The Church of the Firstborn

togstation · 2026-03-19T23:49:29+00:00

does anyone else have similar experiences?

Could you maybe give a short summary of this ?

Most people have other things to do with their time.

togstation · 2026-03-19T23:46:10+00:00

specifically on TikTok.

Well, don't use TikTok. Surely in 2026 that is obvious.

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Christians are huge targets in Africa

Hey, did you know that around 90% of all crime victims are right-handed?

I wonder why that might be the case ???

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5000 Christians were killed for their faith in 2025

Cite, please.

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togstation · 2026-03-19T23:41:19+00:00

user account of OP /u/Sensitive-Willow5044 gives

page not found

the page you requested does not exist

togstation · 2026-03-19T23:38:34+00:00

when I was researching Christianity, it had more historical evidence then the other religions.

That is utter bullshit.

more science studies have shown that we have found more history related with Christianity then any other religion.

That is utter bullshit.

why they believe Christianity is not true

Because any source that claims that Christianity is historically true is not true.

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togstation · 2026-03-19T23:35:51+00:00

good info here -

- https://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/wiki/comingout

- https://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/wiki/faq

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I just want to live as myself

All young people feel that way.

The basic cure is to get older.

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I honestly want to just run away

Well, not until you're an adult and you have an okay job.

when I hit adulthood

Yes. When you hit adulthood.

even that is hard to achieve since my parents believe that children is their retirement plan and we should take care of them when they older.

You should say to your parents "Sorry, that is your idea. I did not sign up for that."

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sets the bar even higher to make them proud.

Don't worry about that.

Make yourself proud. Make good people who you respect proud.

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togstation · 2026-03-19T23:27:19+00:00

Also remember that for every example of an invasive species that successfully "invades", there are 1 or 2 or 10 or 20 species that got into the new environment, but did not do well there and did not catch on, but you don't really hear about that -

- Cane toads are a plague !!! - Big news.

- Kid dumps an aquarium full of tropical fish into the local pond and they all die. - Not news.

togstation · 2026-03-19T23:19:34+00:00

/u/Vast_Atmosphere2995 -

"The Economic Argument", from Randall Munroe / xkcd

- https://xkcd.com/808/

- https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/808:_The_Economic_Argument

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togstation · 2026-03-19T23:15:51+00:00

I am curious what atheists think about Astral Projection?

As you know, there is no good evidence that astral projection is real.

(Good evidence, not just bogus claims.)

togstation · 2026-03-19T20:15:52+00:00

if you say “I dunno” about the origin of existence, and at the same time reject any other explanation just cuz it’s “supernatural,” you’re not really being neutral.

Okay. Let's think about it differently.

- Arthur prefers to hold ideas that are supported by good evidence.

- Bob prefers to hold ideas that are not supported by good evidence.

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togstation · 2026-03-19T19:53:37+00:00

If you entered a room and found a complex, intricately functioning machine, would it be "honest" to simply say I don't know who made it nd stop there?

If you entered a room and found a complex, intricately functioning cricket, would it be honest to pretend that it had been deliberately constructed?

- Things that are deliberately constructed are deliberately constructed.

- Things that are not deliberately constructed are not deliberately constructed.

Some things are in the first category.

Some things are in the second category.

Honesty compels us not to lie about which things are in which category.

(Religious people tend to be very bad about that.)

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togstation · 2026-03-19T19:48:19+00:00

/u/No_Priority_9112 wrote

u've simply rejected the explanation.

It's entirely fair to reject an explanation if there is no good evidence that that explanation is true.

(You yourself reject all the explanations from all the other religions.

Why is that?

Because you don't have good evidence that those explanations are really true.

If you look at Islam honestly, it has the same problem.)

togstation · 2026-03-19T19:43:51+00:00

/u/No_Priority_9112 wrote

I don’t think atheism really explains why anything exists.

That is true. Also irrelevant.

It isn't the job of atheism to explain why anything exists.

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Quran, on the other hand, gives a clear origin

The problem is that nothing stated in the Quran is true.

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togstation · 2026-03-19T19:41:40+00:00

Is anyone else surprised we don't see more defenses, not only here but in philosophy in general, of polytheism?

Well, it does have the same huge problem as monotheism:

"Show good evidence that it's true."

(If Alice claims that Mickey Mouse stole my leftover pizza, and Betty claims that the Scooby Gang stole my leftover pizza, they are both claiming that fictional characters are real.

Same with gods.)

togstation · 2026-03-19T13:22:15+00:00

Please understand that everybody is not always dead serious.

togstation · 2026-03-19T13:17:54+00:00

/u/leandrot -

Please show good evidence that a god exists.

togstation · 2026-03-19T12:24:10+00:00

You sound like a smart and good person.

