I'm an atheist from a hardcore christian home. I was raised as a christian and my parents were SU members (scripture union). They were also elders in the Methodist Church.
When i was young i started reading the bible.
At first, i read it as a story book and i believed everything written in it.
Until one day my sunday school teacher taught me that angels,God and Jesus are white in complexion but Satan is black.

For me, that sounded crazy. Why would a sane black man describe Jesus as a white person and then call satan a black person.
That is an insult to black race.

I asked myself "why does satan look like us-the black race"?

I was just ten years old back then.
But that question implanted in me the urge to think freely and ask questions.

As i was growing up, i became a free thinker. I questioned everything, i also questioned god.

When i was 15 years old, i stood up in a church filled with hundreds of worshipers and i asked the pastor.

"Why does the biblical story of a talking snake and magic apple make more sense than the theory of evolution?"

My pastor replied,
"It is written in the bible and so it is true, it is word of god and no one should question it".

That was absurd to me.

There are hundreds of other holy books with absurd fairytales.
What makes the bible the one true holy book?

Why do people believe everything written in bible. They just swallow the hook line and sinker without asking questions.
If the bible claimed that spiderman is real, will christians also believe it

How is it possible that a donkey talked
How is it possible that a man spent 3 days in the belly of a fish
According to science/biology, the belly of a fish has very little and no oxygen, therefore it is impossible for a man to survive there for 3 days.

I also questioned the death of Jesus.
I have seen people sacrifice their lives for greater good but Jesus didn't sacrifice anything.
His death was temporal.
He died and came back after 3 days, that doesn't sound like a sacrifice to me.

The sacrifice of Jack in Titanic is much better than Jesus's.


I opened my mind to science and i discovered that Religion and science are like fire and ice.

The bible says the sun stood still.
But according to science, the earth rotates around the sun and not vice versa.
So how is it that the sun stood still, was the sun moving or rotating around the earth in the first place

The more i studied science, the more the bible sounded stupid to me.

Talking snake and magic apple was unbelievable and i still dont know why many people believe that over theory of evolution.

I was still a christian back then and whenever my pastor says something incredulous, i try to use science to counter his statement.

My church people started avoiding me.
They thought i was possessed by demons.

They couldn't believe that someone could question god.
They couldn't believe that someone preffered scientific facts over biblical stories.

I was discriminated and stigmatised.
I was alone.

I didn't know that there were people who were free thinkers like me, at least not in Nigeria.

When i was 16, i wrote a list of questions that religious people always avoid.
I presented those questions to my dad, he called me a satan worshipper and rebuked me for questioning god.
He said i should take my questions to the holy spirit.

I kept my questions to myself and i moved on with my life.

When i was 17 i became a sunday school teacher.
I taught the word of god to little children.
I preached in the church.
My parents were proud of me and conteplated sending me to bible school but deep inside my heart i felt empty, i was doubting my faith.

Little by little i started doubting the existence of god.

I shared my ideas with my christian friends and to my greatest suprise, i discovered that many christians believe in god because they dont want to go to hell.

My pastor told me.
"It is better to believe in god so that even if you die and discover there is no god, you wont loose anything. It is better to believe in god than to doubt his existence and when you die and find out that there is god, you will go to hell. So believe in god and be on the safe side".

Such theory didn't make sense to me.

What if one spent his entire life worshipping Jehovah and then on judgement day, you discover that Zeus is the only true god

It is better to be sure of what you are worshipping.
And to that i demanded proof for existence of god.

I decided i will never worship anything until i see proof of existence.

I became an atheist.

But i was sorrounded by christian and i felt lonely.

I joined social media and one day i typed atheist on facebook search, i discovered many atheist pages and groups.
I discovered that there are millions of people like me, i didn't feel lonely anymore.

Today i am a member of atheist society of Nigeria.

11th February 2018 will make it my 2 years as an atheist.

Proudy Atheist.

Share your expirience.

Cc.Redlyn, , Rainess, Pr0ton , MrPresident , frank317 , davien, DProDG , nana228

tags; francistony, uyiiredia, tufanja, plaetton, johnydon22, empiree, rilwayne001, kingebukasblog, reyginus, hahn, jayriginal

New trend on NL. Waiting for atheists who converted from Islam.

