for her to feel better, I prayed so her headache would go away. And she did get better. Because while I was praying she got painkillers. I honestly heard a response that day, but even then, I wondered if I imagined a response. Now I know it was my imagination
Well, well, lets not talk down on Religion, shall we? The 'plot holes' come from 'details made by Humans', after all. Theres plenty of Healthy Theists, all around the Globe. So dont forget this. ...Though i have to say... people like 'Kent Hovind' outright disgust me, to the point of vomitting...
@@loturzelrestaurant I wasn't talkng down on religion, instead, i was simply sharing a story from my childhood. Though i do believe that it causes more harm than good. I agree that there are plenty of healthy theists around the globe. doesn't change the fact that there are plenty more theists that use their religion to be prejudiced, just like Kent Hovind. Anyway, hope the best for you mate.
I remember hearing of an experiment conducted within a hospital with two groups. One group that was treated normally, acting as the control group. The other group that was treated just the same, but was also prayed for. At the end of the experiment, the mortality rates, recoveries, etc had no significant deviance between the two. Prayer didn't help. The Christians' response? "You can't put God in a bottle."
@@nothanks6549 I was a Christian for about 28 years. Was even a missionary during that time and even worked in ministry. The only story I got was when I was a missionary in Haiti I taught English at a local village school and needed a translator (for the creole speakers). So I prayed for one and lo'an behold a guy showed up willing to translate for me. I thought it a miracle and an answer to prayer. I look back at that now and totally see it in a different, slightly more cynical light.
@@nothanks6549 Your story reminds me of a guy I talked to who swears he could turn the street light outside of his house on just by looking at it. Turns out he was a man of habit and always happened to be at his kitchen window (from which the street light was visible) at dusk and just happened to look at it when it was coming on. Our brains are dumb. Useful. But very dumb.
Confirmation bias is strong in religious circles. Remembering the couple of times something really remarkable happens, and not paying attention to the hundreds of times it falls flat. Now that I don't believe I still have those remarkable things happen every great once in awhile. It's just life, not a Christian thing.
Funny that in the Bible there was a battle where one side prayed to the Abrahamic god. To the point he assured them unambiguous and total victory. The other side prayed to a local fishing deity named Chemosh (and may or may not have performed a sacrifice depending on the author) and then absolutely *slaughtered* the abrahamic god's forces. Like, massive casualties and had to flee the territory level of casualties. So the lesson from the bible in this instance is: Fishing Deities can beat up Yaweh for lunch money whenever they feel like it.
Ah, but what if there are more better, more righteous, and more faithful Christians on one side, and just lukewarm ones on the other? Yeah, certainly God makes the more righteous win, every time.
Well, in my memory, we in Canada never had prayer in school, and we've had almost 0 school shootings EVER. So...... yeah. Not sure what God is doing for you.
Wrong god, see the god of Amerika is a vengeful god aka blood god. It needs to be appease thru sacrifice. Which always amazed me that christians seem to not understand. I guess when your making stuff up and hatting women at the same time makes for dull thinking.
Your story about your mom really resonated with me and reminded me of my own: When recently reflecting on my time as a believer, I finally realized “the moment” when I stopped believing. My Southern, Christian family had sent me to this summer church camp every year since I was 5, and I loved going. When I was 10 or 11, my great grandfather got very sick while I was at camp. My GG and I were very close, and this was the first time that I was actually aware that a beloved family member was dying. So I did what any good Christian kid would do, and I fervently prayed for him, skipping fun activities with my friends to sit in the Chapel and pray. For weeks, I put his name into the the prayer request box, hoping that if I prayed enough, God would heal him or at least keep him around long enough so that I could say goodbye once camp was over. One night, we had some sort of special ceremony where we were told to scribble our deepest, most sincere prayer on a piece of paper that we then placed in a burning vat of candles so our prayers would be sent directly to God. I still vividly remember sitting on the ground with my friends, praying and watching the candles even after everyone else left. I was convinced that God would hear my prayers. After all, I had done everything “right,” according to what I was taught. Later that same evening, one of the camp counselors found me playing with my friends outside and took me back to our cabin. They had news for me. My great grandfather had just died, and my aunt would pick me up in the morning so I could attend the funeral. The counselor left me alone to pack my things. I was devastated, feeling abandoned and scorned by the God who I had been begging to help for weeks. I remember staring up at the ceiling on my top bunk, hiding from the other kids when they came back from bed. They were happy, talking about what they had prayed for and if it had come true yet. I cried myself to sleep. Despite my family’s persuasion, I never went back to camp nor spoke with any of my friends from there again. Looking back on it, I was definitely traumatized. I never really prayed again after that, and when I had a mini religious revival in high school, I fell out of that phase pretty quickly as the act of praying always felt so uncomfortable like I was talking to a brick wall. It wasn’t until years later when I made the summer camp connection that I understood why praying only felt performative for me. If you’ve read this far, I hope this story can help someone else understand their relationship with faith better. And thanks for a great video!
A bit random, but i wanted to ask some people: Did you know youtube has a reportbutton? As well as Open Racists, P0rn and Scammer? I mean, why not combine those facts in the most obvious way? Its kinda a not-very-hard Puzzle. ?
I struggled with addiction while I was still a believer. I remember fervently praying for relief for years and years. I once asked my Christian based therapist what I should do to address my addiction: she said I should pray about it. My faith was dissolving at that point and that comment was one of the final moments that turned me away for good. I’ve been an atheist for quite a few years now and it’s strange how prayer is still somewhat present. Prayer was an outlet for emotion and pain that I so frequently engaged in. I will find myself occasionally talking to myself in an imitation of prayer. I lack the belief in a higher power but I still have wishful desires that I express in my head. Being raised with these beliefs certainly leave their mark on you Edit: spelling error
I realize now the irony of the term, Christian based therapist. My first therapist was one out of a Christian private practice and while I look back and realize I was somewhat lucky because at least she was a real mental health professional who knew what she was talking about and used actual terminology one learns in collegiate study...you know, science. Many who fall into this category don't. The real problem was when this gal started to do what in the "real world" of the mental health profession is absolutely considered unethical...trying to connect with me on various social media sites. I learned some time later that is a HUGE no no of line crossing ethics.
@@jenniferhiemstra5228 I know it's been a minute since you posted this, but I had to share this, after reading it. I had some surgeries in 2012 that unfortunately, resulted in my dependency on painkillers. In April 2015, I did a 28 day rehab, & out patient treatment for 5 years after. I'm not dragging that treatment ctr., it had different group meetings available, art class, and individual therapy (& tests for accountability). My counselor for the first 2 years was great.... But, she left and was replaced with one from a private Christan university, who basically said that my "problem" was turning away from god. She required me to bring her church programs each week from a church I attended, as well as switch my nonreligious group meetings on Sundays to go to the 'christian women's bible' group on Thursdays. Seriously. Of course, I voiced my opinions about it to the powers that be, and I only had to endure a month of it..... But as you can imagine, I didn't have much confidence in my that counselor's abilities afterwards.
@@madisoncannoles4907 WOWOWOWOWOWOWOW….as a Christian, I’m so sorry…that counselor has NO business in the profession because real mental health and addiction professionals understand that addiction is a disease and needs to be treated as such so you and others like you, can get the help they need. But…you have to first perceive it as a disease before you can treat it. There is a line of “ethics” that can’t be crossed and speaking about religious beliefs is another one of them. My best friend is a mental health professional and Christian but has said that unless the patient brings up or asks about religious beliefs, it’s another big ethical no-no. In the end, mental health is just like physical health. It’s a science but it’s still in its infancy in comparison to physical health, there’s still a lot that the profession is learning about it. And I’ll just say it again…I’m so very sorry that you had a counselor who clearly didn’t learn (or doesn’t care) about any of that, being told that you “turned from God” isn’t validating of helpful 💔
I feel this, I became a buddhist because they had answers to my questions and the process of zen meditation made me able to cope with the silence of prayer.like in buddhism, they acknowledge God may exist but don't really try to pin him down with a description or through direct contact. If you ask a Buddha about what God it like, they will shrug their shoulders lol. God has always been silent to me ☹☹ 🤷♂️🤷♂️ I hope you're doing better now :)
Prayer was something I struggled with for almost all my life as a believer, mostly because when it clearly wasn't working, I felt like I was doing it wrong. Thing is, I didn't blame myself for that. I got angry because I felt like I was being set up to fail. I was never told "the right way to pray," only the words. I asked so many people, looked it up, and not only did every. Single. Person. Have a DRASTICALLY different and often nonsensical answer to "how to pray properly," but it often was just rambling nonsense! I've since come to realize how much Christians really love speaking only in irrelevant metaphor to dissuade people from realizing that this stuff doesn't make any sense when you try to think about it through the subject itself, but that was probably the worst case of it for me. At the end of my faith, prayer was something that...I ironically enough, prayed for. That someday I would learn how to do this faith stuff right, and hoped that when I got older, I'd be more religious. It never happened. Just got more nerve-wracking and anxiety-inducing when I tried to pray for anything.
I don't recall ever wanting to get something out of praying. I know I wouldn't do it unless asked to and that's probably where I honed my BSing skills. But I do remember not understanding what one was supposed to do while praying and receiving the same kind of contradictory and non-sense answers you mention. "What do I do?" "Talk to god." "About what?" "Anything." "But that could be literally anything. How am I supposed to choose?" "(exasperated noises)" For me, all of this just reinforces the idea that what people are actually getting out of their supernatural beliefs isn't what they typically say they are getting out of it. All of the apologetics are just post hoc rationalizations.
@@rainbowkrampus To me if feels like praying is a bit unnecessary. I've been told you cant just pray to get what you want but actively work for it. Nice sentiment, but this leaves a question: "If all I have to do is work for it, what's the point in praying then?" It seems like an unnecessary step. Kinda like a vestigial organ. It's there it's not hurting much but it doesn't do anything either and its kinda just there I guess. So at the end of the day instead of god making it happen, it was YOU. YOU made it happen on YOUR own or the ppl around you who can actively and actually change something. That feels so rewarding.
@@justcallmekai1554 Yeah, I consider it one of the more nefarious aspects of christianity. It teaches you to devalue your own effort and give credit to an imaginary dude.
As someone who still believes in the Christian God, I always struggled with prayer as well. Since I was little, I was never just still and I always played with my hands and opened my eyes slightly only to close them again and feeling ashamed for opening them. Till this day, I haven't been able to pray regularly due to the fact that I almost always feel like crap for praying
@@lucy_kitty_chan447 It sounds like you might be experiencing some anxiety in association with praying. Even when people deconvert, their experiences and anxieties and trauma still follow them around. This sort of thing doesn't just go away on its own typically. Fortunately, it can go away with effort. We have things like therapy and even anti-anxiety medications which can help us come to terms with our negative thoughts and/or feelings and then find strategies to move beyond them so they no longer affect us as strongly or even at all. I've seen a lot of people over the years treat these sorts of issues dismissively or (imo) worse, try to pray them away. I've never seen positive results from this. I've seen many positive outcomes when people decide they want to take control over their negative emotions for themselves and seek help from a licensed therapist to do so. I'd recommend as a first step looking more into the experiences of people with religious trauma. You might find some stories or feelings which resonate with you. Here's an article where several people recount their experiences. newrepublic.com/article/161772/can-religion-give-ptsd
I prayed, pleaded, begged, fasted, and cried out for "god" to deliver me from my abusive home. I even made the effort to keep myself in church, but nothing happened. I had to stand up, and become my own hero. I got myself out of that situation, without him.
