Atheists, is there anything religious that sticks with you to this day?
Atheists, is there anything religious that sticks with you to this day?
I am Ganesh, an Indian atheist and I don't eat beef. It's not like that I have a religious reason to do that, but after all those years seeing cows as peaceful animals and playing and growing up with them in a village, I doubt if I ever will be able to eat beef. I wasn't raised very religious, I didn't go to temple everyday and read Gita every evening unlike most muslims who are somewhat serious about their religion, my family has this watered down religion (which has it's advantages).
But yeah, not eating beef is a moral issue I deal with. I mean, I don't care that I don't eat beef, but the fact that I eat pork and chicken but not beef seems to me to be weird. So, is there any religious practice that you guys follow to this day?
edit: I like religious music, religious temples (Churches, Gurudwara's, Temples & Mosques in Iran), religious paintings and art sometimes. I know for a fact that the only art you could produce is those days was indeed religious and the greatest artists needed to make something religious to be funded, that we will never know what those artists would have produced in the absence of religion, but yeah, religious art is good nonetheless.
I still act respectful in churches and other "sacred" places, not out of any fear of the Magic Sky Wizard, but simply because other people respect them and it seems like a useful thing to encourage, even if I don't agree with the underlying reasoning. Having a place which most of society agrees should be a quiet, comforting sanctuary is not the worst thing at all, even if the comfort is derived from extreme wishful thinking.
Also, Christmas. Christmas music is great. A Charlie Brown Christmas is one of the best holiday albums ever, though we always skip "Hark the Herald Angel Sings" 'cause it's such a tonal shift compared to the rest of the album.
In a way, I try to live my life so that if some kind of higher power existed, they'd think I am a good person. Not as a gambit to get into heaven or whatever, I don't believe in that. But trying to imagine an objective arbiter of morality makes it easier to take myself out of the equation, which means I'm more likely to treat others as I want to be treated.
Christmas because I have good memories of it and I like the idea of a holiday that by and large, brings my extended family together. And I like buying or creating personalized gifts for those close to me and vice versa.
My ex's family was ethnically but not religiously jewish and they still did hannukah which was interesting and being included in that meant a lot to me.
I wasn't raised very religious.
I do think some of the stuff from the Christian Bible would be great if people followed it.
- pray in private, not where people can see you
- help other people. Like, go read the good Samaritan again. It's not long. That dude goes way the fuck out of his way to help someone he's never met. And some people do some fucking intense mental backflips to justify "no it's a metaphor man you don't have to like actually go near a poor person
- you'll be judged by how you treat the least among you. Yeah, anyone can be nice to their friends, or suck up to wealthy. But how you treat the poor and vulnerable? That's telling.
Part of what makes the religious right in the US so infuriating is they spend so much time being mad about gay people and comparably no time on poverty.
Every mega church should be condemned as heretical and repurposed as housing or something for the needy.
I recognize that Churches are often community centers and do a lot of good work
I was going to say nothing, but based on other answers here, it seems Christmas is being held as religious. I personally feel all religious connotations have been thoroughly washed away from xmas over the years, and it's simply a holiday like any other now. I still love the lights and decorations it brings out, the whole family coming together, and the food.
Yes that my local, now long deceased Priest didn't want my father to be buried at his graveyard, because he committed suicide and that is a sin. Made me a staunch atheist.
I really like churches, they are a good way to find a strong community. It can be really hard as an adult in a new area to meet people, and a church can basically solve that for you. I'm in a very religious area too where they desperately want me to go to one.
Also I've kind of understood "praying" now. I meditate a lot, and the goal to focus on your inner breath and be one with the present moment. Praying is kind of the opposite, instead of focusing on your inner self, you're focusing on something greater outside of you, like trying to connect your body to the universe. It's like trying to imagine you're part of something greater and it's kind of comforting.
I'd say monogamy, but that isn't strictly religious. Sex outside of relationships ig (ik it's not marriage but still).