OtemAtum
EyeHateGod
Edenoscar
CAPSLOCKED
sonofluc1fer
JackBizzle
MadCow1

nepapole:
New trend on NL. Waiting for atheists who converted from Islam.

Many atheist have converted from Islam.
Islam is worse than christianity and it is much easier to abandon islam.

The ex muslims i know are mainly from hardcore muslim countries.

interesting thread

I'm from a Christian home, both my parents and almost everyone else is a Christian

I dumped Christianity after asking myself "Why do you believe this?", the why question lead me to realise it was all indoctrination and once one starts questioning the BuyBull, one starts to see it for what it is (Myths, fables with some genuine history sprinkled in here and there)

I found out the reason man created gods, Mankind has always feared his own mortality. So we will always have people that want there to be more. Mankind wants there to be a why to our existence, and some may never totally accept we are no better than a fly.
To believe in a God is to relinquish your ability to seek the truth... To simply give up on the answers to the impossible questions... To stop using the most important of Human faculties, the ability to question... All questions about the universe, pain, suffering, evil, morality etc...God did it.....now get back to work and pay your tithe because he needs money...

I begin with the question; Would an all powerful divine being, capable of willing the universe into existence, use a convoluted book of indeterminate authorship and origin to communicate the most important message imaginable? why would evangelism even be necessary? God could just beam the knowledge of Christianity directly into everyone's heads, or at very least talk to them like he talked to Paul or the prophets. Hell, instead of running off to heaven and never being seen again, the risen Jesus could just travel the world proclaiming the truth of his resurrection and performing miracles to prove it. It's not like he has anything better to do.
Why would an all powerful god need flawed, ignorant humans to communicate his message, especially when that message is the most important thing a human being could possibly know?

The sheer number of religions in the world should also be thought provoking in itself. There are hundreds of variations of Christianity alone. Sadly, instead of calling the source material into question, far too many people delude themselves into believing everyone else is wrong. They do this without realizing they are accepting a paradigm that says, in essence, a divine being who willed the universe into existence couldn't get his/her/its story straight.

I like to add that if there WAS a Lord of Lies such as Satan, it would be a GREAT trick for him to write a jumbled mess of a holy book like the Bible and say it was the inerrant word of God.
But even better, write 3 books based off of the same God (Torah, new testament, Koran), make them compete with each other and war over thousands of years. Pure genius.

BlackManta:


Many atheist have converted from Islam.
Islam is worse than christianity and it is much easier to abandon islam.

The ex muslims i know are mainly from hardcore muslim countries.

Brother, I am not disputing anything. Jus trying to point out d current trending religious topics on nairaland. It all started on Friday which was "Christianity to Islam" .
I am a Muslim tho.

there will be thousand of these kind of conferties because of defect and in cohesiveness of the Christianity has chased them to the ocean of wondered, but it could have been better for all to sincerely study Qur'an and Islam not from anti Islamic site but authentic to get the peace and harmony of eternity. Alhamdullilah I am a Muslim.

nepapole:

Brother, I am not disputing anything. Jus trying to point out d current trending religious topics on nairaland. It all started on Friday which was "Christianity to Islam" .
I am a Muslim tho.

I understand you now.

But although i hate religion, i dont hate people cuz of religion.
I have christian and muslim friends too.

Happy Sunday.
ONE LOVE.

smoy:
there will be thousand of these kind of conferties because of defect and in cohesiveness of the Christianity has chased them to the ocean of wondered, but it could have been better for all to sincerely study Qur'an and Islam not from anti Islamic site but authentic to get the peace and harmony of eternity. Alhamdullilah I am a Muslim.

Christianity and islam are same shit, different toilets

Everybody were born Atheist till society starting from your family down to your social group introduced religion to you and when you grown, you get indoctrinated and hard to question what's real from what you have been repetitively told is real.

Personally, I found solace in atheism because at the end of the day, even if there is a God, he would understand that am just a loyal opposition and a good example of what he couldn't be, Atleast I had the balls to deny him and remain good to humanity compare to his sadistic nature of wanting to burn people in hell for not believing in him.

