Atheists, is there anything religious that sticks with you to this day?

I am Ganesh, an Indian atheist and I don’t eat beef. It’s not like that I have a religious reason to do that, but after all those years seeing cows as peaceful animals and playing and growing up with them in a village, I doubt if I ever will be able to eat beef. I wasn’t raised very religious, I didn’t go to temple everyday and read Gita every evening unlike most muslims who are somewhat serious about their religion, my family has this watered down religion (which has it’s advantages).

But yeah, not eating beef is a moral issue I deal with. I mean, I don’t care that I don’t eat beef, but the fact that I eat pork and chicken but not beef seems to me to be weird. So, is there any religious practice that you guys follow to this day?

edit: I like religious music, religious temples (Churches, Gurudwara’s, Temples & Mosques in Iran), religious paintings and art sometimes. I know for a fact that the only art you could produce is those days was indeed religious and the greatest artists needed to make something religious to be funded, that we will never know what those artists would have produced in the absence of religion, but yeah, religious art is good nonetheless.

librechad,

I’m atheist, but until my last breath I will say “It’s all a joke, send me down.”

MxM111,
@MxM111@kbin.social avatar

I say “bless you” when somebody sneezes.

Cold_Brew_Enema,

Same. Just out of courtesy.

espentan,

In Norway I use either Prosit, or the German word Gesundheit, for that courtesy.

Colour_me_triggered,

Try “HOLD KJEFT!” instead.

ArtVandelay,
@ArtVandelay@lemmy.world avatar

Same, it just feels more polite than ‘fuck you’.

zdrvr,

I say God Damn it when I’m mad.

Colour_me_triggered,

I say “stop sneezing!”

noisypine,

I still say “Oh my God”

cjsolx,

I still say “bless you”

Saeculum,

Can’t shake it either, it’s so deeply ingrained.

xX_fnord_Xx,

For someone that became an atheist twenty years ago, I have hypocritically requested that the Big Man damn hundreds of things nearly every day.

We need a good offhanded atheist curse to express frustration.

xX_fnord_Xx,

Other options: Shit!/Aw shit!- These work, but not in many professional spaces.

Jesus! Jesus Christ!- Getting biblical again, though this curse seems to make things fall off of the shelf more slowly, increasing your chance of catching them before they hit the ground.

Fuck me! /Fuck sakes!/ Fucker!- Effective, but nsfw.

Crap!- Works, but you sound like a middle aged soccer mom expressing her frustration.

Jeez/shoot/sheesh!- Go back to middle school, little one.

nadiaraven,

I NEVER said “oh my god” as a Christian as it was considered taking the lord’s name in vain, so saying it now is my act of freedom and rebellion.

Leate_Wonceslace,
@Leate_Wonceslace@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Constantly behaving as if I am being judged if I ever do anything immoral, the main difference being that I follow my own morality based on a decent functional understanding of modern ethics.

shiveyarbles,

I went to a Methodist boarding school, but I was never religious. I was well read at a young age, and I had a pretty good idea about my belief system.

jjjalljs,

I wasn’t raised very religious.

I do think some of the stuff from the Christian Bible would be great if people followed it.

  • pray in private, not where people can see you
  • help other people. Like, go read the good Samaritan again. It’s not long. That dude goes way the fuck out of his way to help someone he’s never met. And some people do some fucking intense mental backflips to justify "no it’s a metaphor man you don’t have to like actually go near a poor person
  • you’ll be judged by how you treat the least among you. Yeah, anyone can be nice to their friends, or suck up to wealthy. But how you treat the poor and vulnerable? That’s telling.

Part of what makes the religious right in the US so infuriating is they spend so much time being mad about gay people and comparably no time on poverty.

Every mega church should be condemned as heretical and repurposed as housing or something for the needy.

musicalsigns, (edited )

I am religious now, but I always swore I’d never walk into a church after growing up in a very Roman Catholic area for exactly this reason. That was the only Christianity that I knew - hating on LGBTQ people, refusing women bodily autonomy, just general hypocrisy with the whole “love your neighbor” thing. Spent some time as a Zen Buddhist, but then felt the call to go to church, so I did some reading and found the Episcopal Church. Went once, got invited to chat by the priest and took him up on it during the week after my second Sunday. Straight-up told him that I’m a bisexual woman who values my rights to leave an abusive marriage and to choose what goes on with my body. His response blew me away: “I don’t have a problem with any of that - and I don’t think Jesus does either.”

