this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2026
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"Actual christianity."
Bruh, there was no actual christ. Can we please grow up?
The bible is literally unbelievable. It contradicts itself. Which gospel are we supposed to believe? Which version of Jesus? Or do we believe Paul, who claimed Jesus was lord yet altered his teachings?
Define "god" and demonstrate that any god exists. No one has been able to do this, which is why I remain an agnostic atheist. Meanwhile, we have more evidence every day that belief in god causes harm to people, which is why I remain antitheistic.
The god of the christian bible is one of the worst ever conceived. A petty, hateful abuser who demands complete subjugation. People call it "love" when god uses violent slaughter to get his way, such as flooding the entire world. "Don't worry, the good people went to heaven. That's better than being alive." It's a death cult.
I always just call christianity a fandom and the bible "a sci-fi" novel. I'm somewhat convinced that "religions" are just fandoms from thousands of years ago. In 2000 years I would not be surprised to see "Jedi" as a top "religion" (it's already nearly 1% of all brits in the uk).
It's a death cult, in which some of its foundational tenets include torture, human sacrifice, cannibalism, vampirism, and zombies, AND their logo is literally their founder in agony on an ancient torture device.
"It's totally not a death cult! Now let's drink his blood and eat his flesh."
Christianity is a collection of religious philosophies. Not every priests agree on all the details and interpret things differently from one another.
The previous pope and his predecessor could not be further apart in how they interpret the bible.
You are (traditionally) supposed to either ask your local religious authority on how to interpret the bible in context of your community or otherwise study the ancient texts to find your own meaning as an aspiring priest.
I understand their is much zealotism and as always power corrupts (and priests have power)
But to ignore that their are valuable philosophical messages in the ideas of the character that is called christs (fictious or a merge of different philosophers) and that some people are capable of practicing their religion in a beneficial and progressive way is immature.
I absolutely agree that the jaweh character is a petty narcissistic asshole, but thats exactly why i became interested in learning about religion at all. One of the things i quickly caught on is that the Christian god is actually the Jewish god, Christianity is a branch of it specifically around Jesus.
I am not religious nor Christian, i don’t believe anything in the bible describes a real event but Jesus remains a great role model, and quite the social anarchist.
A message of unconditional love, accepting others without judgment and helping those in need, it simply cant be more in contrast with US Nat-C(ristian) hate. That is the contrast what is generally meant with “actual christianity”
You are dangerously wrong. It's a death cult.
Did you know that all of those good things are even better without the foundation of an abusive god? Do you realize that "christ" has a specific meaning, a human sacrifice to save us from a punishment we do not deserve in the first place?
Please use your brain. People are dying.
He did not invent his teachings. The golden rule predates him. He preached one way and lived another, he was a hypocrite. He was a delusional narcissist who got a lot of people killed for his bullshit.
Did he do some good? Sure. But there's more poison in there than you realize. You can do so much better, please find a role model who doesn't use baseless claims to manipulate people.
Are you kidding? It's as conditional as it gets, you must submit completely to him or he'll punish you. That is not love.
He was constantly judging people. At this point, I'm wondering whether you have read the bible.
When he felt like it.
It's exactly the same. "Submit or die."
There is a difference between following Jesus and following christ. Both are harmful, but at least Jesus was (probably) real. There is no actual christ, there are no actual christians.
Please never make the mistake of defending a death cult again.
Put it this way.
There are religious zealots who cause a lot of harm and express a lot of hate.
With your attitude, those will fight and argue with you, affirming your bias.
There are good natured religious folk who don’t pressure others and just savour a personal spirituality.
With your attitude, they simply won’t tell you anything about it, you just assume they’re atheist.
The most religious Christian person in my direct family is my mother in law. She does not go to church cause she believes them to be corrupt. She does not wear any symbols. I only know because my partner who is strictly atheist told me so and that she prays every night for the wellbeing of her family.
As commanded by the bible. And we can't hold them accountable because people like you already gave them permission to lie.
My attitude is irrelevant. An honest person has their mind changed with sufficient evidence. Follow the logic.
