626
u/Borgmaster 1d ago
The last panel is to real. The more religious people I get into this discussion with cannot logically process what it is that an atheist is. Its not even a hate thing most of the time. They do not fundamentally understand how people live without church. It only recently occurred to me though that they cannot process the idea because literally their whole lives, education, social interaction, and friends have largely come from church. Making friends at work or in the wider world is an odd thing.
261
u/LucentRhyming 1d ago
The death of third spaces only makes it worse. Especially if you work from home. It's all too easy for church to be the only place you ever talk to anyone.
Though weirdly, even a lot of churches have become pretty bad for that. It's not uncommon for people to arrive just in time for a service and then zip right back out the door as soon as it's over without talking to anyone.
67
u/Greyshirk 1d ago
It's crazier trying to explain agnosticism to ones who barely grasp atheism
38
u/Borgmaster 1d ago
I actually find that easier. They mind it less when you just dont believe in a particular set of gods because then that means their real god will eventually find their way to them.
40
u/Maximillion322 1d ago
As an agnostic that’s just another way of them not understanding.
I tell a christian I’m agnostic and they just think I haven’t decided yet whether or not I believe in their god like I’m on the fence or something. When my real position is just that I don’t think it’s possible to know for sure, so I’m not going to go out of my way to spend any time worrying about it. For some reason they always see this as an opening for them to be just the right person that’s gonna say the one thing (that they don’t realize I’ve heard a million times before) that’s gonna sway me to realize that Jesus is my Lord and Savior
And it’s like no, I haven’t “not made up my mind yet,” I’ve made up my mind that I don’t want to be bothered about it because faith is definitionally unfalsifiable.
I can’t say for sure whether or not the divine is real, but I can say for sure that you’re not going to convince me to believe that it is.
4
u/_game_over_man_ 21h ago
I once told someone I just don’t care and he insisted I had to pick a side because it was the “world’s greatest debate.”
That made me care even less.
8
u/BlackTecno 1d ago
Being diest, I'm weirdly in the middle. I believe in something higher that started everything, but I don't believe they are something that cares for our existance nor is something to be worshiped.
4
u/NetNGames 1d ago
Agnostic Deist is a pretty nice combo of the two, as it is impossible to determine if there is a god, but the most logical variant would be the deist Creator, who, like a scientist setting up a Control experiment, may have set up the laws and amount of mass in the universe (time=0) and pressed play, but is allowing it to run without interfering with it.
Kind of related to simulation theory where, if somewhere in the universe, there is a machine powerful enough to simulate the entire universe, an accurate simulation would therefore include a machine powerful enough to simulate the entire universe, which would also have another machine and another simulation, and so on. Therefore it is theoretically possible to have an infinite number of simulations, but with only a single "real" world, you are more likely to exist within one of those simulations than not ¯_(ツ)_/¯
5
u/Maximillion322 1d ago
See I used to feel this way until I basically asked myself “why does the universe need to have an origin?” To which my answer was that everything in the universe that we know relies on cause and effect and thus it would seem necessary to assume that there would have been cause for the universe to exist in the first place, fine, but then I had to ask “why must that cause be intelligent?” And I’ve yet to find any convincing answer to that question
2
u/BlackTecno 1d ago
It doesn't. The universe could very well be an ebb and flow of the big bang, followed by a big crunch. While we know the universe is expanding, that doesn't mean it'll do that forever. For all we know, we could be on a fourth dimensional plane and the the ends of the universe, which were never suppose to meet, will find themselves intermingled with each other.
But that's something that we, and likely the human race, will never know. It comes to the question of why? What is it all for if nothing inside will experience it? But that's also where you come back to simulations and such. Sometimes it has no purpose.
1
u/ExcitingHistory 18h ago
I just settled with we cannot know.
I equivalent the big bang to like a bomb that went off in a location and just left a crater of indestructible metal.
We can clearly see a bomb went off, we can learn things about the bomb and the things the crater is made of. But does it tell us what was in the location before? Was it empty? Was it a flourishing metropolis? Did the explosion reshape laws of physics governing the area? Cant tell! Because everything that existed before the crater if anything existed before the crater has had all traces of it removed by the intensity of the explosion
1
u/Sodacan1228 1d ago
Check out the book "Acts of God" if you want a vaguely Douglad Addams-y sci-fi romp based on the nested simulation theory. I just finished it, it's pretty good. Far from hard sci-fi, it was just too relevant and I had to share.