That was back in 2012. They’ll get rid of me when they put me I the ground (after a requiem mass, of course). The love and care I’ve witnessed in this denomination just wasn’t possible under the RCC teachings that I always saw as a kid. The more I go along, the more I’m convinced that you can’t honestly be on the political right and truly follow the teachings of Jesus.

Sorry if this is a little rambly. It’s 3:30 and I’m trying to stay awake while I feed my baby.

c0mbatbag3l,
@c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world avatar

The more I go along, the more I’m convinced that you can’t honestly be on the political right and truly follow the teachings of Jesus.

As someone that was raised in a religious right wing home and is now a moderate left atheist, I have a feeling it’s because a lot of these people choose their beliefs first, political or otherwise, and then attempt to twist and interpret the Bible in any way they can to reduce the cognitive dissonance that occurs when you inevitably run into contradictory information between the teachings of Jesus and the reality of right wing politics.

musicalsigns,

Without a doubt, much to the detriment of them, us, and all of you. Best thing we can do is work across faith and non-faith lines to combat their seemingly-endless stream of bullshit

c0mbatbag3l,
@c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world avatar

I hope it’s not too late, but their propaganda and mental hoop jumping seems almost infinite.

kristina,

i like hanging the bit about jesus telling people to respect gender divergence over people’s heads

Abel,
@Abel@lemmy.nerdcore.social avatar

o where

AceFuzzLord,

Not 100% sure this answers the question, but here goes.

Closest I can say that stuck with me, as someone born in a Christian household would be the original Veggietales and how some of the messages have stuck with me. You take away the Christian aspect from some of the messages and you get messages that I think could still apply to a general audience.

  • Small people can do big things (Dave and the Giant Pickle)
  • Despite your differences, you can still be friendly with others (Are You My Neighbor)
  • You should forgive others (God Wants Me To Forgive Them!?!)

I may not follow them to a tee but I am at least somewhat trying.

Anonymoose,
@Anonymoose@infosec.pub avatar

If you like to talk to tomatoes…

Abel,
@Abel@lemmy.nerdcore.social avatar

Ye. There aren’t people who believe you can’t be moral without being religious (christian) for nothing. Christianity has actually a lot of good messages.

Nahvi,

Biblical wisdom mostly. Certain parts definitely don’t hold up to modern morality, but there is a lot well-thought-out advice buried in it that has helped people in Judeo-Christian areas for thousands of years.

One of the Proverbs in particular comes to mind: “He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.” Hard to argue against the inherent wisdom in such a statement.

Also, like you, I have an appreciation for old churches and some religious art.

Abel,
@Abel@lemmy.nerdcore.social avatar

Same. I particularly love those. Matthew is a bop:

Matthew 26: 52

“Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.”

and similarly

Matthew 7:1-2

1 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

Matthew 5:27-29 - Adultery in the Heart

27 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.

Word by word: It doesn’t matter what women wear, if you can’t restrain yourself then take your eye out.

Matthew 9:12

When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. […]"

mojo,

I really like churches, they are a good way to find a strong community. It can be really hard as an adult in a new area to meet people, and a church can basically solve that for you. I’m in a very religious area too where they desperately want me to go to one.

Also I’ve kind of understood “praying” now. I meditate a lot, and the goal to focus on your inner breath and be one with the present moment. Praying is kind of the opposite, instead of focusing on your inner self, you’re focusing on something greater outside of you, like trying to connect your body to the universe. It’s like trying to imagine you’re part of something greater and it’s kind of comforting.

Ocelot,

100%! Cathedrals and Temples especially are some of the most amazing pieces of architecture. You can’t walk in to a historic European cathedral with the ceiling reaching to the sky and stained glass windows and not feel something.

barsoap,

Both are meditation, vipassanā vs. jhāna, though that encompasses a flurry of potential objects/concepts/qualia of focus.

you’re focusing on something greater outside of you, like trying to connect your body to the universe. It’s like trying to imagine you’re part of something greater and it’s kind of comforting.

That sounds roughly like the fifth jhāna, infinite space. I just can’t resist to comment here that our intelligence, mammal intelligence in general, is largely based on repurposed/expanded spatial awareness circuitry. That we use terms like “mind map” is anything but coincidental.

c0mbatbag3l,
@c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world avatar

Is that why we are able to visualize? Or at least most of us?

barsoap,

Kinda… yes and no? Visualisations aren’t necessarily spatial, as in representing a map of a space. Random example I get a different erm quality for the qualia for “fish tank” and “interaction of fishes in a tank”, only the latter has that space-like quality the other is a mere image representation of an idea. It cannot have, as a singular object there’s nothing to set it in relation to.