Hundreds of years ago, Christianity inspired some truly incredible music. Bach's BWV 63 (especially the Gardiner recording) is a miracle.
Contemporary Christian music, though, is probably the falling domino that ultimately led to the realization that my Christianity was just tribalism. Modern American Christian "culture" has no redeeming value, other than its lucrative redemption for fiat currency.
I do love visiting cathedrals, though.
I think there is a lot of beautiful wisdom in the bible that sticks with me, but usually it only comes out when I (way more often that I'd like) hear someone who claims to be Christian acting in a way that is completely antithetical to what is in the bible.
Sup, Ganesh! I’m HandOfDumb :) This is a neat question you’ve asked and I’m stoked to see more answers.
I was raised in Catholicism, though my family has, largely, stopped following that specific religion so closely (though many are still religious). I don’t follow any specific religion and am unsure what I consider myself - atheist fits well enough!
Somethings that stick for me are many of the kindnesses that live within bible stories. There’s a lot of good stuff in there, of course! And most of (what I consider to be) the good stuff is along the lines of being a good person. But some of it is kinda off-beat.
Like, there’s a bit in there about a proclamation that people should forgive debts after some seemingly arbitrary amount of time (seven years?) and that really jibed with me. Not the time part, but just forgiving pals/family you might have loaned money to. If I spot a friend $5 for something, I’m not going to hold it against them and ask them to repay. If they do repay? Great! But I will never expect it and I will not be offended if they do not.
Similarly with larger sums. If I’m okay to loan it to someone, I’m okay to lose it.
Anyhoo, I think it’s awesome that you like cows :) they remind me of big ol’ dogs and I like them very much. They can teach us more than they can fill our bellies, I think!
I’m atheist and my parents raised me without any religion. The first time I learned anything about religion was at primary school where Christianity was taught as fact. I was really confused as to why I hadn’t heard of this “god” fellow before now, and I asked my parents about it, and they explained the general concept of religious belief to me, and said that I was free to believe whatever I choose, and I remember being frustrated that my mum wouldn’t directly answer me as to whether or not this stuff was real or not real, and kind of just settled on the idea that it was like they read the Chronicles of Narnia and believed Aslan was real, which was like, fine with me, but seemed a little silly. It was kind of funny to learn a bunch of religious stuff in retrospect - it was kind of like, “dang, this Jesus dude really does force himself into everything doesn’t he?” Easter is the funniest one, it’s such a stretch, they clearly had no idea how to make that one about Christianity and just kinda phoned it in.
So, the one “religious” thing I keep, is saying stuff like “oh my god”, “for god’s sake” and stuff like that, but for me, it doesn’t really mean anything to do with god. It’s just like an otherwise meaningless idiom that people say.
Exmormon here, going on 20 years now. Don't miss pretty much anything from it except some of the music. Ignore the Republican-looking motherfuckers here and enjoy this: https://youtu.be/WwYm_mKQ3Gs
I'd say I'm agnostic, but my parents also didn't force religion on me, my dad is Catholic, and my mom is Thai Buddhist, and I view the Buddhist ideology to strive for being satisfied without material as an honorable goal. I feel as if I believe that attaining that mindset really is nirvana, and I don't think you need to be particularly religious to think that's possible.
This is probably slightly tangential, but after leaving a very dogmatic, Christian upbringing, I dabbled in the New Atheist Thing but have since come to realize religion and belief is on a two dimensional axes.
On the first axis, you have dogma, or a core set of beliefs or religious doctrine. High or low dogma. Your classic fundamentalists of any stripe are over here. Evangelical Christians, fundamentalist Islam. And yes even some strains of atheism can be relatively high dogma. On the lower end of the dogma scale you have agnostics, many atheists, some types of new age spirituality, and even some types of organized religion like Unitarianism or Buddhism.
On the second axis is humanism, or the relishing and participation in people, culture and acceptance of people or ideas that do not conform to the doctrine. High on the humanism scale would be literal secular humanists, and other faiths that prioritize people more than dogma.
