I don't want to sound like a fedora tipping atheist or anything of the sort, but I am starting to believe less and less of the faith I have been brought up in and around.
Whenever I attempted to be skeptical when I was younger, I was always met with derision and the response of "but you know the truth" from people around me who were Christians, and I always sort of accepted that because I couldn't refute it without going "I don't know." That seems to be basis of everything in religion though. The whole "I have faith or I 'know' so I am correct" thing just doesn't really work for me anymore.
I don't entirely know what to believe because I still feel like I really don't know and I won't know so I can't entirely rule something out, but I also don't think it's anything to do with any sort of modern religion which I really do kind of see as an opiate of the masses.
Now, I live in the erican south and have been here all my life. Everyone around me goes to church and believes in God, so it's a bit difficult for me to "get away from it" or have any real discussion on it that could see things from my point of view. What do I do?
You could just consider christianity as a cultural way of embracing some other form of universal theism. That way you can live the atheistic life without feeling too much cultural disonance.
I feel you, I came from the same background with a similar experience. My view is that you can only believe what you find convincing, and each person finds some spectrum of reasoned arguments, life experience, and empathic appeals to be convincing. Your best bet is to independently read philosophical and anthropological books to gain a broader perspective than is offered by the Baptists/etc. Once you see how temporal and contained that worldview is, they won't have any power over you anymore. Don't bother to discuss these things with your own immediate family since particularly in the American South, honest discussion of ideas is strictly sanctioned and discouraged, they will be religiously motivated to force you to accept their assertions not by careful intelligent argumentation but by emotional coercion. Just avoid that quicksand altogether and go to the library like I did.
>>848572
Cease thinking and pray harder.
>>848572
I grew up in a similar way, but my parents slowly stopped being so militant and eventually church and God faded from my life, and I eventually hit that fedora tipping atheist thing in my teens. Now, I've thrown out the bible in general and live by what I assume is God's true message, which is to be a good guy and try not to fuck people over, and if you do at least have the decency to feel sorry about it. For me, God is a metaphor, something to hold on to loosely. Follow the classical virtues, live by them as best as you can, and stop worrying about it
>>848661
wut
Then just believe in god and make your own purpose. You dont tell your family or anything because you arent a loser and theres more too you than what you believe.
>>848679
>God is a metaphor
define metaphor
>>848762
Sound advice.
>>848904
Literary technique which directly relates an idea, object, or person to represent a different thing, often to compare or contrast attributes.
>>848926
I know what a metaphor is, I'm confused by how anon is using the term
>>848916
Antintellectual cult indoctrination.
>>848679
how can God have a "true message" if he's just a "metaphor"?
>>848572
Good. You need to develop your own beliefs. Most people have a few things they want their beliefs to cover:
Origin
Meaning
Morality
Destiny
There's a saying where you live, if you haven't heard it yet, that goes something like this: "God doesn't have any grandchildren."
In other words, you're not covered by what your parents believe; you have to believe for yourself.
So work at it earnestly, and look at all the contenders for your worldview, and see which of them, if any, satisfy your needs for Love, Acceptance, Meaning and Purpose.
>>848572
talk and ask questions. thats what i did, I'm an agnostic. I don't think anyone can ever possibly know. Even if you died and went to heaven, that could just be some minor god, working under a bigger god, part of a panetheon of gods that puts people in different after life's fitting their religious background.
Or it could all be a hallucination you have at the very moment of your death, that, to your mind, seems like an eternity.
or their could be nothing at all.
Can never know, not even when you die.
>>848679
That's actually the gospel according to satan, that satan told Eve in the Garden of Eden.
It doesn't work.
>>848950
I know.
>>848953
the fruit eating gospel?
Ban bananas! Down with pomegranates!
>>848932
I just meant the whole thing should be handled much more loosely. Instead of, for example, "God helps those who help themselves", think of it as "life helps those who help themselves." Just consider God an idea rather than a entity.
>>848948
Again, don't think of it in a literal way. I don't mean message as a literal spiritual email by God, but rather the spirit of the teachings themselves. The spirit of the whole religion thing itself, not any specific diety or religion for that matter. As I said, you can't go wrong by following the virtues and avoiding the sins.
>>848953
It's worked for me. Religion is a case by case thing. I suppose it's just a matter of wanting to do good and finding the most comfortable way to do it for yourself. If you're Christian and that idea doesn't vibe with you, that's okay. Just do what you feel is right.