I was stuck in a situation years ago where I prayed for MONTHS asking for God to help me get rid of my constant suicidal thoughts. Only because that's all my catholic school told me to do when I asked them for help; "Just pray it away." Been faithful for all of my life at that point, literally crying and screaming for the simplest relief of pain. I thought if what's is God's path is supposed to happen cause he knows what's best and having no sign or anything, I did attempt. The simplest request after having faith for so long only to get a "lol no" led me to question everything for once and I'm glad you share your experiences and more info on the church because it's giving more peace than k-12 catholic school ever did.
I was a Christian about 5 years ago. I was almost finished nursing school when my marriage fell apart. I prayed and prayed for God to renew my marriage, but eventually we separated and then divorced. I heard a lot of these excuses why prayer didn't work, but there's another one to add to the list - you made your marriage into an idol, so God had to take it away. That one was not only ridiculous, but really hurtful, and it puts God in a really bad light. Over the next couple years I felt like my faith didn't make sense anymore, and now I'm an atheist - my divorce was part of the reason. I felt like I was being screwed over. On top of that, as a Christian I was supposed to give God all the credit for my success in school. When I lost my faith, I gained the realization that I'm the one who made it possible to become a nurse. THAT is far more empowering.
"We prayed over the football field and no one got injured." Meanwhile god is giving kids cancer and letting his guys touch their altar boys. Gotta keep those football players safe though.
I find praying is a good outlet for your feelings like writing in a journal (prayer journals are a thing too), doing audio journals, or doing meditation. I don't do it often except in times of great fear, and it eases my nerves a bit. It was never a habit instilled in me as a child though, despite having a religious family. It's horrible to blame someone for not praying hard enough. That's not guilt anyone needs on their mind.
@@karlazeen worst comes to worst, the killing sprees will have to be conducted via blunt biblical force. which is far more entertaining and slightly more destructive than guns.
Oh, victim blaming when prayers aren't answered! Sure love that. You said everything on my mind in this video so thanks haha ^^ I love your video editing style and all the cool movie and show clips 💕
Well, well, lets not talk down on Religion, shall we? The 'plot holes' come from 'details made by Humans', after all. Theres plenty of Healthy Theists, all around the Globe. So dont forget this. ...Though i have to say... people like 'Kent Hovind' outright disgust me, to the point of vomitting...
@@loturzelrestaurant The healthy theists don't subscribe to or believe in the parts of religion worth talking down on. Surely you recognize the atrocities in the Abrahamic faiths if you're honest.
Sometimes I come and rewatch these videos because they’re soothing to me. I have a lot of trauma that came from trying to believe in a religion that didn’t make sense to me. A lot of trauma from praying and never seeming to get an answer. These videos have become therapeutic for me, and I hope everyone who’s struggled in their transition from believer to nonbeliever can find these videos.
I love watching deconversion videos, too, from time to time. Very soothing and cathartic. I have a very significant amount of religious trauma, as well as religious abuse, which I don't think I'll ever get over.... and maybe I don't want to, because then that means that what happened was okay. Which it WASN'T.
I'm sure my dad told me his father lost his faith in WW2. He had prayed for the bombs to stop and yet they still came. The amount of suffering he saw turned him away forever.
The weirdest prayer story I ever heard was an anecdote I was told by someone in church when I was about 12 or 13. He told me a pastor of a struggling church asked god to remove the obstacles that were holding the church back. That same week, the pastor died and the church subsequently flourished. Morbid lesson in “be careful what you wish for” I guess.
I had surgery earlier this year. My last statement before I went under was "Doctor. I trust you, your knowledge, your experience and your skill." It never crossed my mind to pray.
I see prayer as a compassionate gesture, but praying for someone calls into question several things: 1. If God can help a victim, couldn't he prevent the crime to begin with? 2. If God is all-knowing, why does he need us to beg to him before he decides to help? 3. How much prayer do we need until God solves the world's problems?
Prayer was one of the first cracks in my shelf. Somewhere deep inside I realized that I couldn't believe in a God that knew what was best for me, loved me, but wouldn't do it unless I asked in the right way, with the right motivations, at the right time, fervently enough. I wasn't mad at God, I just didn't see the point in my own muddled confused ideas getting in the way of his perfect plan for me.
Prayer did not stop my parents abuse. No loving father would watch their child being hurt and do nothing. Yet they say the Hebrew God is a loving father 🙄
@@karlazeen exactly. Actually I was told 'God was looking down on you and cried during the suffering' 😕 that's not a comfort that some old geezer god watched me in my torment and did nothing
@@CrystalMouse1 If that old geezer didn't have the power to save anyone but wanted to then I would be more convinced and actually have sympathy and respect towards him.
I remember in my elementary school they had a moment of silence every morning for those who wanted to pray, but nobody was forced to (and in fact most didn't). And no one ever got bullied for praying or not praying. Nobody really cared wether you did or didn't. I think that was good. That way everyone could do or not do what they did or didn't believe in.
When I was being assaulted for days on end, I prayed and prayed and prayed for the end of it. But it never stopped. It happened again when I was older, actually. And then, when I was at the lowest part of my life and was going to take it, I prayed again that if God really wanted me alive, to show me that he was real. Show me anything. Show me that my life had purpose and he wanted me alive. I got nothing. So I figure- either god wants me dead, or he doesn't exist at all
Over the last year or so, I've started to lose my faith and it all started with prayer after prayer not getting answered. My aunt passing away after praying for her healing, being unemployed for 6 months and praying before each interview and then being passed over for the job, (The job that ended my unemployment came from the 1 interview I didn't pray before going to) praying for help with bills while unemployed and instead incurring late fees and overdraft fees, and many other unanswered things. But it's crazy just how ingrained and almost ritualistic prayer has been in my life. After all those unanswered prayers I'm almost scared to pray for anything. It's always been normal to pray for someone I care about to be safe when going on a trip, but now I'm afraid to. But it feels so strange not to, so I totally understand when Trevor said he didn't want to lose prayer. I'm in the process of deconstructing my faith and so far, prayer and dealing with grief are 2 things I'm still feeling lost on; but videos like this help a lot. So thank you, and keep it up!
True story, when I was around 14 my cousin's dog had puppies but one was sick. Being an animal lover I prayed for it to be healed. It died the next day. That was the last time I asked God for anything. 🤬
This episode really hits home. My husband and I have struggled with infertility for years. I used to believe that it was God's will and that he was punishing us for some unknown or insane reason. But I started to realize that it just was not true. There are plenty of people I know who have horrible parents. Some who have been very abusive and left deep scars in people I care about. It made me realize that if there was a God, why would he allow that to happen. I am not saying my husband and I are perfect, but I truly do not believe we would ever be so cruel to our children. It just makes no sense. And prayer did nothing. Or I should say, the only thing it ever did was make us feel worse. Like we were not worthy. Side note, it makes me angry when people try to justify things like school shootings. As if it is God's will. This is not a God I want anything to do with.
My favorite messed up thing I was taught in church was that you should pray for God's will to be down. That was such a simple way to trap people into never realizing that their prayers werent answered
If you think about it from the perspective of a non-believer, prayer is just thinking intensely and intentionally about something. Usually about things like the circumstances in your life, the people you love, that sort of thing. Maybe that's why people like the video creator liked doing it so much when they were believers. I personally think it's one of those wonderful things that can carry over once you've lost your faith. I don't do this, but I could even imagine it being a regular daily routine, something like quiet meditation or "me time." Those are just my rambling thoughts that I've had for a while about the role of prayer in the non-supernatural realm. Loved this video, so happy to see when you drop a new one.
You bring up a good point. Prayer has been shown to have some of the same benefits of meditation in it's ability to improve mood or foster relaxation. It's not any more effective than meditation, and may be less so depending on the practitioner, but there is a psychological effect. It doesn't matter, of course, whether you pray to the Christian God or the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
I guess this is the “God shaped hole” people mention often, I prayed even if I didn’t need anything in particular (in part because my church said I had to do it as often as possible, that’s why you have monks) and after I left I felt that the need to do this didn’t go away entirely. I’m technically not an atheist (more of a deist if anything) but I don’t assume there’s anyone out there listening even if there’s a god but I guess I do it for myself, even as a Christian I was taught the whole point was that it wold change me, not God, so I also try to do meditation and what the Quakers call “silent worship” which is just being silent and listen to your soul or the surroundings.
Great video, just subscribed. This is similar to that “praying to a jug of milk” video I watched time ago. Same results. When I was a believer I was never very good a praying. I usually got bored and quickly distracted. I’m a happy atheist 😊
I really like your guys' videos. They are well-edited and put together. I had a heated argument about prayer after reading Hitchens' book, "God is Not Great". I told my wife, "If prayer work---how can you justify prayer if it did not save your stepdad from Covid?" It just always seems strange that both sports teams pray before and game and invariably----one team loses. Bizarre how that doesn't work.
I've been questioning god sense I was young. I remember sitting in a car while mom was driving home, they would say that God is all knowing and all that good stuff, so my 7 year old self thought he must be able to read minds sense he knows everything. So I looked up into the sky and said in my head "God, if your real, give me a sign." Nothing happened. Boy did I feel disappointed
Related but not blood-related Topic (if you allow me): Not enough people use the reportbutton of youtube. Maybe because 'Cancel-Culture' scared them so much that they know (wrongly) think that Abuse of the System 'existing' means they 'cant cannot' abuse the System themselves... which is of course dumb... So yeah: I wished more people would do as originally intended: Help UA-cam. Finding obvious Racists, Open Sexism, Scammer or spam-Bots, is actually fairly easy, tbh. ...Why not give it a Try? A Try to help out?
Your not supposed to question GOD. That's what my dad told me. Hes too big to question. You gotta be a god fearing servant. I dont know how I'm supposed to fear a supposedly all loving god.
The thing about praying (well to me) it was quite similar to therapy but without someone being able to talk back. I can see why my mom is such a believer as she sees god as someone she can tell everything to with no judgment and finally release her issues on. that great feeling of being heard by someone really does a lot.
Watching this video, i now realize that i never was a full time believer. I always felt so disconnected and away from faith. The only times i consistently prayed were in meals, Sunday and for special people. My parents weren't different either. They prayed even less than i did.
The story at 7:33 reminds me of a story I heard at church about 45 years. A man at our church asked another man if he could borrow his car for a job interview. Man #2 loaned Man#1 the car. As he was driving to his destination, Man #1 prayed for a sign whether this job was right for him. Within about five minutes the car ran out of oil and the engine seized. Everybody at church (except Man #2) thought this was very funny.
That Francis Chan sermon caused me so much anxiety for a long time because I was terrified that I wasn't saved because God doesn't answer my prayers. I think about it often
You know what's weird, I'm a Christian (not an evangelical), but this is video is really great. Far better to be an atheist than to torture yourself with the garbage these TV preachers spew.