Eventually, someone raised in a high dogma/low humanism religion might eventually learn there are some faiths that are relatively high humanism, even with a low or relatively high dogma score.
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
This seem to work on an assumption that people have a religion before becoming athiest/agnostic. I never did. My birth certificate says Church of England as that's the default here unless your parents ask for something else. However they never took me to church or raised me in a religious manner, I had an entirely secular upbringing so there's no elements of Religon to hang onto.
I went to old school, pre second Vatican council Latin masses. On our knees on other days in dusty, stone walled rooms, heads down, everyone quietly counting rosary beads. Had to wear veil over head to enter church because women's bare heads weren't fit for the eyes of god. Large cathedrals, Latin chanting bouncing echoes off walls. Hunky jesus nailed to cross behind gaudy altar, his loincloth sculpted so teasingly low.
No longer believe in god, but damn, the theatrical pomp was next class, probably influenced work I do as an artist, and why I like bdsm so much.
As an atheist that was raised as an evangelical Christian, probably using the Lord's name in vain interestingly enough. Like going "thank God/Jesus" when something good happens, "oh God/lord" when shit hits the fan, and using Christ's name as a swear word. I know it's supposed to a sin in the Christian religion, but it's the one thing I still do.
My family put us to the church as kids as little as needed to prove that they exposed us to it. I thank them for that minimal exposure because I've always felt agnostic (of course, that was verbalized as atheism as a kid). My mom was raised German christian, my dad was raised Quaker.
I think that the most meaningful lessons I learned about religion were from my father (who never once mentioned god, Jesus or the church).
My father's religion was one of acceptance of all others, refusal of indoctrination to any structured religion and an absolute knowledge that men (and women) make their faith and their covenant to each other, not to a church. Thanks, dad!
I am a non-theist Norse pagan and have been a Norse pagan since I was single digits in age. I was raised by a Catholic mother (her mother was Irish Catholic and her father was Roman Catholic), my father's mother was a Mennonite. I was not raised religiously, but i still have Catholic guilt, and use religious curses.
The way I talk to monks. In Theravada buddhism, monks are treated as a class above average humans. We had to special wording when speaking with them to be reverent, kind of like when speaking with nobles, royals and whatnot in Europe.
Still awkwardly doing that around most monks when I'm with my family, just out of respect for them. There are a few close monk friends that I can talk to normally though.
Not really. I try very hard not to let myself fall prey to so-called "cultural religion." I don't celebrate any religious holidays like Christmas. I try to be as aware as possible of the religious influences in my daily life and avoid them. It's not easy, though! Religion has infested so many facets of every culture, it becomes increasingly difficult to separate.
Music, especially singing in groups. Once I shrugged off the religious trappings associated with music, it turns out there are very many wonderful songs that have nothing to do with God. The feeling of oneness transcends religion, and is a human experience that we all need to feel once in a while.
Biblical wisdom mostly. Certain parts definitely don't hold up to modern morality, but there is a lot well-thought-out advice buried in it that has helped people in Judeo-Christian areas for thousands of years.
One of the Proverbs in particular comes to mind: "He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm." Hard to argue against the inherent wisdom in such a statement.
Also, like you, I have an appreciation for old churches and some religious art.
Personally, I was raised muslim, but now I don't eat pork (or meat in general) for ethical/environmental reasons rather than religious.
I was born and raised atheist/agnostic, never set foot in a church before 18 besides weddings. Still am, never doubted it. Maybe I believe in like Spinoza's god or something but definitely no Abrahamic God.
Something I've learned is that among many other things, a certain holy quality to persecution has definitely permeated the western consciousness and it 100% has me second guessing myself often. The christliness of being persecuted, made a martyr, and suffering for your cause carries a moral quality that I have absolutely not freed myself from, even though there's nothing automatically morally good or bad in suffering and being made a victim for fighting for a cause.
