Asklemmy

What do you mean "if you are an atheist, why did you do it"? I just want raised with a religion.

Atheist, universalist Unitarian. Other people's theism is just at the bottom of my priorities these days lol. UUs seem like nice people

I am a Muslim, so Islam.

Agnostic atheist.

Antitheist

Discordian

Apathetic since forever.

Grew up atheist, went through a semi serious pagan phase, got certified as a shaman, went back to atheism. Will still throw in the odd ritual, but more with the expectation that it will affect the way I think about a problem rather than the ritual doing anything on its own.

So like if you have a job interview you can either raw dog it and show your lack of confidence or.preform a ritual and gain some confidence which will count in your favour during the interview.h

Is the ritual doing any direct alterations? No, but it's still useful.

This one thinks there were three cycles of moon giving from our mother Fadomai. Ahnurr gave Fadomai her cubs. First was Alkosh, followed by Khenarthi, Magrus, Mara lastly there was S'rendarr.

During the second moon gift there was now Merrunz, Mafala, followed by Sangiin.

Although Ahnurr's house was full, Alkosh and others wanted more cubs to bask in lights warmth.

So Fadomai gave her first cubs their wishes. Azurah, Nirni, Y'ffer, Masser, Secunda all joined with the light children.

Fadomai still had longing for small cubs so she fled to the void and one cub, Lorkhaj was given.

Exhausted, Fadomai knew her time of ending was near. So a gift was given to Nirni, for she desired to give cubs the light.

So it was that Nirni came to her brother Lorkhaj for she needed a new dwelling for her cubs. Lorkhaj did just so, forming the mortal realm. Some of Fadomai's first cubs were imprisoned in the new realm. The second set of Fadomai's cubs saw what had happened and did not follow.

Mayhaps was not just Nirni who was given the gift of cubs. So is said Azurah came down to one of Nirni's cubs and shape his form most desirably, so log as they would be given their mother Fadomai's Beauty, Ahnurr intelligence and Alkosh's streingth.

Azurah found some of Nirni's cubs in the forest and from them Khajiit were born under Masser and Secunda's light.

Angered by Azurah's decision to take so many cubs Nirni came to Y'ffer and ask for punishment. He did so turning the grasses to warm sands and forest to marsh.

Azurah loved her cubs and taught them the ways of the moons and the gift of shapes.

However not all her children were given the gifts of Azurah and favored Nirni. By her hand the fur was taken and the forest given. For Nirni also loved here cubs and their grandcubs.

Although maybe not M'aiq is very practical. He has no need for mysticism.

My true faith is: don't be an asshole and be a decent, rational and empathetic human being.

Everything else I may or may not believe does not matter, it's decoration.

Zen Buddhist. I grew up Christian, realized I was believing out of obligation rather than genuine conviction, but also I'm pan and Christians have made it very clear that's not okay with them.

I was areligious for awhile. Which I use because I am still an atheist; I don't see much evidence for gods, but that isn't important to Buddhism.

I appreciate the Buddha's teachings and find them incredibly helpful. I'm calmer, more focused, and over all, happier for my practice. It gives me a spiritual outlet that doesn't make me feel "dirty" the way Christianity did.

There are aspects to Buddhism that I have to take on faith even though I am otherwise a skeptical individual. But ultimately, those things don't change how I would have had to live my life. And I believe that a true practitioner needs a balance of logic anf faith: too much logic, and you kill your faith. Too much faith and you wind up in a cult. You need enough logic to stay grounded, and enough faith to believe. But you have to acknowledge that you can rarely prove the things you take on faith and because of that, there will always be non-belivers, and that has to be okay.

No evidence for God, that’s why I’m an atheist.

I'm an atheist. I grew up super religious and had a falling out with my church due to their "if someone believes different than our denomination they are going to hell" mindset. After that I found out that most other denominations are like that except for mormons but they are worse in other ways. Then I did more and more research that sort of caused what belief I had left to fall apart and now its kind of like Santa Claus, once you figure out its your parents putting presents under the tree theres no believing in Santa anymore

Quaker curious

Atheist. I was raised in various flavors of southern, whites protestant churches. Mostly the so-called charismatic, non-denominational, types, but also mainstream Southern Baptists, Presbyterians, etc, but not excluding some of the weirder cultish strains.

