Deconstructing Christianity - Tumblr Posts
One finds more crime in societies that operate more off of shame.
This dovetails with the data showing that regions with higher expressions of christianity, have more domestic violence, child abuse, grooming, SA, and other kinds of harm.
I've often noted that the worldview inherent to christianity -- in which humans are seen as naturally evil and given to the questionable concept of "sin" from the moment of birth -- can help excuse even one's bad treatment of innocent people.
After all, ALL humans are bad…right? So, oppressor or victim....in the end, who cares? 🤷🏾♀️
This worldview makes christian morality inherently corrupt.
Not to mention that the god character already displays all the classic behaviors and desires of an abuser: 'Love me or die', and 'Obey me or die', are not actually expressions of love or caring at all -- much less are they markers of a healthy relationship dynamic of any kind!
Yet, this "divine" example of actually toxic behavior, unfortunately, further entrenches those biblically-modeled abusive behaviors as 'acceptable' -- even as 'holy' -- in the worshippers' understanding.
And any disagreement -- much less outright protest -- is further maligned… because that worldview will go on to insist that we are all of us potentially demon-riddled and deserving of hell, unless we eagerly bow and scrape before the tyrannical god character.
The bad treatment and victim-blaming of marginalized, disabled, sick, poor, or homeless people, is also very much excused within this worldview... because, when your religion makes the entirely-too-pat assertion that good people are sure to be protected, rewarded, privileged, and empowered by god; while bad people are abandoned, disempowered, and punished; what else will religious people believe; but that to be good is to be rich, "normal", and "strong", and that all those who are being harmed by the hierarchies and oppressions around them therefore deserve what they get?
This is a sadly double-edged blade.
I remember how it felt.
The sheer self-loathing, self-dismissal, and anxiety ingrained into religious people, who are constantly told that they are worthless and evil unless they follow the whims and nonsensical, arbitrary rules of the capricious and authoritarian god character, can be immense.
It encourages just as much self-abuse and self-neglect as it encourages the neglect and abuse of others.
I think what disturbs me most about a lot of the religious right whenever they debate atheists on the existence of god, is that a lot of them are so incredibly desperate to get to the 'Yes, a god exists!' conclusion -- NOT because it means that we can understand the universe and ourselves better, or that we can make life better for everyone because of it -- but so they can then relax, and finally say, guilt free: "And that's why women need to be slaves in a kitchen with no goals or dreams of their own"; or, "And that's why trans and LGBT+ folk aren't allowed to be a part of society"; or, "And that's why we need to treat children like they're 'mini mes' that have no identity or interiority of their own!"; or, "And that's why we should be allowed to completely trash this planet with no regard for other species, nor even ourselves!"
Part of what finally snapped me out of my belief:
If god is the most intelligent and wise of all possible geniuses, then what's written in the bible should blow the efforts of scientists and philosophers completely out of the water.
The works of scientists should seem like the striving of toddlers in comparison to the bible.
It doesn't.
And if god is the source of absolute and perfect morality, then incredibly difficult moral quandaries should have been solved brilliantly in those pages...
I should never feel as if know right from wrong better than the god character.
And yet, with dismay, I frequently felt that way, while reading the bible.
I can't tell you how many hours I spent in desperate prayer, asking for revelation and clarity, on what was, ultimately, already clear:
The bible has no divine origin...and therefore, has no power to reveal anything that humans have yet to reveal; no ability to imbue one with a morality or a wisdom greater than what humans can construct; and no capacity to save you from what you yourself or another human or another animal or a stroke of sheer random chance couldn't save you from.
I am an atheist. I am angry and bitter.
But I am not angry and bitter "because I'm an atheist".
I am angry and bitter, because I WAS a christian, and because what was done to me during that time by my abusers and my community has had awful and far-reaching consequences that I am unable to undo.
I'm much happier in other ways.
I no longer have to hate myself, and hate humanity in general, on behalf of an immoral god who displays all the markers of an abuser; for whom I'm compelled to try to do mental gymnastics in order to explain or defend them in the face of perfectly reasonable critiques.
I don't have to walk around with the CONSTANT anxiousness that that capricious and "unknowable" god inspired.
I no longer have to fear hell.
I can accept myself as a full person now; instead of demonizing my libido levels, my femininity, my curiosity, or even my creativity: assuming that being a woman should be a curse, and that a woman with a high libido is somehow a disgrace, and that people who think (and who question!) outside of the box are somehow dangerous or defective when they are neither lying, nor causing any harm.