This weird irrational fear when I'm reading religious texts, or hearing religious songs that I may go back or something.
Like I know rationally that that will never happen, but for some reason a part of me is afraid if I listen to to much of it I will fall back into it or something.
It almost feels how "sinning" used to feel when I was religious. Like an irrational fear of doing something "bad".
I've always felt the serenity prayer was good life advice.
That's interesting because I only became a vegan long after I became an atheist and I think if it happened the other way around there wouldn't have been such a delay seeing as so many Catholic religious feasts in my culture have an entire roasted animal as a centerpiece. That would have definitely forced me to confront my religion. It's weird too because we are taught that we are stewards of animals and to take advantage of them in such ways seems contradictory to the faith.
Something that has stuck with me though is religious music, especially the stuff with darker vibes. Music targeted at a religious demographic with religious messaging like Christian rock is not what I'm taking about, just the classics that we used to sing in church and choir. I also enjoy religious precessions, I don't see them as cultish rituals as I think a lot of atheists do. There is something meditative about processes like the giving and receiving of communion.
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The Belgian minister of Justice (Koen Geens, Christian party) wrote a column about Christianity, where he nicely summed up what it means to be a good Christian:
Try to align every decision and action with your system of morality, and be consistent in this.
Even as an atheïst/humanitarian, this is a constant struggle. It nicely sums up how we need to weigh our options and consciously try to do the right thing. To me, it was a profound observation.
"Good must prevail even if you suffer directly for it."
In every day life, this is voting for parties that would increase my taxes but provide benefits for a greater number of people. Giving to charity, supporting the creators I like directly (as much as possible, Patreon still takes their cut). Using FOSS/privacy based software instead of the mainstream data syphons. Encouraging repair instead of replace, doing car maintenance for friends.
Not 100% sure this answers the question, but here goes.
Closest I can say that stuck with me, as someone born in a Christian household would be the original Veggietales and how some of the messages have stuck with me. You take away the Christian aspect from some of the messages and you get messages that I think could still apply to a general audience.
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Small people can do big things (Dave and the Giant Pickle)
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Despite your differences, you can still be friendly with others (Are You My Neighbor)
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You should forgive others (God Wants Me To Forgive Them!?!)
I may not follow them to a tee but I am at least somewhat trying.
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I was born in a Hindu family, i don't believe in God but i really like and keep deities statues and pictures as Art. I also read religious text bcz i found there are lots of good things which can be learned from it and i am also fascinated about how old these scriptures are and still tells about lots of good things about human mind, life and society.
What an interesting question!
I was raised Protestant by an exmo and a lapsed catholic. I still like some of the music, and I think a lot of Christian mythology is really interesting. Jesus occupies a “cool dude” role in my belief system, but he’s not the main focus.
I was a pretty devout practicing pagan for a while after leaving Christianity.
Now I just kinda do my own thing, loosely cribbed from the parts of Christianity that I like and some chaos magic stuff and some kemeticism and whatever else seems cool. I kinda focus on nonduality and go from there.
I really enjoy the idea of ritualistic worship, but that attraction feels like the kind of chemical attraction in my brain that would have taken place whether I was raised in a church or not.
I actually Help people in need. I barely have enough to make ends meet but, i see so many people who have the means to help, walk by. Ill have my lunch breaks with houseless people. if i get gas and i see a scraggly individual ill stop and tell em to come in with me. get whatever they need/want. which is a meal, and i have to tell them all the time its okay to get smokes and/or alcohol. If i got socks or a set of decent pair of gym shoes i was gonna replace i give it to them, if i see they are in need. i don't thrust my unwanted items at them...I do not go into a building and circle jerk with others how pious we are...i do the Actual Work that jesus said to fucking do. and im atheist.
if there is a god, however, I'm going to stab him over 100+ times in the neck for all of humanity's suffering, past, present, and future.
If god made Us in his Image. god deserves a taste of his medicine.
I call myself an atheist simply because I don't believe that any current religious institution has the correct answer.
