After all but one of my religious "strings" had been cut I was home alone one night and had the house to myself. I was getting pissed that I had been lied to my entire life...so I turned off all the lights, turned off the TV/phones and had a show down between me and God. I challenged him to show up, give me a sign, to do anything that would provide evidence for his existence...nothing. I called him every filthy name you could call someone to goad him out...nothing. Then I turned my attention to Satan and repeated the process...nothing. After about 2 hours of this I was getting tired so I called it a night and went to bed. About 20 minutes later I heard a noise and it was getting closer, I opened one eye and wondered "oh shit, what did I do?" It turned out to be my cat Harry. I laughed, closed my eyes and fell asleep. In the morning I woke up an atheist.

@RideTheSpiral28

9 жыл бұрын

At least you didn't think, "hey Satan sent my cat to scare the shit outta me"... It does piss you off when you realize that everything you have been taught as a child is complete bullshit. I'm in a better place now anyways... hope you are as well

@alanw505

9 жыл бұрын

Benjamin Hammond Thanks...I am. That night was my "Tipping point". That was the end point of a culmination of many years of deprogramming.

@pwoods100

7 жыл бұрын

The reason why you didn't hear from God, is because he's an atheist.

@77naaz

5 жыл бұрын

Alan W my cat likes this comment!!

@JamesRichardWiley

5 жыл бұрын

I did the same thing and God/Jesus did not appear but Satan did! I told Satan I was just kidding and he disappeared. That's when I realized I was creating these characters inside my own head.

I love those, "huh..." moments. Where something in your mind has been trying to work itself out and only then does all cognitive dissonance stop. The suddenness of the realization of things has a certain feeling. Almost like an "ah ha!" but more gradual and humbling.

Nearly every listener story touches me in one way or another, but man... the guy that told his wife he wanted to remarry her. It really is astonishing the change in perspective that is experienced in the moment we realize that this is all we get and how, from that point on, we just want to do all we can to make this short existence better for those we love.

I can empathize with the "silence" brought up by one of the callers. Back when I "truly believed in god", I was going through the most painful experience of my life. I was grieving like no other time in my life. But the unmistakeable silence was too much to overlook. It brought to light all the times I "went down to the alter to pray, yet felt nothing". I couldn't have been more sincere, at that time in my life, but the silence was thick. I'm agnostic now, basically an atheist.

Met Seth at Apostacon this September. My lukewarm deism had been waning for awhile, but Darrel Ray' s book, which deconstructs religious belief, was a tipping point for me. It all makes sense if religion is a psychological projection.

My tipping point was: 1) The realization that if God's best way of dealing with his creation was Hell, he is not a very smart god, and is definitely not a GOOD god. 2) If people can still go to hell, Jesus' supposed sacrifice was completely pointless, as the devil is still winning. 3) If God is allowing the devil to win in any way, what good is he as a god? After those realizations sank in, I realized how horribly human-made Christianity is.

@theorangeninja6486

6 жыл бұрын

Infinite punishment for finite crimes is the best proof that Yahweh is, if He is as the Bible describes Him, NOT benevolent.

@lindacurtis1580

6 жыл бұрын

MA L God is a representation of us. We are the judges, the punishers of others and ourself, we go through all the crap. We either gain knowledge through it or we condemn ourselves to a life of hell. The book is written in a way that if you read beyond the literal the entire story of life is in there. The wars the hate etc. the Bible is the story of us.

@Hashishin13

5 жыл бұрын

A man or group of men* @oops

@Hashishin13

5 жыл бұрын

So what about the stoning of women to death for not being a virgin on their wedding night? What is the deep metaphorical truth in that? If you want a moral guide, go read actual moral philosophers. Searching for metaphorical truth in literal bronze age barbarism is jumping through unnecessary hoops. Its also attempting to forcibly square a circle. When you read metaphors into literal stories you are mostly just reading in your own morality. Skip the unnecessary nonsense fairy tales and just develop your own moral character yourself, free from nonsense that most take at least partially literally. @@lindacurtis1580

"They have this sillyputty god that they just mould into whatever shape they need" ^ That is the truest observation of religion I have ever heard. Nicely done Seth.

Rowdy Roddy Piper in "THEY LIVE" "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum" One of the best movie quotes ever.

Love this topic. It gives me moral support to hear other people's experiences. Thanks everyone for being so generous!

My tipping point occurred in what would be my last visit to the Mormon church. I had already learned about Joseph Smith's dirty secrets such as his 40+ wives, and I also knew of Brigham Young's horrifying doctrine of 'Blood Atonement' and his crazy idea that people lived on the moon. Someone gave their testimony, and they ended up quoting Brigham. It was something to the effect of "There is not one word that has proceeded out of my mouth that is not Scripture". At that moment, the beliefs I held for 14 years shattered. I walked out of the church and went home immediately. I tried to research other Christian denominations to see if they made any sense, but to no avail. The Old Testament was always troubling to me, but there was a verse referencing someone steadying the Ark of the Covenant as it was falling. I thought that was a good thing, and yet God killed him for this act! I knew that if a God existed, he was pure evil. I have been an open agnostic atheist for the last two years, and I now know that rejecting belief in any deity was the best decision that I'd ever made.