I don't have to be afraid to Love myself -- whether literally or figuratively.
I certainly don't have to LOATHE myself on behalf of my "betters".
I defend myself far better, now that I don't believe that I'm supposed to be some insensate piece of property that fathers and husbands get to trade between themselves, expressly for them to use, control, and torture.
I am even able to scrape together moments of joy and purpose, as well as hope for a better future for humanity -- even if a better future has been denied me, personally, as an individual, via the disabling neglect and suppression of opportunities of my "husband"; and, before him, the purposeful isolation and suppression of opportunities by my father.
Being miserable is a given, considering what I have gone through. Anger is a perfectly reasonable response to their lies, cruelty, mistreatment, and dismantling behaviors.
But atheism has only bought to me a light and a clarity that exists DESPITE the miseries I've been saddled with, and it provides tools that aid my struggle to overcome in whatever ways that I still can.
Atheism is fine. Atheism is a joy.
It is RELIGION that has caused my sorrow.
Let's face it, happiness and joy are distinctly against conservative ways of thinking. 😳
I've never before seen a demographic with such an endless hard-on for ensuring unnecessary suffering, gleeful malice, and needless struggle…both for themselves, and others.
I blame religion, tho, christianity specifically. Maybe if their god didn't constantly beat them over the head with the idea that humans are evil from birth; and that, no matter what they do, they can't really redeem themselves in god's eyes; then perhaps they would think that they (and everyone else) were worthy of compassion, care, liberation, and pleasure.
It's annoying the way some christians insist that, "You just became an atheist because you're upset with god!".
First, because that's untrue.
Second, because that dismisses SO much that goes into the process of deconstruction.
I got upset with my husband and his family, that's true.
I uprooted my whole life, after a seven-year courtship, to be with him...because I thought I was in love.
I unfortunately had been convinced that the man that I married was real -- rather than a cynical lie he was projecting to me, in order to 'tie me down', into what I view as a false relationship and a false marriage.
I had been additionally convinced of assumptions that:
•because his family were christians, they were good people, and that,
•because he was a "scientist", he'd be a logical and reasonable partner to deal with; and that,
•because they all liked some of the things that I liked, that that meant they held the same values as I did.
I could not have been more wrong.
Instead of thriving, and despite all efforts and arguments on my part, I watched as they slowly isolated me, and dismantled my body and my life.
Again: my upset was at THEM.
I knew that I had stayed chaste and devoted to god. That I had extended myself to the utmost, in order to deal with my husband and in-laws in pure and good faith. To support and uphold and maintain my husband and household; despite extremely confusing, adversarial, sabotaging, and gaslighting behaviors from him, and racist and misogynistic behaviors from his family.
I poured my entire being into them: being the best wife that I knew how to be, only to be denied every success, every consideration, every dignity...
I was horrified that god had somehow allowed me to fall into their cruel, uncaring, and dismissive hands.
I viewed it as some kind of cosmic misunderstanding.
I knew that anyone who "loved and knew me the way that god surely did" would not do such a thing to me!
The incongruity of these things made me afraid that god did not exist.
A fear that squeezed my heart and held me by the throat; no matter how hard and how long I prayed, no matter what christian marriage advice or ministry website I consulted.
So I started searching.
Because I "KNEW" that god did exist.
And I wanted to prove it!
I hoped that, after understanding god better, I could then come to understand my situation better, and then I'd know what god wanted me to do.
I kept looking and searching for the evidence of god that I'd always been assured was there -- by countless christian books, ministries, speakers, pastors, clergy, my own family members...
Only to find that each and every scrap and report of the "proof" of god, and of the bible, was either made up, or thoroughly debunked!
It was then -- only then -- that I became angry with the CONCEPT of god, and everything that leaning on that proverbial staff of Egypt -- in this case? Religion itself -- has done to my dreams, my potentials, my health, and my life...
There is no such thing as my having "become upset with god".
Because you can't truly be "angry" at someone who doesn't exist.
Video Weekend
Forrest Valkai | The Line -- Transphobic Liar Calls In
Video Weekend
What is Black Humanism | Dr. Anthony Pinn:
Mandisa Thomas -- Race, Representation, and Black Nonbelievers
Science Is Not A Faith o.O;
I love science.