Even in the bible the number of people Satan killed statistically isn't more than 10 but God killed millions for going against him, cursed tribes, killed first borns. Even regretted his creations which he initially deem to be perfect.

God is so awful and a bigger pu ssy then a pu ssy when it gives birth.

BlackManta:


I understand you now.

But although i hate religion, i dont hate people cuz of religion.
I have christian and muslim friends too.

Happy Sunday.
ONE LOVE.

ONE LOVE brother.

Waiting for those converted to pagans soonest

hopefulLandlord:


Christianity and islam are same shit, different toilets

aaronson:
Everybody were born Atheist till society starting from your family down to your social group introduced religion to you and when you grown, you get indoctrinated and hard to question what's real from what you have been repetitively told is real.

Personally, I found solace in atheism because at the end of the day, even if there is a God, he would understand that am just a loyal opposition and a good example of what he couldn't be, Atleast I had the balls to deny him and remain good to humanity compare to his sadistic nature of wanting to burn people in hell for not believing in him.

Even in the bible the number of people Satan killed statistically isn't more than 10 but God killed millions for going against him, cursed tribes, killed first borns. Even regretted his creations which he initially deem to be perfect.

God is so awful and a bigger pu ssy then a pu ssy when it gives birth.

God is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.

hopefulLandlord:
interesting thread

I'm from a Christian home, both my parents and almost everyone else is a Christian

I dumped Christianity after asking myself "Why do you believe this?", the why question lead me to realise it was all indoctrination and once one starts questioning the BuyBull, one starts to see it for what it is (Myths, fables with some genuine history sprinkled in here and there)

I found out the reason man created gods, Mankind has always feared his own mortality. So we will always have people that want there to be more. Mankind wants there to be a why to our existence, and some may never totally accept we are no better than a fly.
To believe in a God is to relinquish your ability to seek the truth... To simply give up on the answers to the impossible questions... To stop using the most important of Human faculties, the ability to question... All questions about the universe, pain, suffering, evil, morality etc...God did it.....now get back to work and pay your tithe because he needs money...

I begin with the question; Would an all powerful divine being, capable of willing the universe into existence, use a convoluted book of indeterminate authorship and origin to communicate the most important message imaginable? why would evangelism even be necessary? God could just beam the knowledge of Christianity directly into everyone's heads, or at very least talk to them like he talked to Paul or the prophets. Hell, instead of running off to heaven and never being seen again, the risen Jesus could just travel the world proclaiming the truth of his resurrection and performing miracles to prove it. It's not like he has anything better to do.
Why would an all powerful god need flawed, ignorant humans to communicate his message, especially when that message is the most important thing a human being could possibly know?

The sheer number of religions in the world should also be thought provoking in itself. There are hundreds of variations of Christianity alone. Sadly, instead of calling the source material into question, far too many people delude themselves into believing everyone else is wrong. They do this without realizing they are accepting a paradigm that says, in essence, a divine being who willed the universe into existence couldn't get his/her/its story straight.

I like to add that if there WAS a Lord of Lies such as Satan, it would be a GREAT trick for him to write a jumbled mess of a holy book like the Bible and say it was the inerrant word of God.
But even better, write 3 books based off of the same God (Torah, new testament, Koran), make them compete with each other and war over thousands of years. Pure genius.

Epic!