I told a friend that I did not believe god would consign little Hindu children to hell And asked him if that meant that I was also going to hell With surprisingly little regret, he confirmed my horrible fate At that point I was forced to decide whether I took him... and religion seriously I struggled to find some reason for concern about my fate ultimately I could no longer take religion seriously And then I discovered that I REALLY resented the explicit blackmail that is the threat of being condemned to hell I HATE feeling manipulated And therefore felt increasing repugnance for the underlying structure of religious faith

Although I had my doubts for a long time about the bible (because of the Genesis story), what truly cemented everything for me, was a KZread video I stumbled across titled "Why I am no longer religious." From there I began exploring skeptic and atheist channels, and watching religious videos being debunked by the different hosts. Now, I proudly declare myself to be an atheist. This is one of the top channels I now view, along with AronRa as well. I have also helped a close friend of mine to deconvert, by leading him to channels such as this one, and he now considers himself an atheist. I have learned a lot and am still learning as I go along. It's a great comfort to know I'm not alone. Let's keep opening eyes and minds! Great work TTA, and Seth, you are a fabulous host, so very relatable, and a great voice. Keep up the great work!

Handpuppets omg lol I never really had a tipping point that got me out of religion, since I was never religious. But I did have a moment where I knew for sure I'd never get INTO religion. Got invited to a community gathering when I still lived in Canada. It was a religious group. All the adults had this eerie smile on their face, like the man in the Viagra commercial. Even as a kid of maybe 8, I was like "these people are fuckin creepy!" and vowed never to have anything to do with whatever was sucking their brains out.

Seth, this podcast is one of the best imo. Just loved the stories sent in, esp. the gay guy. What a relief that his partner really can understand his (their) torment. Keep going, your shows are awesome and the message is getting out there. The Netherlands

***** Seth this is one of the best shows you have ever done. Some of those callers nearly brought me to tears.

I basically watched one debate between a Religious person and a biologist (Richie D.) and realized that everything I believed for about 10 years of my life was totally fabricated. I didn't even try to fight it because I knew the arguments being made against what I believed made sense. In short I'd say I had my whole religious rope cut within the span of about an hour.

This show is a friend to me😊its like Goliath the gargoyle bridging the gap between me and everyone who understands the black sheep feeling. Science bless, and may your sabbath be black✌

Speaking of balony detection kits; I rejected god the instant a church tried to impose one on me. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was 4 years old, mid 1960s. My wonderful but xtian grandma on dad's side, Edna, convinced my m&d that us 2 oldest grandkids were ready to attend church. Consequently my older brother by 3 yrs & I were instructed to walk to the nearest Anglican church one Sunday morning to attend 'Sunday School'. The mere mention of 'Sunday School' already set off alarm bells in me, because any 'schooling' beyond Monday - Friday smacked of 'total control' to me - even at that age I was wary! On that day, the instructing nun was seated in a chair at the top of the stairs (sorry I forget the correct term, will edit later) and I instantly & I'm certain 'naturally', recognized the overbearing 'body language', she has positioned herself to overwhealm us little kids, and I did not 'fall for that', whilst it seemed to me all around me were falling for it. I was immediately frightened and deeply concerned. I shot my hand up in the air and said " Well miss...if god is a grey-haired old man who sits on a cloud - he would fall through and die". This was not well received, not by my elbow jabbing older brother, nor by the 'class' of 20+ kids and certainly not by the dominatrix nun. Back at home an hour later, I stood ajointly and firmly at my mum & dad's feet...stared all the way up to their high distant and almighty faces and bravely announced " I'm never going back there....they tell lies...they are liars and not nice!" I won't go even if you send me again!". Thankfully - my loving parents never made that mistake again. Though you are gone now, I thank you mum. And thank you dad for listening to me on that one most important of all occasions.

My tipping point: 13 years ago my fiancé at the time broke up with me. We got back together a year & a half later. But during that gap I began to really look at atheism. I had a few years of college experience by then & had met openly atheist people who weren't at all like my religious high schools presented them. I used a class writing assignment about groups as a justification to look at eastern religions & atheism, get some books from Amazon. I realized all the apologetics I had been taught were straw men or had been thoroughly discredited years before I learned them. I felt foolish & angry. I had life-long doubts, but had learned to fear questioning & hell. I became one of those spiritual but not religious atheists when I got back with my ex. It took me 10 years to realize the breakup was one of those narcissistic silent treatments & that he was using my mental illnesses as reasons for why I deserved abuse, which was easy to believe due to being mentally ill. I had also given up the spiritual part & began saying "atheist" instead of "free-thinker" to my then-fiancé, who was still a creationist, which ushered in more death threats & accidents that look suspicious in hindsight. I went no-contact 2 years ago & am still working on healing from the chronic ptsd. My new fiancé is very patient & understanding. I had also began to pay attention to science, which I abandoned as a kid for various reasons. I joined woo culture 10 years ago believing it was a viable mix of science & art that would also help me mentally. I really believed It just needed more research. The woo did help until I learned more about real science & began to break away from the brainwashing & conspiracy theories my ex implanted. I felt foolish & angry all over again. One of the episodes on this podcast was the tipping point for me about chiroquacktors, so I looked more into that. I'm currently a massage therapist subcontracting at a massage place that's partnered with a chiroquacktor business that mentions Pasteur's [fake] deathbed recantation of germ theory. I never knew germ theory denialism was a thing & barely knew the word "pseudoscience" until I looked into chiroquacktic. It makes work frustrating, & I'm currently trying to find a way out & into a better career before I mouth off too much. But it's reassuring knowing I've come this far.