But the whole thing about science is that it's a method of investigation, not a person or a thing...and the results that one gets from science aren't "unseen".
It's not something you "have to have faith" in.
It's all there, out on paper, in the data, the studies.... there's EVIDENCE there.
Evidence that other scientists are then challenged to disprove, not support.
And the more the findings stand despite other scientists' attempts to tear it down, the more the data becomes predictive and helpful in figuring out other problems, advancing other experiments, and describing other tangible situations; and the more it can be accepted as truth (or at least as a part of the truth).
And of course, nuance can (and should!) be applied to that data.
And sometimes, that changes how the data is interpreted... changes what it means; inspires scientists to go back and do additional studies and experiments to clarify and better interpret the results...but that just improves the data, so long as it really is evidence that is truly in step with our reality.
So...I don't have to have faith in anything.
I believe in Life... because I have good reason to.
And being able to ground myself in humanity and in what is humane (instead of seeing myself and everyone else as automatically evil, "sinful" creatures who do bad just because we just love evil so much, rather than due to the pressures and lack of options provided by the systems around us), I feel has made me a better person.
Now that I'm an atheist, I feel more in touch with a good set of morals that is based on well-being, consent, autonomy, and thriving -- instead of just going with 'Whatever god says, because his Might Makes Right!'.
I wish so badly that I had become an atheist much earlier in life. It would have changed so much for me.
On "Why are so many atheists leftists?"
Atheism essentially means that you're not convinced that there is a god. That's IT.
So atheism ISN'T necessarily synonymous with leftism, yes.
...However, skepticism often goes hand-in-hand with atheism.
And skepticism is a great way to understand reality.
And Leftism tends to grow out of both an understanding of reality, and a desire to make that reality better.
Therefore: it makes sense that a lot of people who are BOTH atheist, and skeptically-minded, would tend to be leftists/anti-capitalists, and/or humanists.
People who are just atheists can be whatever else they like! They can even be conservative.
It really depends on whether or not they care if what they believe and if the facts that they know are true, and, whether or not they care about other people and the world in general.
"Sin" is an idea grounded in false 'Might Makes Right' thinking.
"My god (one of at least 3,000 other imaginary 'gods' the human race has dreamed up, all with their own particular set of arbitrary made-up rules and lore 😳) says it's wrong to love someone of your same gender, so you have to do what he says and stop it!!!!!"
Complaining about something harmless like a man kissing another man; has no equivalency to the very actual and REAL concerns the populations of this world struggle with: the active harm being caused by the conservative championing of pollution, greedflation, tampering with education, denying free medical care to people, and taking people's rights away from them.
Video Weekend
In the Cut w/BlackNonbelieversInc & Nikki G:
Dr. Anthony Pinn "The Black Practice of Disbelief" | on The Thinking Atheist w/Seth Andrews:
Sikivu Hutchinson | Humanist in the Hood: Unapologetically Black, Feminist, and Heretical
Amongst the hall of prisms, opening the chest:
bleeding my ocean onto the page this red floor obscures coagulates crystallizes little fragments of memory feelings hidden and forbidden
this red floor whispers every hatred and every judgement; my every worry, my every arrogance, and every rule that I have ever been made to follow. bleeding this ocean I sigh and sigh again
I’m learning learning so much but I’m afraid--
When do I get to stop bleeding
😅 It would probably blow an evangelical's mind to learn that some scientists have caught evidence of fetuses touching themselves in the womb.
Humans evolved with the potential (not the certainty) of procreation. Sexuality is inborn, not taught.
You can't "teach" or "influence" someone to be queer any more than you can "teach" or "influence" someone to be cishet.
You can try and force them.
If you're an asshole.
But it will be for nothing cause it's not gonna work.
What needs to be taught are the definitions and knowledge that will allow the child to understand themselves better, and eventually, navigate their inborn sexuality more safely and happily.
And so, all these religious conservatives do by denying children honest, open, and age-appropriate sex education; is stunting their development as a person at least, and endangering them with enforced ignorance at most. 🤷🏾♀️
(Kind of explains why child abuse in religious groups and regions are higher than non religious ones.
The abuser takes advantage of the child's lack of knowledge, as well as their indoctrinated shame, fear, and silence around the topic of sex, in order to deceive and manipulate the child into staying quiet).
Between capitalism and religion (esp. christianity), we are all weaned on falsehoods that lead to some extremely horrible presumptions and attitudes about our world, ourselves, and others.