I am a Christian and grew up in the church, but every single one of these videos is completely astounding to me because they reveal beliefs and social structures that are totally foreign to me. I always considered myself an evangelical, until 2016. But I listen to the sermon excerpts in these videos and they’re totally insane. My faith hasn’t changed because it isn’t the type of thing that could be lost, but I’m still left to wonder if I was ever really a Christian in the first place.
@@michaelanderson7715 yeah yeah yeah. Don’t worry, Atheists are so often smug, condescending, and morally aggrandizing, that your comment doesn’t bother me. But aside from that, do you have any idea how many “delusions” our society operates on? Money is a delusion. War is a delusion. The idea that all ethnic groups have value and should not be exploited for the sake of more powerful groups is a delusion. You’ve got to be able to navigate delusions if your life is going to have any purpose.
Wow.... this stirred up some emotion in me. Especially when you brought up, "It isn't God, but it's you." Talk about a flash of emotion... I heard so much shit like that as a kid. Also, when you were asked to leave your mother's side, because one of you (Your brother and your self) might of not had enough faith. I heard stuff like that too as a kid. Talk about anger, rage, pain, etc all whelping up at once. It made me want to punch people in the face. Of course, it took be about 5 seconds to calm myself and began to breath again... but damn, when you brought that up.... it sparked something in me. Back to the, "it's not God, but you," reminded me how much self-degradation we do to ourselves, when you walk in the faith. There were a few other things like the example of "talking on the phone, and nobody was there," really struck a cord with me, as I have used the exact same example as what it was like to pray towards the end of my walk. I have to just shake my head. I have been to church 1 time in 5 years, which was for a funeral. I miss it like I miss my dentist, however least I know my dentist provides me with an actual service. Peace and Chicken Wings my Brothers. Good show today.
i fucking adore this show. thank you thank you thank you. i love not feeling alone. it means so much to hear another nonbeliever talk about the struggle. me personally? prayer is like medication. if i dont make regular use of it, i dont do well. i know im talking to my own brain, and that doesnt bother me a bit. i have a mental health practice that serves me well and provides me with the ritual i crave. im grateful for that. i miss believing in god, but i dont miss the greatest heartbreak of my life- that god either allows evil for reasons that dont matter, or gets off on it. i'll never go back to being a slave to that mutherfucker. im happy now, because im free.
I just want to say that this channel has really helped me so far, I was raised in a very church heavy family and it caused me a lot of religious trauma that I’m still struggling with today, I can’t really talk about it with anyone except my girlfriend. She showed me this channel and hearing the words of someone who has seemingly been through something similar makes me feel not as alone.
This right here was that catalyst for me truly examining and ultimately leaving my faith last year. I had prayed and prayed so specifically about the life I wanted, the kind of friends and life partner I wanted and when I thought I had it (twice) I ignored all the red flags and reasons I should obviously have left them because it’s what I believed god wanted me to do and they were the answer to my prayers. I went through so much guilt thinking it was my fault god wasn’t answering my prayers or that I wasn’t being patient enough and “trusting his timing” I got sick of following all the excuses I myself and others gave for sky daddy, and started thinking critically as well as examining the other side of the theological debate. What I found made a lot more sense, didn’t require mental gymnastics or apologetics to understand, and for the first time in my life, put my destiny in my own hands. It’s been a hell of a ride from then on but I’m only just getting started with living for myself and trying to help and make the world a better place by actually doing something rather than prayer. The only thing I miss about it is the false sense of security/helpfulness it offered. But they were false so it doesn’t truly matter. When I was a kid I used to have bad dreams all the time and was afraid of a lot of things. I prayed every night for god to “not let me have any bad dreams” and they stopped. I thought it was him but now I know I had the power in me to make that and all other things happen in my life on my own. So now, when I do achieve things I can actually take pride and not have to “give it back to god”. Truly empowering and while I’ve got a long way to go, I’m finally making progress and working towards my goals for myself without the placebo known as prayer. Thank you for all you guys do and keep up the good work. Binging through the podcast lately and it’s dope but as someone else in the comments said, these little editorial vids mean a lot too. Anyone that’s reading this, I hope you’re doing well and if not I hope you will soon. ✌🏻🖤
Basically yes but its on steroids. Imagine applying confirmation bias on EVERY OUTCOME POSSIBLE. It's genius, in a horrible way, which is why I think it's very hard for religious people to be convinced that prayer doesn't work. Prayer is unfalsifiable.
How prayer is justified in the believer's mind: “It doesn't always work, but it never completely fails, or put another way, 1% of the time it works every time."
the "maybe it's you" excuse fucked me up for so long and still messes with me... my best friend died, I prayed several times a day for MONTHS and he died. the only other excuse in a Christian ideology was that it was my fault
Kinda find it interesting(although it wasn’t a mass shooting) that one of the worst school massacres in the US happened before prayer was taken out of public school back in the 1920’s
Belief you're going to heaven actually increases the crime rate. Also it oppresses from pushing conformity when people pray out loud if others refuse to join in creating opportunity to bully or ostracize or such.
I talked to a Jehova's witness that actually told me that prayers don't even work, and that god doesn't respond to your prayers, because satan is in control of this world right now, and he doesn't want to interfere with satan's world. But this literally means that god handed over the earth to satan just to prove a point. So many people's suffering could've been avoided if god didn't a have an superiority complex. He is literally the most powerful being and needs validation from one of his angels. It's as if Jeff Bezos lent his position to a warehouse worker and let him run the company into the ground just to prove that the warehouse worker couldn't handle the responsibility of being a CEO. That's just pathetic.
Back when I was a kid growing up with Religion, I could pray till my mind went numb. I don't recall any of my silly kid prayers being answered. Not once. None of it made any sense and 50 years later, it still doesn't. I love my Freedom from Religion.
Imagine someone telling you their perfect master plan that somehow involve child abuse, cancer, poverty, genocide, famine and about all other type of injustice you could thing of.
When it came to prayer and having the Pastor's in my church tell everyone that we are not doing it right, not enough, we don't have faith, etc. It always made me feel guilty and never good enough. So it didn't make me want to try harder because I felt like no matter what it was never good enough because when I did my best it still wasn't good enough. Then one day my pastor said doing good enough will never be enough for God because your putting a limit on how well we are will to be good for God. Literally doesn't make sense but my parents ate that shit up.
Love the Tim Conway/I’ll Be Honest clips. I am trying to call attention to the toxicity of this organization myself. Your content is so much appreciated. It resonates with so many of us. Thank you!
I was that abused child. I prayed every single day for god to make me 'more obedient' so I would stop being beat. Or for my parents to be more merciful. Neither ever happened. I just got too big to legally smack around (my last 'spanking' was at 17. I highly suspect it only stopped because it would have become assault at 18)
"I prayed and asked God for a bike, but I remembered that's not how God works; so I stole a bike, and asked God for forgiveness."
Thanks for the laugh, my friend.
I believe that’s an Emo Phillips joke.
@@autonomouscollective2599 Gonna have to look this guy up now.
Toavs: Heheheheh... You know I know that's not original, but, man, it's hilarious just the same.
And I bet you he did cause you weren't arrested
Imagine just chilling in your living room and someone drives into it and said God sent them.
Thank you for noticing me
ʕ ꈍᴥꈍʔ
👉👈
The beginning of an action movie isekai
I would call the police
@@cameronwilsey9334 you would call the police if a car crashed into your house? Bro that’s messed up
@@Hchris101 If someone crashed into my house and were in a state of mind to tell me that god sent them, then yes I would call the cops. Because if they can tell me that they're probably not too injured and if they say something like that I can suspect they're high or something if the sort.
Man the more I learn about religions, the more I realize how much time they spend explaining why they don't work.
To build on the reply above, it's literally evolution. Religious ideas compete to survive, and what we see in the most established religions are the ideas that do best at gaining and keeping believers.
@@generatoralignmentdevalue Thats interesting never really thought of it like that but it makes sense.
A neverending flood of excuses.
@@nothanks6549 Well, well,
lets not talk down on Religion, shall we?
The 'plot holes' come from 'details made by Humans', after all.
Theres plenty of Healthy Theists, all around the Globe. So dont forget this.
...Though i have to say... people like 'Kent Hovind' outright
disgust me, to the point of vomitting...
@@nothanks6549 Yeah.
I didnt meant to say you were toxic.
I’m gonna give god a parenting lesson here. As a parent if my child asks me for something, possible options include
- granting their request
- without ambiguity, clearly articulating why the request cannot be granted
- clearly explaining what it would take to grant the request
- if it will take some time I do my best to provide a reasonable timeframe to which I can be held to account
Despite being a weak, squishy, not all powerful human without access to omnipotence and omniscience, I manage to use clear communication with words, in their language, verbally or by text.
I don’t just silently ignore them and hope they figure out the mysterious lesson I’m trying to teach them, or ignore them because they’re misbehaved and hope they introspectively figure that out. Coz Y’know, that would be shitty parenting.
As a parent, if your child was being abused by your neighbor, would you even wait to be asked to intervene? "God" is the exact opposite of a good parent.
BRAVO. 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
"Gawd" would be a PATHETIC human parent. A total DEADBEAT LOSER parent. Nobody would trust them with a child.
Abusive, neglectful, petulant, cruel, vicious, selfish...
All the people making EXCUSES for "gawd" are excusing abuse, exploitation and lying. That is who they are.
They "obey" those who promote abuse, fraud and exploitation.
Yeah, I’d call a child murdered a pretty bad parent (Kings 22:23)
You know you're a shitty god if a human can give better parenting lessons than a tri-omni being
Wish that you were God’s god.
My dad recorded a goodbye video the day before he past away, a couple hours before falling into a coma. I struggle to watch that video not so much because of grief, but because he talks about how “people may think he did not have enough faith or pray enough but god knows his heart and this must be his plan.” However, knowing my dad, I could see the doubt in his face. I had already deconverted a couple years before at that point but was still “in the closet” about it. I cannot tell you how unhelpful and honestly, infuriating, it is that people use that video to tell me how much my dad “loved god and trusted in his plan” like it’s a good thing. I see it as a tragic story of someone who was confused about how he had spent his life serving god (his was a missionary) and rewarded with a painful and early death.
Interesting.
The poor man. I'm so sorry that even at the end, he had to defend himself against people's suspicions that he died bc of lack of faith. Sounds like the story of Job's friends, blaming the dying man. I'm sorry they pulled that garbage on him.
@@peterpulpitpounder yeah, I’m not going to trust in something that doesn’t exist
My lack of belief in God isn’t to do with this event. It predates that and has to do with the lack of evidence. This was just an insult to injury.