My Tipping point was about a year after stopping church... i was around 13-14 and i was just like... dosent make any sense BOOM! ATHEIST

The story of the guy who hated himself for being gay made me so emotional. I feel for him. I can sort of relate to it only I'm not quite out of the woods yet.

I'm from Louisiana, I think the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was my tipping point.

@JamesRichardWiley

5 жыл бұрын

There is no god and Nature does not care about me. I adapt to that.

My first tipping point was when I was researching Christianity. I had been a Christian for nearly 20 nears and I had never read the Bible. I was never really adamant in my faith...but I had faith anyway. When I started reading, I was fact checking everything because I wanted to know if it was true. I first noticed the 2 different creation stories in Genesis 1 and 2. I was astounded that I noticed contradictions in the first book. I read the whole Bible twice. When I put it down, I realized the whole thing was a load of crap. I immediately rejected Christianity. I started looking at other religions and realized they were full of it too. That was my tipping point.

I've identified myself as an atheist for about 10 years now, but I never really invested myself in religion like other believers did. My parents took me and my brother to church when I was young like many other kids, but as I recall I never really... surrendered myself to the faith. I didn't actively think about Christianity outside of church, it was just someplace I hated going as a kid because I had to dress up and sit on a wooden pew for a couple of hours every Sunday. I was bored and uninterested in taking church very seriously. Thankfully, my family moved and at that point my brother and I were freed from our obligation to go to church. I didn't know this at the time, but my father was well on his way to de-conversion when we had moved, and he was an atheist by the end of the year after the Sept. 11 attacks. He told me that was his tipping point. He had been brought up by very religious parents, but he had adopted different sects of Christianity over his life before he met my mother. But the notion that hurting or killing anyone because their faith demands it is simply stupid. My own tipping point didn't come until I was in college, and looking back it wasn't so much a tipping point as it was a bump in the road that jostles you awake. For me, there was no final thread to cut, no enlightenment, no u-turn in my world view. Theists like to make the 'No True Scotsman' argument against atheists, but for me it actually rings true. I don't remember exactly how it happened, but I was on KZread and I think a video about Christopher Hitchens popped up on my home page. I don't know what compelled me to watch it, but nevertheless I did, and that video led me to other famous atheists: Richard Dawkins, Matt Dillahunty, Aronra, Phil Mason, Penn Jillette, and you, Seth. You were among many who were instrumental to helping me realize that I never really truly believed. Thank you for helping me and others come to reason.

When I was like 4, when they kept talking about heaven in church I thought they were referring to the old choir loft that was blocked off above our heads in the pews. When I realized they weren't, and that it was some magical place in the sky, it was over because by that age I had already read some space books for little kids and I felt confident I knew what was in the sky. I think that is perhaps why I have been so argumentative with my parents my whole life. We have a good relationship but the idea that adults were always right was shattered at a very young age.

I'm a nature box customer now. So far I'm liking it.

I had been vacillating for a couple of years and in the meantime I had rediscovered Carl Sagan's Cosmos, which I remembered from when I was eight and it first aired. On the one hand, I loved his explorations of the stars, planets, galaxies, etc. On the other, I resented what I considered his "anti-God" message, that is to say, anything he said that contradicted scripture. As I continued to discover more and more things about Christianity that made no sense I became more and more depressed over it. One day at work, in the break room, I was reading Sagan's 'Pale Blue Dot.' As I read through the now-famous "Pale Blue Dot Speech" and saw the Voyager 2 photo of the Earth, that single pixel floating in a sea of blackness, the idea that this whole inconceivably vast and empty universe was created as a mere backdrop for a bunch of bad bronze-age soap-operas taking place on this infinitesimally tiny speck of dust floating around a humdrum star in an unremarkable corner of one of hundreds of billions of galaxies... that idea at once appeared to me so utterly and hopelessly absurd that I realized there was no hope of bullshitting myself any further. I was absolutely devastated. I had been promised everlasting life and now had to face the realization that there was no reason to believe that there is anything beyond death besides endless, thoughtless, oblivion. It took me many months before I got over that and began to see that life is precious BECAUSE it is finite and that I have the power, as well as the RIGHT, to determine for myself what my own purpose in life is. I never looked back. :)

My first tipping point was the realization I had in my early teens that there's no way to show any part of the Bible to be divine or even accurate. It might have been dictated by Satan for all we know, or by a trickster god of some other religion. Unfortunately while that freed me to evaluate things with common sense and reject the concept of the devil and the divinity of Jesus, that wasn't enough to free me from theism altogether. Largely due to religious fears I ended up spending more than a decade as some kind of an agnostic non-christian theist, hanging on to the modernized version of the Abrahamic god. The true tipping point came when I learned about the history of Judaism, it's origins in polytheism and how the god of the Bible was once just one of many in a pantheon of very fallible anthropomorphic small gods, not much different from the deities of the dead religions of antiquity. That was what finally freed me, realizing that all of the "Abrahamic exceptionalism" was bullshit and there was nothing special about the god of the Bible in comparison to all the other gods I had not the least amount of belief in. It was then that I became a true atheist.

@ObakeOnna

9 жыл бұрын

***** I had no need for that hypothesis.

@ObakeOnna

9 жыл бұрын

***** I hope you realize that agnosticism and atheism aren't mutually exclusive. Even if you're an agnostic, you're still either atheist or theist. Either way, though, I am actually not a true agnostic because I believe that today thanks to combined knowledge from severa sciencs we have a sufficient explanation for the human god concept that doesn't involve invoking something as unlikely and ultimately unfalsifiable as a supernatural intelligence.

