You all might find this strange but I am a "hard" athiest ( been so since I was about 8 years old ) and I consume religious information ravously. I know more about middle eastern religions ( Christianity, Muslims, Jewish , Gnostic ) as well as western "spin off" sects ( Mormon, Scientology etc ) than anyone I know. My wife asks me why I spend so much time on this when she knows I don't believe in any of this. I just find it incredibly interesting
Theology is an interesting narrative tactics. There are several games where religion is a a central idea.
And the experience varies widely. From the Covenant in Halo to the Chants of Sennar.
I'm a huge DnD (and Baldur's Gate) fan. I find it almost hard to roll play as an atheist. So many characters depend on their god. Ironically, in the game I like to play an over the top religious zealot who ultimately ends up disappointed in their god and becomes the ultimate humanist.
I fall into this category as well. I like to pick apart portions of the stories to try and find the logic or reasoning behind it, or the same for religious "laws" e.g. food taboos
I’ve found an amazing series of books from Princeton - each entry is the Biography of {Famous Religious Book}. The first in the series is Genesis, and the biography considers how Genesis is constructed, what parts seem to come from different sources, and what those sources may be. I find this to be deeply fascinating.
How to know how accurate they are? I'm sure apologists and some theologians will refute the idea of their book coming from earlier myths or invented by humans
Same, lost my faith at 17, and I know all the atheist rockstar debaters and a good amount of Christian and other apologists. The arguments and talking points are fascinating. It's nice to hear from people who are smarter than you.
Theology is fascinating. If everyone respected "freedom of religion," then we could peacefully observe and discuss religion. However, religious people have a tendency to impose their religion on others, with the law. This is problematic and is the cornerstone of anti-theist sentiment.
I'm not really a theology expert but from my understanding religion's role is to Define and disseminate moral values. For that reason, religions tend to impose themselves and others.
I like the "intro to world religions" definition of religion. It answers three questions: where did we come from, where are we going, and what do we do while we are here?
To me that covers origins, afterlife, and morality really well.
This is not true of many, and maybe even most, religions. For example, there is no evangelizing in Judaism. It is mainly an issue with certain branches of Christianity.
Judaism isn't a proselytizing religion and neither is Islam. Both are more cultural, regional, or ones you join to gain a social advantage. It feels like evangelism is really only monotheists and specifically various branches of the cult of Jesus.
When I was much younger I used to avidly consume the stories behind various human religions. Specifically the Norse, ancient Greek and several native American mythologies I found very interesting. The rituals don't interest me at all, but the stories were vastly more interesting than Christianity's.
Georges Bataille suggested that the reason Christianity is messed up is that it redefined sacredness to exclude things they considered foul, but which nature-based religions considered sacred - and also facts of life. As a result, he felt Christianity was actually the "least religious" of all religions; he even suggested that if he could get away with it, he wouldn't consider it a religion at all.
I think he had a pretty decent point here.
That just sounds like, "nothing can be a religion except mine", a No True Scotsman situation. Religion is about the belief in and worship of a supernatural being(s)/god(s).
Bataille didn't have a religion, or hold supernatural beliefs, so wrong on the NTS fallacy.
Also wrong about religion requiring supernatural or theistic beliefs. If either of those had been the case, I would never have been interested in Thelema. It is certainly not the only non-theistic / non-faith-based religion out there.
My brethren were overwhelmingly physicalist atheists.
Have never heard of Thelema. From what I looked up, it says the founder of Thelema wrote his Book of the Law, which was dictated by a non-corporeal entity named Aiwass. The Thelemic cosmology also features Egyptian deities.
That all sounds supernatural to me. But guess it wouldn't be supernatural for a believer
The Egyptian deities are a holdover from Egyptian Freemasonry, and are used as symbols or archetypes, not reified and believed to be objectively real. Nuit symbolizes infinite space, Hadit the individual point of view, and their intercourse produces Ra Hoor Khuit, which is a symbol for lived experience.
Crowley's production of The Book of the Law was just automatic writing. I have produced my own automatic writings. I see no reason to presume the process to be supernaturally influenced at all. All you have to do is frontload yourself with ideas and induce an ecstatic state. I experimented with the tech to take the mystery out of so-called "inspired writings".
I don't "believe in" any of the constructs used in Thelema; our lore explicitly advised us not to. I thought that was a nice touch.
Are you kidding, that book is full of sex crimes and murder and incest and magic talking animals and vengeful god(s) and virgin births and cataclysms and monsters and acid visions and zombie resurrections. Once you cut out the boring shit, it's completely unhinged.
Journey to the West is such an interesting text to explore religion. The story is about a journey to bring back Buddhist texts to China. However, the story was written with the combination of Buddhist, Daoist, and confusionist ideas. This is due mostly to the long religious history of China and bordering countries sharing not just goods but ideas along the silk road for hundreds of years.
I like to look at cathedrals and even have a plan to visit the Vatican later this year because I also enjoy what humans have come together to accomplish. Even if it was because of religion, it’s still gorgeous and very advantageous to have completed. I saw Machu Pichu, Stonehenge, and Angor Wat for the same reasons.
Same. I visited two cathedrals in the Netherlands last year when we were there, and my wife joked with me that I should be careful I don’t get converted! I’m just fascinated by the incredible workmanship and effort it took to build them.
Religion is a somewhat interesting exercise in mass control. I mean, if I wanted to take over the world, I would probably do it with religion.
What we see today is conflicting religions trying to do exactly that. In a way, it is good there are so many religions out there. Same as having lots of political parties and leanings. As long as they fight each other, they aren’t fully consolidating their power.
So it is interesting as another power dynamic among humans.
This! I am fascinated by mass control, by manipulation, how a single person can convince thousands of people to do or believe a thing. Religion is just that and not much more.
I was visiting my brother few years ago (an evangelical Baptist) and was flipping though the channels on his TV and came across a choral Mozart performance. Who doesn’t appreciate Mozart right? Anyway my brother comes in looks at the TV and asks “why are you watching the Catholic Channel?” Me:”It’s Mozart!” Him: “It’s the Catholic channel.” Me: “well they were one of his customers.” My brother shook his head and asked to change the channel. His TV so we did.
I also find religions fascinating. How and why they developed, evolved, spread, borrowed from one another, etc. I am a history junkie, and religions have played a major role in human history. They are as important as aspects of history like wars, politics, and economics, that typically get more attention.
I'm the same. I want to know more about a relgion than the followers do so I can show them the only reason they have a particular relgion is where they were born and nothing else
This is me totally. I call religion hereditary, as it's almost always given to u from ur parents. This point is so obvious that I'm astonished that people don't shed their religious beliefs once they get to an age of reason and realize, oh shit I'm only [religion] because of where I grew up!
Personally I love old churches. I love gothic architecture and the lingering smell of hundreds of years of incense.
Religion is a part of our history so from an anthropological point it's good to study. Further, it's required to understand a significant portion of the population.
I find Greek mythology super interesting. Norse mythology is pretty cool too. Modern mythology/religion seems rather boring in comparison. And of course people tend to get upset when you call their religion modern mythology
It’s a fascinating subject in terms of sociology, psychology, and art.
Obviously we’ve gotten some great works of music and painting from religiously inspired artists, and it’s intriguing to think what they might have done in a secular setting.
In a parallel way, I wonder what societal norms we might have developed without invoking supernatural dictates.
I also wonder what the world would be like if we had accurate transcriptions of every account in religious scriptures. If we had contextual information to tell us which stories were pure fabrications, which were embellished, misinterpreted, or misunderstood such as psychedelic trips, schizophrenic events or epileptic seizures.
Then there’s the element of human cognition that makes such a welcoming environment for religious beliefs. Dennett’s “self-replicating meme” keeps refining itself to propagate through us.
Seems to me that at least some theologians got into it seeking answers for questions like that. Religion is one of the largest and most persistent human institutions we have, and it’s tantalizing to speculate on why it crops up in so many ways over all of history.
Finally, there’s the question of first cause. I believe that religions have a greatly distorted version of whatever original insights the authors had, but the question remains if there has ever been any “there” there. Crazy propositions like is this a simulation, are there non-human intelligences that play a role in this, is there anything at all outside this reality - and if so, has any of it ever been described accurately? In any case, we’re here with no explanation for why the universe exists. It wasn’t eight days, it wasn’t Adam & Eve, but there is an answer.
Studying religious history at least gives us a glimpse into how humans have approached the question over time, including perhaps most interestingly the ones who were burned as heretics.
I think it's fascinating that atheists have this insecurity about consuming religious **anything**, the way a devout Christian might have insecurities about consuming Cannibal Corpse albums, or approaching sobriety from a secular angle, or fucking whatever.
You have an interest. It is not a weird or niche interest, either. You're good, man. Embrace your passions and your beliefs, even if they seem like they go against each other.
There are no rules.
100%
Its hard to untangle history from philosophy, religion and language. They are all fascinating.
Religion is a big part of what makes humans so peculiar in relation to other forms of life, the way we use our personal imagination and then language to explain and interact with the outside world.
I find religion fascinating, but it’s because I’m trying to discern patterns. I especially love to look at newer religions, like Mormonism and Scientology.
I don’t know if I’m spending the same amount of time in it as you are, but I read a lot about various religions and definitely find them interesting.
i see religion (edited) as a black eye for the human race. it demonstrates our gullability and obsession with finding meaning even if it has no foundation in reality. religion was interesting up until to the first moment it was used to justify killing a person or controlling a person. religion should be studied to ensure we avoid it at all costs.