Capitalism keeps telling us that meritocracy is real.
It also reassures us that, if something awful happens to someone, it's because they didn't work hard enough to avoid it -- and so, of course, people should not receive the help they need to recover.
( Makes it a lot easier for the rich to justify their hoarding of resources if they've convinced you that other people shouldn't have them for one reason or another.
This pretty much also conditions us towards eugenicist thinking: sharpening already completely unnecessary competition for very much available resources, and helping to frame disabled and chronically-ill folk for society-wide scapegoating ).
Religion tells us that we are evil people from birth.
That, no matter what we do, we cannot be redeemed unless an abuser in the sky says so.
Religion pushes the fascist idea of "Might Makes Right" through the god character, who both encourages and excuses all manner of atrocities throughout the bible, and endlessly subjects others to arbitrary, unforgiving rules and nonsensical tests of loyalty.
In this way, religion reassures us that the moral code that we should follow isn't founded on consent and well-being; but is instead dependent on the arbitrary whims of whoever has the power to force, coerce, and exploit others into obedience and servitude.
Add onto that that marketing continually flattens things that it is good to pursue (like friendship, connection, knowledge, community building, and love); and hypes things that will never create true validation, happiness, or wholeness if we pursue them (such as constant consumerism, brand worship, celebrity worship, and the use of social media to show off coveted experiences instead of pursuing GENUINE experiences that we enjoy because we enjoy them, rather than pretending to enjoy them because it will raise our social status in the eyes of others); and it is no wonder that some find themselves seeking out and enjoying displays of cruel mockery and humiliation leveled towards fellow human beings in order to self-soothe.
It is no wonder that some are constantly of the opinion that humanity is "just evil"; and that, not only does humanity not deserve to continue, not only is the extinction of humanity a foregone conclusion; but that the extinction of humanity would be a guaranteed active good in any and all timelines.
It is no wonder that so many people will decry the ill-treatment of animals and pets, and then turn and shrug in apathy at the horrors that beset even human beings, even the innocent, even the young.
It is no wonder that so many become buried by internalized 'isms' and insecurities that they find it nearly impossible to believe that they deserve consideration and care from their "society".
It is no wonder that people see the work of defending each other, protecting each other, and abolishing this system so that humanity can finally become its best self; as being pointless, or even somehow harmful.
Christianity isn't popular "because God is real".
It's popular because of a history in which conquerors and colonizers and other oppressors fought for centuries to force their populations to believe it, because christianity is a very useful tool that preconditions people for rule.
I'mma boil it down again:
Do ye think maybe capitalists are giddy as fuck when we assert that human beings are inherently awful, and that humanity is worthless?
Do ye think you can drum up enough dedication to defend something that you allow yourself to see as worthless?
EDIT: RECRUITMENT IS CLOSED!! Thank you sooo much to everyone who participated and filled out the screener. :)
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sooo um hi! I’m a graduate researcher and wondering if folks would be interested in my study! 👉🏻👈🏻
Are you an ex-fundamentalist, ex-evangelical, or ex-charismatic Christian? Me too, and I’m looking for people like us to participate in an academic research study (IRBNet NO: 1873336) on identity development among ex-Christians. If you want to participate, please fill out the screener survey listed on the flyer (bit.ly/aposidscreener). And please share with anyone you know who might be interested! Please message me or email me at fio . haire @ mnsu . edu for more information.
Thanks!
Fio Haire (they/he), master’s student at Minnesota State University, Mankato
Primary Investigator: Dr. Aaron Hoy (he/him), Assistant Professor of Sociology at Minnesota State University, Mankato
[Image description: A multicolored flyer with text that says:
IRBNet NO: 1873336
Research Study for Former Christian Evangelicals, Fundamentalists, and Charismatics
Conducted by Fio Haire and Aaron Hoy at Minnesota State University, Mankato
Now Recruiting Interview Participants
Participants must be:
- 18 or older
- Live in the U.S.
- Be able to converse in English or with assistive technology
- Identify as ex-evangelical/fundamentalist/charismatic
- Not currently identify as Christian
Complete the screener at bit.ly/aposidscreener
Questions? Email fio . haire @ mnsu . edu
Scan here! - image of an arrow pointing to a QR code.
Share your story in a research study on the identity development of ex-Christians!]
Church Truth about Bumper sticker Theology
Quote about Christianity from George Woodruff.