Besides, it's not just people I talk to. There are many atheist shows where believers call in to discuss their beliefs. I've heard them justify slavery, genocide, rape, and more using the bible, using commonly repeated christian bullshit.
Beliefs drive our actions. Superstition is deadly.
Wrong. I have my own channel, OpenAtheist, where I have spoken with hindu and sikh people about what we each believe and why. Admittedly, I try to take a less confrontational tone there than here. But you're stupidly defending a literal death cult in an atheism community. You should knock that shit off if you value anyone's life.
But she worships and prays to a violent abuser for mercy from his own cruelty? It's psycho shit. She needs help.
Please stop pretending these baseless beliefs aren't deadly. Real human beings are suffering and dying every day because some selfish idiots won't stop lying, and you're enabling them.
Omg i wasted so much time, its not the first time i mis interpret this as a philosophical open minded com.
I rest my case the majority quite private religious person isn’t going to argue on your podcast. Leave it to me to do it in their favour because i think its not fair to tar them all with the same brush.
Note to self: please put the phone away.
I consider it worthwhile if anyone's mind is changed. You never know who's going to read our messages.
I am open minded. Your claims don't hold up. You're deliberately rejecting evidence so you can go on pretending death cults aren't killing us.
Why do you keep rejecting evidence? Admit when you are wrong. Other people are dying for your idiocy.
You mean like how you tarred this entire community after interacting with me?
But unlike theists, we don't have magic bullshit to excuse our choices. We have a bit more accountability. I am angry because you are choosing to reject evidence at the cost of human lives, and you're only concerned about wasting your own time.
You're a fool. You have blood on your hands.
Good idea. Maybe don't connect it to the internet ever again.
Fuck you for lying. Fuck you for choosing death.
Oh come on,
I am not enabling anyone, i am not supporting any of the things you say i am supporting,
I condemn the literal same things you condemn once you describe them.
I have done so in my comments time and time again.
I condemn zealots the same way i condemn Facism.
I have been nothing but respectful towards your position. Yet you harass me with immature cursing.
My sole point is to say that not every religious person is a zealot, zealots an extreme minority.
A zeolot does not always have to be about religion. It describes a person with a strong uncompromising view and tries to force that view on others.
You try to convince me to vilify 2.4 bilion people with a single stroke. You are an extremist. Closer to those you hate then you think.
I still think the church is corrupt as fuck.
I still condemn and recognise all the evil the opium of the masses remains to cause today.
I am not enabling any of that with any of my words nor actions.
But shoot me cause i refuse to believe that 2.4 bilion people are all the devil incarnated.
You really need to understand this: saying something doesn't make it true.
Read your previous comments. You defended a death cult and its members instead of its victims.
Good. Then you condemn christianity. It is a religion founded on abuse.
No, you've been very wishy washy. You keep pretending there's an acceptable way to be a death cultist.
Good, then you condemn all christians. It is a fascist death cult.
No, you keep ignoring my points and insisting my experience is some kind of fluke while more and more people die.
You don't have to be here, dumbass. I wish you would stop lying.
Every christian is a death cultist. Are you shifting the goalposts?
Here's the difference: evidence. It's why I have repeatedly stated I am against superstition, not just christianity and not just theism. Magical thinking is literally backwards and it gets people killed.
You're pretending it's okay to be a death cultist. I value life, why don't you?
No, I'm not. They started the fight with their deadly bullshit. I have done nothing but defend.
The difference is evidence, idiot.
Correct!
Finally! Thank you.
You literally did. Would you like to edit or delete those comments? We can all see them.
I don't believe in the devil. I believe stupid, selfish humans tell stupid, deadly lies. Never enable them again. Thanks.
atheism ≠hate any and all of religion
but the sidebar of this com does say "If you are looking to debate or proselytize, options will be linked lower in the sidebar."
We are both guilty of this, and i write this final comment mostly to express my apologies to the mods for having my part in dragging this out as far as it did.
This is not the place to discuss how big of a portion of religion it is that is dangerous versus mundanely innocent.
SnoopSqueak, i wish you nothing but the best, and hope you can find some non-religious peace in your life.