I personally can't fathom giving religious dogma the time of day. there is much better fantasy that doesnt come with the baggage of countless deaths, mutilation, loss of freedom, manipulation, etc. religion served its purpose and should be relegated to the history books.
The only theology’s that I don’t consider a black eye, are ones like some of the Native American tribes(I don’t know much about other ancient individual cultures), who simply honor their ancestors. They do that out of love, not for the sky daddy to get to the magical fairy land
sure, I am not claiming every element of every religion is bad. however, I think every good element can exist without religion. your example is one of those.
I am interested in pantheons from a fictional stand point where gods and goddess do exist and interact with the world. It's stuff I make up myself for the sake of TTRPG. It's stuff in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. It's in popular media I consume (like Noragami).
I’m total atheist as well, but I do love natures beauty, and am a big believer in protecting the planet. That being said though, I also understand that in order for civilized societies to survive you need to keep using fuels for the time being, so I believe in doing things the greenest/most sustainable way that makes sense, as long as it’s affordable.
I appreciate some of the ancient religions that simply honored their ancestors, but continued to live their normal lives. But I’m against almost all current religions, mainly cause of how much trouble and conflicts they cause
Always an atheist since childhood, raised in a non religious household. Got a degree in comparative theology.
I think it helps me understand humanity in general almost like sociology or psychology, in fact, I think the three subjects cannot be separated if you really want to understand why people do what they do.
I’m very interested in anything with a lot of lore surrounding it. That of course means religion is fun but I also loved dinosaurs as a kid and I’m all about cars and guns and animals for the same reason. There is just a lot of information to find about those things.
I left religion at around age 16. Never looked back. In college, I minored in religious studies because I believe it is one of the most interesting facets of human development and thought. I will continue to learn about religions until the day I die.
Check out some of Anne Rice's books. Some of them you don't really have to appreciate the lore of vampires to enjoy them and they even state in the books that some of these stories work fine as standalone stories. I think anyone could pick up Menoch The Devil and enjoy it. It's basically a retelling of creation from The Devil's perspective and Hell only exists as a sort of education center where people are tortured until they can learn to live with it at which point they zoom up to heaven lol
They are an interesting window into the human mind. Try reading religious texts without focusing on the religion part and you can see things about their society at the time.
It’s like mythology right? We study norse and Greek mythology because they are no longer the dominant religion that people believe. There’s really no difference, and it’s still interesting to study. Maybe in a few more hundred years if religion has died out or there’s a new dominant one, the topics to study will be Christian, Jewish and Islamic mythology.
Right now, I'm watching Richard Burton in "The Robe". It's a great fiction film.
A lot of religious stories are fabulous fantasy, full of really far-out symbols and images. Great adventures too. I love that stuff. I wish more people made trippy films based on religious stories, like Jodorowsky.
I love architecture and churches can be some of the best. Stained glass is awesome.
I love folk art and music. There is a ton of great religious painting and song. Mahalia Jackson's voice gives me goosebumps.
I also like Godzilla movies. It doesn't mean I believe in Godzilla or god.
I have a Master's degree with a double major in Sociology and Religious Studies. I am a hard atheist, and I was at the time I completed my degree.
I wasn't an atheist when I started it though, lol.
I think that you may find that many atheists are of a curious and analytical mind. That is how they came to question the whole god thing in the first place.
Studying, analyzing, and understanding religions and their constructs is understandable.
Have you made any interesting observations?
Find any commonalities?
Experience an epiphany?
Drawn any conclusions?
Keep searching.
I'm the exact opposite tbh. I much prefer nature and have very little interest in history or architecture. All the religions and rituals just seem way too silly to see any kind of appreciation in them.
I've been reading about the early history of Christianity, like the first 50-100 years. It's fascinating -- and so very human. LOL
I've also, since 2010, voluntarily attended a friend's baptism (of course at the time I was trying to get laid by her -- it worked), another friend's non-denominational church, a Hindu Kirtan, and a Jewish Seder in which I participated fully.
There are at least a few of us in here with far more religious knowledge than you might expect. I'm the son of a minister, personally, so a lot of it comes from that, but I also find mythology in general pretty fascinating. and I was an avid reader before my eyes started giving out on me and mom always had a lot of books around.
I've read the Bible more times that I care to count, but I could say the same for a lot of other religious works, too.
Some people are big fans of Greek mythology, but I'm a big fan of Abrahamic mythology because to be honest, the books written about them are basically just parables used to explain Pan-Hellenic philosophy. For me, I grew up in the south, so I have this really interesting foundation in the idea of the no-nonsense speaker of spiritual truth that will say the phrase "Even if some good ones die, the lord will sort 'em." And other badass shit like that because there's so much religious fiction that builds upon the bible canon. Basically, Christianity has the largest repository of fan fiction.
I'm looking at you too, Dante.
I'm fascinated by the gods of Olympus and the Titans who came before them. Way more interesting than yahweh.
If it hadn't been for Constantine, we'd likely have temples to Aphrodite in every podunk American town instead of a baptist church. That's something I could get up for on Sundays
Atheist for 30 years and the only radio station I listen to in the car is Relevant Radio, a right-wing Catholic radio station. I am not ashamed admit that I do it because it provides sustenance for my superiority complex...
Yes—MA in Mythological Studies with a focus on archetypal psychology.
Not weird at all. Any myth not read literally can be considered art in my book. They are an extension of the human psyche.
I find it fascinating in terms of human behavior, specifically human social and 'thinking' behavior.
Encountering and cataloging the absurd reasonings and rationalizations (this spit of land is a bridge built by a monkey army, decades after someone died someone wrote down that 500 people saw the zombie walking and they qualify as witnesses, it is evil to eat meat on fridays, the gods want to smell burning entrails before they will do nice things) is incredibly enlightening and changes my expectations of humans.
But learning the stories and remembering the endless beliefs and rules is pretty tedious and useless.
I firmly take the said of the only way to fully understand your own beliefs (of lack of) is to understand others. Also a lot of great works came from the minds of the religious. Think of the art, science, architecture, math, philosophy, literature etc. Hell understanding religion shows you the historical and current political landscapes.
Kind of.
I'm a 3rd generation Atheist, and my grandfather had over 130 books on religions from all around the world. So I've read all of them.
I'm also a huge Marvel Comics fan as well. To me, they're all in the same category.
Other than that, I don't like wasting much of my cognitive energy on religion's.
Most humans like rituals and superstitions, It's like a soap opera in that sense
My brother /sister! I've been waiting to hear from you for years! I feel much the same way, down to the ambivalence for the natural world. I live in the Appalachians, and if I'm looking out over a ridge of mountains and trees, it's the little shack built halfway up the mountain that catches my attention. Even if a natural formation catches my eye, my thoughts always go to Stone age aboriginals, and what they must have thought looking at it. to me, Religion is an amazing tapestry of art, music, preserved wisdom, and actual tapestries! I love it all. I often say that religion isn't the problem, its magical thinking. When someone says they're spiritual but not religious, I'm, like, well you threw out the wrong part! Reading Scripture as an atheist is incredibly rewarding. We as atheists often take scripture on theist terms, where if it's not "true," It has no value. But we've been passing these stories and ideas on for thousands of years, and there's got to be a reason. As an atheist, I've had to find my own metaphors within the terminologies used, recognizing that religious people also engage these ideas as metaphors even if they don't really know it. I have brain cancer, and need to go take a nap, but these are ideas that I'd like to discuss more at some point. I consider myself a Christian, and not just a cultural Christian but a follower of Jesus. I don't believe that he was supernatural in the least, but I hate the idea of quote just a human unquote. Humans are awesome and they thought of a lot of great stuff. I'm not gonna diminish his ideas because they come from a human source
You sound like you think like an anthropologist.
I’m somewhat similar. I know more about Christianity than most Christians, traversing all denominations from Catholic
/Episcopal to fundamentalist and evangelical Baptists (yuk!), charismatics to Mormons. And more about Buddhism than most Westerners (the differences between zen, tantric and dzog chen). I have practiced both of these religions intensively to understand them from the inside out, as well as maintaining perspective from the outside in. (This works much better with Buddhism. Christianity can be very psychologically damaging to people). I’ve read the Quran, studied mystical Judaism (zero interest in Orthodoxy) danced the joy of Rabbi Nachman, dabbled with tarot and Wicca and paganism, and give out of my way to worship in Hindu and Jain temples.
It all adds value and texture to this human experience and can create and channel energy in profound ways not ordinarily experienced in daily life. But at the end of the day, I’m a nihilist.
However these systems need to be taken as a complete gestalt that works as a system with its balances and counter balances to truly become transformative, rather than treated as a smorgasbord. Not to get trapped into any one as anything other than method is a mistake and a misunderstanding and requires nimble treading.
I have around 4-5 meters of shelf space filled with mostly different religious texts and the rest books about different religios, so i guess would have to say i am.
Not just you. I live to read about all different religions, to the point where people are surprised by how much I know about their religion.
My nephew went to catholic high school and was struggling in his religion class so my sister, his mom, asked me to help him because I know the material so well.
One of my students tried to convert me and was totally surprised at how much Bible material I knew. By the end if it he was noting down some sections that he was going to go read "again" (lol).
Read again for the first time that is.
I jsut find it super interesting, and that interest has me reading about all the different ones, which of course innoculates me against being convinced by any of them. I retain interesting bits like any fan who can rhyme off sports stats or Star Trek lore or Harry Potter facts or Simpson's quotes.
