I was a skeptical little kid, and I have been an atheist since I first learned of the term around 1st grade. I was also very interested in archeology and mythology, so exposure to all those other religions didn't help the Christianity case. As a child, I assumed that the whole god/jesus thing was just like Santa and the Easter Bunny. That it was a made up story to instill morals in kids, and that eventually when I was older the adults would admit it to me. Of course, they never did. But I had a lot of friends at church and generally enjoyed my time there, so I didn't openly talk about being an atheist until college.

I actually do kind of miss the community aspect of a church. I have always assumed that is the biggest draw that keeps people interested. Both for the support network, and sense of belonging.

No no no, this ancient religion from the Middle East based off of several other cultures mythology is the TRUTH!

Because it's a grift?

Because it's all horseshit?

My guess is that the extreme hatred flowing out of outspoken "Christians" in the US is a huge turn-off, as it should be.

Everyone, myself included always come back to the same reason - there is no proof.

If I was given actual proof of a god or pantheon or any other ridiculous nonsense I’d absolutely change my mind but actual proof magic exists can’t exist because magic isn’t real

I fully accept that I don’t and can’t truly understand the universe but where the fuck does that somehow morph into “god did it” it’s ok not to know everything I don’t need made up bullshit to fill the gaps so I can feel better about not having every answer. Live with not knowing, that’s what being human is meant to be, acceptance

I can give you 100+ reasons why…. None are good for you and/or me.

We can just go to therapy instead of confessional.

They have tech now. And conspiracy theories. Lots of stuff to cult about. They can build their own religion if they want.

It's dumb?

Because I don't need God to be a good person, or know what good morals are.

For their study, Schnabel and his colleagues used data from the National Study of Youth and Religion. This included four waves of longitudinal survey data and 183 in-depth interviews conducted from 2003 to 2013. The sample included over 1,300 individuals, each tracked from adolescence into young adulthood. [...] The number of respondents attending religious services dropped dramatically between 2003 and 2013.

The study used data that's 12 years old! Millennials are not young adults anymore. At this point it's well known that Americans, especially the younger cohorts, are moving away from religion, so why even bother reanalyzing ancient data?

In the 1970s, only about 5% of Americans fell into this category. Today, that number exceeds 25%.

That's ... a surprisingly slow transition. I can understand that an official turn away from christianity only started in the 1970s, fueled by a cultural revolution.

But the fact that only 25% of people have officially said no to religion as of today is staggering me. I would have thought it would be closer to 80%, maybe.

Here's my theory why:

• People nowadays have higher average education and can much more easilly spot the logical inconsistences in Religion.
• People are so overexposed and overwhelmed by swindles in the modern era that they are more naturally spotting the swindle nature of ancient swindles such as Religion.

Well, my whole life, I've lived in a society where organized Christianity has overwhelmingly been a force for evil, rather than a force for good. Fuck, I straight-up believe that most Evangelical Christians are devil worshipers. If your religion leads you to hate, you aren't worshiping God, you're worshiping the Devil.

Good for them.

These ancient lies designed for crowd control have been horrible these past thousand years.

Not that modern political groups or sects etc are much better...

should be happening with gen z and alpha too, but gen z has more right wingers than previous generations, due to significant propaganda.

Lmao because it's horse shit that's why

Source: me, a 37-yo exmormon who was all-in, true believer, until his mid 20s.