#proud atheist

[katiesteedart]

#KatieSteedArt

Title - Pontius

One of my first drawings. I make sure people see it when they come to the door...

[nirivenova]

I'm not desperate enough to believe in a deity and I'm not foolish enough to worship one

[drmonkeysetroscans]

Don’t believe in the devils you made up.

[liliana-von-k]

Snaffled off FB.

[simplysmitten]

Many people act astonished when they find out I'm an atheist and usually respond with "oh so you don't believe in anything?" or "what's is the point of your life then?" Or "what if you're wrong"

Which is, of course, insane!

I believe in life, love, liberty, the quest for knowledge, freedom, humanity, beauty! I believe the whole point of life is LIVING IT. I could've been a piece of dust floating in space but no. I'm here, I'm human. I get to feel, I get to love, I get to experience. I get to wake up to my cat's melodic meow, I get to move and use my muscles, I get to come home to my dog's tail wagging everyday, I get to kiss and tell my parents I love them everyday! I get to do good things with my hands, I get to make an actual difference in someone's life, every single day. No I don't believe some god is responsible for it all, humanity has been creating and dismantling religions since the dawn of influence. No, we made our world. Us. Humans. Just as we continue to. And if I am wrong at the end and I should stand before some being I'll be able to accept any fate because my life was worth every second of it. I don't need a book to tell me how to live a good life. No one does.

To love is to live, and to live is to love. It's honestly that simple.

[ihavea-tummyache]

Poem #1:

[giantkillerjack]

Did you know that every time a trans person or a fat person wears a crop top, an angel gets gender reaffirming surgery and rebels against the heavenly hegemony? And also when a fat trans person wears a crop top, God loses another tooth?? It's true.

[pimo-and-sad-about-it]

I can't believe I took a whole class just studying the lives of 15 old, homophobic, mostly white men. Like, wow. I really did that. It's so wild how obsessed mormons are with the apostles. It's like, creepy, guys. Why do I need to know their previous professions or where they're from. Who cares if the president of the sexist homophobic racist church has perfect pitch. Sorry Russell, it doesn't matter how many jokes you make about green bananas, that doesn't mean that you're called of god.

[astrxealis]

i will return on tumblr soon bcs i'm graduating hs soon and acads r done so i have a Lot of time on my hands for now Anyway can i just say am very proud of myself. got into the Top 1 school in my country, top campus, and a vv competitive stem course. yay 😁💝💘❤️‍🔥✨

[orcelito]

I've always known that my dad loved us, but nothing's driven that home as much as everything we've found in the After.

Our prominence in his home (pictures, father's day cards, gifts on display, the letter), the way he prioritized us... and a damned good life insurance policy, set up specifically so that if he died early (always a possibility, since driving jobs are more dangerous than many) then we would have enough to get ourselves Set.

He raised us to become as independent as possible as soon as possible. Made sure we knew how to cook, clean, handle our finances (though he was hilariously kind of bad at that, himself), and much more. I've been doing my own laundry since I was about 10 years old, so it's a surprise when I hear about people going off to college still not knowing. Utterly unimaginable to me.

He wanted us to finish college so we could live more comfortable lives than he did. My sister accomplished this in good time. I have not. But with his final gift to us, this life insurance money, it's a very real thing I could do. I could Realistically pay for the rest of my schooling and not even have to work through it. And in not having to work as I take classes, I can dedicate myself to them more thoroughly than ever before, and hopefully Finally finish my degree.

Just as he wanted for me.

I'll always miss him, since having him in my life was worth more than any amount of money I could have. But I'll always be grateful to him for everything he gave to me.

I dont need a mother, however much mine is trying to scrabble for us right now. I haven't had a true mother in a long time (or maybe Ever).

Instead, I had the best father I could've ever asked for. He was the only parent I needed.

[creekfiend]

Wow I just caught up on the "culturally christian" "discourse" due to being the type of jew who is allergic to being Part Of Jumblr and uh

Confused

I would be more than willing to have some good faith discussions w non-Jewish atheists about their feelings about the imprecise use of this term; with people who have Christianity Trauma who politely request to not be Called Christians even if that is part of their cultural background or upbringing (I am happy to not do this & always try to say ppl from culturally christian backgrounds because like... identity and Christianity are complex and I know and love a lot of people who have been horribly hurt by Christianity and I don't think it is productive or kind to insist to those people that they be aligned in some way identitywise with the institutions that have hurt them! As a jew I understand trauma very well and a lot of interacting with people and groups who have a lot of trauma is meeting them where they are, imo. I think it's important to do that.

But (you knew the but was coming)

I am UTTERLY BEWILDERED that even the people who are on the side of "this term is useless and you are stupid for using it" who seem to have like, interesting philosophical perspectives and mostly seem to not be engaged in outright antisemitism themselves ARE NEVERTHELESS happily rubbing shoulders w people who call jews and anyone who believes in anything "unscientific" 'fairytale cultists' and who happily assert that the very act of believing stuff that cannot be Obejctively Proven is like, oppressive and harmful

And if ppl are on your post saying antisemitic things and you do not block them or go "hey whoa uhhh let's not do that" then I don't trust you!