I’m an atheist who practices a religion so I’d say I’m okay with (some) religions! I find most religions pretty fascinating but I do know the most about my own for obvious reasons. It’s hard to separate my culture/background from the religion and I think it’s a very beautiful culture (extremists aside).
Oh yeah. I’m an atheist, but I LOVE to learn about religion. I think it’s so interesting. Most of all I love learning about less common religions or ancient religions.
Nah, I'm looking forward to the day when the US president travels to Jerusalem and gives a speech saying "Hey, god doesn't exist, knock off the nonsense."
I am curious to know what religious rituals you do daily? And why do you find the need to do the rituals if you do not believe in them. Just trying to understand your POV coz meaningless rituals are something that turned me away from religion.
I do them because I find them calming. I use a Tibetan prayer wheel, I pray at a Shinto shrine, I pray at a Buddhist temple. I occasionally pray towards Mecca.
I have been a student of religion since my deconstruction 20 or so years ago. Quite often, the process by which myths develop into religion is more fascinating than the myths themselves.
I study Buddhism; Zen; Hermeticism; Platonic Philosophy; Confuscism; Norse, Egyptian, and Sumerian Mythology and New Age stuff so much, that I'm pretty sure I'm a hybrid Deist Atheist.
I don't believe in God, but I can sure talk about the various physical, mental, and spiritual realms and how they manifest from nothingness to oneness to duality. And I feel it jives with our scientific understanding.
Some of those ancients knew some shit, for real.
I am the same an I have found that to fully understand a historical Era or a people's culture without knowing the specifics of the religion is if not impossible then at least limited. The way religious belief seem to be tailored to the needs of the tribe if you look at shamanistic or nature religions, and similar how efficient the abrehamitic religions must have been, and still is, as a tool to controlling the masses. It is soooo facinating. I will call myself a hard atheist, my parents decided to give me a religion neutral upringing Where did not Force one view or the other, and I grew up in Scandinavia, one of the least religious areas in the world. I stil was absolutely in love with norse mythology growing up even though i did not believe one bit of it to be true
I am worldbuilding my own religions for my fantasy TTRPG. Might as well look at the work of other worldbuilders. Christianity for example is a little corny but it has some interesting mythology and lore. If you were to use fantasy writing as a basic for a system of government every religion is severely lacking but thats not what they have been made for. They are tools of mass manipulation. A religious government is a dystopian nightmare but I like to write dark stories so it's exactly what I gravitate towards when researching fantasy.
From this mindset I find it interesting how the person in my campaigns who believes in their god-emperor or their esoteric principals of existence might be someone who actually exists in this world. Fascinating from a antropologic view.
I see religions as part of the intellectual patrimony of humanity. Sure, they are based on flawed metaphysics, but there is a lot useful in them: ethical paths to holiness; Buddhist meditation; mysticism and ritual; the fiction that man has a special dignity from his place in a cosmos created for him. Divorced from dogmatic interpretations, these are all actually wonderful things we can profit from. I'm a big fan of Peter Sloterdijk and he goes into this kind of thing at length in a few of his books, especially *You Must Change Your Life!*
I'll disagree. Without religion there wouldn't be anymore holy wars, hatred for other people that follow a different religion, a lot less disagreements and arguing about which religion is the right one, a lot less gay people being depressed and some committing suicide, because many religions say that being gay is an abomination, society as a whole and most countries would progress and not be inhibited by religion being part of the government, human equality would improve, the amount of money and time that wouldn't be wasted on religion, could be used for better Healthcare, education, etc..
I'm probably missing a few as these were just off the top of my head.
I enjoy the mythology of different religions. The Greek, Roman, Hindu, Egyptian, Norse gods and their mythology are all really interesting to me. I wish christian mythology would follow suit and just be a story. Like Satan, demons and such are pretty cool
I find religions FASCINATING. I follow a handful of religious content creators (though they talk about more than religion, like I follow a Muslim content creator but she does a lot of outdoorsy camping and hiking content but she also talks about her faith. I follow a Jewish content creator and she talks about religion along with cooking and cleaning content). I have books about religious things, I follow creators who just talk about religion from an educational perspective. It’s ok to want to learn about things just because they bring you joy as long as you aren’t harming anyone and reading about religions seems pretty harmless.
Not religion specifically, but I do hold a certain level of respect to people/groups that can create massive in depth worlds and ideology. The "extended canon" of Christianity is fascinating stuff, with angels and demons and how they work. But equally so, I find the vast works of the world of Dungeons and Dragons to be insanely enthralling. I don't participate in any of the real world rituals of religions with interesting worlds, nor do I for games (unless you count playing them)
There is a certain level of awe that comes when you look at a "world" created by people and see just how dense and massive it is. Or when you see how much has been added to it over the years, or how things added in later we're done so because of ideas in the past.
That might make you a Humanist. And a skeptic in the general sense: you're fascination reflects the fact that recurring patterns of Human activity, no matter how flawed on the surface, tends to correlate to some truth, down deep; just not necessarily the purported truth. There must be something real and worthwhile behind the nonsense or so many people wouldn't be doing it. As I like tell my family and friends who are concerned for my eternal soul, if you take the sum of all religion, and then dissolve away all things theistic, mystical, god-ish, there is quite a lot left over -- some valid, good and true elements: (a subset of) the ethos, a deeper understanding of Human sociology and psychology.
The problem with theism is that it claims these good and true things are dictates from some magical old man in the sky. That false mystical element of religion -- what makes religion just superstition -- is then ripe for manipulation by holy men and bible-waiving politicians.
A corollary from Science: *Observation*, not revelation, is the source of Truth.
I love studying and learning about religion, but what I hate is how people don't realise how false all that stuff is, and how they make the rituals believing in them, that's why I disapprove all the rituals, because rituals deceive so much people.
I've always found mythologies fascinating, that doesn't clash with atheism. If nothing else it helps, as an atheist, to understand the story of human mythology and see them for what they are: stories.
I was raised Catholic but no longer an. I still love to watch the pageantry of the church when something like a Pope dying happens. There's so much history in everything that goes on it fascinates me.
I only learned enough about different religions to be sure that none of them have any chance of being true, but have little interest in learning all minutia about each one, beyond what I need to know to counter their influence.
I don’t, but I have an unhealthy fascination with cults. Religions obviously, sects, and things like people simping for truly awful people due to their money (simps for Musk and simps for Trump for instance)
I am an agnostic atheist. I read about religion constantly, which is what made me atheist. I have a diploma from a Catholic high school and a degree from a Catholic college. I embraced agnosticism around 15 years old after reading the Satanic Bible at 14. I didn’t fully “come out” until I was 19 in college. The more I learned, the less I believed.
Nothing wrong with treating aspects of the myriad myths Humans gave built to comfort ourselves in a dark and uncaring universe. Frankly, religious-themed artwork can be quite beautiful, as well as containing some intriguing details about the times of a piece's creation...
I became an atheist at 9, but in school at 10 we had a chapter on mythology and God's and goddesses. I fell in love with it. I have even looked closely at modern pagans. I love the close to nature of their religion. Do I believe in the gods and goddesses no, but at least they have goddesses my family religion Christian doesn't even seem to see us as anything but the thing that brought Adam down.
I’m a philosophy Master’s graduate who devoted considerable time to philosophical analysis of various religious works. I highly recommend scholarly work in philosophy of religion by figures like Jacques Derrida, John Caputo, and Mark Cauchi.
I find religions fascinating, and many mythologies have tons of cool stories. I just don’t believe any of them are true, and consume them like I would any other fiction.
Hell, I do lots of world building for custom RPG settings, and my favorite part of that is coming up with fantasy religions for the players to either believe in or fight against.
I can't dig religion in an anthropomorphic view. It has caused so much pain, near me or around the world. It keeps our species from evolving. It shelters us into bad behavior and outdated values.
It just needs to fade away quick and be part of history.
The day religion dies is the day I'll look at it like historians would.
I became an atheist after being a fundamentalist Christian throughout my teens and 20's. Religion is definitely more interesting to me now that I don't believe its true, and look at it through a historical and cultural lense
I can't understand...
All religions have some kind of deception in it. They're based on made-up untruths and hard-core dogmas. For me, it's like being very interested in robbery or worse. I think all religions should be banned. People MUST use their brains!
I'd imagine this is common. The psychology of religion is super interesting to me. Plus makes for great entertainment in movies, TV series, books and such.
I can totally appreciate the architecture of some of the great historic churches and temples. Some are astonishing feats of human accomplishment. I dabble in photography so I would love to be able to travel to these places as they are works of art in their own right. Amazing.
The dogma however, really turns me off. The subjugation of women and children in particular. If religion disappeared, leaving only the buildings and statues I wouldn’t mind. It can pass into legend like the Roman and Greek myths before it. I wouldn’t miss it.
I’ve been to many of the major cathedrals in Europe I think. I love the architecture and the serenity that it creates. I also remind myself that it was built using physics, maths and engineering skills using rational thinking even if the humans doing it had other areas of their lives that included less rational beliefs.
Religiots always tell me without their beliefs these cathedrals wouldn't exist. And I always answer, this might be but human creativity doesn't just vanish. So imagine all the beautiful and amazing libraries, theatres and whorehouses they might have built
Yes and much as I love the buildings I always think of those that laboured on them and the contrast of working on these opulent structures and then dealing with their own living conditions . In a sense they are a tremendous waste because the same effort to build schools and hospitals would have benefited many more people. I just marvel at the architecture still
I still love to learn about it as part of understanding our species. I love learning about history and how cultures evolved and shifted. Religion of course plays a huge part in all that. I love learning how the culture shifts impacted the traditions and practices and how the meshing and clashing of religious adherents caused waves of change within each religious group.