I've had mystical experiences and my own reasoning tells me that there is far more to the world than we are able to experience or even imagine.
But none of it corresponds to any religions I know of. The closest is maybe Buddhism, but I don't think it's the right choice for me.
And I'm not even sure if there are any Buddhist organisations out here in the norwegian countryside.
Guess I'll just have to go through my existential crisis on my own.
I like a lot of religious art (architecture, paintings, music...). Some of it is certainly the result of historical patronage, but plenty is the result of genuine religious inspiration and even ecstasy. I often think that art is the only real redeeming quality of religion!
Still love me some good Gospel music.
Greetings from an Ex-Hindu Atheist. I was never really into Religious Banter that much even as a small kid. But I would say the major propelling force that made me become an Atheist would be my curiosity and eagerness to study science. Science answered all those questions Religion could not and my treatment by my super religious parents helped me not to retain any religious superstitions. Their berating only gave me more strength to continue my study of science and legitimized my standings.
I was raised Catholic and left it at a young age and spent a lot of time uprooting the brainworms so I don't think there's much left. However, whenever I can't find something I really need and start getting stressed, I'll still recite, "Dear St. Anthony, please come around, my X has been lost and cannot be found." It's a useful way to calm down and focus instead of freaking out and panicking.
Other than that, I still retain a lot of the theology I learned in high school, and I can still sometimes get a little opinionated about various things even though I have no dog in the fight.
Honestly…I actively avoid all things religious, especially dogmatic religion. Of course there are religious influences all over the place and I cannot say with certainty that I don’t get affected by it, but given that the most popular religions currently (Abrahamic) were essentially engineered to control the masses, I consciously try to avoid them and their influences.
Sadly, where I live, I can’t throw a rock without hitting a church so without moving to an uninhabited island, it’s stuck in my life in one way or another.
And before someone says something about morals, morality both predates religion and doesn’t require being a human to have any. In other words, one can have morals without ever being exposed to religion.
I get this goes against the grain here, and doesn’t exactly answer the question, but it’s an honest answer.
I have had some seriously bizarre cases of deja vu. Like, recalling dreams I had years before that exactly predicted a place I would be in in the future. It has happened five or six times. It does make me question things such as consciousness and my place in the universe. It also makes me wonder if my brain is broken.
I'm agnostic but Amy Grant's christmas music was a staple from my childhood and that still holds up quite well. Also some Jon Bellion songs, while I'm on the topic of music.
Every December I start practicing classical guitar arrangements of Christmas music, just like I always have.
I wasn't really raised into religion - my mom was a believer (Honestly not sure if she still is, I've picked up hints that may have changed), but she never once went to or brought me to church, we never talked about religion, etc. I think she got enough of that stuff when she was a kid.
I do like to go all-out on decorating for Christmas - just last year I spent a whole lot of time setting up and coding my own tree full of individually addressable RGB LEDs, in addition to all the other decorating on the interior of the place.
Despite that I still love saying "Happy Holidays" to anyone who gets bothered by that phrase. 😁
I went to a Methodist boarding school, but I was never religious. I was well read at a young age, and I had a pretty good idea about my belief system.
Was raised atheist.
I still use common colloquialisms without paying much mind to them. "thank God, oh my god, Jesus christ" etc. Kinda hard to get rid of those, but it's no biggie, really.
What I will say, is that while I do identify as an atheist in the sense of not believing in established religions or cults, I do consider that I am able to believe in more than what reality presents. I've always said I'm an agnostic atheist, but as of late, I've been feeling like it's rather OK and even necessary to wonder about reality and existence a lot more than what science allows itself to. For example, if you take even a moment to ponder about what physics and the quantum realm means about reality, you'll feel like something else is definitely going on, like we're obviously not seeing the full picture and there's a good chance we never will, and that the picture were missing is unparalleled in its majesty. To just think that we seem to be just a combination of countless fields fluctuating together to form reality, but at the end of the day you could just say we're the expression of different waves going through different mediums juxtaposed on each other. A combination of planes crashing in on each other in a multidimensional membrane, a universe that could be just one possibility out of a mostly dead multiverse, where even our universe seems to be mostly dead, yet here we stand. It's hard to wrap your mind around it, or even begin to grasp it all. Definitely makes you feel like there's more to it than just chance, hell, chance sounds like an implausible explanation for all of this.