1
u/mistress_chauffarde 21h ago
I myself am an atheist because i dont belive anybody would create such a shithole of a univers
And even if he was real i dont belive he is worthy of worship
Because who in theyr right mind would create such a shitshow and let it continue without intervening
1
u/Maximillion322 11h ago
I mean even if you do believe in a god there’s no reason to assume it would be a just or kind god
1
u/Own_Proposal955 7h ago
Yup and no reason to believe we should worship them. I fully believe if the Abrahamic god is real that is still not worship them unless I got some serious answers on some of the messed up things they condoned and clarification on what they actually believe vs what was written by human. If everything in the bible or the Muslim holy book is 100% up their alley then I sure as hell am not worshipping them regardless of their existence.
1
u/Own_Proposal955 7h ago
Even more fun when you’re an anti religion agnostic. Try explaining that you aren’t sure whether a god/gods exists but still believe we shouldn’t worship them or that religion is damaging. There is a more technical term for my beliefs I think (the whole not worshiping deities regardless of whether or not they exist/thinking the exists of a god doesn’t matter or mean they’re good for human) but I can’t remember it. I consider myself more atheist in the sense that I don’t personally believe but agnostic in the sense that I acknowledge it’s possible.
82
u/DarkBladeMadriker 1d ago
Yes. When ive had real conversations with devout people they are almost universally boggled by atheism. Most of the ones I spoke with wanted to know why I was "mad" at God. Then it was mind blowing when I explained that I cant be mad at something that doesn't exist. Im not rejecting God, God is a make believe, I dont like or dislike him. His followers are a different story but thats off track. I remember talking to someone and asking how they made thier sacrifice to the sea if they believed in Christianity. They of course had no idea what i was talking about. I said "you know, when you sacrifice something to the sea to appease Poseidon lord of all water". They, as you would expect, said they didnt do that and poseidon isnt real. I said "well, what happened in your life that made you mad at poseidon and caused you to reject his faith?" They at least on this one point, got what I was saying.
31
8
u/mistress_chauffarde 21h ago
Yeah tried that one got the "but that's not the same god is real and loves all of us poseidon is a old pegant belive"
After this kind of argument i just désengage because you can't make an argument in these people mind
3
u/Repulsipher 20h ago
Pegant?
3
u/ExcitingHistory 18h ago
Am I pegant?
2
2
1
u/Starrin1ght 6h ago
One time I told a girl I was atheist, and she asked me "I forgot, what do atheists believe again?", and I told her we believe in nothing, and she gave me the most shocked face ever like she didnt even think that was an option
13
u/thegimboid 1d ago
They get especially confused by me, cause I find religions fascinating, so I'm obsessed with learning the secular cultural histories of them, and how they influenced the formation of societies.
So I often know more random trivia about the histories of their beliefs than they do, whereas I know less about the actual social social aspects.
And they never know how to handle my honest beliefless curiosity, where I'm as excited to discuss something I consider utter fiction as Stephen Colbert would be to dive into the deep lore of Lord of the Rings.4
u/Sodacan1228 1d ago
Reading religion through a historical lens can be so fun, but it can definitely be very polarizing. Not just to practitioners of the faith, as you said, but from secular people who end up associating you with fringe religious conspiracy theorists.
50
72
u/Level_Hour6480 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'm sick of this lie: Real Athiests give a percentage of our income to the Atheist Temple. Rust is a non-theist, not one of Athe's faithless theists.
Because I have been dutifully giving for years, I am a level 7 Eternal Void in service to our lord Athe. One day Athe shall destroy all other gods, and his theists will be spared the destruction he wreaks.
17
u/getmybehindsatan 1d ago
0% is a percentage, so this is not a lie.
10
u/Level_Hour6480 1d ago
Athe will not spare you. The minimum tithe is 10% for those not truly committed to the cause. I have to offer my wife to the Grand Nihil for the night to make up for your impudence.
8
66
u/Lost1010 1d ago
Surely there are no sensible people out there that think atheists go to an atheist church. That's just nonsensical.
73
u/sprankton 1d ago
In my experience, they assume that we replace church with some secular thing. I once had one of them say that I replaced god with college football, and they went so far as to suggest that I somehow prayed to it to solve problems in my life. They can't fathom a life without their religion.
20
u/Hidingo_Kojimba 1d ago
In fairness, I think there absolutely is a case for having some sort of community organisation in your life to replace the role of social glue that was traditionally occupied by churches. Not saying it's right for everyone, but the erosion of local organisations like churches, youth clubs, even local pubs is kind of sad.