I can't totally say that I'm an atheist cos it particularly adheres to only disbelief of God or gods, Grew up in hardcore Christian home as well, and I started first with the possibility of hell from a too loving God, at secondary level I began to reject the hell concept taking the side of story as unserious, I don't miss Bible fellowship, i always feel too scared to ask questions and from the ones I've heard while doing researches seem very unsatisfying,
I'm a type of who can easily explore and decover new things, by anymeans I do like solving my problems and I like being real even though the society doesn't tolerate that, all they wanted is show your fake view,
I've been a victim of terrible nightmares and it helped a lot directing me into the conclusion of knowing how fake Jesus is and thats where the real journey to reality began with me,
Funny part, Jesus was always there to save me from all sorts of demons attacking me in dreams, once I call his name every of them disappears and I so much believe in him, also I discovered that some demons will block my mouth if I eventually thought about them being capable of doing so, it became too much to an extent I can't even sleep without being tormented as they have found out the secret of my power, things we're getting too bad that I can't have peace of mind anymore leading me to no option than to try fighting with them, I was fortunate enough to build my mind to a certain length, not be scared anymore that it was just a dream and I projected my mind in to having unlimitless strength and it worked as I so much believed in myself and ready for battle, the outcome was amazing and with time demon torments began to reduce,
With time I realized it was me all the time battling myself, First I created the demons, then created Jesus character as a Savior later on gave the demons power to seal my mouth without realizing I can as well unseal it forcefully with my delusion power, finally gave myself the ultimate power to defeat whatever on my way,
When I conquered the nightmare experiences I thought I'm so special and possess more than others interms of spiritual power not knowing it was illusions Created and executed by me alone, and it all started with religion given us this illusions at first
This changed my view in many ways, then I came into nairaland The rest was history

I've come to realise that most of us started questioning religion or became atheists or agnostics during our teenage years (like myself who became one at the age of 16) or early adulthood. If you've been a crocophiliac (one who eats all manner of religious sh¡t) up to a certain age, like say 40, the chances of you ever seeing through the nonsense becomes narrower. You'll probably remain in that delusion for the rest of your life.

I think there are certain people with certain kind of minds---analytic minds, so to speak---who will DEFINITELY question these beliefs early in life and start having doubts at a very young age, depending on whether they were brought up by the river bank, in the village, or in the country---that is to say, as long as they have a certain degree of education and exposure.

The blinders fall off rather easily. You see through it all without any manner of fog obstructing your vision. Your rational mind just won't stop screaming "bullshit!!!", even if you want to believe.

BlackManta:


God is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.

Richard Dawkins savages Yahweh

Maezara:
I've come to realise that most of us started questioning religion or became atheists or agnostics during our teenage years (like myself who became one at the age of 16) or early adulthood. If you've been a crocophiliac (one who eats all manner of religious sh¡t) up to a certain age, like say 40, the chances of you ever seeing through the nonsense becomes narrower. You'll probably remain in that delusion for the rest of your life.

I think there are certain people with certain kind of minds---analytic minds, so to speak---who will DEFINITELY question these beliefs early in life and start having doubts at a very young age, depending on whether they were brought up by the river bank, in the village, or in the country---that is to say, as long as they have a certain degree of education and exposure.

The blinders fall off rather easily. You see through it all without any manner of fog obstructing your vision. Your rational mind just won't stop screaming "bullshit!!!", even if you want to believe.

Lol.

I have been screaming "bullshit" for all of my adult life.

Maezara:
I've come to realise that most of us started questioning religion or became atheists or agnostics during our teenage years (like myself who became one at the age of 16) or early adulthood. If you've been a crocophiliac (one who eats all manner of religious sh¡t) up to a certain age, like say 40, the chances of you ever seeing through the nonsense becomes narrower. You'll probably remain in that delusion for the rest of your life.

I think there are certain people with certain kind of minds---analytic minds, so to speak---who will DEFINITELY question these beliefs early in life and start having doubts at a very young age, depending on whether they were brought up by the river bank, in the village, or in the country---that is to say, as long as they have a certain degree of education and exposure.

The blinders fall off rather easily. You see through it all without any manner of fog obstructing your vision. Your rational mind just won't stop screaming "bullshit!!!", even if you want to believe.

The funny and ironic thing is that these crocophiliacs , as you call them, get so confused, so terrified of all the inherent contradictions in their beliefs, that it makes them the more vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation by the conmen, hayenas and vultures of Religion.

plaetton:

The funny and ironic thing is that these crocophiliacs , as you call them, get so confused, so terrified of all the inherent contradictions in their beliefs, that it makes them the more vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation by the conmen, hayenas and vultures of Religion.

That's why every mind needs a CENTER that does the processing. That incorporates QUANTITY and QUALITY.

Some minds are just full of thoughts (QUANTITY), but with no center (QUALITY) to sort them out, and seperate the wheat from the chaff. Hence the tragedy.