I promise you, I know the Bible way better than you do. It was actually the more deeper I delved into it and learned apologetics to strengthen my faith that kickstarted my journey to unbelief. I went into it with the biased eyes of a believer, and god still failed the test
@@Likeicare96 So you think there is a lack of evidence for God? And you also guarantee that you "know the bible way better than I do?" I disagree, of course, with your former statement, and, um, that latter statement sounds extremely proud and quite arrogant, as you know nothing of the theological training I have received. The irony is that scores of people who delved "deeper" into the realm of theology/apologetics, etc., have come to the very opposite conclusion as yourself. These are bright, intelligent, well-read, educated, highly competent individuals who have had their faith strengthened and solidified in the process of probing the credibility of God and the Bible. And why do you think their conclusions were radically different than you own? That's something to ponder. Of course, both positions can't be correct. So, you now deem yourself to be a glorified frog, living, breathing and thinking, and all by time and chance? Wow, that's pretty inspiring. And you have a few days on earth to do whatever you want, before lapsing into non-existence and nothingness? Those gazillions of galaxies, with their gazillions of stars, just "popped" into existence all on their own? Hmmm, this godlessness of yours doesn't seem to have much in the way of that substance and proof you said the intelligent design position lacks. In fact, it's a rather silly, illogical, absurd and dark viewpoint, to say the least. Design demands a designer, and your own DNA is testimony to this fact.
@@peterpulpitpounder Hopefully this demonic mind cult will someday be expunged from your mind, and you can learn to live a real life instead of existing as a puppet; another vessel to facilitate the spread of this cancerous, mentally imprisoning cult.
Prayer: because god already knows what you want, he just wants to hear you beg for it.
And then does nothing about it 😂
"If he came to hear me beg, he will be disappointed."
Sounds kinky ngl
Precisely, that’s what you’re supposed to do in heaven anyways (at least according to the traditional theology) and prayer is just training you for that.
@@excalibur493 Are you sure?
I heard a quote from a video by the friendly atheist that I like. “Believing in God is like doing a group project where God does none of the work but gets all the credit”. I like this quote a lot because it reminds me of how I felt about prayer when I was Christian. Anything bad that happened wasn’t God’s fault but the things that you or the people around you worked hard to achieve is all Gods doing. When you think about it feels kind of messed up.
I remember seeing something like "Thank God the hurricane changed directions!" on Facebook once. It was a few years ago. But it was such an expert moment in "God fucks some people and not others based on your prayers."
I spoke to another Christian, who basically said she was okay if God murdered non-believers by the millions. Props to her standing for the strengths of her convictions. But I'm pretty sure that's how a lot of Christians see the whole prayer thing. The bad luck and chaos and suffering goes to people you don't like.
@@nothanks6549 that girl is my spirit animal and you cant change my mind
@@Droemar of course I seriously doubt a Christian cries and mourns when they hear of nonbelievers being killed, after all they’ve perfectly fine with believing nonbelievers will burn in hell just because they rejected god. But most have to pretend that their cult is all about love forgiveness and understanding.
@@nothanks6549 salute to that hero woman o7
It keeps you struggling to prove yourself to yourself so you will be forever emotionally handicapped and have to use God as a crutch
I grew up in a church that taught mental illness was demonic oppression or possession. Growing up with an intense fear of hell and demons didn't help my anxiety as you can imagine. Because I had no way of knowing what anxiety or depression actually was, (growing up taught psychology was basically witchcraft) when I would feel overwhelmed to the point of a panic attack, I believed it was a demon trying to get into my soul, which made the panic attack 10 times worse. I used to pray on my knees every night, begging for God to take my mental illness from me, but it would never leave. There was nothing more dehumanizing then praying for something fervently for years, while everyone, family especially, would blame the unanswered prayer on your own lack of faith.
I appreciate your videos so much, thank you for posting!
This what happens when you take religion over science you take a trip to the dark ages just kidding.
@@marvelous971-j6m Hard to take a side against your parents when you're 13, and they won't let you have any other influences in your life. but yeah I'm in my 20's now, I've been an atheist for 4 years.
@@InkedRequiem thats alright i wasnt making fun of you.I was making fun of the church leaders. That was in your church.
@@InkedRequiem hope you find a new family
I grew up being taught the exact same thing. It was a "spiritual issue." I hope you found the peace you were looking for... I feel ten times better, but now I am a lost soul trying to figure it out all over again.
my current wallpaper: “Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.” - Markus Aurelius
Being good is good, no matter what.
That much is kinda obvious.
Makes me wonder though:
If you want to live good and help others,
why dont you use the reportbutton of youtube?
I mean, that button exists... and open racism,
obvious sexism,
p0rn,
n-dity,
Scammer,
spam-bots,
and fusions of the listed,
all exist.
??
@@loturzelrestaurant I suppose that would be the "internet warrior" equivalent of smiting evil where it stands. Another type of good.
@@nucleargoofball8043
Not really.
I mean, Cancel-Culture does have its 180 Degree Opposite - didnt you knew?
?
@@nucleargoofball8043
'At least' its 'objectively good' to destroy Spam-Bots... obviously...
That much is the very least and most obvious, and if your stuck at that level, ok, fine for you,
but i am a bit above that, tbh.
After 26 years of waiting for an answer from God, he finally answered my prayer last night;
I said: God, if its your will that I become an atheist, say nothing........... Well amen!
Can't argue with that. Makes sense
I did that when I was seven.
I LOOOOVE being an atheist SO much. It's so liberating and filled with REAL truth!!!!
@@amandafey fax
😂
If prayer works, it means either god can be swayed by human desires, or that god requires begging before he heals baby cancer. Both of which are horrifying
Related but not blood-related Topic (if you allow me):
Not enough people use the reportbutton of youtube.
Maybe because 'Cancel-Culture' scared them so much that they know (wrongly) think that Abuse of the System 'existing' means they 'cant cannot' abuse the System themselves... which is of course dumb...
So yeah: I wished more people would do as originally intended: Help UA-cam.
Finding obvious Racists,
Open Sexism,
Scammer or spam-Bots,
is actually fairly easy, tbh.
...Why not give it a Try? A Try to help out?
@@loturzelrestaurant I’ve reported a good few spammer bots in my time lol
@@emilybarclay8831 Cool.
But i dare to daringly ask in a daringly manner: ...Why not do more? Can you?
@@emilybarclay8831 Just this week, i got some Big screaming Covid-Deniers removed,
so why not join the Fun?
When my aunt passed away (she was my mother figure, raised my sister and I) she was battling cancer. She passed away and that Sunday I went to church and the pastors wife came up to me saying she was praying for my aunt and knew she was going to be healed. I told her she passed away and her face went blank. She didn't even know what to say. I was so shocked that someone so "spiritual" could be so wrong... I knew her intensions were for good, but it was just so shocking.
@@nothanks6549 thank you! It was, especially thinking that praying could heal her. It's something I still struggle with to this day.
@@wiseowl3 she pretty much just said, oh I'm so sorry and moved on.
It's all bollocks,there are no Gods.
And turned your back on God for turning his back on you; I get it...
The word "knew" is the worst...she automatically said knew your loved one was going to be healed instead of asking how she was or asking if there was anything she could do to help.
I almost never prayed because I was told that God was omnipresent and always knew what was in my heart. Prayer just felt like God forcing me to say "please"
And asking God to change his mind. Even Jonah was miffed when God decided to spare Nineveh when Nineveh repented.
This is a very good point Brian.
At least according to the Catholic theology I was taught, that’s the whole point. You’d be kissing his butt and sing praises for eternity if you made it to heaven so prayer is just training for that.
@@monus782 lol, like school training you to be a employee
Can I just say how much I hate the phrase "give me a wife". She's a human being, not a chocolate bar.
yeah, but still,
can you imagine, "give me a wife!"
and then a beautiful woman wearing nothing but a ribbon wrapping that says "i'm yours"
what a treat, eh?
What if you ask Good for a husband as a man? How does that paradox work?
Well, well,
lets not talk down on Religion, shall we?
The 'plot holes' come from 'details made by Humans', after all.
Theres plenty of Healthy Theists, all around the Globe. So dont forget this.
...Though i have to say... people like 'Kent Hovind' outright
disgust me, to the point of vomitting...
@@loturzelrestaurant yeah i always say religion has no power on its own, humans write it and interpret it to suit whatever their intentions are to begin with. If there were no religion humans would still suck.
I got tired of praying to God, for an honest, loving, supporting, & respectful wife. Such women, are like the mythical unicorn, they may exist, but the likelihood of finding, & making such a being your partner...well let's just say, lightning will strike you first, before that happens.
That's why I chose the waifu laifu, instead. She may not be real, in the traditional sense, but neither is unconditional love from a woman, or that of a God, for that matter.
Prayer does work. I once prayed for god to never allow anyone else's prayers to ever come true, unless of course they prayed for something that could naturally occur on it's own (i.e rain on a cloudy day, chemo patient's cancer going away, etc), and sure enough my prayer was answered. Praise be too he.
The whole "haven't prayed enough" thing really destroyed me as a Christian. I used to really struggle with prayer because I always felt like I wasn't saying enough, so I just had to keep on praying until it felt right... which can take a long time... Also, I'm still loving these videos
Same. I am bipolar and it was undiagnosed until my adulthood, so my teenage years were spent with me wondering what was wrong with me and I thought I must just not be a good enough Christian. I was constantly praying these elaborate really long prayers. Sometimes I would fall asleep praying and then wake up feeling like I must have let Satan lure me into sleep (bipolar paranoia can be a real bitch, especially when you add religion to it). I would be praying for every person I ever said I would pray for. Praying for forgiveness for anything I may have possibly done wrong. I spent countless hours in a prayer journal. I prayed with friends at the Christian Club after school. I'm glad he's doing videos like these. It helps with some of my healing from religion and I'm sure others can say the same.
Ah, prayer, the art of not doing something good, while thinking you're putting in effort.
If God is real problem is people treat him like a genie, ready to grant every wish
@@youtoo2233 The real problem is "God" wont even grant the wish to tell you that he's there, so you know that you aren't just praying to yourself. Almost like he's not there, and you *are* just praying to yourself. No wonder God always agrees with his followers so long as they move with the herd.
That's awful they said that. It also implies that it's the suffering person who has the ultimate power (it's not God's will at all, it's that whichever John/Jane Doe hasn't prayed enough or they'd automatically be happy). If me praying enough could get me everything, that's just the prosperity gospel all over again.
When people tell me that I never was truly Christian, all I can say is that I spent a lot of gut wrenching hours on my knees trying to make it work for me. I think maybe I always knew that I was atheist in the same way I have always known I am gay. Prayer, no matter hard I tried, always felt forced, fake, and futile. Other believers would come out of a prayer meeting exclaiming how strong the Spirit of the Lord had been present, and I thought, "Where? When? How come I missed it?"
To me, being a child in Church, was terrifying as I was very afraid of God. Later, as an older child and as a teen, it often felt like being in the asylum: I'd look around to everyone swaying with emotion over Jesus and go, "holy shit, they've all took leave of their senses!". Occasionally, it was funny enough. More often than not, it was truly scary. Because there were so many of them.
It is a really strange idea to me to pray up to someone. Like, how can you feel good after submitting and begging someone to show you mercy?
Like, I can imagine praying adjacently, or making requests. But praying up is so strange.
@@Nocturnalux so, idk if you know what pentacostal do in church, but it's honestly one step down from snake handling.... my parents were never religious, but each come from VERY southern baptist families. Since they were on a mission to save my soul, I ended up going to church with my grandma a lot. When I was 11 or 12 and was allowed to sit in service with her, the speaking in tongues, passing out, truly terrifying!
When anyone tells me I never was truly christian, I tell them "Neither were you." The more self righteous they are, the bigger the hypocrite they are.