21
8
u/downwardwanderer 1d ago
There's some atheist unitarian universalists
7
u/RiverOfJudgement 1d ago
I'm agnostic but I go to a UU, it's awesome. It's all about finding community and having your own faith, whatever that may be. It's very cool
7
u/brokebacknomountain 1d ago
Some of them do because they think atheism means devil worship... Or that you replace it with a vice. I know an atheist that just volunteers on Sundays.
She said it made her feel better than being at church and talking about being a good person.
4
u/Mr_master89 1d ago
I think a lot of people don't really understand atheists don't believe in anything, like they think that atheists have to believe in something or it just doesn't make sense to them
6
u/Rocket_Ship_5 1d ago edited 1d ago
may I present to you Brazil's Positivist Church? https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igreja_Positivista_do_Brasil
these atheists did go to church, wouldn't you know?
3
2
u/_throw-away420692137 22h ago
there's also Buddhism the 4th biggest religion in the world (tbf there could be argument that Buddhist temples are the same thing as church)
1
u/Rynewulf 1d ago
The term "scientism" has been popular in conspiracy and fundamentalist circles for many years at this point, and yes this sometimes does include the accusation that things like atheism are an entire religion with everything that entails
1
1
u/pizzabazooka 1d ago
Yeah, it’s a good thing that everyone is so dang sensible. Could you even imagine what the world would be like otherwise?!
1
u/SheepPup 1d ago
I mean I don’t know if I would call her sensible because she believed that the devil put dinosaur bones in the ground as a test of faith to tempt people to stray from god and believed that evolution was a lie and the earth is only 6,000 years old but like I once got into a very circular argument with this girl about how no the whole point of atheism was that I didn’t go to any church or believe in any religion and she eventually concluded that because when she kept pressing on “well what do you do on Sunday’s” I said “I don’t know read I guess??” That that meant reading and science was my religion.
But given that roughly a third of the US population believes in young earth creationism these people are everywhere
1
u/BahamutLithp 22h ago
I don't know if you'd call them sensible, but a fair number of people dig up some niche news story about "atheist churches" & think they're like everywhere.
1
1
u/Mattdoss 12h ago
You'd be surprised but I have seen Christians that believed there is an atheist church.
0
u/RLANZINGER 1d ago
"no sensible people out there that think atheists go to an atheist church"
LOL myself knowing about Astika and Nastika and the transtheism of Jainism...
Churchs of Atheist have been a thing since 3000 YEARS in India.
Ultra lol,
1
u/spindaz123 19h ago
what would you even do on a atheism church?
1
u/RLANZINGER 11h ago
What do buddhist do ?
Monday : Meditate,
Tuesday : prove vegan they are wrong (eating Potatoes)0
u/Monkfich 1d ago
These are not the same type of atheism that is being talked about. Sure, some types of atheism uses church-type meetings, but the vast majority of western atheism does not.
1
u/Lithl 29m ago
That's the thing. Atheism just means you don't believe any gods exist. It doesn't say anything about what you do believe, nor what activities you participate in.
"Atheist" is an extremely broad category, with everything from rationalists to conspiracy nuts, and more. The only thing tying them together is lack of belief in a god.
29
u/Khelthuzaad 1d ago
Girl you are needy fr
She aint the last lesbian on earth
You only need to search
13
1
7
u/OblivionsMemories 1d ago
I'm quite confused about your posting order. In the last two weeks you posted 12-13, 23, 16-18, 24, and now... 17-18?
5
u/Fit-Ebb-6727 1d ago
Yeah the numbers on the previous one was wrong… 😭 I only realized wayy late. 16-18 is actually 14-16.
3
12
u/DarkExtremis 1d ago
I. WANT. MORE. OF. THIS.
You've spoiled me by giving me 17 and 18 together OP. Now I want to know what happens next.
4
5
6
5
u/Art_student_rt 1d ago
Church, faith, has never been in my mind my entire life. I guess that's blasphemous to some people.
3
u/mistress_chauffarde 21h ago
Ho boy so I have some stories when it come to that kind of thinking
One of them is by meeting a wild jehova witness
And another is hearing a argument followed by a fight of an Muslim extremist and a poor metro station repair guy
3
u/Fantastic-Dot-655 21h ago
Are you guys implying that I am reinforcing stereotypes when I wear my "I love Satan" shirt?
2
2
2
2
u/Hyko_Teleris 1d ago
An atheist church is called a school (school that isnt influenced by religion)
2
u/AButHed 1d ago
He totally does look like an atheist, though.
2
1
u/MembershipProof8463 1d ago edited 15h ago
Join a communist lodge or something. I think they mostly all got red scared though
1
•
u/AutoModerator 1d ago
/r/webcomics is accepting mod applications – apply here!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.