@christallh24

9 жыл бұрын

***** One term speaks to belief, the other to knowledge, are not mutually exclusive (as OnnaKonna pointed out), or helpful if I asked you "Do you believe in god(s)?" and *not* "Do you *know*, evident and conclusively, there are god(s)?". There are those self-labeled "agnostic" only. The "agnostic only"'s that are just as much an atheist in definition, as I am. Sad that those "agnostics only" have been successfully indoctrinated to have some kind of visceral aversion to the term "atheist" and the baggage they believe it brings, as god-buyers do. I, myself don't have that particular hang-up. Not even being a southern black chick, do I run away from a thing that makes me up as a whole; that's being an atheist. Oh, and why the re-direct? Make your comment here. Maybe OnnaKonna doesn't feel like scrolling through comments on some other vid page when you could've expanded your already reply or not have replied at all. Your reply gives me "Appeal to Authority" vibes. Yes, Neil is someone that has, generally, a lot of respect from us atheists. But, just because he shares your aversion to being labeled an atheist, doesn't give your position any more merit or weight.

@user-pp2tl9dz1w

9 жыл бұрын

Beautiful. Thinking helped you find your way clear just as it helped me and just as I hope it helps others. Because of all the fears that accompany religious indoctrination, it is unfortunate that the shedding process often takes much longer than the indoctrination process. That's why the churches like to get 'em while their young.

Wonderful email from Derek to start the show - such clarity of self-perception, intellectual honesty, and so eloquently expressed. Thank you!

This was a wonderful episode! Definitely one of my favorites. I am so grateful for people like Seth and the rest of you who can relate to the things I have experienced as a result of religious influence in my life. I have very few people in my area who understand my non-belief.The two Christian pastors (mentioned in my email on the show) with whom I tried to discuss some of my concerns about religion are both extremely nice and friendly people who were sincerely trying to help (and I'm grateful to both of them for trying) but I question the degree to which they really understood where I was coming from because of the beliefs they held. This podcast and this community has really helped me to understand that I'm not alone and I'm not crazy! Thanks everyone!

That letter was great, very heartfelt and compelling. I hope he continues to have a great life!

Mine was in sunday school when I was 6 or 7. I asked my teacher about who gets into heaven and she said anyone who believes. I asked what about bad people? People who hurt people? She said as long as you asked for forgiveness you'd be fine but it was better to be good. I asked what if you are good and don't believe. She told me those people still go to hell. I was still made to go to church 2-3 times a week up until I was 14 but I never got over that conversation. I couldn't and still cant accept that good people will be punished for all eternity.

i never regretted leaving christianity and i didn't mind letting go of buddhism. i HATED leaving wicca. it was so romantic and beautiful and non-restrictive. then i realized there was no reason to leave it entirely behind as one can keep their awe and love of nature and the universe and maybe even more as an atheist. my tipping point was when i realized that i was better than the god/s. i would never punish people for being what i made them; i would fix them and everyone would have paradise. then i realized paradise would be BOOOOOORING after a while.

I didn't really have a singular tipping point. Coming out of belief was a very gradual process for me and even now I'm probably not rid of some of the habits of thought. I grew up attending a United Methodist church and my parents insisted on my going through Confirmation in junior high even though I didn't want to. I never was very good at taking any of it seriously; I always put off the book work until the last possible moment, I had a tendency to get the giggles at inappropriate times, and I'd look around during group prayers wondering if anyone else was as bored and unconnected as I was. At the end of Confirmation we had a camping weekend which culminated in a sort of youth revival experience around the campfire. I remember being told by our youth minister to be quiet and thoughtful returning to our cabins, so we wouldn't interrupt anyone if they were having a spiritual experience. I remember being vaguely disappointed at having no particular "spiritual experience" of my own. In my first couple of years of college, I hung around the Methodist student ministry as a "safe" way of finding some new friends, and participated in several of their activities, but my faith was fading, and I didn't dare confess it to the minister or any of the student ministers. I was afraid I'd lose what friends I'd made. My faith was further shaken when one of the students who was a regular attendee had something akin to a nervous breakdown my second year; he'd been sheltered in a more conservative church and community than he'd grown up in, and I remember him pacing around nervously asking us if we were all really "real" Christians. I remember how I felt like a wolf in sheep's clothing at that moment--I WAS one of the non-real Christians he was afraid of. I think it was really the idea of Hell that drove the final nail in the coffin for me. I just never understood the point of it. Even if humans were naturally bad, so that we deserved punishment by default, what's the point of punishing us forever? You punish a child who commits some really bad act in the hope that he will learn from it and won't commit that act again, but if we're in hell forever, obviously we aren't going to learn anything from it. Could we REALLY be so bad that almost all of the people who had ever lived were going to burn for eternity? During my brief stint as an evangelical Christian after college, I remember seeing a picture in our local paper of Muslim children celebrating one of the Muslim holidays. I found myself unable to stop thinking about those kids. Many of them would grow up believing the Muslim religion and they'd have no sensible reason to switch over to believing in Christianity just because some random Christian told them their religion was wrong. Could I really believe that if those Muslim kids died, they were going to go to hell just for believing what their parents taught them? In the end, my answer to that turned out to be, "No."