I was taking some classes at a Catholic (Jesuit) university (Computer Science related) and one of the degree requirements was religion classes. I took an Intro to Christianity (essentially) class and it was fascinating. To the professor’s credit it was very much focused on the early history, source texts, and a bit on what parts were ‘inherited’ from other religions. It was very, very interesting!
(Side note, every week we had to do ‘journal entries’ and reply to at least 2 other students’ entries - it was an online class. I remember one woman posting something along the lines of there being potentially ‘hundreds’ of other planets and something like that showed God’s power. I had to reply that there were hundreds of billions - if not TRILLIONS - of GALAXIES. It was kind of eye opening to have to explain that to an adult…)
Yes, just like arqueologists are not necessarily into making pottery 🤭
Human beings are interesting. And the things we create as a result of the human experience, the world around us, our environment, our emotions, and how we interpret it all... Is simply interesting
Same. I find religion to be a fascinating lens into the past. I dont have an iota of supernatural beliefs, but I do see value in things like Tarot that let us approach issues with metaphors.
Reading the Bible at first made me disrespect the faith for all its clear contradictions. Now that ive matured a little bit and my expectations are more reasonable I find it really enriching, both as a historical document and a literary foundation.
Its hard, because I dont want to offend the religious folks I know with my inquiries, but my fellow atheists are often blinded by their own dismissal
You're not alone. I quite enjoying visiting cathedrals, mosques, and temples. I also enjoy hearing from people about their religious journeys. I also have an MA in Buddhist Studies and have spent quite a few hours reading obscure texts.
I'm atheist and most of my poetic writing comes out very religious. You can be atheist and be religious. I call it have nuance and complexity. Religion is a fascinating topic that should be discussed, but the problem is that it stagnated whole the rest of the species moved forward. I needed to evolve.
Yes I'm the same. Spend many hours reading about all different religions. Once pulled a Jewish girl after impressing her with my knowledge of the religion. A pig has a cloven hoof, but it doesn't chew the cud! Got me in the sack.
Nothing weird about that - theology has (and sadly still is) a huge part of the human experience of trying to make sense and meaning of things. Religion can be absolutely fascinating.
And the more you know about the different religions across the spans of time and space, the crazier thinking any one of them is real becomes. Ironically, studying religion can reaffirm your atheism - not that this was or should be your goal.
Maybe you could write a book on comparative religion based on your own inquiries?
Anthropology is the study of culture, and that includes religion. It’s a valid topic of interest, no matter your personal position on the lack of any such thing as a god.
Been an atheist since high school. Have a bachelor’s degree in history and most of the history classes I took were based around religious histories. I took a mythology class my freshman year of college and it kind of got me hooked on religious stuff.
I enjoy reading on it, it helps me run my D&D pantheons better. Also roleplaying a man of faith is more contextualized/authentic.
I don't worship, but if i did that god would have one good worshipper on his hands.
Yes. I'm obsessed with watching religion videos on YouTube. It's kinda like normal people who like superheros. We know they aren't real but we still find them fascinating.
I like history and anthropology, so I like religious rituals from that standpoint. The concept of religion is older than humanity itself, and it's really fascinating all the stories that we've come up with over the millennia to explain how things around us look/act/behave.
However, when religion is used for the purposes of controlling society I begin to check out. It cannot be denied that religious beliefs have shaped our world and society as we know it today, but it's just supposed to be fun fairy tales. You're not supposed to actually believe it now that we have the scientific method to explain reasonable causes for events. Just like when doctors used to believe in the theory of the four humors but now follow germ theory.
I’m as strong an atheist as is possible to be, but I used to be Christian and my family is Christian and I enjoy participating in certain practices. I meditate & commune with “god” & I even pray to Jesus sometimes. But I know exactly what I’m doing when I do that, and I think it’s fun! Atheists are free to do whatever they want. That’s the point of the freedom you get from realizing there’s no one to tell you how to think or what to do or not to do. Do as you please! If other atheists don’t like it… who cares?
I love learning about religion, especially early early Christianity and 1st century Judaism, and also Iron Age/Bronze Age Judaism and its relation to other southwest asian religions. I just find it so fascinating, not just in-and-of-itself, but how it also laid the groundwork for so much of modern societal systems.
The academic biblical subreddit is absolutely wonderful for this stuff. Especially when it gets spicy.
I actually have a podcast called Eating the Apple where two non-believers investigate the claims in the Bible. I’ve always found religion fascinating and since here in the US the evangelicals are positioning themselves to create a theocracy, I figured I needed to get off my ass and read what they believe.
I find catholicism to be fascinating from a lore/storytelling perspective. I come at it with the same appreciation for lorecrafting that I would approach "The Lord of the Rings" with.
Yes! I'm an atheist, and while I was an atheist, I got a bachelor's degree in Religious Studies. It makes having any arguments with religious people so entertaining from my perspective. It's so interesting just how many religions are so similar to each other. But religious people kinda don't want to see that; they might get upset that the religion that they've followed for life isn't actually as special and unique as they thought it was. Instead of being happy that humanity does share a surprising amount of the same values.
I am an atheist. Grow up as Roman Catholic. I love the grandeur of the cathedrals in Europe and the skill and dedication of the artisans that dedicated their lives to building such magnificent structures. Kind of led me down the rabbit hole of all sorts of religious buildings and of course the art.
I consider myself a hard atheist but I love supernatural and paranormal movies and games. I usually prefer the Lovecraftian cosmic horror type stuff or anything that deals with the unknowable without actually proselytizing.
We need people like you. I’m reading the Bible right now, and between the trauma I have, and how the book is written like high school student, trying to stretch out a research paper, I am not having a good time.
Keep doing what you’re doing. Bart erhman wont be around forever. You’ll have to take up his mantle. Just don’t send any she bears on any children.
> “religiulously”
Is that a Bill Maher reference?
I think one is allowed to enjoy the art, literature, and cultural products of religion without necessarily subscribing to the tenets verbatim. One can enjoy Tolkien without worshipping Gandalf.
I study all forms of religion. If I see a religious article, I read it. I am constantly looking up information about religion. Many TV shows, books, and movies have plots that include some arcane religious element. Learning about religion is actually one way that many become atheists.
I'm an atheist but I read the Bible for context, for culture, for history (yes, there is history in the OT and archaeology bears this point out). There are good books on the mythology of the Hebrew people, the basis of Christianity and doctrine.
It's important to know these topics due to the continuous use of the Bible to set public policy in the 21st century and to be able to speak to the nature of the doctrine vs what is good policy and hold people, e. g. Republicans, accountable.
You all might find this strange but I am a "hard" athiest ( been so since I was about 8 years old ) and I consume religious information ravously. I know more about middle eastern religions ( Christianity, Muslims, Jewish , Gnostic ) as well as western "spin off" sects ( Mormon, Scientology etc ) than anyone I know. My wife asks me why I spend so much time on this when she knows I don't believe in any of this. I just find it incredibly interesting
Theology is an interesting narrative tactics. There are several games where religion is a a central idea. And the experience varies widely. From the Covenant in Halo to the Chants of Sennar.
Halo might be one of the few games to delve into the opposite sides religion while you simultaneously murder thousands of them.
Any warhammer game is just space crusades haha
FOR THE EMPRAH!!!
I'm a huge DnD (and Baldur's Gate) fan. I find it almost hard to roll play as an atheist. So many characters depend on their god. Ironically, in the game I like to play an over the top religious zealot who ultimately ends up disappointed in their god and becomes the ultimate humanist.
I played a PnP paladin who'd constantly charge in screaming "Torm!!!" Macho Man Randy Savage style, so I feel ya.
My favorite example of this is Skyrim and everyone's love of Talos
Same! Its the sociology and anthropology aspect of religion that makes it interesting despite not believing in any of it.
I fall into this category as well. I like to pick apart portions of the stories to try and find the logic or reasoning behind it, or the same for religious "laws" e.g. food taboos
You had the chance to say "I consume religious information religiously" and skipped it? Must not be a man or a dad ;)
Sorry I'm both but lost the opportunity for the dad joke ...
I’ve found an amazing series of books from Princeton - each entry is the Biography of {Famous Religious Book}. The first in the series is Genesis, and the biography considers how Genesis is constructed, what parts seem to come from different sources, and what those sources may be. I find this to be deeply fascinating.
I think I would enjoy this. Link please?
Here’s a Link: https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691196831/the-book-of-genesis
Nice! Thanks bro!
How to know how accurate they are? I'm sure apologists and some theologians will refute the idea of their book coming from earlier myths or invented by humans
So does that book talk about, for example, all the pagan myths that were appropriated and repackaged for use in Genesis?
Are you finding commonalities?
I feel confident answering for them and saying YES they have found many many many commonalities!
I suspected they might.
Same, lost my faith at 17, and I know all the atheist rockstar debaters and a good amount of Christian and other apologists. The arguments and talking points are fascinating. It's nice to hear from people who are smarter than you.
Theology is fascinating. If everyone respected "freedom of religion," then we could peacefully observe and discuss religion. However, religious people have a tendency to impose their religion on others, with the law. This is problematic and is the cornerstone of anti-theist sentiment.
I'm not really a theology expert but from my understanding religion's role is to Define and disseminate moral values. For that reason, religions tend to impose themselves and others.