You try to convince me that that 2.4 billion people (all christians), 4.4 billion (all abrahamic relgions) or 6 billion people (75% of the world, all people who worship some form of a god) are part of a deathcult, are dangerous.
I would be no less afraid of you if i met you in person as any other religious extremist that is imposing their views onto me with such aggression, please contemplate on that.
Its a relief to know that the big city where i live seems excluded from those 75% of dangerous extremist people.
Right, which is why I distinguished between atheism and my own point of view. But I try to base my own point of view on evidence, and evidence suggests religion does more harm than good and we're all better off without it.
Great, then fuck off.
You started it.
You think we should let them kill us. I disagree. The stakes are too high to stay silent.
Thanks. You too. It's a bit difficult when the death cults are still actively killing us. Can you unkill my friends?
CORRECT. Your argument seems to be "billions of people can't be wrong," which is dangerously untrue.
I'm not very threatening in person. I am very passionate about helping people if and when I am able.
Spend some time in the bible belt. You will find horrors that have been normalized by entire communities. You enable them.
I really thought this was argument was going to be over, considering we both understand this isn't the com for it. I decided it would be more personally productive to express myself trough making an artistic collage instead.
You can stop whenever you like. I care about the victims.
"hate begets hate." Yeah. I wish stupid, selfish people didn't hate the truth so much that they feel entitled to tell deadly lies.
Grow the fuck up, you goddam cancer. You failed to address any of my points, your only response is "lots of people do it." THAT DOESN'T MAKE IT RIGHT.
You suddenly forget that none of it is (probably) real? It’s a legend character. Like robin hood.
It very much depends on which book you read by which author. Just like any other philosophical book
You could write a book about how robin hood was a nasty thief, but thats not really what the idea is about.
At least 5 that i remember that were distinct interpretations. Only one that was actually good though but really like, one of the best books on moral philosophy i have ever read. And all those things you are so sure are a part of if weren’t in it.
There was also one where Jesus detested Jaweh and ridiculed his followers for worshipping a monster. But it’s a very unusual interpretation that the church doesn’t like talking about.
Thats god, not Jesus. We very much agree the character of god is ridiculously bad.
I am not i am just countering your unreasonable bias.
I understand that in all likelihood your experience with religious folk is zealots, cause your examples of why Christianity is bad is very much what zealots want.
Its not your fault you havent had the chance of talking with good and kind religious people who do exists all over but may not even express they are religious to anyone at all.
I am not such person but i do know such people.
If you have an open mind and find yourself in a respectful conversation with a half decent priest they have no problem admitting that the bible is not to be taken literally.
You're the one defending him. Whether he's real or not does not affect my criticisms of his character. It's also worth noting that people do think he is real, and kill and die in his name.
You're not addressing my points.
But there is no one story about Jesus. The gospels disagree with each other. The common thread is that he's a delusional, narcissistic hypocrite who got people killed with his bad ideas.
Holy fucking shit. There are fictional stories with better morals than the bible.
In one out of five, and you think that makes the character good? What version are you describing?
Stop ignoring the glaring flaws, the foundation of superstition and abuse.
Then why bring it up? We're talking specificity about christ, the human sacrifice, as described in conflicting ways in the bible.
In the bible, Jesus is god.
John 10:
John 14:
Isaih 9:
Phillipians 2:
I can acknowledge that some versions might lean more or less toward Jesus being god, and that the concept of the trinity was basically a retcon to avoid the heresy of worshipping multiple gods, but we can also acknowledge that many people believe Jesus is god. The south baptist churches I was forced to go to certainly preached that Jesus is god.
In your version, is Jesus still the son of god? Does he still have good things to say about him? Because that is still highly problematic, even if he's not claiming to be god himself.
I'm glad for that, at least. It genuinely scares me when you say you think the bible is a worthwhile guide to morality.
It's not unreasonable. People all over the world are voting against all of our best interests because bible says so. It's a death cult. Does Jesus die on the cross in your version? Is that a good thing? Does your version include heaven? Belief in a happy afterlife devalues our real lives.
This is why I asked if you've read the bible. You don't seem to understand what it contains or how many people believe it.
Good and kind people don't make shit up. Intellectually honest people don't accept claims without sufficient evidence.