Very easily, the army was the thing that was the tipping point for me becoming an Atheist. Yes, I know how weird that sounds. It wasn't combat or anything like that either. Seeing so many cultures just got me thinking.

I have always felt like you were my friend, Seth. This show gives me encouragement and support. I hope to meet you in person one day :)

Any podcast that mentions They Live is alright in my book!! I've enjoyed your show for quite a while, but that seemed to make it just a touch more awesome. Well played, sir. :)

Beautiful show I love this one!

For me the tipping point was reading the book Night by Ellie Weasel (probably butchered the spelling) as a freshman in high school two years ago. Reading about the horrors of the Holocaust made me question by belief that God was loving, and that made me look into the "evidence" and actually read the entire bible similarly to the year without God story. I'm glad that I have turned toward skepticism and atheism instead of blind faith. Interestingly, after discussing the idea with my close friends, I found out that all of them pretty much had the same experience as me after reading the book.

Well I caved and got the Nature Box sampler. At first I was like, meh, I'll just cancel it after the sample box comes in, but then once it actually came I was totally converted (pun possibly intended?). They just have so much stuff that looks amazing. Thanks for recommending it, Seth.

i see now my tipping point was the judgment and seperation in the church that i tried to cover in grace for years and even thought that god would not come back until his children were one. this led me to studying the bible more and more to prove that law was not gods way. I settled there for years and didn't rock the boat any more than that. until my husband started demanding better evidence from god and proclaiming that from what he sees god can not be a good all powerful god but a silent non tangible one. i could not deny that my prayers changed nothing but how i feel and so i began to study the reliability of the bible and found little to no evidence outside of my faith, which was shocking to me. the flood gates have been open now and I'm learning more everyday.

38:04 The correct quote is "The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence." - Carl Sagan, Cosmos

Just reading the Bible for myself did it for me, after a gradual disillusionment by personal observations.

I will make this brief. My main tipping point began with the hardest experience of my life, the death of my four year old daughter in 2007 who suffered from brain cancer. I would ask other Christians why my daughter? Their response, "God works in mysterious ways" or "It was in Gods plan". I thought, what about my daughters plan not to die? What about my daughters plan not to suffer? I rationalized it at first that didn't blame God. I thought, well man (humans) brought suffering and death upon themselves with the fall in the Garden of Eden. (to be continued)

@GoodAvatar

9 жыл бұрын

*psychic hug* I'm so sorry, man. That's a terrible thing to happen. I respect your train of thought.

@purami14

9 жыл бұрын

My heart is with you. I hope there will be some peace with time.

I'm so interested in next week's show - back when I went to church I attended a large (1000+ Sunday attendance) church that practiced both Quiverful and taught parenting classes using the Babywise methods. *shudder*

My tipping point was when my foster parenting application was rejected because of my mental health history (I was abused as a child). I thought that I had been "called" to foster/adopt (we're actually going to try again soon) and that because of this, God would "make a way" for me to do these things easily (i.e. "God will give you the desires of your heart"). I felt so betrayed. After all, I did not choose to be abused by my father, so why was I being punished for what he did? I ended up hating God, and so everything fell down from there. And now I identify as non-religious. I'm not out to my family, though. My mother treats non-Christians with utter contempt, so I don't think she will ever forgive me even though I am happier, healthier, stronger, and more confident than I have ever been. I love myself for the first time in my life, no thanks to religion which held me back my whole life. I love how I am now! And I cherish every moment, knowing I will never get it back.

I never had a tipping point since I never believed in a God and all the magic stuff but it is interesting to hear people talk about the point they stopped believing or stopped believing specific parts of their religion.

Mine was when I realized that the concept of "free will" was both upheld and denied by religion at the same time. On the one hand the very son of god had to die because god gave man free will and man chose evil instead of good. But it turns out that the same sacrifice pays the price required to buy free will back, and only by submitting in full obedience to God's precepts, one could be saved. It was the perfect scam.

My tipping point was more of a domino tipping point 1) honestly reading the Bible from the beginning to end and not reading it in bits and pieces 2) researching more about the history of the Bible and how it was composed 3) honestly confronting my doubts that I had for years 4) hearing other deconversion stories 5) listening to atheists and reflecting on what they have said and pointed out regarding religion 6) contemplating what would happen to me if I had been born into a different region of the world what would my religion be. Out of all the thousands of religions how can we tell which is the one true religion?

Great podcast!

It's actually like 40 degrees here in AK. Way too warm for this time of year.

The tipping point for me was actually reading parts of the Bible as a child, around the age of 12. The stories seemed nearly identical to the fantasy novels I was fond of, in terms of factualness. I couldn't understand how everyone believed these stories of magic were history.

My tipping point was when my 2 year old niece sang a 'cute' little song about the second coming. That scared the hell out of me. That was several years ago, And I thought that that looking forward to the end of all things and all problems solved. To be honest I was never really religious, I was nominally christian. My mom raised me right, allowing me to embrace science and reason.

@oldmanfromscenetwentyfour8164

8 жыл бұрын

+J T Peebles There is something about those songs of god and jesus when sung by children that is creepy and scary, almost demonic.

@isodom

8 жыл бұрын

Listened to this. Really hit my nerves with the message. Thankyou.