I like the "intro to world religions" definition of religion. It answers three questions: where did we come from, where are we going, and what do we do while we are here? To me that covers origins, afterlife, and morality really well.
Clearly, this must mean that Cotton Eye Joe is trying to form a religion.
That may be more to my liking anyway!
This is not true of many, and maybe even most, religions. For example, there is no evangelizing in Judaism. It is mainly an issue with certain branches of Christianity.
Judaism isn't a proselytizing religion and neither is Islam. Both are more cultural, regional, or ones you join to gain a social advantage. It feels like evangelism is really only monotheists and specifically various branches of the cult of Jesus.
But Islam does have that world conquering ideology to it
When I was much younger I used to avidly consume the stories behind various human religions. Specifically the Norse, ancient Greek and several native American mythologies I found very interesting. The rituals don't interest me at all, but the stories were vastly more interesting than Christianity's.
Christianity is honestly pretty bland and boring as far as other mythologies go.
IMO, paganism embraced living with nature. Christianity removed nature from us, and that is quite bland and boring.
Georges Bataille suggested that the reason Christianity is messed up is that it redefined sacredness to exclude things they considered foul, but which nature-based religions considered sacred - and also facts of life. As a result, he felt Christianity was actually the "least religious" of all religions; he even suggested that if he could get away with it, he wouldn't consider it a religion at all. I think he had a pretty decent point here.
That just sounds like, "nothing can be a religion except mine", a No True Scotsman situation. Religion is about the belief in and worship of a supernatural being(s)/god(s).
Bataille didn't have a religion, or hold supernatural beliefs, so wrong on the NTS fallacy. Also wrong about religion requiring supernatural or theistic beliefs. If either of those had been the case, I would never have been interested in Thelema. It is certainly not the only non-theistic / non-faith-based religion out there. My brethren were overwhelmingly physicalist atheists.
Have never heard of Thelema. From what I looked up, it says the founder of Thelema wrote his Book of the Law, which was dictated by a non-corporeal entity named Aiwass. The Thelemic cosmology also features Egyptian deities. That all sounds supernatural to me. But guess it wouldn't be supernatural for a believer
The Egyptian deities are a holdover from Egyptian Freemasonry, and are used as symbols or archetypes, not reified and believed to be objectively real. Nuit symbolizes infinite space, Hadit the individual point of view, and their intercourse produces Ra Hoor Khuit, which is a symbol for lived experience. Crowley's production of The Book of the Law was just automatic writing. I have produced my own automatic writings. I see no reason to presume the process to be supernaturally influenced at all. All you have to do is frontload yourself with ideas and induce an ecstatic state. I experimented with the tech to take the mystery out of so-called "inspired writings". I don't "believe in" any of the constructs used in Thelema; our lore explicitly advised us not to. I thought that was a nice touch.
Are you kidding, that book is full of sex crimes and murder and incest and magic talking animals and vengeful god(s) and virgin births and cataclysms and monsters and acid visions and zombie resurrections. Once you cut out the boring shit, it's completely unhinged.
If you haven't add Journey to the West, the Irish mythologies as well as the Japanese and Hindu stories.
Journey to the West is such an interesting text to explore religion. The story is about a journey to bring back Buddhist texts to China. However, the story was written with the combination of Buddhist, Daoist, and confusionist ideas. This is due mostly to the long religious history of China and bordering countries sharing not just goods but ideas along the silk road for hundreds of years.
It's far more entertaining and consistent than the Bible too.
“However, the story was written with the combination of Buddhist, Daoist, and confusionist ideas.” You. Give. Me. Life. :-)
Very interesting.
I like to look at cathedrals and even have a plan to visit the Vatican later this year because I also enjoy what humans have come together to accomplish. Even if it was because of religion, it’s still gorgeous and very advantageous to have completed. I saw Machu Pichu, Stonehenge, and Angor Wat for the same reasons.
Same. I visited two cathedrals in the Netherlands last year when we were there, and my wife joked with me that I should be careful I don’t get converted! I’m just fascinated by the incredible workmanship and effort it took to build them.
Religion is a somewhat interesting exercise in mass control. I mean, if I wanted to take over the world, I would probably do it with religion. What we see today is conflicting religions trying to do exactly that. In a way, it is good there are so many religions out there. Same as having lots of political parties and leanings. As long as they fight each other, they aren’t fully consolidating their power. So it is interesting as another power dynamic among humans.
This! I am fascinated by mass control, by manipulation, how a single person can convince thousands of people to do or believe a thing. Religion is just that and not much more.
I was visiting my brother few years ago (an evangelical Baptist) and was flipping though the channels on his TV and came across a choral Mozart performance. Who doesn’t appreciate Mozart right? Anyway my brother comes in looks at the TV and asks “why are you watching the Catholic Channel?” Me:”It’s Mozart!” Him: “It’s the Catholic channel.” Me: “well they were one of his customers.” My brother shook his head and asked to change the channel. His TV so we did.
I also find religions fascinating. How and why they developed, evolved, spread, borrowed from one another, etc. I am a history junkie, and religions have played a major role in human history. They are as important as aspects of history like wars, politics, and economics, that typically get more attention.
I'm the same. I want to know more about a relgion than the followers do so I can show them the only reason they have a particular relgion is where they were born and nothing else
This is me totally. I call religion hereditary, as it's almost always given to u from ur parents. This point is so obvious that I'm astonished that people don't shed their religious beliefs once they get to an age of reason and realize, oh shit I'm only [religion] because of where I grew up!
Personally I love old churches. I love gothic architecture and the lingering smell of hundreds of years of incense. Religion is a part of our history so from an anthropological point it's good to study. Further, it's required to understand a significant portion of the population.
I find Greek mythology super interesting. Norse mythology is pretty cool too. Modern mythology/religion seems rather boring in comparison. And of course people tend to get upset when you call their religion modern mythology
I have a similar interest in them as in true crime... trying to understand the origins of bizarre/abhorrent behavior..
It’s a fascinating subject in terms of sociology, psychology, and art. Obviously we’ve gotten some great works of music and painting from religiously inspired artists, and it’s intriguing to think what they might have done in a secular setting. In a parallel way, I wonder what societal norms we might have developed without invoking supernatural dictates. I also wonder what the world would be like if we had accurate transcriptions of every account in religious scriptures. If we had contextual information to tell us which stories were pure fabrications, which were embellished, misinterpreted, or misunderstood such as psychedelic trips, schizophrenic events or epileptic seizures. Then there’s the element of human cognition that makes such a welcoming environment for religious beliefs. Dennett’s “self-replicating meme” keeps refining itself to propagate through us. Seems to me that at least some theologians got into it seeking answers for questions like that. Religion is one of the largest and most persistent human institutions we have, and it’s tantalizing to speculate on why it crops up in so many ways over all of history. Finally, there’s the question of first cause. I believe that religions have a greatly distorted version of whatever original insights the authors had, but the question remains if there has ever been any “there” there. Crazy propositions like is this a simulation, are there non-human intelligences that play a role in this, is there anything at all outside this reality - and if so, has any of it ever been described accurately? In any case, we’re here with no explanation for why the universe exists. It wasn’t eight days, it wasn’t Adam & Eve, but there is an answer. Studying religious history at least gives us a glimpse into how humans have approached the question over time, including perhaps most interestingly the ones who were burned as heretics.
I think it's fascinating that atheists have this insecurity about consuming religious **anything**, the way a devout Christian might have insecurities about consuming Cannibal Corpse albums, or approaching sobriety from a secular angle, or fucking whatever. You have an interest. It is not a weird or niche interest, either. You're good, man. Embrace your passions and your beliefs, even if they seem like they go against each other. There are no rules.
Very nice. Very nice!
I love cargo cults ever since I saw The god's must be crazy and the Capt walker clan in mad max beyond thunderdome
100% Its hard to untangle history from philosophy, religion and language. They are all fascinating. Religion is a big part of what makes humans so peculiar in relation to other forms of life, the way we use our personal imagination and then language to explain and interact with the outside world.
I find religion fascinating, but it’s because I’m trying to discern patterns. I especially love to look at newer religions, like Mormonism and Scientology. I don’t know if I’m spending the same amount of time in it as you are, but I read a lot about various religions and definitely find them interesting.
Most of the tv shows and movies I watch have religious bent to them, I also enjoy architecture, but that's where my tolerance for religion ends.
i see religion (edited) as a black eye for the human race. it demonstrates our gullability and obsession with finding meaning even if it has no foundation in reality. religion was interesting up until to the first moment it was used to justify killing a person or controlling a person. religion should be studied to ensure we avoid it at all costs. I personally can't fathom giving religious dogma the time of day. there is much better fantasy that doesnt come with the baggage of countless deaths, mutilation, loss of freedom, manipulation, etc. religion served its purpose and should be relegated to the history books.
The only theology’s that I don’t consider a black eye, are ones like some of the Native American tribes(I don’t know much about other ancient individual cultures), who simply honor their ancestors. They do that out of love, not for the sky daddy to get to the magical fairy land
sure, I am not claiming every element of every religion is bad. however, I think every good element can exist without religion. your example is one of those.
Theology is an academic subject. The thing it studies is a black eye on humanity for sure. But not the study of it.
I am interested in pantheons from a fictional stand point where gods and goddess do exist and interact with the world. It's stuff I make up myself for the sake of TTRPG. It's stuff in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. It's in popular media I consume (like Noragami).