>>848969
The "use your knowledge of good and evil to do good, and avoid evil, and thus be like God."
A lie from the pit of hell.
>>848987
>"God helps those who help themselves"
That's Islam, and they have no God.
>>849007
It will not work for you in the afterlife.
>>849010
the real lie from the pit of hell is that that line was ever uttered, that Satan and God ever existed
>>848953
>Garden of Eden
>Satan
not this meme again
>>849021
Another lie from the pit of hell. It's even self-refuting.
This board is bananas.
>>848572
I get you bro, though it was nearly the opposite for me. I never grew up religious, wasn't really raised as a Christian, was an edgy atheist in Middle School and most of high school. A little after high school I eased myself into Christianity.
I think ultimately it comes down to "Do I want to make this leap to faith and why?".
>>848572
>I don't want to sound like a fedora tipping atheist
The fact that people need to qualify their statements with this nowadays really shows how insane the anti-atheist propaganda, and how successful it is, has become.
I remember a "pre-fedora" era of 4chan. It was a better time.
>>849056
Not believing in the afterlife does not make the afterlife go away.
>>849074
Nobody ever wants to be associated with fools, and there is no fool but he who says in his heart there is no God.
>>849074
buttmad atheist detected
get rekt while your degenerate lack of morality falls apart, just like we knew it would from the beginning
Sir Saved, over and out
>>849091
Shrug
>>849095
You are only demonstrating exactly the kind of blind idiocy that OP was talking about.
>>849111
Trips confirm best policy with dealing with religion
>>849105
Thank God the fucking retard finally left.
>>849095
you don't want to start that. atheist's are fools for not believing in something that is only believed in because of faith.
You want to go pure faith, there is god, i know it to be so, etc thats fine. but don't call people fools for not agreeing when there is no proof.
>>849115
Nope. Just quoting bible verses.
The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good.
>>848572
>I don't want to sound like a fedora tipping atheist
>>849127
Oh, I'm still here. And I will still be here in the new golden Jerusalem when you meet your friends in the second death and the lake of fire. U mad¿
Sir Saved, over and out
>>849134
>Just quoting bible verses.
Wow it's fucking nothing.
Go preach your anti-doubt defense mechanisms somewhere else.
OP is asking for intellectual honesty so you are categorically shiposting your insane cult dogmas in the wrong thread.
i don't want to sound like a homophobic christfag but if ya don't believe in jeezus ya'll end up in hell
>>848572
Go out and read and thing things over. In the end if you don't believe you don't believe. Of course I think it would be better if you did, but it's not like you can force yourself to.
>>849150
>Sir Saved
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4-vbXShDEU
>>849091
If he can't believe then it doesn't really matter either way because either way he can't believe.
>>849169
That video
Wew
>>849169
SLYCHICS
>>849169
I know a few people that would be like that. It's very interesting how fervent people get.
>>849151
Believing the truth is intellectually honest.
>>849253
Yes, but what is the proof of the truth? How do we know it's true without resorting to faith. Evidence and that, you know?
>>849176
People change what they believe all the time, when it is proven to them that their prior belief is incorrect, or useless.
People believe what they want to believe.
>>849256
"I am The Way, The Truth, and The Life; no man comes to the Father but by Me."
--Jesus of Nazareth
You know the truth when you know Jesus.
>>849260
Okay, but why can't Jesus literally say that to me by appearing in front of me and not in a book?
>>849253
No, asserting unsupported claims and using circular reasoning are the opposite of intellectual honesty.
You misuse words like Truth and Good to mean your own subjective religious beliefs, and are too stupid to realize that your intended audience doesn't agree with you. So instead you just want to earn Good Boy Points by being obstinate. You universalize your silly nonsense cult into a way to condemn everyone else, just like a sociopath. You are a living stereotype of blowhard ignorant Christians.
>>849264
What He has done, suffices.
>>849314
So stop asserting unsupported claims, and stop using circular reasoning.
>>848572
>Now, I live in the erican south and have been here all my life.
>Everyone around me goes to church and believes in God, so it's a bit difficult for me to "get away from it"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4tsGWdarHc
>>849335
"I am The way, The Truth, and The Life; No man comes to the Father but through me."
-Me
Jesus was plagiarizing me, prove me wrong
>>848572
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoAZLLZzsXo
>>849335
But what evidence is there for what he has done?
>>849150
Are you supposed to gloat about that?
