I've heard nothing encourages atheism better than Catholic School.
People learn nothing makes sense and everything is a sin. So why bother anymore?
this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2026
184 points (98.4% liked)
Atheism
6230 readers
241 users here now
Community Guide
Archive Today will help you look at paywalled content the way search engines see it.
Statement of Purpose
- This is a support and conversation community for people who don't believe in gods.
- Superstition hucksters have no reason to subscribe or post here at all.
- If you are looking to debate or proselytize, options will be linked lower in the sidebar.
Acceptable
- Honest questions or conversations.
- Discussions on parenting or advice.
- Struggles, frustrations, coming out.
- Atheist memes. We can have fun!
- News headlines relevant to atheism.
Unacceptable
Depending on severity, you might be warned before adverse action is taken.
- Anything against site rules.
- Illegal and/or NSFW material.
- Troll posts and comments. There will be no attempt to explain what that means.
- Leading questions, agenda pushing, or disingenuous attempts to bait members.
- Personal attacks or flaming.
Inadvisable
- Self promotion or upvote farming.
- Excessive shitposting or off-topic discussion.
Application of warnings or bans will be subject to moderator discretion. Feel free to appeal. If changes to the guidelines are necessary, they will be adjusted.
If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathizer or a resemblant of a group that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of any other group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you you will be banned on sight.
Provable means able to provide proof to the moderation, and, if necessary, to the community.
~ /c/nostupidquestions
If you want your space listed in this sidebar and it is especially relevant to the atheist or skeptic communities, PM DancingPickle and we'll have a look!
Connect with Atheists
- Matrix: #atheism:envs.net
Help and Support Links
- Freedom From Religion Foundation
- The Secular Therapy Project
- Secular Students Alliance
- Black Nonbelievers
- The Clergy Project
- Atheist Alliance International
- Sunday Assembly
- Atheist Ireland
- Atheism UK
- Atheists United
Streaming Media
This is mostly YouTube at the moment. Podcasts and similar media - especially on federated platforms - may also feature here.
- Atheist Debates - Matt Dillahunty
- Rationality Rules
- Friendly Atheist
- Making Sense with Sam Harris
- Cosmic Skeptic
- Genetically Modified Skeptic
- Street Epistemology
- Armored Skeptic
- NonStampCollector
Orgs, Blogs, Zines
- Center for Inquiry
- American Atheists
- Humanists International
- Atheist Republic
- The Brights
- The Angry Atheist
- History for Atheists
- Rationalist International
- Atheist Revolution
- Debunking Christianity
- Godless Mom
- Atheist Freethinkers
Mainstream
Bibliography
Start here...
...proceed here.
- God is Not Great (Hitchens)
- The God Delusion (Dawkins)
- The End of Faith (Harris)
- Why I Am Not a Christian (Russell)
- Letter to a Christian Nation (Harris)
Proselytize Religion
From Reddit
As a community with an interest in providing the best resources to its members, the following wiki links are provided as historical reference until we can establish our own.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Turned me into a Orthodox Agnostic
Read the Bible in full the summer before sixth grade because, well, it's the actual word of God, and eternity is infinitely more important than some 70-odd years. Besides, I'd already read Genesis and Exodus, and those were pretty interesting on their own.
I did not spend sixth grade as a Christian.
Edit: I will say, though, that Genesis has some crazy red flags I sort of just glossed over at the time, like the Levite's concubine.
YMMV. There's layers to this cake. One of the most notable is in how it's deliberately excluding other religious beliefs. If you are a practicing Muslim, for instance, you get singled out and tormented by state officials if you demonstrate any kind of piety that isn't state-approved. Similarly, outspoken atheists (or squishy liberal Methodists or Unitarians) become lightening rods for school admins looking to prove they're zealous enough in their Christianization to drop the hammer on non-believers.
All lot of the second order effects of this won't be just annoying students with Christianity until they dislike it as much as they dislike Math. It's going to be opening up naked harassment and bullying of non-Christians, while turning the school bureaucracy against anyone who is outwardly non-conforming.
I vividly remember this happening in my own Middle/High School life, way back in the 90s, when Evolution and Gay were the whipping kids of the religious right. The end result was lots of good people being purged from the system for petty and arbitrary reasons, while a lot of utter assholes got cushy positions in the school board and upper wings of the administrative offices to rubber stamp the abuse.
Unfortunately, I can confirm this.
catholic school turned me into a idealistic hippie xD
I can personally attest to this. Once I critically engaged with the Bible, I almost instantly became an atheist.
But it wasn’t until I read Milton’s paradise lost that I saw the Bible more as a piece of literary work, and really related to the character of Lucifer and engaged with the philosophy of rebellion
I don't think conservatives have the, like, object permanence, to regret their decisions
Christiofascists HATE when you quote the actual Bible to them
@switcheroo @VetOfTheSeas
I have quoted the Bible to some people online who leapt to the conclusion that I was Christian. When I told them that I was not, they generally freaked out. One of them threatened to kill me.
That would require self-awareness and reflection. Never gonna happen. Not in Texas.
Obviously they need to use the new "Bible According to St. Trump", not that woke old thing.
Holding it upside down, such a perfect metaphor. He probably didn’t know how to hold it because he doesn’t know what the fuck a book actually is.
He looks like a baby who shit his pants
When you force students to read something, there is no book so good the students won't hate it. The Bible is miserable to read even when you're not forced.
Actually, Tess of the D'Urbervilles wasn't so bad, I guess.
I also quite enjoyed Mary Renault's "The King Must Die" in high school.
They plan on teaching them out of context and only including those about obeying. This will be like going to a mega church.
When I was 12 it was customary in my family's religion to become baptized. It isn't done for babies but for older children and adults to decide for themselves. I decided I should read the whole Bible before I committed. I ended up leaving the religion. My parents were starting to question it as well and also left around that time. Many of the people I know who have left that or other Christian religions have done so after they finally read the Bible themselves and not the select verses in church services. Not everyone who reads it leaves, some find what they need to stay, but from personal experience it is many more leaving than staying.
I suspect the new law was not actually considered at length but was, as Dan McClellan might suggest, used by legislators as costly signaling to show their campaign contributors that they are true white Christian nationalists and therefore worth the money being thrown their way.
But yes, kids will get impatient at bible passages just as much as they were impatient with Animal Farm or The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas or To Kill A Mockingbird
(I speak from experience. I was introduced to classics in elementary grammar school and entirely unable to appreciate why they were so profound until much later in life when I could think about them critically.)
And yeah, those kids smart enough to think about bible passages critically will be on the fast-track to personal faith deconstruction.
Twud be hilarious if that's what they needed this whole time in order to be more Christ like. 12 years of homework to read their one book.
As soon as they get to Numbers or Judges students will see some big problems with American Christianity.
Texas is such a fly over state...
There's a lot of guns there, make sure you fly at a higher altitude so they don't try to make you join them.