@@madisoncannoles4907 Oh, I can well imagine that.
I was introduced to that kind of craziness around age 13 when the hotel my family was spending the holidays in had access to TBN. It blew my mind. I would laugh until I fell out of my seat but every now then, I'd think, "but being in that congregation must be TERRIFYING".
Honestly, if it were me, I'd probably try to blend in because just the thought of all those holy rollers zeroing in on the one person who isn't slayed in the spirit is utterly terrifying.
Did you try to go along with the madness?
Always counter-pray other people's prayers. It's way more successfull
But I want doughnuts :.(
@@skygard49 Then counterpray the counterprayers....checkmate athiests.
@@skygard49 I just prayed that you don’t get donuts sorry bud the the OP said too
"God, if it's your will to let John win the lottery, let it be. But we will trust you whatever the outcome and know that you provide for us."
Aka, "John stfu. God ain't gonna give you that."
@@j.kaimori3848 that sounds exactly like some people I know when they're praying about someone's terminal injury/illness. aka "yeah we know the medically proven outcome, but at least we tried praying just in case"
I'm a trans woman. When I was younger, before I fully understood what I was feeling or what being trans is, I used to pray that I would wake up as a girl. When that didn't work after years, I prayed that I wouldn't feel the way I did, because it made me hate myself and my life and I was told that it was wrong to feel that way. It never worked. Now, years later, I'm an atheist and a woman and happier than I've ever been. That wasn't any god that made that happen. It was me.
Glad I wasn’t the only one. 😅
Oh my goodness a fellow sister!
And having you discovering that for yourself is god’s wisdom manifesting in the plan he had for you (is the mental gymnastics a religious person would try and do)
@@Legorreta.M.D a religious person would prob say smth more along the lines of "this is not God's plan for you, he made you a specific gender so you should just stay that way and not try to change and alter his creation for you are fearlessly and wonderfully made in His image...you may enjoy you temporary time here on earth now but you will burn and be tortured in hell later forever..." totally wasn't told stuff like that before...
@@Legorreta.M.D you had us in the first half ngl
One time I went to church with my partner and they had a missionary lady talking about her experience in Africa with her family. They were not very successful so the lady prayed to God asking what she had to do to start converting people. Apparently she had a dream which she thought symbolized her husbands death. She and her family prayed for months for her husbands health. Her husband later got cancer and died. She told their story and somehow got a lot of people to convert. So her whole message was basically “god” made her SACRIFICE HER HUSBAND so they could push religion on a couple people who would be fine without it. Even more fucked up everyone clapped afterwards and didn’t seem to realize how screwed up that is. It seriously pissed me off.
That is disgusting. I'm sorry for her and her family.
Yea that’s not a Christian way of thinking that lady doesn’t understand proper theology
The podcast is fun, but I want to express how much I enjoy these features, and how much I appreciate the amount of work and effort goes into the script and editing. I appreciate the personal perspective you bring to these videos.
I second that and I only subscribed about a couple months ago
Poggers channel
Agreed. These pieces are uplifting and encouraging in all the ways church tried and never quite succeeded in. Thanks for this 👍
Yeah. Totally agree. LOVE the podcast. Also very excited when I see a new video essay. I'm A huge fan of the pop culture clips punctuating the points.
This, very much. I feel like the podcast is largely commiserating, which is important, but these pieces define the channel.
One thing about prayer that didn't occur to me while I was a Christian: we only pray for things that could come to us naturally, without supernatural intervention. For example, we might pray for money to fix a broken window, but we don't pray for the glass to become whole again. We pray for a cure to a disease but not for the return of an amputated limb. It's as if we are subconsciously doing our part to help perpetuate the myth that praying works.
Mark 11:22-24 22"Have faith in God," Jesus answered. 23"Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. 24Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
@@DBAnthony009 Are you suggesting that broken glass can be supernaturally returned to wholeness by requesting it in a prayer?
@@TimH-pu2dd This, any many more things can be done by prayer. This generation fails to understand the power of God, so they do not understand the power of prayer. Do you not believe in the most high? With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.
@@DBAnthony009 Let me know how to verify that is true, and I will believe it.
@@TimH-pu2dd It has already been verified to you. For our own existence without God, is impossible. But with the lord it is possible. To formulate such a question, is proof of God's will. Have faith in God, and much will be revealed. Have a great day! (I used to be an atheist as well).
15:37 That's disgusting. Imagine making someone feel like maybe they are the reason God might let their mom die. Absolutely despicable. I don't even think that's biblical. Doesn't the Bible say that you only need faith "the size of a mustard seed"?
also says that "if two or more are gathered the prayer is being heard" so I don't think it would have mattered if one of them didn't have faith. if one of the brothers had faith, and the prayer group had faith it woulda been done. the contradictions those people make are horrible :(
More evidence that the bible is man made.
And, to put this on the children that are already having to deal with the trauma of losing a parent! It's truly disgusting.
How does one measure the size of your faith? Faith isn't a physical thing, so even that doesn't make any sense.
@@quietone2674 this is supposed to be a metaphore :v
***trigger warning***
That one about the abuse really hit home for me. I used to sit up & cry my eyes out begging to God to help me escape my abuser who was also my step father. Nothing ever happened & I just felt like I was crying out to no one who was ever listening. After 13 years I was finally able to escape with no help from some miracle or higher power … but from me finally getting the courage to come out with my story & take him to court. Everyone prayed for him to get found guilty , he was found not guilty. Everyone prayed for my mom to be cured of her cancer, mom still died. The whole thing is nuts.
Can't even count how many times I prayed for my mental illnesses to go away and they did not. Still have them but getting actual mental health care from trained professionals helps a lot more than prayer ever did.
When I was a child, I always wondered why god wouldn’t answer my prayers for help when I was being sexually abused by my stepfather and stepbrothers. I remember praying so hard to god to keep them from coming into my bedroom at night. Maybe it wasn’t god’s will and I HAD to be molested?
Hey lala, as a Christian I’m just going to start off by saying that this is absolutely disgusting what they did to you and god absolutely did not want that to happen to you. The devil was working in your step brothers and father and it was just terrible. God loves and cares for you and can heal you from the emotional pain you’ve been dealing with!!! Never doubt the lord!
@@braedenthetitan7556 wow
@@braedenthetitan7556 there's a time and a place to preach about God, and this is absolutely not the time.
@@braedenthetitan7556 dude read the room
@@braedenthetitan7556 you are seriously disgusting.
"Why do you only talk to me when things are bad?"
I dunno, God, you saddled me with original sin and told me I'm hellbound without You, so maybe it's your fault things are little dark.
Haha, just kidding, I'm agnostic and not Christian.
😆I’ve got the same sentiments .. also agnostic haha
FATHER, SON AND HOLY SPIRIT!! Brother, please repent and your soul may be forgiven. Ha ha, just kidding, I'm catholic, but not a fanatic.
Lol
@@Questionablexfun I am atheist I believe. I am not sure the difference between agnostics and atheists, but I believe agnostics are a little less certain and more neutral than atheists? Is it like, atheists believe that there is reason to believe there is no god until evidence appears, but agnostics have little opinion until good evidence appears?
If anyone wants to join in, please do, as I am curious.
things are usually bad my holy dude, maybe if I was happier I'd have more time for a casual chat
When i was still a Christian, one of the things that haunted me for years was the death of one of my closest friends' mother.
I was a dumb kid who believed in God and was convinced that if you 'ask and it shall be given unto you', God will answer. She was in the hospital, and i told my friend that she didn't have to worry, because i was praying for her mam and that meant everything would be okay. You can probably guess what happened that night
The guilt over promising that to my friend and our failing ended up pushing me into a depression that lasted years. There were other factors ofc, but i remember everything feeling shitty after that. And then every time my friend expressed any atheist belief, I would blame myself for being so stupid as to promise something like that and make her unable to trust God
Im over it now, but damn that guilt was painful
That's a horrible experience. I just want to point out, you weren't a dumb kid, you were indoctrinated. You were just acting according to how you were taught. I'm glad you realized that and moved past the guilt tho
@@bigtimebutterbaron8873 your comment is much appreciated, but tbh i was a dumb kid whether religion had been there or not lol
Well, well,
lets not talk down on Religion, shall we?
The 'plot holes' come from 'details made by Humans', after all.
Theres plenty of Healthy Theists, all around the Globe. So dont forget this.
...Though i have to say... people like 'Kent Hovind' outright
disgust me, to the point of vomitting...
I'll trash talk religion all I want. Does it give some people hope? Sure, I'm happy they're happy
But as soon as religion is allowed to gain power in society, its conservative elements (who are, frankly, the most politically motivated people) inevitably take power. I was hurt, and abused by religion, and the response of religious folks to me leaving is to claim that I'm 'immoral' or 'really do believe in God', or am a 'fool'.
Religion kills. Religion crushes human freedom. Liberal Christians/Muslims/Jews are only liberal because of the secularised societies we live in; its no surprise that even those strands of religion only became accepting of gay people, for example, after secular civil rights movements.
Im sorry but however many 'healthy' religious folk there are, as soon as religion is allowed the place in society it used to have, it will empower the unhealthy ones
@@carlbradley3175 Religion made me 5x stupider not gonna lie
I've always liked Picard's line in TNG: "It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life."
That’s a quote from a united states president i’m pretty sure lol.
One of my common prayers as a kid was asking for the wisdom of Solomon. Nearly 20 years later, I'm an atheist. Either my prayer was answered and it led me to atheism, or prayers don't get answered.
i used to ask god to give me "the gift of discernment". it was the top "godly gift" i asked for.
after coming to my own conclusions, i became an agnostic. god works in mysterious ways indeed lmao
I did too!!
Considering how the tale of Solomon ends, with him turning to false gods, the answer might actually be that atheism was the wisdom.
If god “has a plan for you” meaning your destiny is determined beforehand. Why do we even pray? The future is determined already, how could it change because you pray?
Paradox.
I've heard it said that God looks into the future to see if you'll pray for certain things and adjusts your destiny accordingly. Not a perfect explanation, but I think it's p creative.
@@rgfella Yeah, I've heard that one. Problem is that god seeing into your future and knowing that you'll pray still locks you into a future where you'll pray or not. Therefore people have no free will and prayer still can't change anything because you didn't choose to pray.
@@MrYondaime1995
The cookie-cutter response being that God knowing the future doesn't mean he causes it.
I always find it funny when you can tell that a person listens to apologists because they say the same responses every time XD
Anybody who believes in answered prayers involving another person doesn't reeeeeally believe in free will.
@@rgfella Just because God knows the future also doesn't mean he didn't cause it...
When I was a child, I was a spiritist. My mom woke up with a huge headache, and wanting for her to feel better, I prayed so her headache would go away. And she did get better. Because while I was praying she got painkillers. I honestly heard a response that day, but even then, I wondered if I imagined a response. Now I know it was my imagination
Well, well,
lets not talk down on Religion, shall we?
The 'plot holes' come from 'details made by Humans', after all.
Theres plenty of Healthy Theists, all around the Globe. So dont forget this.
...Though i have to say... people like 'Kent Hovind' outright
disgust me, to the point of vomitting...
