What is stopping stopping you from religion?

Out of curiosity, what reasons are stopping you from adopting religion? Specifically, what is it about Christianity that deters you away?

Mostly bunch of Christians telling me I will go to hell for masturbation.

I prefer religions where people dont debate about what I can do with my dick.

remember that Ernest Borgnine lived to be 95.

Overtime with Christianity it's been used to indoctrinate the masses into having this blind faith in an unproven deity because people are afraid of the idea of not knowing what comes after death and turn to the most comforting option heaven (I didn't include hell bc most Christians just assume they'll go to heaven because yk their Christians lol). Most the people I've encountered in life who are Christians don't even practice their religion none of them pray, read the bible or practice any of its teachings, and none of them attend church which is a whole another can worms from the scamming pastors who make bank off simple-minded folk who would never dare actually apply some critical thinking skills to any version of bible, to the church leaders who are pedophiles. Basically, what I'm getting at is religion is just a way to control society. btw idrc if your religious I just don't like it when people make it their whole personality. Also, how religion influences our laws in America is a problem It's like the whole concept of separation of church and state is non-existent.

I know a lot about Catholic apologetic s. you interested in debating the legitimacy of the Catholic church?

Just about everybody is religious including atheists.

Meaning of religious in English

having a strong belief in a god or gods: He's deeply religious and goes to church twice a week.

Sure. And science is religion too, right?

If one is a conditioned atheist, then why would one bother to adopt a religion.

It would be like asking a conditioned theist to adopt atheism.

Far too many dead ends and half stories and unanswered questions in the New Testamant.

Its clear that we are not being told the whole story. And neither were his ( Jesus') disciples.  

And empty tomb is only evidence that a tomb was found to be empty.

A three day old rotten stinking corpse does not come back to life.

A few loaves of bread and a couple of fish will not feed 5000 nor 4000 people.

No man can walk on water.

 I'll stop there , I am tired and am going to bed now. 

Good night.

I have a mentality of “see it to believe it” for religion. Unless I see it with my owns eyes, I’m not gonna base my life off of a chance that said thing exists.

same as above

I bet everyone has a different answer if they were to be asked. Some would say they simply aren't religious because of their current beliefs and leave it at that. They would argue that their worldview is not a religion due to its definition.

Personally, I think otherwise because everybody holds something as the most valuable in their life, whether it is an ideal, person, activity, or object; how is this any different than viewing that item as sacred? More to the point, what does it mean for something to be sacred to you besides that which you hold in the highest place? Everyone has something or somebody that sits on that pedestal. We all venerate something in our lives. We all seek comfort in some over-arching ideal that holds our view of reality together, and we seek refuge and peace in it. We cleave to our core belief with all our might. This practice seems to me like how someone would treat a god, even if the existence of god(s) is denied, so I think we all conjure a god of sorts. With my worldview, I believe there are idols/fake gods that are sought after from corruption of the mind and body and spiritual deprivation, and that there is only one true God. 

Existential questions lead us to what we fashion as our belief system:

Who am I? What is the description and definition of me?

What is my purpose? What am I meant to do in my life?  

What is right for me to do? So then, what is wrong for me to do? Is something that is right for me to do the same as what is right for others? Should my actions be viewed as universal laws, in which case, I should only do what I think would be right for everyone else to be doing it as well?

Many other important questions become present when we question life. And death.  

Well, maybe I and many others have some difficulty in 'defining religion.

Religion, Culture, Philosophy, Politics,

Seem to me to have similarities in what we think existence is, what we ought do, what we 'do.

Of Christianity,

When I was once a Christian, 10 years or so ago,

I became a Nihilist and a Hedonist before I became an Atheist,

There were parts of Christianity, Existence, and the Bible,

That to my understandings back then, had blank spaces, uncertainties,

As well as my wanting to value myself and my own interests most.

. .

As for my Atheism now,

I'd say it has to do with habit and increased beliefs in materialism. Though I am not 'without doubts.

. . . I would 'think the more one explores other cultures, religions, and philosophies other than Christianity,

The more one might separate from Christianity.

. . . But, if one encounters other norms one considers evil, or if one encounters other norms in the company of fellow Christians, I suppose there might be no change.

Maybe other reasons,

Missionaries exist, and Travellers, and sometimes even people singularly hold to their faiths I assume. Or perhaps their faiths view changes slightly, but they hold to it.

(Shrug)

I've heard of Atheist Christians before,

And while I may use the Bible from time to time for wisdom, or feel moved to Christian actions,

I prefer to keep my selfishness and hedonism.

Overthink.

Overthink is a human specialism.

The electro-chemical storage, assessment and development of sensory acquired data.

Output in the form of fact or hypothesis.

Though some hypotheses are more speculative than others.

Most religious hypotheses have a basic and reasonable premise.

Though cosmetic elaborations such as ritual and worship tend to detract from the basic idea.

The basic idea has been sitting on the drawing board for millennia, simply because it lacks basic evidence.

That's because the basic idea, though reasonable, was purely assumptive and therefore without evidence.

So one either has a conditioned operating system that significantly accepts religious ideology, or one doesn't.

I am of the latter.

It would take a huge extra-terrestrial spaceship to make me change my mind set.

Very good post , Vic.  

Another spring morning here.

Have a nice day both. 

Hi Stephen

Off to the coast for a couple of days.

Hope it's spring like there.

All the best to you and yours.

1. The complete lack of evidence for its claims

2. Hell doctrine (Catholicism has purgatory doctrine also, which I sort of appreciate as it isn’t so “All or nothing”)

That said, I really appreciate that Christendom led up to The Enlightenment and never looked back for the most part, which is something that cannot be said for another Abrahamic religion…

More specifically, Protestantism.

My entire life I've been only attracted to the asian phylosophies like buddism, confusionims, taoism, because, above all else it makes sense.

Christianity, on the othe hand, doesn't make any fvking sense, except some Jesus' teaching that are really useful for one's life but it's not so different to the other phylosophies I mentioned.

In general, though, christianity is full of nonsense, contradictions, and stupid beliefs that are not good for our modern society. For example, what good do christians see in downgrading women and relegating them to house duties? For fvk's sake, these people should think better of it.