Such people are only superficially conscious, and their philosophy---if I should dignify it with that word---has no iota of rationality.

plaetton:

Lol.

I have been screaming "bullshit" for all of my adult life.

Lol. My mind has been screaming "bullshit" for the past four years, ever since I crossed the rational rubicon.

I finally decided I'd stop "screaming" and start whispering it only in the ears of those who have a sliver of light in them. Screaming it to the endarkened is an excercise in futility, and might even be a recipe for disaster---if, by any chance, Muhammad's boogeymen who carry the scythes of death that hack off heads like the guillotine, overhear my mumblings [an abomination in their bestial world].

JackBizzle:




Richard Dawkins savages Yahweh

I'm yet to see a better description of God.
Richard Dawkins nailed it like a carpenter.

He completely destroyed Yahweh.

Maezara:
I've come to realise that most of us started questioning religion or became atheists or agnostics during our teenage years (like myself who became one at the age of 16) or early adulthood. If you've been a crocophiliac (one who eats all manner of religious sh¡t) up to a certain age, like say 40, the chances of you ever seeing through the nonsense becomes narrower. You'll probably remain in that delusion for the rest of your life.

I think there are certain people with certain kind of minds---analytic minds, so to speak---who will DEFINITELY question these beliefs early in life and start having doubts at a very young age, depending on whether they were brought up by the river bank, in the village, or in the country---that is to say, as long as they have a certain degree of education and exposure.

The blinders fall off rather easily. You see through it all without any manner of fog obstructing your vision. Your rational mind just won't stop screaming "bullshit!!!", even if you want to believe.

This is so true, moreso the second paragraph
having discussed with several Nigerian and African adults on religious issues I've come to the conclusion that some people are just not wired to question religious authority and belief. They are not capable of going there. The ship has sailed, they're in too deep and It’s just not in their DNA (anymore) and any kind of re-wiring is futile; their wiring is set in stone (or neurons, if you prefer . Actually, to expect them to “go there" is like asking them to give up their meds. And that’s what religion is to many; their meds. Works great. “Tastes great and less filling" (than tormented thought and wonderment). I feel most religious adults are like that regardless of ethnicity. If someone tried to take away their religion, they'd see no reason to go on. It's that important to them.

BlackManta:
I'm an atheist from a hardcore christian home. I was raised as a christian and my parents were SU members (scripture union). They were also elders in the Methodist Church.
When i was young i started reading the bible.
At first, i read it as a story book and i believed everything written in it.
Until one day my sunday school teacher taught me that angels,God and Jesus are white in complexion but Satan is black.

For me, that sounded crazy. Why would a sane black man describe Jesus as a white person and then call satan a black person.
That is an insult to black race.

I asked myself "why does satan look like us-the black race"?

I was just ten years old back then.
But that question implanted in me the urge to think freely and ask questions.

As i was growing up, i became a free thinker. I questioned everything, i also questioned god.

When i was 15 years old, i stood up in a church filled with hundreds of worshipers and i asked the pastor.

"Why does the biblical story of a talking snake and magic apple make more sense than the theory of evolution?"

My pastor replied,
"It is written in the bible and so it is true, it is word of god and no one should question it".

That was absurd to me.

There are hundreds of other holy books with absurd fairytales.
What makes the bible the one true holy book?

Why do people believe everything written in bible. They just swallow the hook line and sinker without asking questions.
If the bible claimed that spiderman is real, will christians also believe it

How is it possible that a donkey talked
How is it possible that a man spent 3 days in the belly of a fish
According to science/biology, the belly of a fish has very little and no oxygen, therefore it is impossible for a man to survive there for 3 days.

I also questioned the death of Jesus.
I have seen people sacrifice their lives for greater good but Jesus didn't sacrifice anything.
His death was temporal.
He died and came back after 3 days, that doesn't sound like a sacrifice to me.

The sacrifice of Jack in Titanic is much better than Jesus's.


I opened my mind to science and i discovered that Religion and science are like fire and ice.