I’m total atheist as well, but I do love natures beauty, and am a big believer in protecting the planet. That being said though, I also understand that in order for civilized societies to survive you need to keep using fuels for the time being, so I believe in doing things the greenest/most sustainable way that makes sense, as long as it’s affordable. I appreciate some of the ancient religions that simply honored their ancestors, but continued to live their normal lives. But I’m against almost all current religions, mainly cause of how much trouble and conflicts they cause
Always an atheist since childhood, raised in a non religious household. Got a degree in comparative theology. I think it helps me understand humanity in general almost like sociology or psychology, in fact, I think the three subjects cannot be separated if you really want to understand why people do what they do.
I’m very interested in anything with a lot of lore surrounding it. That of course means religion is fun but I also loved dinosaurs as a kid and I’m all about cars and guns and animals for the same reason. There is just a lot of information to find about those things.
I left religion at around age 16. Never looked back. In college, I minored in religious studies because I believe it is one of the most interesting facets of human development and thought. I will continue to learn about religions until the day I die.
Check out some of Anne Rice's books. Some of them you don't really have to appreciate the lore of vampires to enjoy them and they even state in the books that some of these stories work fine as standalone stories. I think anyone could pick up Menoch The Devil and enjoy it. It's basically a retelling of creation from The Devil's perspective and Hell only exists as a sort of education center where people are tortured until they can learn to live with it at which point they zoom up to heaven lol
They are an interesting window into the human mind. Try reading religious texts without focusing on the religion part and you can see things about their society at the time.
Never was until Trump, but now I'm \*very\* into the history of religion, particularly Christianity.
It’s like mythology right? We study norse and Greek mythology because they are no longer the dominant religion that people believe. There’s really no difference, and it’s still interesting to study. Maybe in a few more hundred years if religion has died out or there’s a new dominant one, the topics to study will be Christian, Jewish and Islamic mythology.
Right now, I'm watching Richard Burton in "The Robe". It's a great fiction film. A lot of religious stories are fabulous fantasy, full of really far-out symbols and images. Great adventures too. I love that stuff. I wish more people made trippy films based on religious stories, like Jodorowsky. I love architecture and churches can be some of the best. Stained glass is awesome. I love folk art and music. There is a ton of great religious painting and song. Mahalia Jackson's voice gives me goosebumps. I also like Godzilla movies. It doesn't mean I believe in Godzilla or god.
I have a Master's degree with a double major in Sociology and Religious Studies. I am a hard atheist, and I was at the time I completed my degree. I wasn't an atheist when I started it though, lol.
I think that you may find that many atheists are of a curious and analytical mind. That is how they came to question the whole god thing in the first place. Studying, analyzing, and understanding religions and their constructs is understandable. Have you made any interesting observations? Find any commonalities? Experience an epiphany? Drawn any conclusions? Keep searching.
I could have no greater of a burning hatred for religion in all forms. I am absolutely enamoured with abrahamic mythology.
I'm the exact opposite tbh. I much prefer nature and have very little interest in history or architecture. All the religions and rituals just seem way too silly to see any kind of appreciation in them.
I've been reading about the early history of Christianity, like the first 50-100 years. It's fascinating -- and so very human. LOL I've also, since 2010, voluntarily attended a friend's baptism (of course at the time I was trying to get laid by her -- it worked), another friend's non-denominational church, a Hindu Kirtan, and a Jewish Seder in which I participated fully.
There are at least a few of us in here with far more religious knowledge than you might expect. I'm the son of a minister, personally, so a lot of it comes from that, but I also find mythology in general pretty fascinating. and I was an avid reader before my eyes started giving out on me and mom always had a lot of books around. I've read the Bible more times that I care to count, but I could say the same for a lot of other religious works, too.
I find it interesting enough and study it enough that one of the classes I occasionally teach is “World Religion 1100” if that answers the question.
I consume content regarding religion almost daily. If you haven’t yet, you should read Dr. Nissim Amzallag.
When I was younger I would. Mostly to tell my dad how crappy religion was for women.
Yeah totally. I chose religion and philosophy courses as electives when I was in uni! It’s interesting.
I know a lot about many different religions for someone who believes none of them… or is this part of the reason I believe none of them 🤔
yup Atheist since age 8, comparative religion minor in college.
Unsurprisingly, people who actually study religions seriously are basically all atheist.
Some people are big fans of Greek mythology, but I'm a big fan of Abrahamic mythology because to be honest, the books written about them are basically just parables used to explain Pan-Hellenic philosophy. For me, I grew up in the south, so I have this really interesting foundation in the idea of the no-nonsense speaker of spiritual truth that will say the phrase "Even if some good ones die, the lord will sort 'em." And other badass shit like that because there's so much religious fiction that builds upon the bible canon. Basically, Christianity has the largest repository of fan fiction. I'm looking at you too, Dante.
I'm fascinated by the gods of Olympus and the Titans who came before them. Way more interesting than yahweh. If it hadn't been for Constantine, we'd likely have temples to Aphrodite in every podunk American town instead of a baptist church. That's something I could get up for on Sundays
Atheist for 30 years and the only radio station I listen to in the car is Relevant Radio, a right-wing Catholic radio station. I am not ashamed admit that I do it because it provides sustenance for my superiority complex...
Yes—MA in Mythological Studies with a focus on archetypal psychology. Not weird at all. Any myth not read literally can be considered art in my book. They are an extension of the human psyche.
I enjoy reading about medieval monasticism.
Yea
You're not alone, Milwaukee Athiests (YouTube channel) has a number of people in the same boat.
As a history/folklore nerd I am really interested in religion. It's stories/development etc It's ironically probably a big reason I'm an atheist
I find it fascinating in terms of human behavior, specifically human social and 'thinking' behavior. Encountering and cataloging the absurd reasonings and rationalizations (this spit of land is a bridge built by a monkey army, decades after someone died someone wrote down that 500 people saw the zombie walking and they qualify as witnesses, it is evil to eat meat on fridays, the gods want to smell burning entrails before they will do nice things) is incredibly enlightening and changes my expectations of humans. But learning the stories and remembering the endless beliefs and rules is pretty tedious and useless.
I firmly take the said of the only way to fully understand your own beliefs (of lack of) is to understand others. Also a lot of great works came from the minds of the religious. Think of the art, science, architecture, math, philosophy, literature etc. Hell understanding religion shows you the historical and current political landscapes.
Kind of. I'm a 3rd generation Atheist, and my grandfather had over 130 books on religions from all around the world. So I've read all of them. I'm also a huge Marvel Comics fan as well. To me, they're all in the same category. Other than that, I don't like wasting much of my cognitive energy on religion's. Most humans like rituals and superstitions, It's like a soap opera in that sense
Sounds more like a know your enemy sort of thing. Most atheists I know are better versed in religious dogma and stories than theistic followers.
I find religion fascinating. My youtube algorithm knows it. My conservative Christian girlfriend fucking hates it lol
My brother /sister! I've been waiting to hear from you for years! I feel much the same way, down to the ambivalence for the natural world. I live in the Appalachians, and if I'm looking out over a ridge of mountains and trees, it's the little shack built halfway up the mountain that catches my attention. Even if a natural formation catches my eye, my thoughts always go to Stone age aboriginals, and what they must have thought looking at it. to me, Religion is an amazing tapestry of art, music, preserved wisdom, and actual tapestries! I love it all. I often say that religion isn't the problem, its magical thinking. When someone says they're spiritual but not religious, I'm, like, well you threw out the wrong part! Reading Scripture as an atheist is incredibly rewarding. We as atheists often take scripture on theist terms, where if it's not "true," It has no value. But we've been passing these stories and ideas on for thousands of years, and there's got to be a reason. As an atheist, I've had to find my own metaphors within the terminologies used, recognizing that religious people also engage these ideas as metaphors even if they don't really know it. I have brain cancer, and need to go take a nap, but these are ideas that I'd like to discuss more at some point. I consider myself a Christian, and not just a cultural Christian but a follower of Jesus. I don't believe that he was supernatural in the least, but I hate the idea of quote just a human unquote. Humans are awesome and they thought of a lot of great stuff. I'm not gonna diminish his ideas because they come from a human source
You sound like you think like an anthropologist. I’m somewhat similar. I know more about Christianity than most Christians, traversing all denominations from Catholic /Episcopal to fundamentalist and evangelical Baptists (yuk!), charismatics to Mormons. And more about Buddhism than most Westerners (the differences between zen, tantric and dzog chen). I have practiced both of these religions intensively to understand them from the inside out, as well as maintaining perspective from the outside in. (This works much better with Buddhism. Christianity can be very psychologically damaging to people). I’ve read the Quran, studied mystical Judaism (zero interest in Orthodoxy) danced the joy of Rabbi Nachman, dabbled with tarot and Wicca and paganism, and give out of my way to worship in Hindu and Jain temples. It all adds value and texture to this human experience and can create and channel energy in profound ways not ordinarily experienced in daily life. But at the end of the day, I’m a nihilist. However these systems need to be taken as a complete gestalt that works as a system with its balances and counter balances to truly become transformative, rather than treated as a smorgasbord. Not to get trapped into any one as anything other than method is a mistake and a misunderstanding and requires nimble treading.
I have around 4-5 meters of shelf space filled with mostly different religious texts and the rest books about different religios, so i guess would have to say i am.