But back to practice: Close your eyes, and consider where you are. You’re probably still “seeing” the room around you in your mind’s eye, and could navigate to, say, the door reasonably accurately (and the inaccuracy is due to lack of practice, blind folks excel at that kind of stuff). Navigation through terrain you’re not directly seeing (whether that be because of closed eyes or a forest obscuring it) is the original function of the circuitry and other uses of it have a similar quality to it.

What is almost certain is that that circuitry is the reason why we have a very hard time visualising anything higher-dimensional than 3d space: It’s just not in its feature set because little warm-blooded critters living alongside dinosaurs had no use for it.

pineapplelover,

I was raised in a Buddhist family and we all celebrate christmas til this day. Just the part with the tree and the gifts, none of the other religious stuff that comes with Christmas.

gazter,

That’s the best part of Christmas, anyway. Food and family, and free shit.

StThicket,

Christmas is largely a pagan tradition that was turned into a christian tradition to make it easier to convert them to christianity.

The christmas tree is not a christian tradition. Santa is not a christian tradition. Nothing really is, except for Jesus allegedly being born on the exact date when the pagans celebrated “Jolablot” or the midwinter fest.

c0mbatbag3l,
@c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world avatar

Or Saturnalia, or any other holiday that was around the winter solstice.

neptune,

This is probably slightly tangential, but after leaving a very dogmatic, Christian upbringing, I dabbled in the New Atheist Thing but have since come to realize religion and belief is on a two dimensional axes.

On the first axis, you have dogma, or a core set of beliefs or religious doctrine. High or low dogma. Your classic fundamentalists of any stripe are over here. Evangelical Christians, fundamentalist Islam. And yes even some strains of atheism can be relatively high dogma. On the lower end of the dogma scale you have agnostics, many atheists, some types of new age spirituality, and even some types of organized religion like Unitarianism or Buddhism.

On the second axis is humanism, or the relishing and participation in people, culture and acceptance of people or ideas that do not conform to the doctrine. High on the humanism scale would be literal secular humanists, and other faiths that prioritize people more than dogma.

Eventually, someone raised in a high dogma/low humanism religion might eventually learn there are some faiths that are relatively high humanism, even with a low or relatively high dogma score.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

ThatHermanoGuy,

It sounds like you don’t understand what atheist or agnostic actually mean.

neptune,

Yes an atheist believes there is basically no evidence there is a God while an agnostic believes it’s an unknowable or unanswerable questions.

The issue is if an atheist adheres to some dogma (eg all religious people are bad and dogmatic, people who don’t read the same books are ignorant) then it becomes a relatively high dogmatic belief system, for that person.

PeWu,

I’m just wondering if souls exist. I hope they doesn’t.

Subject6051,

that’s pretty pessimistic don’t you think? Are you scared of eternal life? (I kinda am)

PeWu,

I’m scared of reincarnation. I don’t want to live a second life no matter how good it would be.

elbowgrease,

many people come back from near death experiences with insight about the whole structure of the universe. one common theme they report is that we all chose the lives we’re living because these lives offered the best opportunity to learn and grow. they say we come back many times until we learn everything we need to.

so, if true, the downside is that you and I will probably be back. but, the upside is that we won’t keep coming back forever and that we can curtail the number of times we will return by being the best people we can and by learning as much as we can.

PeWu,

Then I can assure you, I’ve learned nothing. If all of this is true, then I’ve chosen this life, because there MAY be good opportunities, but I’m lacking knowledge and courage to achieve them. Nevertheless, this is a failure.

Thordros,

I appreciate the Zen Buddhist (with a mild leftist slant) take on reincarnation. Questioning the existence of reincarnation is asking the wrong question.

If it’s real, you have nothing to worry about—you’re living the best life you can given your material conditions. So it’ll work out.

If it isn’t real, you also have nothing to worry about—you’re feeding trees now.

The right question is what you can do better, right here and now. The only life that matters is this one.

Nahvi,

I wouldn’t want to be reincarnated to earth, but reincarnated to a fantasy world with magic might be nice to try out. My biggest hangup with reincarnation is not bringing the wisdom of hard learned lessons with.

PeWu,

I also would wish that, if I had confidence that I could do something useful with it.

Saeculum,

Souls existing would put a very large hole in my materialist worldview, and I don’t want to have been fundamentally wrong for my entire life, especially on something that so greatly impacts my decision making and general outlook.

TheAnonymouseJoker,
@TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml avatar

Indian here. Souls exist. And I do not have pork or beef because they have unhealthy fats.