I had been pretty skeptical from about 12 years old. You know that questioning period in kids where I was asking, "where is the universe? Like in what kind of container is the universe in?" I would get the same kind of response to this question that I got when questioning the 'Noah myth'. So I just went along not believing but not saying anything about it until I was in the Canadian Air Force. I was in officers school and was ordered to attend church. My tipping point, the minister chastized the congregation becuase we were not making large enough donations. He spent most of the time ragging on about giving. I got up and left, never to return.

My tipping point came when I was asking tough questions and was told that I should never look outside of the Bible for the answers I seek. All the answers were in the Bible. Red flag!!!!

@historicalbiblicalresearch8440

6 жыл бұрын

Fred Flintstone Lol. I once to my Shame got duped by a scam. They told us even our best friends would lie to us we should only trust the scam leaders.

Great show! ..and we're all out of bubblegum.

My tipping point was when i was about 9 when i found a fossil and was told that it was millions of years old. Before then from about 6 years old i only thought that it didn't feel right praising an invisible god who didn't seem to do anything.

I was a Mennonite too. Rarely do I meet other Mennonites who are apostates. Thanks for the email that Seth read.

I have half a mind to show this to my parents, to better explain my transition and current position.

I would love find quality jewelry with your logo on them. :) Hard to find atheist pendants that are beautiful and tasteful, I wish there was more on the market for us.

The oldest manuscript we have of Revelation 13 says the number of the beast is 616. I wonder what she would say about that....

holy fuck those were some amazing stories the ones from the teacher and the gay person were especially outstanding for me realizing you are gay is already hard enough, but if you have something like religion telling you that you are an abomination - i can't even imagine i myself am gay, and had/have some real trouble accepting some of the implications i am glad that he and his boyfriends have each other and are happy together!

Oh, little Henry, you will be missed! RIP 1/15/19

"there is no god" has helped me immensly with accepting life and the reality we live in. I dont want to die, I dont like dwelling on death but death happens around me and accepting that there is no supernatural force that watches over me is making it easier to cope with loss and the inevitability of my own shortcomings, failings and ultimate deterioration. You might call it "fatalistic" but I think its just accepting the inevitable. It also makes me focus on the NOW and what I m actually doing with my life. Not in terms of career or becoming rich but enjoying my existance according to the qualities I deem valuable.

I take it for granted never having a tipping point, I was fortunate to have not been indoctrinated into a religion I have been an Atheist my whole life. Even as a little kid I was not even into the whole Santa thing, as a kid I always wondered why adults were lying about this Santa stuff, could never figure that one out. I wish you all well with your conversions. Welcome to the world of free thinking, welcome to reality.

Before i continue the video, i'd like to ask if there is some stuff like this on people that weren't brought up religiously in the first place? I know it sounds a bit strange, but in a world where cities are covered in churches and chapels, even if not brought up with the bible one but has to wonder what might be and what not might be. my own experience is a bit complex, my grandparents on my mother's side were of the watchtower denomination of the christian faith. after 1975 when that 'cult' proclaimed the end of the world in that year, my uncle and my mother left that group of people. My mother hooked up somehow with my father, not going to church or anything, they divorced and my mother remarried (wonderful stuff for a family, yay), which brought back the bible to the equation. At an age of 13 it seems it was too late to catch me. I had enough critical thinking skills to be able to say: no i don't believe the stuff that is written in the bible. I had several months of fights with my step-dad (sorry if my spelling is crap, correct me if i am wrong) and my mother about having to read from this very bible. I did not want to participate in the reading of the bible before every supper. At some point my mother saw what it was doing to me when they tried to force the issue too much and decided to let it go. (for this i am thankful today) Slowly but steadily (not being sure about anything) i grew into the idea of being an atheist. The more i searched, the more i became convinced of my belief there was no god. My idea: there should be some stuff about this that is for the lack of better words: more serious than for example Darkmatter2525's animations. Something that includes people who are searching for answers for themselves, and not just the ones that have fallen from their faith (which seem to denounce it with the biggest fervor, like ex smokers denounce smoking with the same fervor, has to do with self image i believe) cheers and thanks for the works

@Shangori

9 жыл бұрын

I'm someone who has never been brought up religiously. My story: I'm not religious. The end :-P To expand. I have always been an atheist. Always. That never changed. I did have my moments of 'religiosity'. I was always a bit more busy with the idea that 'nature' or the earth itself moved around lifeforce. For the people who have played final fantasy 7, the idea of the lifestream came very close to what I believed. (in short, a kind of new age crap) The idea itself was already there before that game came out tho. And the game reaffirmed my 'believe', in that I clearly wasn't the only one that thought the world could work this way. I don't really know how I got rid of those believes. I think I was simply too emerged in science to really keep a hold to these thoughts for long. I do know that by age 18 I already started disliking religion in general and would only accept things when they had sufficient evidence

@_barm

9 жыл бұрын

I never saw religion in my family while growing up. It was never even an interesting topic to us. I was 30 something years old before I discovered my father was an atheist and my mother was a lapsed catholic. I saw religion around me ...we were an air force family so I saw european religion mostly, I guess you'd say during the formative years. I never seem to have needed to ask those kinds of questions religious people think are being answered by their religion. Where did we come from? Who cares? It's interesting, but how does it affect my decision on what to have for dinner tonight? I suspect that religion itself teaches you that you need to know things, you know: inflict the malady then offer the cure. I don't know is a good answer to lots of questions.