@@loturzelrestaurant I wasn't talkng down on religion, instead, i was simply sharing a story from my childhood. Though i do believe that it causes more harm than good.
I agree that there are plenty of healthy theists around the globe. doesn't change the fact that there are plenty more theists that use their religion to be prejudiced, just like Kent Hovind.
Anyway, hope the best for you mate.
@@gabrielfiore8847 I see.
Well, i never meant to accuse you of being toxic.
@@gabrielfiore8847 Kent Hovind is so bad that he should honestly get reported...
@@loturzelrestaurant quit copy /pasting a dumb comment instead of actually reading and responding like an actual person
As a priest in the Church of the Algorithm, I bless this video with a comment.
Lol
Amen 😌
Praise be to the almighty algorithms
Praise be the all powerful algorithms.
Praise our Lady of Perpetual Exemption, amen.
I remember hearing of an experiment conducted within a hospital with two groups. One group that was treated normally, acting as the control group. The other group that was treated just the same, but was also prayed for. At the end of the experiment, the mortality rates, recoveries, etc had no significant deviance between the two. Prayer didn't help. The Christians' response?
"You can't put God in a bottle."
When you pray: Sometimes things work sometimes they don't.
When you don't pray: Sometimes things work sometimes they don't.
I love the "stories" that are a result of prayer. I'm not suspicious at all....
@@nothanks6549 I was a Christian for about 28 years. Was even a missionary during that time and even worked in ministry. The only story I got was when I was a missionary in Haiti I taught English at a local village school and needed a translator (for the creole speakers). So I prayed for one and lo'an behold a guy showed up willing to translate for me. I thought it a miracle and an answer to prayer. I look back at that now and totally see it in a different, slightly more cynical light.
@@nothanks6549 Your story reminds me of a guy I talked to who swears he could turn the street light outside of his house on just by looking at it.
Turns out he was a man of habit and always happened to be at his kitchen window (from which the street light was visible) at dusk and just happened to look at it when it was coming on.
Our brains are dumb. Useful. But very dumb.
Confirmation bias is strong in religious circles. Remembering the couple of times something really remarkable happens, and not paying attention to the hundreds of times it falls flat. Now that I don't believe I still have those remarkable things happen every great once in awhile. It's just life, not a Christian thing.
I like to imagine if two opposing football teams pray to god he flips a coin to determine who wins lol
Funny that in the Bible there was a battle where one side prayed to the Abrahamic god. To the point he assured them unambiguous and total victory.
The other side prayed to a local fishing deity named Chemosh (and may or may not have performed a sacrifice depending on the author) and then absolutely *slaughtered* the abrahamic god's forces. Like, massive casualties and had to flee the territory level of casualties.
So the lesson from the bible in this instance is:
Fishing Deities can beat up Yaweh for lunch money whenever they feel like it.
Ah, but what if there are more better, more righteous, and more faithful Christians on one side, and just lukewarm ones on the other? Yeah, certainly God makes the more righteous win, every time.
@@rudra62 In the end of the day... God has confirmation bias towards those who pray harder even how wicked their prayer was
@@haruhirogrimgar6047 kemosh had the home team advantage and yahweh's head wasn't really in the game
As a kid I used to think, why didn’t they just turn the entire ocean water into holy water?
Well, in my memory, we in Canada never had prayer in school, and we've had almost 0 school shootings EVER. So...... yeah. Not sure what God is doing for you.
Maybe if they pray harder then school shooting will end.
Wrong god, see the god of Amerika is a vengeful god aka blood god. It needs to be appease thru sacrifice. Which always amazed me that christians seem to not understand. I guess when your making stuff up and hatting women at the same time makes for dull thinking.
Canadian schools have murdered hundreds of native children over the course of a century so hmmmmmmmmmmmm
God lives in Canada and His Power don't extend to the far far land of America?
@@marvelous971-j6m "Shout louder, maybe your god is sleeping!" - Elijah
You should have so many more subs.
Religious Trauma Survivors need your message.
Your story about your mom really resonated with me and reminded me of my own: When recently reflecting on my time as a believer, I finally realized “the moment” when I stopped believing. My Southern, Christian family had sent me to this summer church camp every year since I was 5, and I loved going. When I was 10 or 11, my great grandfather got very sick while I was at camp. My GG and I were very close, and this was the first time that I was actually aware that a beloved family member was dying. So I did what any good Christian kid would do, and I fervently prayed for him, skipping fun activities with my friends to sit in the Chapel and pray. For weeks, I put his name into the the prayer request box, hoping that if I prayed enough, God would heal him or at least keep him around long enough so that I could say goodbye once camp was over.
One night, we had some sort of special ceremony where we were told to scribble our deepest, most sincere prayer on a piece of paper that we then placed in a burning vat of candles so our prayers would be sent directly to God. I still vividly remember sitting on the ground with my friends, praying and watching the candles even after everyone else left. I was convinced that God would hear my prayers. After all, I had done everything “right,” according to what I was taught.
Later that same evening, one of the camp counselors found me playing with my friends outside and took me back to our cabin. They had news for me. My great grandfather had just died, and my aunt would pick me up in the morning so I could attend the funeral. The counselor left me alone to pack my things. I was devastated, feeling abandoned and scorned by the God who I had been begging to help for weeks. I remember staring up at the ceiling on my top bunk, hiding from the other kids when they came back from bed. They were happy, talking about what they had prayed for and if it had come true yet. I cried myself to sleep.
Despite my family’s persuasion, I never went back to camp nor spoke with any of my friends from there again. Looking back on it, I was definitely traumatized. I never really prayed again after that, and when I had a mini religious revival in high school, I fell out of that phase pretty quickly as the act of praying always felt so uncomfortable like I was talking to a brick wall. It wasn’t until years later when I made the summer camp connection that I understood why praying only felt performative for me.
If you’ve read this far, I hope this story can help someone else understand their relationship with faith better. And thanks for a great video!
“Grace? She died 30 years ago!” Love that whole dinner scene!
A bit random, but i wanted to
ask some people:
Did you know youtube has a reportbutton?
As well as Open Racists, P0rn and Scammer?
I mean, why not combine those facts in the
most obvious way? Its kinda a not-very-hard Puzzle.
?
I struggled with addiction while I was still a believer. I remember fervently praying for relief for years and years. I once asked my Christian based therapist what I should do to address my addiction: she said I should pray about it. My faith was dissolving at that point and that comment was one of the final moments that turned me away for good.
I’ve been an atheist for quite a few years now and it’s strange how prayer is still somewhat present. Prayer was an outlet for emotion and pain that I so frequently engaged in. I will find myself occasionally talking to myself in an imitation of prayer. I lack the belief in a higher power but I still have wishful desires that I express in my head. Being raised with these beliefs certainly leave their mark on you
Edit: spelling error
I realize now the irony of the term, Christian based therapist. My first therapist was one out of a Christian private practice and while I look back and realize I was somewhat lucky because at least she was a real mental health professional who knew what she was talking about and used actual terminology one learns in collegiate study...you know, science. Many who fall into this category don't. The real problem was when this gal started to do what in the "real world" of the mental health profession is absolutely considered unethical...trying to connect with me on various social media sites. I learned some time later that is a HUGE no no of line crossing ethics.
@@jenniferhiemstra5228 I know it's been a minute since you posted this, but I had to share this, after reading it. I had some surgeries in 2012 that unfortunately, resulted in my dependency on painkillers. In April 2015, I did a 28 day rehab, & out patient treatment for 5 years after. I'm not dragging that treatment ctr., it had different group meetings available, art class, and individual therapy (& tests for accountability). My counselor for the first 2 years was great.... But, she left and was replaced with one from a private Christan university, who basically said that my "problem" was turning away from god. She required me to bring her church programs each week from a church I attended, as well as switch my nonreligious group meetings on Sundays to go to the 'christian women's bible' group on Thursdays. Seriously.
Of course, I voiced my opinions about it to the powers that be, and I only had to endure a month of it..... But as you can imagine, I didn't have much confidence in my that counselor's abilities afterwards.
@@madisoncannoles4907 WOWOWOWOWOWOWOW….as a Christian, I’m so sorry…that counselor has NO business in the profession because real mental health and addiction professionals understand that addiction is a disease and needs to be treated as such so you and others like you, can get the help they need. But…you have to first perceive it as a disease before you can treat it.
There is a line of “ethics” that can’t be crossed and speaking about religious beliefs is another one of them. My best friend is a mental health professional and Christian but has said that unless the patient brings up or asks about religious beliefs, it’s another big ethical no-no. In the end, mental health is just like physical health. It’s a science but it’s still in its infancy in comparison to physical health, there’s still a lot that the profession is learning about it.
And I’ll just say it again…I’m so very sorry that you had a counselor who clearly didn’t learn (or doesn’t care) about any of that, being told
that you “turned from God” isn’t validating of helpful 💔
I feel this, I became a buddhist because they had answers to my questions and the process of zen meditation made me able to cope with the silence of prayer.like in buddhism, they acknowledge God may exist but don't really try to pin him down with a description or through direct contact. If you ask a Buddha about what God it like, they will shrug their shoulders lol.
God has always been silent to me ☹☹ 🤷♂️🤷♂️
I hope you're doing better now :)
Prayer was something I struggled with for almost all my life as a believer, mostly because when it clearly wasn't working, I felt like I was doing it wrong. Thing is, I didn't blame myself for that. I got angry because I felt like I was being set up to fail. I was never told "the right way to pray," only the words. I asked so many people, looked it up, and not only did every. Single. Person. Have a DRASTICALLY different and often nonsensical answer to "how to pray properly," but it often was just rambling nonsense! I've since come to realize how much Christians really love speaking only in irrelevant metaphor to dissuade people from realizing that this stuff doesn't make any sense when you try to think about it through the subject itself, but that was probably the worst case of it for me.
At the end of my faith, prayer was something that...I ironically enough, prayed for. That someday I would learn how to do this faith stuff right, and hoped that when I got older, I'd be more religious. It never happened. Just got more nerve-wracking and anxiety-inducing when I tried to pray for anything.
I don't recall ever wanting to get something out of praying. I know I wouldn't do it unless asked to and that's probably where I honed my BSing skills. But I do remember not understanding what one was supposed to do while praying and receiving the same kind of contradictory and non-sense answers you mention.
"What do I do?"
"Talk to god."
"About what?"
"Anything."
"But that could be literally anything. How am I supposed to choose?"
"(exasperated noises)"
For me, all of this just reinforces the idea that what people are actually getting out of their supernatural beliefs isn't what they typically say they are getting out of it. All of the apologetics are just post hoc rationalizations.
@@rainbowkrampus To me if feels like praying is a bit unnecessary. I've been told you cant just pray to get what you want but actively work for it. Nice sentiment, but this leaves a question: "If all I have to do is work for it, what's the point in praying then?"
It seems like an unnecessary step. Kinda like a vestigial organ. It's there it's not hurting much but it doesn't do anything either and its kinda just there I guess.
So at the end of the day instead of god making it happen, it was YOU. YOU made it happen on YOUR own or the ppl around you who can actively and actually change something. That feels so rewarding.
@@justcallmekai1554 Yeah, I consider it one of the more nefarious aspects of christianity.
It teaches you to devalue your own effort and give credit to an imaginary dude.