Subject6051,

I was just about to take to seriously and then I read your username :'(

TheAnonymouseJoker,
@TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml avatar

And may I ask why is the name a problem? Joke or political leaning?

Subject6051,

nah buddy, it was a joke. btw, Idk about unhealthy fats, it contains some well needed stuff to you know?

TheAnonymouseJoker,
@TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml avatar

Like? I get everything from mutton, chicken, eggs and fish.

Subject6051,

I am sorry, I though you don’t eat meat. I am sorry, I misread it. my fault. But yeah, you are doing good. I am pretty sure you are missing nothing. Fish especially is very good apprently

TheAnonymouseJoker,
@TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml avatar

I also have a lot of dairy, and supplement B complex to keep the body reserves full. In addition, I sunbathe once every week for Vitamin D. My nutrition and fitness game is strong.

Blake,

I’m atheist and my parents raised me without any religion. The first time I learned anything about religion was at primary school where Christianity was taught as fact. I was really confused as to why I hadn’t heard of this “god” fellow before now, and I asked my parents about it, and they explained the general concept of religious belief to me, and said that I was free to believe whatever I choose, and I remember being frustrated that my mum wouldn’t directly answer me as to whether or not this stuff was real or not real, and kind of just settled on the idea that it was like they read the Chronicles of Narnia and believed Aslan was real, which was like, fine with me, but seemed a little silly. It was kind of funny to learn a bunch of religious stuff in retrospect - it was kind of like, “dang, this Jesus dude really does force himself into everything doesn’t he?” Easter is the funniest one, it’s such a stretch, they clearly had no idea how to make that one about Christianity and just kinda phoned it in.

So, the one “religious” thing I keep, is saying stuff like “oh my god”, “for god’s sake” and stuff like that, but for me, it doesn’t really mean anything to do with god. It’s just like an otherwise meaningless idiom that people say.

FUsername,
@FUsername@feddit.de avatar

I also only need “god” and especially “Jesus Christ” to avoid cursing when my kids go bonkers. To consider it an idiom exactly meets my view of it.

VentraSqwal,

“Jesus Christ” is just a fun expression, whether it’s yelling it while hitting your finger while hammering in a nail or under your breath watching your friend feed his lane opponent in League of Legends.

theshatterstone54,

I also consider it an idiom. Funnily enough, in Christian mythology, one of the “Commandments”, rules to follow, is to not use god’s name in vain. And then christians use the phrases like for gods sake, oh my god, etc, more than anyone else. Quite ironic, to be honest, and quite silly from my perspective.

wewbull,

They justify it as “God isn’t a name. It’s a job title.” Christians have pretty much forgotten the name of their god so they don’t use it in vain. Judaism and Islam still have the name Jehovah, Yahweh and Allah in use, all references to the same god.

IWantToFuckSpez,

Funny that your parents used Chronicles of Narnia as an example since it is literally an Christian allegory and Aslan is Jesus.

Blake,

I don’t think it’s as clear cut as to call it allegory, it’s definitely inspired though - and Aslan certainly is particularly like the holy trinity for sure.

ThatHermanoGuy,

Pretty fucked-up that your parents sent you to a religious school, and then didn’t even prepare you! Glad you made it out okay.

Blake,

I’m from Scotland, and when I was a kid, it was assumed that everyone was Christian. It was extremely uncommon to be raised atheist - all of my friends have Christian parents, pretty much, and every school was a religious school. It wasn’t too hardcore or anything. We had lots of religious lessons in class, the school got together twice a week to pray, read bible stories and sing hymns, and we recited the Lord’s Prayer before lunch each day. I wasn’t really interested in any of it but also I didn’t make a scene or ask to sit out or anything, and we were never forced to read from the bible or anything like that. I have read the bible, out of personal interest, but it was never expected from me.

High school was a bit similar but not as much - we had the school chaplain (priest who partnered with the school) show up once a fortnight (every 2 weeks) to deliver a sermon or religious lesson or whatever, and they were always good for a laugh. My favourite lesson of his was about how text speak (this was before smartphones, so we all typed on the 9-digit phone keypads stuff like “hey hru will u b going 2 skl 2mro” meaning “hey, how are you? Will you be going to school tomorrow?” was common) could be used with God as well - we could say “hf” to mean “Heavenly Father” and lol could mean “lots of love”. We got a kick out of that for a few weeks sending eachother ironic texts that we had meant to send to god but got the wrong number.

Wait, what was I talking about again?

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