That doesn't help. And I think you would be surprised. A) decent people do not spend their lives telling deadly lies. B) MANY priests insist the bible is true and contains no contradictions, because it says so. C) what do we learn metaphorically from passages where god is handing down commands and laws about owning slaves and catering to rapists?
I am curious about your version of the bible. It sounds like a complete anomaly and not at all what people think of when they think of bibles, Jesus, or christ.
Christianity is a death cult and your tolerance of it could get people killed. This is why I care so much.
Edit: i am rather tired of this conversation but i so want to finnish this comment. I wrote most of it already, i just got to this part and want to start with it:
This provides a lot of context and i absolutely understand how you got your point of view. Protestant evangelical has always seemed very extreme and backwards to me. I am really sorry you were forced into this.
Most of my christian influence is catholic, (i am still not religious in case this wasnt clear) technically that means the pope is considered the highest authority to set disputes though in practice thats not always the case. The big important is that they say the teaching of jesus got passed with the apostles and the later church who is able to ammend and recontextualize scripture in order to clarify what the words actually mean, hence its not to be taken literally.
Protestants literally take scripture literally, i would lie if i am not somewhat biased that i expect such to end in zealot death cults.
Does not reflect all of Christianity though which trough out is my sole point
I don’t know how many times i need to repeat this but the bible IS a fictional story.
I am not defending the people you describe, I am defending people who ARE religious and yet nothing like you describe. Because what you describe is a stereotype.
The bible i read that was good had a really generic name. “The life and tale of Jesus Christ” i no longer own it. I don’t know who wrote/published it sorry, its over a decade ago.
The interesting odd one is the gospel of Judas. I bring it up specifically because i want to point out that christianity is a philosophy much larger than the church with tons of diverse branches. People who ascribe to Christianity do not need to be aligned with the church, like my mother in law who detests the church but does actually believe heaven is real and prays in private.
Quoting scripture does nothing for me, you can interpret those words in so many ways they basically mean nothing.
A religious teacher i once knew would say you need to read it in context of the classical era, most of it is outdated and no longer applies, but a core of philosophy remains, even if the historical author was devout they may have verbatim copied a tale without understanding the message themselves.
Times are different know and so is religion, most people can read, pretending something is absolutely truth makes a lot more sense in context of one academic explaining moral philosophy to a illiterate masses.
I don’t agree with that, that thinking corrupts so fast with clerical authority in for example, the death cults you speak off, but they are not the whole, and where i live a (loud) minority.
I do not tolerate zealots, its facism with extra steps, i could reflect your own words back that your intolerance of religious expression will get people killed. Because they don’t differentiate decent people from bad people who misuse the same idea and name.
Anyway enough internet arguing for now, have a good day.
Human lives are at stake.
Then PLEASE stop enabling it. It's worse than you think.
Oh? Let's see what the pope has to say about Jesus:
https://insidethevatican.com/popeswords/pope-at-mass-being-christian-means-accepting-jesus-even-to-the-cross/
Christianity is a death cult, catholicism included.
Yes, it literally does. Christ was a human sacrifice. Yahweh is a death god.
But one with horrible morals, and one people believe is true.
Yes you are. You're pretending they're the exception when they're following the bible like most christians.
You keep missing the point: superstition is deadly. Quit being a selfish coward. Quit enabling violence.
None of that magically erases the gospels most people are familiar with.
As I said before, belief in a happy afterlife devalues our real lives. She, like every christian, is a death cultist.
It's why people believe Jesus is god. The bible says so. Stop ignoring this crucial flaw.
There is no historical context where slave rape and genocide are moral, especially if god is all-powerful.
No, it's selfish intellectual dishonesty. Truth does not change based on what we want. Pretending something is true is called lying, and it is killing people.
Christianity is a death cult. We're all better off without it. No one needs religion.
You evidently do.
Exactly. God is fascist. Christ is god. Christianity wants us all dead.
But you'd be wrong. Examine the evidence.
Decent people don't tell deadly lies.
Fuck you for enabling abuse. I hope you grow a spine and a brain some day, for the victims' sakes.