As someone who still believes in the Christian God, I always struggled with prayer as well. Since I was little, I was never just still and I always played with my hands and opened my eyes slightly only to close them again and feeling ashamed for opening them. Till this day, I haven't been able to pray regularly due to the fact that I almost always feel like crap for praying
@@lucy_kitty_chan447 It sounds like you might be experiencing some anxiety in association with praying.
Even when people deconvert, their experiences and anxieties and trauma still follow them around.
This sort of thing doesn't just go away on its own typically.
Fortunately, it can go away with effort. We have things like therapy and even anti-anxiety medications which can help us come to terms with our negative thoughts and/or feelings and then find strategies to move beyond them so they no longer affect us as strongly or even at all.
I've seen a lot of people over the years treat these sorts of issues dismissively or (imo) worse, try to pray them away. I've never seen positive results from this. I've seen many positive outcomes when people decide they want to take control over their negative emotions for themselves and seek help from a licensed therapist to do so.
I'd recommend as a first step looking more into the experiences of people with religious trauma. You might find some stories or feelings which resonate with you. Here's an article where several people recount their experiences. newrepublic.com/article/161772/can-religion-give-ptsd
I prayed, pleaded, begged, fasted, and cried out for "god" to deliver me from my abusive home. I even made the effort to keep myself in church, but nothing happened.
I had to stand up, and become my own hero. I got myself out of that situation, without him.
"They have the right to pray, I don't think there's anything more important than that." I would argue that the right *not* to pray is up there too.
I was stuck in a situation years ago where I prayed for MONTHS asking for God to help me get rid of my constant suicidal thoughts. Only because that's all my catholic school told me to do when I asked them for help; "Just pray it away." Been faithful for all of my life at that point, literally crying and screaming for the simplest relief of pain. I thought if what's is God's path is supposed to happen cause he knows what's best and having no sign or anything, I did attempt. The simplest request after having faith for so long only to get a "lol no" led me to question everything for once and I'm glad you share your experiences and more info on the church because it's giving more peace than k-12 catholic school ever did.
They say faith can move mountains and prayer works. Ive yet to see a single mountain moved or any amputee healed...
Im still waiting for a chirstain to rise a died person.
They routinely decapitate mountains in coal country. It's highly destructive and polluting. So maybe moving mountains is not always a good thing
Love how god answers small daily things but not when all the people died of starvation in history praying for food
I was a Christian about 5 years ago. I was almost finished nursing school when my marriage fell apart. I prayed and prayed for God to renew my marriage, but eventually we separated and then divorced. I heard a lot of these excuses why prayer didn't work, but there's another one to add to the list - you made your marriage into an idol, so God had to take it away. That one was not only ridiculous, but really hurtful, and it puts God in a really bad light. Over the next couple years I felt like my faith didn't make sense anymore, and now I'm an atheist - my divorce was part of the reason. I felt like I was being screwed over.
On top of that, as a Christian I was supposed to give God all the credit for my success in school. When I lost my faith, I gained the realization that I'm the one who made it possible to become a nurse. THAT is far more empowering.
You just didn't understand God told you to leave that man....
@@tulip811 I'm a man, my wife left.
That kind of goes against what God says about marriage.
"We prayed over the football field and no one got injured."
Meanwhile god is giving kids cancer and letting his guys touch their altar boys. Gotta keep those football players safe though.
But theys werent thuh reaal cristchians!
theys was pagan satanists cathalics!!!
The only real christians go to my local baptist church.
@@JohanKylander "And thus the Lord said: "only true Christians go to this one small weird smelling rural church in southern Ohio"
I find praying is a good outlet for your feelings like writing in a journal (prayer journals are a thing too), doing audio journals, or doing meditation. I don't do it often except in times of great fear, and it eases my nerves a bit. It was never a habit instilled in me as a child though, despite having a religious family. It's horrible to blame someone for not praying hard enough. That's not guilt anyone needs on their mind.
That's a really healthy way to pray.
God: "Now that you've all prayed enough, I'll stop all the school shootings."
*Turns all the guns in America into Bibles*
Americans: "Noooooooooo!"
Lmao at least that's an actual improvement
@@karlazeen worst comes to worst, the killing sprees will have to be conducted via blunt biblical force. which is far more entertaining and slightly more destructive than guns.
I'd rather keep the guns; the fucking Bible's killed far more people and caused more widespread damage.
@@melopuss375 Mozgus would be proud.
@@ahorseofcourse7283 How about nothing at all
Oh, victim blaming when prayers aren't answered! Sure love that.
You said everything on my mind in this video so thanks haha ^^
I love your video editing style and all the cool movie and show clips 💕
Maybe there is no god. :) [of the bible]
Well, well,
lets not talk down on Religion, shall we?
The 'plot holes' come from 'details made by Humans', after all.
Theres plenty of Healthy Theists, all around the Globe. So dont forget this.
...Though i have to say... people like 'Kent Hovind' outright
disgust me, to the point of vomitting...
@@loturzelrestaurant The healthy theists don't subscribe to or believe in the parts of religion worth talking down on. Surely you recognize the atrocities in the Abrahamic faiths if you're honest.
Sometimes I come and rewatch these videos because they’re soothing to me. I have a lot of trauma that came from trying to believe in a religion that didn’t make sense to me. A lot of trauma from praying and never seeming to get an answer. These videos have become therapeutic for me, and I hope everyone who’s struggled in their transition from believer to nonbeliever can find these videos.
I love watching deconversion videos, too, from time to time. Very soothing and cathartic. I have a very significant amount of religious trauma, as well as religious abuse, which I don't think I'll ever get over.... and maybe I don't want to, because then that means that what happened was okay. Which it WASN'T.
I'm sure my dad told me his father lost his faith in WW2. He had prayed for the bombs to stop and yet they still came. The amount of suffering he saw turned him away forever.
"This is reminding me of that gun episode of Bojack".
*Uses a Clip from said episode*
"Am I a god?"
maybe you are!
"He better have that line show up in this video."
*it does*
"As you should."
I don't know man, you gonna answer our prayers?
As someone deconstructing right now, this made me tear up. Thanks for putting out this content, it really helps
The weirdest prayer story I ever heard was an anecdote I was told by someone in church when I was about 12 or 13. He told me a pastor of a struggling church asked god to remove the obstacles that were holding the church back. That same week, the pastor died and the church subsequently flourished. Morbid lesson in “be careful what you wish for” I guess.
Sounds like a Twilight Zone episode.
@@martin2289 - If it's not, maybe it should be. 🤣
I had surgery earlier this year. My last statement before I went under was "Doctor. I trust you, your knowledge, your experience and your skill."
It never crossed my mind to pray.
I see prayer as a compassionate gesture, but praying for someone calls into question several things:
1. If God can help a victim, couldn't he prevent the crime to begin with?
2. If God is all-knowing, why does he need us to beg to him before he decides to help?
3. How much prayer do we need until God solves the world's problems?
Prayer was one of the first cracks in my shelf. Somewhere deep inside I realized that I couldn't believe in a God that knew what was best for me, loved me, but wouldn't do it unless I asked in the right way, with the right motivations, at the right time, fervently enough. I wasn't mad at God, I just didn't see the point in my own muddled confused ideas getting in the way of his perfect plan for me.
Prayer did not stop my parents abuse. No loving father would watch their child being hurt and do nothing. Yet they say the Hebrew God is a loving father 🙄
"oh but he wants to test you so you can find him on your own" bullshit
@@karlazeen exactly. Actually I was told 'God was looking down on you and cried during the suffering' 😕 that's not a comfort that some old geezer god watched me in my torment and did nothing
i saw god as "my perfect father figure" in place of my emotionally abusive dad. perfect father figure didn't give child support 😭
@@CrystalMouse1 If that old geezer didn't have the power to save anyone but wanted to then I would be more convinced and actually have sympathy and respect towards him.
@@officaldaelight I'm so sorry 😔 I did this as well when I was in pain. I honestly don't think that's wrong because it helps one survive 🤷🏻
I remember in my elementary school they had a moment of silence every morning for those who wanted to pray, but nobody was forced to (and in fact most didn't). And no one ever got bullied for praying or not praying. Nobody really cared wether you did or didn't. I think that was good. That way everyone could do or not do what they did or didn't believe in.
When I was being assaulted for days on end, I prayed and prayed and prayed for the end of it. But it never stopped. It happened again when I was older, actually. And then, when I was at the lowest part of my life and was going to take it, I prayed again that if God really wanted me alive, to show me that he was real. Show me anything. Show me that my life had purpose and he wanted me alive. I got nothing. So I figure- either god wants me dead, or he doesn't exist at all
This channel is so underrated. Rare the algorithm gives me stuff leving me wanting more. :)
Over the last year or so, I've started to lose my faith and it all started with prayer after prayer not getting answered. My aunt passing away after praying for her healing, being unemployed for 6 months and praying before each interview and then being passed over for the job, (The job that ended my unemployment came from the 1 interview I didn't pray before going to) praying for help with bills while unemployed and instead incurring late fees and overdraft fees, and many other unanswered things. But it's crazy just how ingrained and almost ritualistic prayer has been in my life. After all those unanswered prayers I'm almost scared to pray for anything. It's always been normal to pray for someone I care about to be safe when going on a trip, but now I'm afraid to. But it feels so strange not to, so I totally understand when Trevor said he didn't want to lose prayer. I'm in the process of deconstructing my faith and so far, prayer and dealing with grief are 2 things I'm still feeling lost on; but videos like this help a lot. So thank you, and keep it up!
You’re my favorite preacher.
True story, when I was around 14 my cousin's dog had puppies but one was sick. Being an animal lover I prayed for it to be healed. It died the next day. That was the last time I asked God for anything. 🤬
This episode really hits home. My husband and I have struggled with infertility for years. I used to believe that it was God's will and that he was punishing us for some unknown or insane reason. But I started to realize that it just was not true. There are plenty of people I know who have horrible parents. Some who have been very abusive and left deep scars in people I care about. It made me realize that if there was a God, why would he allow that to happen. I am not saying my husband and I are perfect, but I truly do not believe we would ever be so cruel to our children. It just makes no sense. And prayer did nothing. Or I should say, the only thing it ever did was make us feel worse. Like we were not worthy.
Side note, it makes me angry when people try to justify things like school shootings. As if it is God's will. This is not a God I want anything to do with.
Judge Judy hit me so hard 😂😂 absolutely perfect *chefs kiss*
My favorite messed up thing I was taught in church was that you should pray for God's will to be down. That was such a simple way to trap people into never realizing that their prayers werent answered
Yes, instead of Amen, prayers should be concluded with, "oh, never mind".
If you think about it from the perspective of a non-believer, prayer is just thinking intensely and intentionally about something. Usually about things like the circumstances in your life, the people you love, that sort of thing. Maybe that's why people like the video creator liked doing it so much when they were believers. I personally think it's one of those wonderful things that can carry over once you've lost your faith. I don't do this, but I could even imagine it being a regular daily routine, something like quiet meditation or "me time."
Those are just my rambling thoughts that I've had for a while about the role of prayer in the non-supernatural realm. Loved this video, so happy to see when you drop a new one.