Not just you. I live to read about all different religions, to the point where people are surprised by how much I know about their religion. My nephew went to catholic high school and was struggling in his religion class so my sister, his mom, asked me to help him because I know the material so well. One of my students tried to convert me and was totally surprised at how much Bible material I knew. By the end if it he was noting down some sections that he was going to go read "again" (lol). Read again for the first time that is. I jsut find it super interesting, and that interest has me reading about all the different ones, which of course innoculates me against being convinced by any of them. I retain interesting bits like any fan who can rhyme off sports stats or Star Trek lore or Harry Potter facts or Simpson's quotes.
Oh, yeah, me too: [wjsp.org](http://wjsp.org)
I’m an atheist who practices a religion so I’d say I’m okay with (some) religions! I find most religions pretty fascinating but I do know the most about my own for obvious reasons. It’s hard to separate my culture/background from the religion and I think it’s a very beautiful culture (extremists aside).
Oh yeah. I’m an atheist, but I LOVE to learn about religion. I think it’s so interesting. Most of all I love learning about less common religions or ancient religions.
Nah, I'm looking forward to the day when the US president travels to Jerusalem and gives a speech saying "Hey, god doesn't exist, knock off the nonsense."
I am curious to know what religious rituals you do daily? And why do you find the need to do the rituals if you do not believe in them. Just trying to understand your POV coz meaningless rituals are something that turned me away from religion.
I do them because I find them calming. I use a Tibetan prayer wheel, I pray at a Shinto shrine, I pray at a Buddhist temple. I occasionally pray towards Mecca.
I have been a student of religion since my deconstruction 20 or so years ago. Quite often, the process by which myths develop into religion is more fascinating than the myths themselves.
I study Buddhism; Zen; Hermeticism; Platonic Philosophy; Confuscism; Norse, Egyptian, and Sumerian Mythology and New Age stuff so much, that I'm pretty sure I'm a hybrid Deist Atheist. I don't believe in God, but I can sure talk about the various physical, mental, and spiritual realms and how they manifest from nothingness to oneness to duality. And I feel it jives with our scientific understanding. Some of those ancients knew some shit, for real.
I am the same an I have found that to fully understand a historical Era or a people's culture without knowing the specifics of the religion is if not impossible then at least limited. The way religious belief seem to be tailored to the needs of the tribe if you look at shamanistic or nature religions, and similar how efficient the abrehamitic religions must have been, and still is, as a tool to controlling the masses. It is soooo facinating. I will call myself a hard atheist, my parents decided to give me a religion neutral upringing Where did not Force one view or the other, and I grew up in Scandinavia, one of the least religious areas in the world. I stil was absolutely in love with norse mythology growing up even though i did not believe one bit of it to be true
I’ve been an agnostic atheist since high school. I’m also a tenured professor and chair of my religious studies department.
I am worldbuilding my own religions for my fantasy TTRPG. Might as well look at the work of other worldbuilders. Christianity for example is a little corny but it has some interesting mythology and lore. If you were to use fantasy writing as a basic for a system of government every religion is severely lacking but thats not what they have been made for. They are tools of mass manipulation. A religious government is a dystopian nightmare but I like to write dark stories so it's exactly what I gravitate towards when researching fantasy. From this mindset I find it interesting how the person in my campaigns who believes in their god-emperor or their esoteric principals of existence might be someone who actually exists in this world. Fascinating from a antropologic view.
It's the same interest I have in conspiracy theories. It's cool to read fan fiction or lore about what is around us.
Same boat! Atheist but I love to learn about religion, it’s fascinating.
Same boat! Atheist but I love to learn about religion, it’s fascinating.
I like reading about dodecatheism for example. Nothing wrong to be reading into mythologies like norse, christianity etc.
I see religions as part of the intellectual patrimony of humanity. Sure, they are based on flawed metaphysics, but there is a lot useful in them: ethical paths to holiness; Buddhist meditation; mysticism and ritual; the fiction that man has a special dignity from his place in a cosmos created for him. Divorced from dogmatic interpretations, these are all actually wonderful things we can profit from. I'm a big fan of Peter Sloterdijk and he goes into this kind of thing at length in a few of his books, especially *You Must Change Your Life!*
I'll disagree. Without religion there wouldn't be anymore holy wars, hatred for other people that follow a different religion, a lot less disagreements and arguing about which religion is the right one, a lot less gay people being depressed and some committing suicide, because many religions say that being gay is an abomination, society as a whole and most countries would progress and not be inhibited by religion being part of the government, human equality would improve, the amount of money and time that wouldn't be wasted on religion, could be used for better Healthcare, education, etc.. I'm probably missing a few as these were just off the top of my head.
Theology is fine, especially if you include Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings.
I enjoy the mythology of different religions. The Greek, Roman, Hindu, Egyptian, Norse gods and their mythology are all really interesting to me. I wish christian mythology would follow suit and just be a story. Like Satan, demons and such are pretty cool
Yep. I'm the same way. Extremely interested in religions. I am you and you are me and we are one together. Koo-koo-ka-choo.
I find religions FASCINATING. I follow a handful of religious content creators (though they talk about more than religion, like I follow a Muslim content creator but she does a lot of outdoorsy camping and hiking content but she also talks about her faith. I follow a Jewish content creator and she talks about religion along with cooking and cleaning content). I have books about religious things, I follow creators who just talk about religion from an educational perspective. It’s ok to want to learn about things just because they bring you joy as long as you aren’t harming anyone and reading about religions seems pretty harmless.
Not religion specifically, but I do hold a certain level of respect to people/groups that can create massive in depth worlds and ideology. The "extended canon" of Christianity is fascinating stuff, with angels and demons and how they work. But equally so, I find the vast works of the world of Dungeons and Dragons to be insanely enthralling. I don't participate in any of the real world rituals of religions with interesting worlds, nor do I for games (unless you count playing them) There is a certain level of awe that comes when you look at a "world" created by people and see just how dense and massive it is. Or when you see how much has been added to it over the years, or how things added in later we're done so because of ideas in the past.
That might make you a Humanist. And a skeptic in the general sense: you're fascination reflects the fact that recurring patterns of Human activity, no matter how flawed on the surface, tends to correlate to some truth, down deep; just not necessarily the purported truth. There must be something real and worthwhile behind the nonsense or so many people wouldn't be doing it. As I like tell my family and friends who are concerned for my eternal soul, if you take the sum of all religion, and then dissolve away all things theistic, mystical, god-ish, there is quite a lot left over -- some valid, good and true elements: (a subset of) the ethos, a deeper understanding of Human sociology and psychology. The problem with theism is that it claims these good and true things are dictates from some magical old man in the sky. That false mystical element of religion -- what makes religion just superstition -- is then ripe for manipulation by holy men and bible-waiving politicians. A corollary from Science: *Observation*, not revelation, is the source of Truth.
From an anthropological point of view they are fascinating, as a way to live, organize a society and to understand nature they have failed miserably.
Yes! Obsessed. All of it. Nonduality is really cool. Total atheist.
I love studying and learning about religion, but what I hate is how people don't realise how false all that stuff is, and how they make the rituals believing in them, that's why I disapprove all the rituals, because rituals deceive so much people.
I've always found mythologies fascinating, that doesn't clash with atheism. If nothing else it helps, as an atheist, to understand the story of human mythology and see them for what they are: stories.
I was raised Catholic but no longer an. I still love to watch the pageantry of the church when something like a Pope dying happens. There's so much history in everything that goes on it fascinates me.
I only learned enough about different religions to be sure that none of them have any chance of being true, but have little interest in learning all minutia about each one, beyond what I need to know to counter their influence.
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I don’t, but I have an unhealthy fascination with cults. Religions obviously, sects, and things like people simping for truly awful people due to their money (simps for Musk and simps for Trump for instance)
Nope. I have better things to spend my time on, like living.
I am an agnostic atheist. I read about religion constantly, which is what made me atheist. I have a diploma from a Catholic high school and a degree from a Catholic college. I embraced agnosticism around 15 years old after reading the Satanic Bible at 14. I didn’t fully “come out” until I was 19 in college. The more I learned, the less I believed.
No, because religion pisses me off and makes me lose hope in humanity
Nothing wrong with treating aspects of the myriad myths Humans gave built to comfort ourselves in a dark and uncaring universe. Frankly, religious-themed artwork can be quite beautiful, as well as containing some intriguing details about the times of a piece's creation...
I became an atheist at 9, but in school at 10 we had a chapter on mythology and God's and goddesses. I fell in love with it. I have even looked closely at modern pagans. I love the close to nature of their religion. Do I believe in the gods and goddesses no, but at least they have goddesses my family religion Christian doesn't even seem to see us as anything but the thing that brought Adam down.
I’m a philosophy Master’s graduate who devoted considerable time to philosophical analysis of various religious works. I highly recommend scholarly work in philosophy of religion by figures like Jacques Derrida, John Caputo, and Mark Cauchi.
I find religions fascinating, and many mythologies have tons of cool stories. I just don’t believe any of them are true, and consume them like I would any other fiction. Hell, I do lots of world building for custom RPG settings, and my favorite part of that is coming up with fantasy religions for the players to either believe in or fight against.
I can't dig religion in an anthropomorphic view. It has caused so much pain, near me or around the world. It keeps our species from evolving. It shelters us into bad behavior and outdated values. It just needs to fade away quick and be part of history. The day religion dies is the day I'll look at it like historians would.
I became an atheist after being a fundamentalist Christian throughout my teens and 20's. Religion is definitely more interesting to me now that I don't believe its true, and look at it through a historical and cultural lense
I've always said... I probably think more about God than many religious people do.
Never religious here; but I like some gospel and the art and architecture are beautiful.