And like also

A lot of the jews participating in this discussion are getting violent anons calling them kikes and saying they should die in horrible ways!

WOW. THIS IS WILD AND UM. KIND OF DEEPLY ALARMING. TO ME. HI. WHAT THE FUCK.

[nirivenova]

The unfriendly neighborhood religious ghouls are picketing on the street corner.

"Keep Christ in Christmas"

Um...yeah. Christ is in Christmas. If you could read you'd fucking know that. Also, Christmas has nothing to do with Yule, which was appropriated along with its iconography to sweeten the force feeding of the shitty fable. And to this I say,

KEEP CHRIST OUT OF YULE

Thanks for coming to my Ted talk

[drmonkeysetroscans]

Christians persecuting non believers.

[scattered-winter]

man it just really sucks having to go through all the motions and acting like i'm happy and proud of my family members when i'm really, really fucking not. sick of this shit

[giantkillerjack]

WHAT UP THE CONFLATION OF SUFFERING WITH LOVE IS EXTREMELY QUESTIONABLE

Tags on this post, by @saint-ambrosef and @mariposasmonarch, isolated here because they accidentally hit on EXACTLY what I think brought about my original line of thinking:

#of course christ dying wasn't “necessary” #but damn if it isnt the most visible and obvious way to show someone that you love them #a person snapping their fingers and giving you everything you wanted isn't nearly as impactful as that person willingly enduring personal #suffering in order to give it to you #thats what we mean when we say “christ died for us” #not because he strictly had to but because he wanted to show us just how far his love goes #we puny humans can know in our lowest moments that god incarnated himself to be brutally murdered #just to make his “i love you” absolutely clear #its not a guilt trip...it's reassurance in its purest form #<- YES #and if this isn’t the most beautiful and touching expression of True Love #the Selfless Love #Love which is Willing the Good for the other for no reason but just that

I disagree with this. All of it. I genuinely think that dying for someone is a shitty and stupid gift, especially when you didn't need to do it and it provides them with no tangible benefit. I think this is a dangerous and irresponsible thing to teach your children.

Martyrdom and suffering are not inherent expressions of love.

I believe in good for others for the sake of good, and kindness for the sake of kindness. But what always throws me for a loop is the Christian idea that suffering on its own is a form of good. I disagree. I disagree with my whole heart.

As a child, I was taught that the best thing I could be is Christlike. And I was Not Okay.

I lived my life ready to set myself on fire to prevent someone else from feeling a chill, and this impulse still follows me over a decade after I lost my faith. (There were other factors also, but religion played a big role in this attitude.)

It has been devastating to my health, nearly to the point of death on multiple occasions. The idea that the best and purest form of love is to suffer - It's gross. I think it's gross. I don't feel loved; I feel like if someone tortured themselves to death and then I was told to rejoice, for they did it all for me! And I'm like... oh. I didn't... ask for that?

I've lived my entire adult life without proper healthcare. I would argue that someone snapping their fingers and giving me everything I ever wanted would actually be a LOT better for me than if they suffered and died. Like, magnitudes better.

I believe that the purest form of love is to LIVE for another person.

I've done that. I do that. I've seen people suffer pain worse than death and still not die just because they loved me. And I felt loved not because they were suffering but because they were doing whatever it took to live by my side and to live in happiness.

Sacrifice is a part of love, but it is not inherently loving. It has to have a reason or it is just pure performative loss, which actually does feel like a guilt trip!

I just-- I've gotten a ton of completely different dogmatic answers today, but to me, these tags are what strikes at the heart of it all.

The idea that we need to place every single other living thing before ourselves even and perhaps especially to the point of self-destruction.

For an example, in the Catholic church, most of the Saints are martyrs! And they were taught to us like action heroes with superpowers and everything! My little sister with their childhood OCD collected cards of saints like they were Pokemon cards! Which is really cute until you consider that they were a compulsive child idolizing a pantheon of people whose defining trait was brutal self-sacrificial death. They were one of the most anxious children I've ever met.

For me, as an autistic kid, the idea that suffering was somehow inherently good helped me to endure a lot more extreme sensory pain than I otherwise would have. I was terribly proud of my ability to endure pain. But now as an adult with crippling cPTSD, I can't help but notice that none of those sacrifices I made actually helped anyone!

I don't personally believe that gods are real. But if I did, I think I'd be awfully angry at the Christian god for killing himself and having the nerve to say it was for me.

I've literally had a loved one who believed they were a burden offer to kill themselves for me. It was a heinous idea for a gift, and I told them so. They were terribly disappointed when I chose the other, much more difficult and beautiful option, which was to live for each other. Live and grow and love in the light. To plant gardens for each other and cook them into meals. To build and nurture and know. THAT is the most beautiful and sure form of love. I will accept no substitutes.

I hope someday someone shows you love in a way that feels more beautiful to you than crucifixion - literal or metaphysical. You deserve love that isn't defined by pain.

[his-eternal-hell]

...The idea of God is the sole wrong for which I cannot forgive mankind...

Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis De Sade