u/JasmineTeaAndCookies

I've been doing a lot of reading on this sub lately.

Specifically about how religion has a chokehold on a majority of the world, and how poisonous it can be. Reading on this sub has really changed my mind from being a live and let live atheist to someone more skeptical of religion everywhere. So I'd like to thank previous posters for their opinions on theists.

But as always, living in the USA gives me a personal gripe against Christianity.

Anyone else think that a lot of Christians are morally superior assholes? I was thinking about the concept of hell lately. I wanted to say that I think hell is a terrible concept overall, because I think it's pretty terrible to teach people from a young age that they'll go to a place of eternal suffering by deviating from the norm. I've read enough posts by people with religious trauma to know that the concept of hell specifically has been used to hurt so many people. So many Christians teach people that if they aren't Christian, if they question the church or are even a different religion, that they're going to go to hell. It honestly sounds like a way to control people.

It's also incredibly cruel. I once had a teacher once tell us than when she was in high school, a priest condescendingly told her that her close friend (who was catholic!) went to hell because they died by suicide. So being mentally ill and committing suicide places you in hell, regardless if you're Christian or not. What a monstrous thing to tell someone.

I just think it's an incredibly immature and close minded worldview. All of the people who mistreated you will go to hell. All of the evil people throughout history are in hell. Everyone who thinks differently than you will go to hell.

Sure it's nice to think there will be some sort of divine punishment for the truly evil people in this world. That dictators get their just desserts. That child murders get punished for their crimes for all eternity. It sounds like a fantasy, not reality.

There is no divine punishment for evildoers. Evil people get away with their crimes all the time. So many terrible people go on to live their best lives. That's unfortunately just how the world works.

Slight vent post. For context I live in America, so there will be mention of Christianity.

So something that's been rattling around in my brain is how open Christians can be in this country about their religion. A pet peeve of mind at work is a lot of my clients casually bring up God or religion, even to the point where it's not relevant to what we need to discuss. Most of the time I just listen and I never comment on anything, but I have to admit that it's grating over time. It's kind of astounding how open Christians can be about their beliefs, and that they feel confident bringing it up whenever and to anyone they like. I have clients mention God in their email addresses, email signatures, even their away voice messages. They bring up their faith in God constantly. Without going into too much detail about my job, my clients are often in difficult places in their lives, so I can understand that they cling to religion for comfort. But I really feel that religion should be more of a private thing, if you're someone that has a religion.

Then there's my coworkers with their Christian desk decorations. With their bibles and their Jesus imagery and their bible quotes. I even have coworkers (who granted are nice people and who I'm on good terms with) who mention their Christian faith a lot, and I just smile and nod along and don't say anything. It can be grating.

I think it bothers me that Christians get to be as open as they want about their religion. They don't face discrimination for this. No one argues with them about their religious beliefs. No one is mean to them for being openly Christian. I don't even think they'd react well to someone telling them that they aren't Christian, given how much Christianity preaches conversion.

Atheist make up a very small part of Americas population. We're a minority, and it shows. Christians get to be as open as they want about their religion, but atheists and even people of other religions need to keep quiet about their own beliefs, or risk facing ostracization. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who's Muslim, or Buddhist, for example, talking about their faith to a stranger. Not believing in anything superstitious, or a God, or even an afterlife tends to upset people, so atheists are especially burdened in that regard.

For context I haven't even told my own family about it. They aren't super religious or dogmatic, and are pretty open minded, so I'm lucky in that regard, but they have a strong faith in God and the afterlife. I can't tell them I'm an atheist, and I don't believe in signs, or prophetic dreams, or even an afterlife, so I think that's why all the Christian stuff at work bothers me. An atheist can't even tell someone they're an atheist without offending someone, half the time.

I acknowledge that I'm lucky. I live in a more liberal state, so it's not like I have to deal with living in the bible belt. It's just incredible how pushy Christians can be about their religion because they're the majority. I've never had a Buddhist person or a Jewish person preach religion to me on my doorstep, but it's always a Christian trying to get you to convert.

I just wish I could be openly atheist and not get any pushback for it. I try to be an open minded person and want to be accepting of other peoples religious beliefs. I just wish a religious person can shrug their shoulders if I were to tell them that I'm an atheist, and that they can respect that we have different beliefs and leave it at that. But they never do.

I don't know if there are any Final Fantasy fans here, but I wanted to praise the franchise for its depiction of religion. I get the impression that FF is an atheist friendly franchise. It's a run on joke among fans that the main character and their plucky group of friends always gets to kill God, and in many games there are depictions of corrupt religious institutions. I especially liked how Final Fantasy 14 and Final Fantasy 10 both have depictions of a fictional religion that is an obvious stand in for the catholic church, and that both churches are portrayed as terrible or corrupt institutions. Like in FF14 at one point you literally kill a guy that is the head of the religion and is dressed like the pope.

I just think it's refreshing how consistantly critical FF is of organized religion and depicts gods as evil or corrupted beings that need to be taken down for the benefit of everyone.