@mpnbackup2613

9 жыл бұрын

I was brought up in a religious household, going to church every week until I was 10. I never paid attention in church and never believed what I was told. In Sunday school I was very interruptive, asking awkward questions like "Where did all the water go?" (from Noah's flood) to the teacher. After a couple of years of this (and a fistfight or two with the other children) I stopped participating in Sunday school. When I was in second grade, there was one Monday morning when I was in the car with my mother, waiting for the school bus. I don't remember why, but I mentioned that I didn't want to go to church anymore. I believe I also mentioned that it was boring. She turned to me and angrily yelled at me that refusing the love of God was "EVIL! EVIL! EVIL!" over and over again. It was terrifying. When I first got onto the internet at age 7, I discovered Wikipedia. I finally found a source which helped me with my arguments against going to church (which at that point had become a regular thing) and I started educating myself on religion, philosophy and science (adding to what I learned in school, to be precise) and never looked back. Today I want others who haven't been as lucky as me to be able to learn about the world and see real science. That's why I make videos, though I must disguise myself so I can continue to live here with my parents until I can afford my own place.

@Shangori

9 жыл бұрын

Incredible Igtheist "She turned to me and angrily yelled at me that refusing the love of God was "EVIL! EVIL! EVIL!" over and over again. It was terrifying." Fucking hell... "though I must disguise myself so I can continue to live here with my parents until I can afford my own place" Fucking hell... part 2 Hope you getting close to that own spot there?

@mpnbackup2613

9 жыл бұрын

Shangori Nowhere's close, I'm afraid. I just got a job in September and they're refusing to let me get a driver's license, even though I'm almost 20...

Hitch went to an Anglican church aka C of E. Most schools have some religious education in them even the secular churches.

LOL, great pod cast...FYI...I have my DHCP server issue IP addresses as 6.6.6.XXX...I love your phrase "The Satanic Panic" that is clasic

I was grinning throughout the Monster part. It is part of my future career to design logos like that. Will I get additional jobs if I hide clues in my CV that I'm a satanist? Or will contractors just show me jewish numbers and tell me to hide a 666 in the logo with that? It's important that the target audience (satanists) recognize it, but at the same time you cannot be too obvious. Or maybe, it's my job to propose such things? "Hey guys, speaking with your CEO and checking your energy drinks, I noticed that you guys are into occult satan worship and that satanism is a strong part of your corporate identity. So I snuck it into this design. See the jewish sixes? I've also put a tiny illuminati pyramid in there, can you see it?" My tipping point was the story of Abraham and Isaac. It is personal to me because my mother used to tell me she couldn't have killed her kids even for God, she loved us too much. At the time, like her, I thought that was remarkable. When we had that story in school, I thought I was missing a part. The part that made Abraham look less like a monstrous, delusional piece of vile shit, as I seemed to be the only one who thought so. The teacher (best religion teacher we had) didn't even glance over these fishy parts about the story. He wouldn't discuss it, he needed to tell us how this showed his deep devotion to God, I wondered how God could even consider this asshole, and I thought the test was supposed to be if Abraham would NOT jump to human sacrifice for an unknown voice in his head. But apparently, I was the crazy one. That brought me to first open a real bible and reread the story. And all the others. Read the whole thing several times over and couldn't believe how different it was from my expectations and the way people think it is, or present it to me. The internet was a hail of nails for that coffin.

I don't live in Alaska, I live in Minnesota, so I will still laugh at you for calling that cold xD

I'm from Poland and that what was said is true - THERE EVERYTHING IS ABOUT CHRISTIANITY

Hey NatureBox, can you make a pentagram pretzel? HAHAHAHAHA! Too funny, Seth!

Josh, AZ. Your Makin my day with the idea of remarry your wife. I'm too became atheist later in life. I'm livin as a free human being

Damn God! I miss Hitch too T_T So, first I was following Neil deGrasse Tyson on YT and his radio show www.startalkradio.net , and getting interested in science. It occured to me to ask myself, regarding the questions of cosmic origins and biological evolution, "How do scientists claim to know?" A little research into the methods and tools of science revealed to me that the Biblical creation story was complete bunk, and that the scientists I was always taught to distrust actually knew what they were talking about. A little while later, I encountered Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens on YT, and read Dawkins' books "The Greatest Show on Earth - The Evidence for Evolution" and "The God Delusion", and Hitch's "God is Not Great - How Religion Poisons Everything." Long story short, there is no evidence for God (of any flavor), and the character's an asshole anyways. Nobody goes around wishing that Lord Voldemort was real, why would you do it for God?

@jenniferbrewer5370

6 жыл бұрын

Maybe I could miss Hitchens too if he hadn't been a right-wing conspiracy nut and complete misogynist.

Atheist sleepless in Seattle over here, such a sweet story! :-)

For me my absolute tipping point came at age 8, when I discovered Santa wasn't real. There were just too many parallels to me with Santa and God. I was pretty close to asking my mom if Jesus was fake when she told me Santa was, but I knew it was a bad idea. I want raised very Christian at all, but when the idea of atheism came up my parents threatened to throw me on the street.

Like Hitchens I began to disbelieve the teachings from the nuns as early as first and second grade. So many things they would say I thought was wrong, such as anyone who wasn't catholic was going to hell. I remember looking around at my classmates and wondering if they believed this stuff too. There were so many things over the years that made me realize it was all a made up fantasy.