You bring up a good point. Prayer has been shown to have some of the same benefits of meditation in it's ability to improve mood or foster relaxation. It's not any more effective than meditation, and may be less so depending on the practitioner, but there is a psychological effect. It doesn't matter, of course, whether you pray to the Christian God or the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
I guess this is the “God shaped hole” people mention often, I prayed even if I didn’t need anything in particular (in part because my church said I had to do it as often as possible, that’s why you have monks) and after I left I felt that the need to do this didn’t go away entirely.
I’m technically not an atheist (more of a deist if anything) but I don’t assume there’s anyone out there listening even if there’s a god but I guess I do it for myself, even as a Christian I was taught the whole point was that it wold change me, not God, so I also try to do meditation and what the Quakers call “silent worship” which is just being silent and listen to your soul or the surroundings.
Great video, just subscribed. This is similar to that “praying to a jug of milk” video I watched time ago. Same results. When I was a believer I was never very good a praying. I usually got bored and quickly distracted. I’m a happy atheist 😊
I really like your guys' videos. They are well-edited and put together.
I had a heated argument about prayer after reading Hitchens' book, "God is Not Great". I told my wife, "If prayer work---how can you justify prayer if it did not save your stepdad from Covid?"
It just always seems strange that both sports teams pray before and game and invariably----one team loses.
Bizarre how that doesn't work.
I've been questioning god sense I was young. I remember sitting in a car while mom was driving home, they would say that God is all knowing and all that good stuff, so my 7 year old self thought he must be able to read minds sense he knows everything. So I looked up into the sky and said in my head "God, if your real, give me a sign." Nothing happened. Boy did I feel disappointed
Related but not blood-related Topic (if you allow me):
Not enough people use the reportbutton of youtube.
Maybe because 'Cancel-Culture' scared them so much that they know (wrongly) think that Abuse of the System 'existing' means they 'cant cannot' abuse the System themselves... which is of course dumb...
So yeah: I wished more people would do as originally intended: Help UA-cam.
Finding obvious Racists,
Open Sexism,
Scammer or spam-Bots,
is actually fairly easy, tbh.
...Why not give it a Try? A Try to help out?
Your not supposed to question GOD. That's what my dad told me. Hes too big to question. You gotta be a god fearing servant.
I dont know how I'm supposed to fear a supposedly all loving god.
The thing about praying (well to me) it was quite similar to therapy but without someone being able to talk back. I can see why my mom is such a believer as she sees god as someone she can tell everything to with no judgment and finally release her issues on. that great feeling of being heard by someone really does a lot.
Watching this video, i now realize that i never was a full time believer.
I always felt so disconnected and away from faith. The only times i consistently prayed were in meals, Sunday and for special people.
My parents weren't different either. They prayed even less than i did.
The story at 7:33 reminds me of a story I heard at church about 45 years. A man at our church asked another man if he could borrow his car for a job interview. Man #2 loaned Man#1 the car. As he was driving to his destination, Man #1 prayed for a sign whether this job was right for him. Within about five minutes the car ran out of oil and the engine seized. Everybody at church (except Man #2) thought this was very funny.
That Francis Chan sermon caused me so much anxiety for a long time because I was terrified that I wasn't saved because God doesn't answer my prayers. I think about it often
You know what's weird, I'm a Christian (not an evangelical), but this is video is really great. Far better to be an atheist than to torture yourself with the garbage these TV preachers spew.
Or be atheist as there's no evidence for your mythology.
I am a Christian and grew up in the church, but every single one of these videos is completely astounding to me because they reveal beliefs and social structures that are totally foreign to me. I always considered myself an evangelical, until 2016. But I listen to the sermon excerpts in these videos and they’re totally insane. My faith hasn’t changed because it isn’t the type of thing that could be lost, but I’m still left to wonder if I was ever really a Christian in the first place.
@@asmodiusjones9563 Delusion.
@@michaelanderson7715 yeah yeah yeah. Don’t worry, Atheists are so often smug, condescending, and morally aggrandizing, that your comment doesn’t bother me. But aside from that, do you have any idea how many “delusions” our society operates on? Money is a delusion. War is a delusion. The idea that all ethnic groups have value and should not be exploited for the sake of more powerful groups is a delusion. You’ve got to be able to navigate delusions if your life is going to have any purpose.
@@asmodiusjones9563 False equivalence is a delusion.
Wow.... this stirred up some emotion in me. Especially when you brought up, "It isn't God, but it's you." Talk about a flash of emotion... I heard so much shit like that as a kid. Also, when you were asked to leave your mother's side, because one of you (Your brother and your self) might of not had enough faith. I heard stuff like that too as a kid. Talk about anger, rage, pain, etc all whelping up at once. It made me want to punch people in the face. Of course, it took be about 5 seconds to calm myself and began to breath again... but damn, when you brought that up.... it sparked something in me. Back to the, "it's not God, but you," reminded me how much self-degradation we do to ourselves, when you walk in the faith. There were a few other things like the example of "talking on the phone, and nobody was there," really struck a cord with me, as I have used the exact same example as what it was like to pray towards the end of my walk.
I have to just shake my head. I have been to church 1 time in 5 years, which was for a funeral. I miss it like I miss my dentist, however least I know my dentist provides me with an actual service. Peace and Chicken Wings my Brothers. Good show today.
i fucking adore this show. thank you thank you thank you. i love not feeling alone. it means so much to hear another nonbeliever talk about the struggle. me personally? prayer is like medication. if i dont make regular use of it, i dont do well. i know im talking to my own brain, and that doesnt bother me a bit. i have a mental health practice that serves me well and provides me with the ritual i crave. im grateful for that. i miss believing in god, but i dont miss the greatest heartbreak of my life- that god either allows evil for reasons that dont matter, or gets off on it. i'll never go back to being a slave to that mutherfucker. im happy now, because im free.
I just want to say that this channel has really helped me so far, I was raised in a very church heavy family and it caused me a lot of religious trauma that I’m still struggling with today, I can’t really talk about it with anyone except my girlfriend. She showed me this channel and hearing the words of someone who has seemingly been through something similar makes me feel not as alone.
This right here was that catalyst for me truly examining and ultimately leaving my faith last year.
I had prayed and prayed so specifically about the life I wanted, the kind of friends and life partner I wanted and when I thought I had it (twice) I ignored all the red flags and reasons I should obviously have left them because it’s what I believed god wanted me to do and they were the answer to my prayers.
I went through so much guilt thinking it was my fault god wasn’t answering my prayers or that I wasn’t being patient enough and “trusting his timing” I got sick of following all the excuses I myself and others gave for sky daddy, and started thinking critically as well as examining the other side of the theological debate.
What I found made a lot more sense, didn’t require mental gymnastics or apologetics to understand, and for the first time in my life, put my destiny in my own hands.
It’s been a hell of a ride from then on but I’m only just getting started with living for myself and trying to help and make the world a better place by actually doing something rather than prayer.
The only thing I miss about it is the false sense of security/helpfulness it offered. But they were false so it doesn’t truly matter. When I was a kid I used to have bad dreams all the time and was afraid of a lot of things. I prayed every night for god to “not let me have any bad dreams” and they stopped. I thought it was him but now I know I had the power in me to make that and all other things happen in my life on my own. So now, when I do achieve things I can actually take pride and not have to “give it back to god”. Truly empowering and while I’ve got a long way to go, I’m finally making progress and working towards my goals for myself without the placebo known as prayer.
Thank you for all you guys do and keep up the good work. Binging through the podcast lately and it’s dope but as someone else in the comments said, these little editorial vids mean a lot too.
Anyone that’s reading this, I hope you’re doing well and if not I hope you will soon.
✌🏻🖤
The three replies to Prayer:
Yes
No
Not yet
So basically just confirmation bias?
God is an 8 Ball?
@@melissamarsh2219 To be fair, my Magic 8-Ball answers have been extremely accurate, so you might be on to something. 🤔
@@hope-cat4894 I hope some far flung archaeologist unearths a magic 8 ball one day and notes it as a 'ritual object'.
Or maybe god of the bible isnt real.
Basically yes but its on steroids. Imagine applying confirmation bias on EVERY OUTCOME POSSIBLE. It's genius, in a horrible way, which is why I think it's very hard for religious people to be convinced that prayer doesn't work. Prayer is unfalsifiable.
Great video as usual, just gotta say I really appreciate the Judge Judy gif during the sermon clips 👌
How prayer is justified in the believer's mind: “It doesn't always work, but it never completely fails, or put another way, 1% of the time it works every time."
the "maybe it's you" excuse fucked me up for so long and still messes with me... my best friend died, I prayed several times a day for MONTHS and he died. the only other excuse in a Christian ideology was that it was my fault
Trevor, I really appreciate your vulnerability and realness. Keep up the good work.
All I can say is that life is so very confusing and it is amazing to see that soooooo many people feel the same way, it's really kind of scary.
Kinda find it interesting(although it wasn’t a mass shooting) that one of the worst school massacres in the US happened before prayer was taken out of public school back in the 1920’s
Belief you're going to heaven actually increases the crime rate. Also it oppresses from pushing conformity when people pray out loud if others refuse to join in creating opportunity to bully or ostracize or such.
I haven’t finished the video yet but it was years of years of unanswered prayer that I was like hm… I think I’m just talking to myself…
Thanks!
Thank you!
I talked to a Jehova's witness that actually told me that prayers don't even work, and that god doesn't respond to your prayers, because satan is in control of this world right now, and he doesn't want to interfere with satan's world. But this literally means that god handed over the earth to satan just to prove a point. So many people's suffering could've been avoided if god didn't a have an superiority complex. He is literally the most powerful being and needs validation from one of his angels. It's as if Jeff Bezos lent his position to a warehouse worker and let him run the company into the ground just to prove that the warehouse worker couldn't handle the responsibility of being a CEO. That's just pathetic.
Yes, humans are just collateral damage in the fatal attraction of an insecure male god and the male hottie who rejected his love.
When politicians ask for donations, send them thoughts and prayers.
Back when I was a kid growing up with Religion,
I could pray till my mind went numb.
I don't recall any of my silly
kid prayers being answered.
Not once.
None of it made any sense
and 50 years later,
it still doesn't.
I love my Freedom from Religion.
Imagine someone telling you their perfect master plan that somehow involve child abuse, cancer, poverty, genocide, famine and about all other type of injustice you could thing of.
When it came to prayer and having the Pastor's in my church tell everyone that we are not doing it right, not enough, we don't have faith, etc. It always made me feel guilty and never good enough. So it didn't make me want to try harder because I felt like no matter what it was never good enough because when I did my best it still wasn't good enough. Then one day my pastor said doing good enough will never be enough for God because your putting a limit on how well we are will to be good for God. Literally doesn't make sense but my parents ate that shit up.
Love the Tim Conway/I’ll Be Honest clips. I am trying to call attention to the toxicity of this organization myself. Your content is so much appreciated. It resonates with so many of us. Thank you!
I was that abused child. I prayed every single day for god to make me 'more obedient' so I would stop being beat. Or for my parents to be more merciful.
Neither ever happened. I just got too big to legally smack around (my last 'spanking' was at 17. I highly suspect it only stopped because it would have become assault at 18)
Hope you’re ok now. That’s a hard thing to go through