good for yall

I mean no disrespect to religious people, but it's totally a psychological/sociological thing. Most people need some sort of "objective" guiding principal in their life to judge everything else against. Having a source of unshakable hope is also incredibly appealing on both a conscious and subconscious level, especially in a world where cruelty seems to win at every turn.

On that note, I'm incredibly interested to see how humanity functions if it ever makes it to a post-religious state. So many people live such objectively terrible lives, I don't know if most could make it without some guarantee that things will be okay after they die.

Circling back around to the "sociological" part: Whether people are raised in a religious family or not, when they end up deciding to be religious or fully commit to religion, they almost always do so with their cultural religion. You rarely see somebody that grew up in a christian context decide that the straight and narrow path is Islam or vice versa, though that does happen lol. That's because whether you're religious or not, your cultural religion is ingrained in you from birth as the peak of truth and morality.

All of that to be said, I'm not fiercely opposed to the supernatural by any means. I don't know how we got here or what, if anything, happens when we die. For most of my life I considered myself confidently Christian. Never had an edgy athiest phase. It just started to dawn on me that I never ever had any sort of spiritual experience or peace or anything of that nature, despite begging God for it. And that kickstarted my deep dive into Christianity as a truth claim and religion in general.

To this day, one of my favorite things to do is to research and read books on the early church, the construction of the bible, and everything in that sphere. After that, to me personally, it's abundantly clear that it evolved like every other religion on earth and is just as inconsistent.

I think that if there is something out there that created us, it's extradimensional, totally incomprehensible and probably not concerned with us on a personal level. I try to remain open minded though.

The philosophical arguments against christianity have only strengthened my confidence in it not being true, but this is already a mega essay for this site so I'll finish off with this: the subject of religion in general endlessly fascinates me, and I'm continuing to dig through the different belief systems of the world slowly and methodically, so who knows where that will take me. I can't speak to anyone else's experiences, but I would strongly encourage people who consider themselves religious to not let cognitive dissonance keep you from critically examining what you build your life upon.

It’s all just a tool to control people. All religion.

pity you all
pray you change before you see the pearly gates

yall know there's african religions rite?

Heaven and hell are versions of material reality

I’m agnostic

When I was kid my mama would be on my ass and say I HAVE to choose a religion

I never did

Fast forward 20 years and now she’s agnostic too

read my post again

obviously, they could tell women got pregnant from sex, just not why

long read but here's my background, journey and overall personal idea.

personal:

im mixed, black and white with a decent amount of native american dna - if you want to fully purity test me: my mom is irish and itallian from immigrant grand parents (my greats) and my dad is black with some native, his dad is full black and his mom is half black half native (we're cherokke). we're from the bayarea , Oakland and Vallejo mainly is our tree. but also got sfamily everywhere in the bayarea, my dad has 6 7 siblings and my mom has 4 siblings alone. with extendeds in nevada reno + las vegas (white side), then LA cali and new orleans louisana (black side).

• im agnostic by personal choice, born and taught christian. everyone is christian in one form or the other on both sides of my family.

journey:

i think parts of it is " "true" " and how there are many religions that comb over the sdame bulletpoints like islam, judaism, catholic etc. with christian

how i got here is learning usa history and how black americans as slaves we're forced to be christain - and the literal only time any of them would be given a break and repreave would be during church service, the bible is also what some slavemasters would allow black slaves to learn to read and rarely keep - thus became a strong symbol of "savior" and "grace" in black people that still exists for us to today

• and also slavery was already considered barbaric in lotta parts of the world when the transatlantic slavery was being propositioned - in fact it was even slapped down at first, until the dudes decided devise anm excuse through religion to twist the meaning of the bible story of a father in a tent having s***with his child daughter in secret and when he came out he was punished by god to have his skin set ablazed and once the flames died his skin turned "black as night" as a permanet signal of the sins he comitted - so the dudes that created the transatlantic slavery said that all african black skinned people are decendants of that atrocious sinner, which then they got the greenlight to commit the worst act in modern age

my family believes in god, both white and black, but most of us includinbg my immediate family were never hardcore believers (or i guess the word would be practicer) - far from a "jesus freak", and my immediate we would go to church on occasion, read the bible as a family on occasion - but pray every night and evey dsinner and of course talk about God - so personally it wasnt ingrained super hardcore in me outside of a baseline, i was never taught in fear (thankfully) nor was it forced or taught as full on law, and my family knows that not literally everything in the bible is literal (even back in the day some things were literal metaphors, later taught as reality for brainwashing when the euro church became really corrupt) - and that things have been rewritten in the bible, lost from the modern bible and some things littlerally ripped out of the bible (like the book of enoch). my family have always been very much a realist, a skeptic and "truth seeker" to whatever degree (thus some of my attitude and "boldness" such as my posts on this site especially if u ever been in adebate or argument against me here lol).

idea:

i do have some hardcore believers in my family, my black grandpa (black side of my family is my father's side) was a preacher and he had ptsd from vietnam n used to be abusive which the church turned his life around and made him at peace, and as a pastor even tho a full righteous believer and has a custom red leather bible with gold flake pages, he accepted everyone (and a lot of seeps into me how i pretty accept everyone as long as you aint a maniac, rapist, pedophile or general a******) no matter the religion, most crimes, no matter how rich or ppor nor sexual orientation (my grandma, his wife, hates jehova witnesses tho lol). so i do have love still for church in terms of community, and i do like religion in terms of a source of hope. sidenote: the only "jeus freak" insane person in my family is one of my moms sisters, an aunt on my white side lol. my black grandad is/was also known huge in the bayarea and did a lot of charity, community and social work n ish in vallejo, sacramento and oakland.

• but i just dont fully believe in christianity (or any organized religion) but i do believe in it to a degree or at least a degree of some type of "mystic"-ness. not only from my immediate family or my grandpoa but also from personal life experiences (although if some stranger asked and its a simple nothing convo i would prob say im "christian" still, for the most part). overall tho i believe their is a "creator" AND legitament science. the creator is the planner and the why, and the science is the tools and how. like a painter is the planner and the brush is tool. god the builder, science the building blocks, life the end product.

as far as i know, im the only one in my immediate family thats "agnostic". while evgeryone else, as said above, are varying levels of christian from from the little to the extreme. i still celebrate christmas, i celebrate easter if im with family.

@op

“I'm incredibly interested to see how humanity functions if it ever makes it to a post-religious state”

Uh we already live in one - God been dead dude..