That letter you read was so incredibly eloquent and engaging. Is it available online anywhere?

@re_mango

9 жыл бұрын

Sorry, I'm referring to the first letter :-)

I don't have a great story. I got lazy and wanted to sleep in on sunday after a while. I hated wearing the whole tie and dress clothes get-up. I went through the typical teenaged angst at 13 and didn't want to be around family, crap like that. Luckily it got me to thinking "why do I even bother going?" I never really believed, I only went for my dad and grandparents. My mom never went with us and never pushed it on me and I lived with her. She turned out to be agnostic until I told her I was an atheist. She was convinced she's actually atheist after that. My sister is still LDS/mormon and doesn't like talking about it. She is close minded and refuses to debate it. It is sad.

Mine was when I was 13 at a church event listening to tell tale talking about Jehovah's Witnesses or something it was one of the videos on cults and I realized that the stuff that he was describing was very similar to the stuff that was around me which got me questioning a lot more and from that point on I just sorta went deeper into the rabbit hole and I'm better off for it now

@panda_pumpkin2725

6 жыл бұрын

But I had been questioning for a while before that

My tipping point was Nature Box.

THEY LIVE is a GREAT movie! It says "THIS IS YOUR GOD" on the money, haha.

After listening g your podcasts. I have come to the conclusion that a majority of the humans on this planet who are ensconced in religion are basically children with adult bodies and that is a chilling thing considering that a small percentage of these people and they can decide the fate of humankind. It is really unnerving.

I laugh so hard every time you talk about your animals!

I was always kind of doubtful if any god and or gods existed but my tipping point was when I realized that no true, loving, and just god would damn someone to eternity in "hell" for being born a certain way. You see I used to also believe being gay was a choice people made. But then I realized that with the exception of the few who "experiment," Gay people are in fact born gay. This is what made be come to the definite conclusion in my mind that there cant be a god. And if a god that would torture someone for eternity for the way HE supposedly made them, by the way, then that is no god I would want to serve ANYWAY.

27:12 Someone actually said that? Green is my least favorite color. As in a color I generally despise. The only time I even once owned ANYTHING with it was as a kid when I had a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (one from the original series of course) t-shirt and a Michaelangelo toy but even then the shirt was mostly reddish/orange with only parts of the turtles obviously being green. Oh, and the Pokémon versions whose cartridges were green. Other than those instances where the color wasn't the focus anyway green is a terrible color. I prefer fall/winter when most trees are no longer green for that reason too. I have a small photography part of me and it's ALWAYS winter when I go at it because nothing interests me with all the trees around most of the year.

To be fair I have never been religious. Born in to a secular family and born arguing. Religion has always seemed to me to be absurd bordering on dangerous. I do however feel so awful hearing people's individual experiences escaping religion. Heartbreaking traumas and so damaging what belief does

“What does God need with a Starship?”, said Captain James T Kirk

When and at what percentage of atheists did Europe tip to secular?

Walking with my Catholic School girl friend past her church, she said, why would anyone believe in an invisible god? Guess we where around 13 at the time. I agreed with her that it was preposterous. That was all it took. Though throughout the years it would have been right handy to have a god to ask for help but that was a waste of energy. Had my cry and got on with life. I'm not an atheist, I subscribe to the notion of being Diane my own Deity. Self Reliance is my credo. Ever wonder why women have been subjugated? We once ruled. To keep the slaves in bondage, women had to be forcefully restrained. Not negating the ability of some men to have intuition, but women have it in spades due to using a different parts of the brain that men do. I can hear a man's thoughts at a distance and have it confirmed. Sorry to say, they can no hear me.

When I was still religious I would try and find the devil in everything. (mostly song lyrics) Today I still catch myself thinking, if the devil sung the opening song to victorious (the nickelodeon show) it would have a completely different meaning. My tipping point was when my mom started calling me the Devils son and denouncing that she birthed me, because she couldn't have a non Christian son.

@lilkitten545

9 жыл бұрын

wow :/ I'm sorry that your mom's that crazy, thankfully even though my dad is a bit religious, he doesn't go to church but he believes in it all, they let me decide for myself if I wanted a religion or not and didn't force it on me, unfortunately I chose Islam for a few years (even lived in a muslim country) because of my ex, and you can imagine that's more crazy and it made me more crazy than any other religion could have, now I'm agnostic atheist, a lot more accepting of other people and happier.

I had to sit through 10 minutes to find out that the title refers to the tipping point for individuals, not society.

If only the Monster doomsayer lady meme came up before Halloween... Think about the costumes that would from that!

♥

That story nearing the end about the gay individual...ugh. Such unnecessary suffering. Glad it worked out in the end for them.

When my church ignored me because of my disability. Treated me like a witness opportunity instead of an equal

The televengalist who claimed in the 1980's, god would call him home unless his viewers donated (I think) $7 million dollars in seven days was what tipped me over. I tried reading the bible after that, I could not believe anything I read. I saw it as a bunch of mythological stories, and not anything else. I've been an atheist ever since.

@blackice9088

5 жыл бұрын

Thank you for that information.

Silly Putty god. Great phrase!

If you drink a Monster energy drink with a straw you don't have to tip it upside down, a safe way to drink it for Christians.

I wonder when Bibles will come with an extra book in them - The Book of Apologetics - for added convenience. After all, if it's their goal to turn people into sheep, you could do worse than telling them precisely what everything they're reading _actually_ means.