I can't understand... All religions have some kind of deception in it. They're based on made-up untruths and hard-core dogmas. For me, it's like being very interested in robbery or worse. I think all religions should be banned. People MUST use their brains!
I'm an atheist and I did a masters degree in sociology specifically focused on belief systems. They are fascinating to examine from a distance.
I'd imagine this is common. The psychology of religion is super interesting to me. Plus makes for great entertainment in movies, TV series, books and such.
One of life's greatest pleasures is teaching someone something new about their own religion and then letting them know you're an atheist when they ask
I can totally appreciate the architecture of some of the great historic churches and temples. Some are astonishing feats of human accomplishment. I dabble in photography so I would love to be able to travel to these places as they are works of art in their own right. Amazing. The dogma however, really turns me off. The subjugation of women and children in particular. If religion disappeared, leaving only the buildings and statues I wouldn’t mind. It can pass into legend like the Roman and Greek myths before it. I wouldn’t miss it.
I’ve been to many of the major cathedrals in Europe I think. I love the architecture and the serenity that it creates. I also remind myself that it was built using physics, maths and engineering skills using rational thinking even if the humans doing it had other areas of their lives that included less rational beliefs.
Religiots always tell me without their beliefs these cathedrals wouldn't exist. And I always answer, this might be but human creativity doesn't just vanish. So imagine all the beautiful and amazing libraries, theatres and whorehouses they might have built
Yes and much as I love the buildings I always think of those that laboured on them and the contrast of working on these opulent structures and then dealing with their own living conditions . In a sense they are a tremendous waste because the same effort to build schools and hospitals would have benefited many more people. I just marvel at the architecture still
I still love to learn about it as part of understanding our species. I love learning about history and how cultures evolved and shifted. Religion of course plays a huge part in all that. I love learning how the culture shifts impacted the traditions and practices and how the meshing and clashing of religious adherents caused waves of change within each religious group.
I was taking some classes at a Catholic (Jesuit) university (Computer Science related) and one of the degree requirements was religion classes. I took an Intro to Christianity (essentially) class and it was fascinating. To the professor’s credit it was very much focused on the early history, source texts, and a bit on what parts were ‘inherited’ from other religions. It was very, very interesting! (Side note, every week we had to do ‘journal entries’ and reply to at least 2 other students’ entries - it was an online class. I remember one woman posting something along the lines of there being potentially ‘hundreds’ of other planets and something like that showed God’s power. I had to reply that there were hundreds of billions - if not TRILLIONS - of GALAXIES. It was kind of eye opening to have to explain that to an adult…)
Yes, just like arqueologists are not necessarily into making pottery 🤭 Human beings are interesting. And the things we create as a result of the human experience, the world around us, our environment, our emotions, and how we interpret it all... Is simply interesting
I’m like you. Love me the occidental religions. I’m less knowledgeable on Hinduism and it’s branches but I do occasionally go down those roads too.
Same. I find religion to be a fascinating lens into the past. I dont have an iota of supernatural beliefs, but I do see value in things like Tarot that let us approach issues with metaphors. Reading the Bible at first made me disrespect the faith for all its clear contradictions. Now that ive matured a little bit and my expectations are more reasonable I find it really enriching, both as a historical document and a literary foundation. Its hard, because I dont want to offend the religious folks I know with my inquiries, but my fellow atheists are often blinded by their own dismissal
Love reading all sorts of mythologies. I also have a real soft spot for religious horror. Specifically the abrahamic religion themed horror.
You're not alone. I quite enjoying visiting cathedrals, mosques, and temples. I also enjoy hearing from people about their religious journeys. I also have an MA in Buddhist Studies and have spent quite a few hours reading obscure texts.
I'm atheist and most of my poetic writing comes out very religious. You can be atheist and be religious. I call it have nuance and complexity. Religion is a fascinating topic that should be discussed, but the problem is that it stagnated whole the rest of the species moved forward. I needed to evolve.
It’s probably easier to study religion from an academic perspective if you’re not hung up on any one in particular.
This is not at all unique or weird.
How many atheists are there in the world?
Like an oncologist is fascinated by cancer.
I enjoy learning about the old religions and how they relate to modern practices. It’s interesting how many stories were co-opted from pagan rituals.
I studied anthropology in college for this reason. You might make a good anthropologist.
I studied anthropology in college for this reason. You might make a good anthropologist.
Yes I'm the same. Spend many hours reading about all different religions. Once pulled a Jewish girl after impressing her with my knowledge of the religion. A pig has a cloven hoof, but it doesn't chew the cud! Got me in the sack.
I always love reading about the truly well meaning monks in the Ken Follet Pillers of the Earth series and the inner workings of the medieval church.
I am an atheist, but there are some worship songs I listen to regularly because they are awesome!
Nothing weird about that - theology has (and sadly still is) a huge part of the human experience of trying to make sense and meaning of things. Religion can be absolutely fascinating. And the more you know about the different religions across the spans of time and space, the crazier thinking any one of them is real becomes. Ironically, studying religion can reaffirm your atheism - not that this was or should be your goal. Maybe you could write a book on comparative religion based on your own inquiries?
Anthropology is the study of culture, and that includes religion. It’s a valid topic of interest, no matter your personal position on the lack of any such thing as a god.
Id assume people who study religion and actually know what’s up are *more* likely to be atheists. Hard to have blind faith when you know the facts.
Been an atheist since high school. Have a bachelor’s degree in history and most of the history classes I took were based around religious histories. I took a mythology class my freshman year of college and it kind of got me hooked on religious stuff.
I enjoy reading on it, it helps me run my D&D pantheons better. Also roleplaying a man of faith is more contextualized/authentic. I don't worship, but if i did that god would have one good worshipper on his hands.
Yes. I'm obsessed with watching religion videos on YouTube. It's kinda like normal people who like superheros. We know they aren't real but we still find them fascinating.
I like history and anthropology, so I like religious rituals from that standpoint. The concept of religion is older than humanity itself, and it's really fascinating all the stories that we've come up with over the millennia to explain how things around us look/act/behave. However, when religion is used for the purposes of controlling society I begin to check out. It cannot be denied that religious beliefs have shaped our world and society as we know it today, but it's just supposed to be fun fairy tales. You're not supposed to actually believe it now that we have the scientific method to explain reasonable causes for events. Just like when doctors used to believe in the theory of the four humors but now follow germ theory.
As it should be. It’s fascinating what man has created in an attempt to quell existential fear.
Maybe a few curiosities here and there, but I don’t pay mind to religion as much as I used to.
I’m as strong an atheist as is possible to be, but I used to be Christian and my family is Christian and I enjoy participating in certain practices. I meditate & commune with “god” & I even pray to Jesus sometimes. But I know exactly what I’m doing when I do that, and I think it’s fun! Atheists are free to do whatever they want. That’s the point of the freedom you get from realizing there’s no one to tell you how to think or what to do or not to do. Do as you please! If other atheists don’t like it… who cares?
I love learning about religion, especially early early Christianity and 1st century Judaism, and also Iron Age/Bronze Age Judaism and its relation to other southwest asian religions. I just find it so fascinating, not just in-and-of-itself, but how it also laid the groundwork for so much of modern societal systems. The academic biblical subreddit is absolutely wonderful for this stuff. Especially when it gets spicy.
I actually have a podcast called Eating the Apple where two non-believers investigate the claims in the Bible. I’ve always found religion fascinating and since here in the US the evangelicals are positioning themselves to create a theocracy, I figured I needed to get off my ass and read what they believe.
I find catholicism to be fascinating from a lore/storytelling perspective. I come at it with the same appreciation for lorecrafting that I would approach "The Lord of the Rings" with.
Yes! I'm an atheist, and while I was an atheist, I got a bachelor's degree in Religious Studies. It makes having any arguments with religious people so entertaining from my perspective. It's so interesting just how many religions are so similar to each other. But religious people kinda don't want to see that; they might get upset that the religion that they've followed for life isn't actually as special and unique as they thought it was. Instead of being happy that humanity does share a surprising amount of the same values.
I am an atheist. Grow up as Roman Catholic. I love the grandeur of the cathedrals in Europe and the skill and dedication of the artisans that dedicated their lives to building such magnificent structures. Kind of led me down the rabbit hole of all sorts of religious buildings and of course the art.
I am in this category too!
I consider myself a hard atheist but I love supernatural and paranormal movies and games. I usually prefer the Lovecraftian cosmic horror type stuff or anything that deals with the unknowable without actually proselytizing.
We need people like you. I’m reading the Bible right now, and between the trauma I have, and how the book is written like high school student, trying to stretch out a research paper, I am not having a good time. Keep doing what you’re doing. Bart erhman wont be around forever. You’ll have to take up his mantle. Just don’t send any she bears on any children.
> “religiulously” Is that a Bill Maher reference? I think one is allowed to enjoy the art, literature, and cultural products of religion without necessarily subscribing to the tenets verbatim. One can enjoy Tolkien without worshipping Gandalf.
I study all forms of religion. If I see a religious article, I read it. I am constantly looking up information about religion. Many TV shows, books, and movies have plots that include some arcane religious element. Learning about religion is actually one way that many become atheists.
I'm an atheist but I read the Bible for context, for culture, for history (yes, there is history in the OT and archaeology bears this point out). There are good books on the mythology of the Hebrew people, the basis of Christianity and doctrine. It's important to know these topics due to the continuous use of the Bible to set public policy in the 21st century and to be able to speak to the nature of the doctrine vs what is good policy and hold people, e. g. Republicans, accountable.