The bible says the sun stood still.
But according to science, the earth rotates around the sun and not vice versa.
So how is it that the sun stood still, was the sun moving or rotating around the earth in the first place

The more i studied science, the more the bible sounded stupid to me.

Talking snake and magic apple was unbelievable and i still dont know why many people believe that over theory of evolution.

I was still a christian back then and whenever my pastor says something incredulous, i try to use science to counter his statement.

My church people started avoiding me.
They thought i was possessed by demons.

They couldn't believe that someone could question god.
They couldn't believe that someone preffered scientific facts over biblical stories.

I was discriminated and stigmatised.
I was alone.

I didn't know that there were people who were free thinkers like me, at least not in Nigeria.

When i was 16, i wrote a list of questions that religious people always avoid.
I presented those questions to my dad, he called me a satan worshipper and rebuked me for questioning god.
He said i should take my questions to the holy spirit.

I kept my questions to myself and i moved on with my life.

When i was 17 i became a sunday school teacher.
I taught the word of god to little children.
I preached in the church.
My parents were proud of me and conteplated sending me to bible school but deep inside my heart i felt empty, i was doubting my faith.

Little by little i started doubting the existence of god.

I shared my ideas with my christian friends and to my greatest suprise, i discovered that many christians believe in god because they dont want to go to hell.

My pastor told me.
"It is better to believe in god so that even if you die and discover there is no god, you wont loose anything. It is better to believe in god than to doubt his existence and when you die and find out that there is god, you will go to hell. So believe in god and be on the safe side".

Such theory didn't make sense to me.

What if one spent his entire life worshipping Jehovah and then on judgement day, you discover that Zeus is the only true god

It is better to be sure of what you are worshipping.
And to that i demanded proof for existence of god.

I decided i will never worship anything until i see proof of existence.

I became an atheist.

But i was sorrounded by christian and i felt lonely.

I joined social media and one day i typed atheist on facebook search, i discovered many atheist pages and groups.
I discovered that there are millions of people like me, i didn't feel lonely anymore.

Today i am a member of atheist society of Nigeria.

11th February 2018 will make it my 2 years as an atheist.

Proudy Atheist.

Share your expirience.

you said something about the sun not moving get your facts right the sun moves at 250km/s around the universe, it moves and spins

danvon:
you said something about the sun not moving get your facts right the sun moves at 250km/s around the universe, it moves and spins

What causes time to pass and day to turn into night
Is it the sun moving 250km/s around the universe or the earth rotating around the sun

The way bible decribed it
it said the sun stood still so that Joshua can have time to finish killing some people.

If god wanted to stop time, he would stop the earth from rotating not the sun.

The sun does move.
I dont know everything about science and i'm open to taking corrections.

But the crux of the matter here is STOPAGE OF TIME and with that, the bible is wrong.

hopefulLandlord:

This is so true, moreso the second paragraph
having discussed with several Nigerian and African adults on religious issues I've come to the conclusion that some people are just not wired to question religious authority and belief. They are not capable of going there. The ship has sailed, they're in too deep and It’s just not in their DNA (anymore) and any kind of re-wiring is futile; their wiring is set in stone (or neurons, if you prefer . Actually, to expect them to “go there" is like asking them to give up their meds. And that’s what religion is to many; their meds. Works great. “Tastes great and less filling" (than tormented thought and wonderment). I feel most religious adults are like that regardless of ethnicity. If someone tried to take away their religion, they'd see no reason to go on. It's that important to them.

Exactly!

Op BlackManta,

God, Jesus and Angels aren't White. The Images of those Biblical characters here in Ethiopia are Brown. Don't fall for the whitewash sayings. Whites are whites because God took out one of his clay biscuits quickly. (I will tell you this story if you want )

Christian says mine is right. Islam says mine is right. Judaism says mine is right. Hinduism say mine is right. Atheism says mine is right. But truth is one and we will definitely find it at one point.

I'm non-believer, but I'm open minded to the possibility of God, Ghost and many other paranormal things. That God could be Alien or anything.

Here is brown Mary and Jesus pic in an Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Aksum Mary of Zion (built in 4th century AD)

was born in a catholic family and for more than 10 years i ave doubted the existence of God.