I left because I began to realize just how fucked in the head they raised me. I couldn't relate to regular people very well at all, and couldn't trust the judgement of religious people at any level. I got out and got the help I needed. I only wish I had done it sooner.

Atheist. Religion is an explanation of the world that's made the fuck up. I think people make shit up to explain reality because accepting uncertainty is difficult, but that doesn't make it ok. The world around you exists, just like it is. There is no special place you get to go if you follow the right set of rules .

Satanist.

Raised Mormon, was a Mormon missionary. Had a nervous breakdown, and religious leaders said that I must be sinning, and needed to pray more, read my scriptures more, and repent. But... What sin? And how was I supposed to pray/study more when I had already dedicated two years of my life to preaching? E.g., there's 24 hours in the day, and I'm already spending multiple hours doing that stuff, so where am I supposed to fit that in?

That was the first crack in the foundation. Took a while, but once you realize that religious leaders are just men (and yes, it's always men in the Mormon church), and that despite their claims they don't have any prophetic powers, then you start questioning a lit of things, like how you can even know truth. (Spoiler: you can't know truth without some kind of objective evidence, and all religions' truth claims are based on subjective evidence and "see?, it says so, right here in my book!")

Atheist is a label that says what you don't believe. Satanist is a label that says what I do believe. So I eventually settled on Satanist.

Antitheist.

If there is some kind of almighty God that created and rules everything then it must be the most evil being to ever exist and we must destroy it. It created evil, it created suffering, it created loss, it created death, and for what? Fun?

Subgenius.

It's complicated but I used to be essentially atheist but now believe that there is something one might as well call "God" after studying philosophy. Essentially everything has a cause and something must be at the end of that chain, and we might as well call that "God." I also practice Christianity because I feel that it is good to have the community and structure that a religion can provide but I don't think that "God" necessarily exists in the way Christianity typically presents it.

I wasn't really raised with religion, but most of my family is Christian. I considered myself atheist as a young adult. But after many spiritual experiences, I believe in the unexplainable, but I'm not a fan of organized religion or cults.

I believe in myself. I believe in everyone else too, until they give me a reason not to.

I believe every particle/atom/point within my reality has a connection equivalent to what one might call a 'soul' and it exists outside of dimensional reality, the dimensions being represented by a line (1d), a plane (2d), a field (3d) and the function of time (4d). Currently for me this puts these connections in the 5th dimension. I use the term "philote" as a label for each connection. That term is borrowed from the Ender books.

Life as we know it is made up of many atoms, formed into molecules, cells, organs and so on. At the core, each atom having its own connected philote, an organism is a community of philotes working together to stay connected and keep the organism going. The organism they represent is in a way, their religion. I believe in the philotes representing my human body. They believe in me.

When I die, my atoms with scatter. Some philotes will be swept away in the atmosphere, some will become the rotting and disintegrating organs of my body. Unless I'm cremated or destroyed in some other way similar, some parts of my body will remain connected. The philotes that make up my bones will remain connected to each other, as the philotes of my skin and blood etc. spread and become new things.

If I meet someone and have an affinity to them, I believe that some of my philotes and some of their philotes were once part of the same organism. They belonged to the same philotic 'church' of that organism. They recognize each other. They like each other. Thus I like the other person and they like me, even if we can't explain why ourselves. It is like magnetism, our philotes know each other and know they have similar goals and will work together. Since philotes exist outside of time, this affinity may be caused by something which has not occurred yet. Perhaps the other person and I die and many of our philotes become a new entity sometime in the future. A new church or religion of philotes.