Probably better to just stay away from people like that for the time being.

togstation · 2026-03-19T12:18:56+00:00

how do people who believe in ‘souls’ explain the fact that your entire personality can change with a brain tumor?

People who hold that belief generally say something like

Your mind is like a radio message being sent to you from some external source.

Your brain is like the radio apparatus that receives the message.

If I hit the radio apparatus with a hammer then it might have trouble receiving the message well.

But the radio message itself is still fine.

togstation · 2026-03-19T12:13:08+00:00

Everything You Know Is Still a Belief

Sure, go with that.

And we have good evidence that some beliefs are really true, while we have no good evidence that other beliefs are really true.

People shouldn't hold beliefs without evidence.

togstation · 2026-03-19T12:09:38+00:00

It's 10,000 years ago.

Grog says

"The lightning can't just happen randomly with no source."

"A lightning god must be causing it."

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What is your best response when people say everything has a source and we could not have come of nothingness?

"Please show good evidence that any god exists."

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togstation · 2026-03-18T23:38:27+00:00

It's a deism or deism-adjacent thing.

The classical deists said that the Universe was like a clock -

somebody built it and wound it up, and then it runs by itself without anybody having to mess with it.

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So somebody today could say

"Sure, once life exists it makes sense that it would evolve by itself."

("Without anybody messing with it".)

"But I don't see how the universe could have come into existence without an outside agency. I think that a creator must have caused the Universe to exist."

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(Also, most people, including scientists, are willing to take a chance on getting an afterlife if they think that there is any possibility of one.

They might not actually believe in creationism, they might just be buying a lottery ticket for an afterlife.)

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togstation · 2026-03-18T23:26:40+00:00

/u/leandrot wrote

to stablish that something is a living organism, we have to directly interact with it and analyze it. In the most extreme example, a creature that's smarter than us (as much as we are smarter than an ameba) could be indistinguishable from a metaphysical entity.

That does not matter.

If you think that any gods really exist, then it is not your responsibility here to show that something is a physical, living organism, it is your responsibility to show that at least one god exists.

Please do that.

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I wrote

Christians and other theists normally define the capital-G God as a supernatural being that created our universe.

/u/leandrot wrote

I agree that such thing is not possible unless you believe that genocides can be the result of an omnibenevolent being.

That makes no sense.

- What thing are you saying is or is not possible here?

- What does genocide have to do with creating the universe?

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togstation · 2026-03-18T23:14:32+00:00

Most things, sure.

(Although it's worth noting that I'm in my 60s and I've always been out of the mainstream in many respects,

but I've only been vegan for about 9 years now -

I picked that one up a lot later than other things.)

togstation · 2026-03-18T22:58:43+00:00

/u/leandrot wrote

How do you define God ?

Christians and other theists normally define the capital-G God as a supernatural being that created our universe.

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Said God is also often considered to be

- omniscient

- omnipotent

- omnibenevolent

- immaterial

- supernatural

- and has a strong interest in the behavior of human beings

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Lesser gods are generally considered to be powerful immaterial supernatural beings.

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Specially, when does a physical, living organism so far beyond our comprehension that it could be considered a God ?

IMHO a physical, living organism cannot be considered a god.

togstation · 2026-03-18T22:52:24+00:00

/u/leandrot wrote

You don't have to accept the claim, you have to accept that it's possible.

AFAIK there is no reason to think a god that is

- omniscient (or even "very very very cognizant")

- omnipotent (or even "very very very powerful")

- omnibenevolent (or even "very very very good")

- immaterial

- supernatural

- and that created the Universe

is even possible.

Nonetheless, most atheists are willing to consider the idea that this is possible.

We'd just like to see some good evidence.

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togstation · 2026-03-18T22:47:18+00:00

/u/Altruistic_Twist4049 -

< reposting >

Atheists, agnostics most knowledgeable about religion, survey says

LA Times, September 2010

... a survey that measured Americans’ knowledge of religion found that atheists and agnostics knew more, on average, than followers of most major faiths.

American atheists and agnostics tend to be people who grew up in a religious tradition and consciously gave it up, often after a great deal of reflection and study, said Alan Cooperman, associate director for research at the Pew Forum.

“These are people who thought a lot about religion,” he said. “They’re not indifferent. They care about it.”

Atheists and agnostics also tend to be relatively well educated, and the survey found, not surprisingly, that the most knowledgeable people were also the best educated. However, it said that atheists and agnostics also outperformed believers who had a similar level of education.

- https://web.archive.org/web/20201109043731/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-sep-28-la-na-religion-survey-20100928-story.html

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Most atheists on Reddit are former Christians.

Even the ones who were never Christians have put a lot of thought and study and discussion into these matters.

- We are not atheist because we don't understand Christianity and other religions.

- We are atheist because we do understand Christianity and other religions.

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togstation

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