Students get smudged by indigenous elders for peace and blessings throughout the year

[u/MelanieWalmartinez]

[u/HighwayAdorable6908]

This! I’m an atheist as well but I respect everybody else’s beliefs. I never tell anybody god isn’t real. I also attend Christmas with family and bow my head when they say grace. It’s not hard being a decent person and respecting other’s beliefs.

[u/AMediaArchivist → u/HighwayAdorable6908]

Same I am an atheist but I work at a black baptist church as their archivist. I don’t attend Sunday service but I’ll bow my head down whenever the pastor says a prayer. I do it out of respect.

[u/Goodknight808 → u/HighwayAdorable6908]

"Why did God create atheists? If everything has a holy purpose, what is the purpose of someone who doesn't believe in God?"

The Rabbi replied: "God created atheists to teach us true compassion. When a religious person sees someone starving, they might pray and say, 'God will provide.' But when an atheist sees someone starving, they don't think God is going to fix it. They know that if they do not help, no one will. Therefore, when it comes to acts of charity and kindness, you must act as if there is no God—relying completely on yourself to change the world."

Basically an atheist who does good, does it on their own. No fear of divine retribution involved. Just pure goodness.

If you need to be afraid of a divine being in order to make you do good....you may not actually be a good person at the core.

[u/Chonch_Monkey → u/Goodknight808]

"If the only thing keeping a person decent is the expectation of divine reward, then, brother, that person is a piece of shit."

[u/REDDITATO_ → u/Chonch_Monkey]

"If I put my own thought into quotes it suddenly seems way more wise."

[u/Chonch_Monkey → u/REDDITATO_]

It's from season 1 of True Detective

[u/REDDITATO_ → u/Chonch_Monkey]

Fair enough lol. Just sounds like a normal sentence.

[u/CyberHunks → u/REDDITATO_]

Hence why it was put in quotes, to show that it’s a quote from something lmao

[u/Chonch_Monkey → u/CyberHunks]

"I just enjoy quoting myself" - Chonch_Monkey

[u/REDDITATO_ → u/CyberHunks]

The joke I was making was that since it was in quotes and just a normal ass sentence with no attribution it sounded like you were just putting quotes around your own thoughts. Normally a quote says where it's from. If it doesn't it usually doesn't just sound like some shit your uncle said once. Obviously I know what quotation marks are, I'm the one who mentioned them in the first place.

[u/Short_Ad_9290 → u/Goodknight808]

even the Bible condemns not helping those who are in need. "Ur brother asks for help and u say keep warm it will be well when u can help him" James Said something like that, Christ used the story of Samaritan to teach kindness without discrimination so I'm just saying a lot of the accusation some people(Christians) get shouldn't be but of course in reality a lot of Christians don't even follow "Christ" and are guilty of the said part my emphasis is that using Christianity as an example there's a lot of good that is supposed to be done but it's not

[u/REDDITATO_ → u/Short_Ad_9290]

Sounds like you really missed the point of that person's comment. Of course Christianity, and pretty much every other religion, have teachings encouraging charity. But if the implication is "god will be mad if you're not charitable" and that's the only reason you do it, you should reexamine your motives.

[u/Great-Tank-5719 → u/REDDITATO_]

Where did the concept of mortality come from? In the old testament, God had prophets tell people that sacrificing your children and murdering other people was bad. Why didn't they know about that yet?

[u/Great-Tank-5719 → u/[deleted]]

So, if you read and understand my comment, the acts are good and have always been good, people just didn't have that morality because to them it was a new concept. It goes against people being naturally good without any moral compass, because morality as we know it has been shaped by these judeo-christian values, they aren't naturally implanted in us. Look at other cultures where they aren't prevalent, and their concept of good and bad are not even the same, so no, christian morals that atheists think are natural to have, are not.

[u/Great-Tank-5719 → u/[deleted]]

Keeping the scope of morals to the conversation (i.e western morals) no christian morals are not the only ones, but they are the only christian morals, other moral beliefs usually place other virtues in good or bad categories. Obviously muslim values differ, as well as other regions that don't consider themselves christian. But if you go to regions that are culturally different, but have christian beliefs, they are pretty much the same. You also can't say the beliefs existed before God because nothing did. Go ahead and cite a culture before Judaism that mirrors their morality code.

[u/kitkat2024 → u/Great-Tank-5719]

They sacrificed their children to god they named Ball. The same one Epstein sacrificed to.

[u/Great-Tank-5719 → u/kitkat2024]

Yeah, and God hated that because it's evil.

[u/Clodhoppa81 → u/[deleted]]

Learn to speak on individuals rather than stereotyping.