If I meet someone and do not like them and cannot explain why, I believe that my philotes and their philotes are of opposing goals. Their philotic church does not agree with my philotic church. The philotes are repelled from each other, like how a magnet will repel. We go our separate ways. Perhaps their philotes were once part of an organism and my philotes were once part of the blade which killed their organism. Perhaps one day some of my philotes are part of an organism that is consumed by their organism. Some philotic clusters do not like an event. They accept it but will repel future or past encounters with philotes of the opposing mass. They do not believe in them. Their church is not the same. They do not like the outcome. There could be many reasons. Your beliefs still exist within my beliefs, even if yours do not include mine.

The big bang. The heat death of the universe. The big suck. No, the big suck is not referring to an adult video or a powerful vacuum or my ex. It's the opposite of the expansion of the universe. The big bang exploded. It spreads all atoms out. An atom and its philote no longer want to spread out. They want to return. They flip. They become dark matter or dark energy. They change direction in the 4th dimension. They contract instead of expanding. Other philotes agree and flip. Eventually, the universe stops expanding and contracts. The philotes reunite. They become a singularity. All existance in one point. That is too much for one point. It explodes. The big bang happens again. This never ends. This is happening an infinite number of times right now. Dark matter and dark energy are not measurable because they do not exist anymore at that point in time. From the perspective of a flipped philote, our existance is the dark matter. The flipping happens in all directions in 4 dimensions. It can be backwards on a line, diagonally on a plane, it can loop in a field and go sideways in time.

The big bang, the heat death of the universe and the big suck I represent like this: ∞=|¿√∞²?|=∞ Reality is equal to the question of the absolute value of the square root of infinity squared. A pointless math formula. A story that unfolds and returns.

Raised non-denominational Christian to Agnostic to Gnostic-curious.

I guess at this point I should consider myself a buddhist.

I was raised in a Christian household in the us midwest but never felt drawn to it or any form of sprituality, over the years Buddhism in its many forms kept creeping up on me enough times and explaining things in such elegant ways that I eventually looked into Tibetan Buddhism more closely and realized that once you understand how the symbolism of it all works in terms of connecting the words of practices to actually useful life tips then it becomes a great benefit to yourself and others.

As simply as possible, I chose this route because it is like becoming a scientist of experiences and all the practices we do are things that prove what we experience just as a scientist forms a postulate, a Buddhist forms a practice that leads to some form of awareness.

Baptized catholic by my parents, did all the ritual things all my youth until i was 16. Then i was old enough to try to understand it, got exposed to other schools of thought, and it all collapsed like a house of cards.

I am now fully atheist, and I find religion ridiculous, like fairy tales for adults, based on nothing. Organized religions are also usually structures of power for men. This can all go.

My spirituality would be:

We are made of star-stuff. Temporary piles of molecules which work together and stop after a while, to recombine into something new. I don't need to be remembered, I don't need to leave my mark. Just try to do no harm, any maybe help others along the way, while on this ball of rock and water, tumbling into the immensely empty void.

Nihilist, insofar that even if there is a god (about as likely as me actually being a secret agent for moon people) why would it matter? While nihilism is not a religious belief I think it fits the prompt.

I made a poop the other day, I'm its creator, I don't care about it, I don't control its destiny beyond the flush.

I'm an optimistic nihilist, nothing matters and that's kinda neato. Existence happens, how fascinating is that? It's absolutely meaningless just like everything in the universe, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy the ride.

I am an atheist and ordained dudeist priest. Because it aligns with my values.

Taoism is a practice that doesn’t rely on or reject a higher power. It gives meaning to day to day life and the writers I’ve read who practice it have a very practical view on the world.

As for religion, I fall into agnosticism. I certainly don’t have any hard evidence that there is a higher power, but at the same time, with how insanely complex, terrifying, beautiful, loving, and hurtful the world can feel, I can’t help but feel that there’s something beyond what’s in front of us at play. It may not be a theist’s idea of God, but something else entirely.

Agnostic atheist. Agnostic from the standpoint that the the existence of god is no more knowable than the number of angels who can sit on the tip of a needle. Atheist from the standpoint that theism ain't it