I think I mostly take issue with "matter of fact" stances, where people will claim things are a specific way because their faith or textbook says so. No. Just, experience life, question it, question your beliefs, but also question life itself, don't settle for just "big bang and chance and meaninglessness" as science is just a tool, don't settle for just "God willed it all and demands these things of us", we're not here for that long, let's ponder on it all while we can, and enjoy the life that were lucky (or unlucky) to be able to experience for one moment in eternity of nothingness, or an eternity of eternities of different existences. Who knows what were doing here, where we go from here, where do we come from? It's ok to acknowledge that the answer to those questions is "nobody on this earth knows, and maybe we'll never know". Let's cope together, let's smile together, let's live and ponder together.
I'm atheist, but until my last breath I will say "It's all a joke, send me down."
Constantly behaving as if I am being judged if I ever do anything immoral, the main difference being that I follow my own morality based on a decent functional understanding of modern ethics.
While I'm disinclined to religious beliefs, as are most here, one I cherish above all others is a simple short story. Why? If everyone believed this one like they believe the others, karma would be real and I genuinely believe the world would be a better place.
The Egg by Andy Weir
https://youtu.be/h6fcK_fRYaI?si=6aWGVmjbATmuYfTf@Subject6051
Oh hmmm well, a lot of the musicI thought eating beef was taboo in India regardless of religion, as in – you could get away with it in private but good luck finding a butcher that would prepare one without ruining your reputation in the neighborhood. The taste is not good enough to risk it. However, (not) eating beef is an actual choice if you go abroad.
I'm an anti-theist and I still enjoy a lot of religious literature like Pilgrim's Progress
Not a goddamn thing. If I needed religion to tell me how to live, I'd be completely amoral and depraved. I simply treat others as I wish to be treated and live life trying not to negatively impact anyone else.
Some of the philosophy has stuck with me and I take a keen interest in the social and anthropological aspects of religion, but I've had such a consistently bad experience with American Christianity (particularly online) that I just can't really trust anyone enough to even think about partaking in any of them anymore.
I'd rather just improvise anyhow.
Yeah choosing to abstain from eating certain animals for moral reasons (dogs/cats/cows/horses) and not others (pigs/chickens/fish) is definitely weird. Though the majority of people in western society fall into this category, you just moved one more animal across the boundary due to normalization. If you were brought up with pigs, chickens, and fish you'd probably abstain from those too.
The real question to ask though is despite normalization, what's actually the right thing to do? Is it actually okay that some people eat dogs, cats, and cows? Or is it wrong to do this?
People should put more effort into reconciling this dissonance, because slaughter and oppression is not a matter we should leave up to the normalization of society to decide. Society has countless times normalized immoral things.
I'm atheist as well as my parents, but we still celebrate Christmas together. We get a tree, put up some seasonal decorations, give presents, and have a nice dinner on Christmas evening. Basically all the pagan parts without anything explicitly Christian
I'd rather we moved it all to New Year's like people did in Russia, but that's not an argument I'll ever win
While I'm disinclined to religious beliefs, as are most here, one I cherish above all others is a simple short story. Why? If everyone believed this one like they believe the others, karma would be real and I genuinely believe the world would be a better place.
The Egg by Andy Weir
https://youtu.be/h6fcK_fRYaI?si=6aWGVmjbATmuYfTfThe idea of an after life. I like the idea of seeing pets and people I love again. But do I stricky believe that? No. I look at it as a vague inconsiquential thought that brings comfort. It doesn't change how I live my life or my atheist beliefs.
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