You should learn reading comprehension. Nowhere did they say it was just an atheist thing and nowhere did they say that Christians don't do good.

[u/Goodknight808 → u/[deleted]]

Who implied that?

I said "if you need to be afraid of a divine being in order to make you good....you may not actually be a good person at the core."

Why did you read that as "those who believe in God do not do good"? That is not what I said or implied.

I said plainly, that if you need to be forced to do good deeds, you maybe aren't very good.

Drop an insult and its owner picks it up????

[u/Clodhoppa81 → u/[deleted]]

Where did they say one is better than the other?

[u/Samsaknight_X → u/[deleted]]

Ur ons of the only ppl who think that

[u/axonxorz → u/[deleted]]

Learn to speak on individuals rather than stereotyping.

Says the person that read an excerpt from nearly 100-year-old Jewish parables and substituted the lesson with weird victimization.

Hit dog hollers, and all that.

[u/Great-Tank-5719 → u/Goodknight808]

So then why is the vast amount of charitable giving and volunteer work done by churches and not atheists?

[u/Civil_Tea_3250 → u/HighwayAdorable6908]

I agree as well. I even prefer to call myself non-religious over atheist as even "atheism" can be seen as an organized thing to some people.

It's amazing to have been brought up in a Catholic family while being told it's not fact and to watch for people in power abusing and misleading others and to have an open mind about other religions. It allows you to take the positives of social organization while not dealing with the made up stuff.

[u/needusbukunde → u/[deleted]]

You must live in a pretty small world if in your entire life you've never met an "intelligent human" who is an atheist. There are literally dozens of us! Sorry you haven't been able to have a well rounded human experience. Maybe next lifetime, eh hozer? Or possibly in heaven you'll meet a few of us. Best of luck kiddo!

[u/Little_View_6659 → u/needusbukunde]

Probably because we don’t go around announcing ourselves to everyone. We don’t attend a meeting once a week or talk to people about our lack of belief. Well most of us. I lived in the midwest, people don’t ask you IF you go to church, they ask you WHAT church you go to. I ended up making up a church since people looked spooked when I said I didn’t go. I definitely didn’t feel comfortable announcing I was an atheist, I kept it to myself.

[u/Civil_Tea_3250 → u/[deleted]]

Provide proof God is real then. Especially your specific God over all the other ones.

You keep saying "antithesis" yet you're actually showing you're the antithesis of ignorance. You're spouting the same stuff any cultist spouts, crazy assumptions and attacks with 0 proof.

You said it yourself, if anyone saw what you saw they'd believe. So what did you see????

[u/Civil_Tea_3250 → u/[deleted]]

You believe in one God that humans made up. There's been many Gods that humans have made up. It's even more telling that your Christian God is the only right one and is absolutely 100% real despite having literally nothing to prove your point.

Your God gives babies birth defects and let's pedos roam free. Your God sucks. Be better.

And besides, God forgives, right? They'd be much more forgiving of someone who doesn't believe but lives a good moral life over someone who blindly follows and let's pedos run the church. Believe in God, but fight too. If God is real all these churches should be filled with the most righteous and good people, but again, evidence shows that's not true.

[u/Civil_Tea_3250 → u/[deleted]]

Try responding to any point anyone else has made.

Try providing proof rather than ignorant demands that others agree with you for no reason.

Try not attacking others and claiming repeatedly they're uneducated.

You're dumb af.

[u/Civil_Tea_3250 → u/[deleted]]

Lmao Jesus bless your soul. Cuz when you meet him as you believe you will he's gonna have some harsh words for you.

Try reading the Bible for real. Agnostics and Atheists tend to have a better grasp on religion because we don't just want to believe there is no God, it's the opposite. Of course if there were a God it would be amazing to pretend they'll take care of things and look out for us. But that's dumb. And you reference a book publisher as saying there's some study? Lmao. Those are pro-christian books, not studies. No science at all.

[u/Odd_Old_Professional → u/[deleted]]

Damn, I never would have guessed that "militant agnostic" was a choice, but here we are.

[u/Bethany42950 → u/HighwayAdorable6908]

As long as they don't come ringing your door bell, mostly Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses.

[u/Dorkamundo → u/HighwayAdorable6908]

Agreed.

People have their own reasons for faith and I'm not one to arbitrate whether or not that reason is valid. However... That grace goes away the second someone tries to force their beliefs upon me or my family.

Religion is like a penis.

It's ok to have one, it's ok to be proud of it, but it's not ok to whip it out in public and it's not ok to try to shove down people's throats.

[u/RuckFeddit2469 → u/HighwayAdorable6908]

I don't respect everyones beliefs, especially "spiritual" ones, because they're stupid