I’ve been an atheist for 14ish years now, and, in the time since I stopped believing, I’ve seen hundreds, probably thousands of social media posts from friends, family, and former church-mates that talk about Jesus Christ, God, hell, sin, etc.
You name it, I’ve seen it.
And for 14 years, I’ve pretty much stayed quiet on my personal social media about my lack of belief.
I did make an “I’m an atheist” post in 2020, but I’ve never really commented on anyone else’s status about the lord.
But recently I’ve been more vocal when I see posts from friends and family.
A former coworker of mine who is now a Jesus Freak posted during Pride Month about the rainbow (of course). This is what he posted:
Something about it just struck me wrong.
Obviously, this wasn’t the first time that I had seen a post like this, but I think it’s just because I have a sister who is gay… and she spent a large chunk of her life having to suppress that because of religion.
So, I replied with this:
And, of course, he wasn’t a huge fan of my reply, so here’s the exchange that followed:
Surprisingly, he didn’t unfriend me after that.
I spoke out again recently when a family friend posted this:
My response:
“If you want an honest answer from a nonbeliever, I can provide that for you.
Many of us (in the Bible Belt, especially) have Jesus shoved in our faces from a very young age.
We’re told that if we don’t believe, we will suffer, be sent to hell, etc
We watch most of our friends and families post about Jesus on social media frequently and talk about how we all need him.
Telling others that they should follow rules from a god they don’t believe in is why some people feel the need to speak out against religion and mock.
If people want to be Christians, that’s cool. Just don’t expect the rest of us to be steamrolled by those beliefs.
If you say “My religion says I can’t do (xyz),” that’s fine.
If you say “My religion says YOU can’t do (xyz),” there’s where the issues come in.
I have no issue with people believing in their gods, but maybe this will help to understand a nonbeliever’s perspective.”
The reply I got back was not from the original poster but her husband, and he basically implied that I hadn’t sought God hard enough and that we can talk anytime I want, so that he can tell me about how real Jesus is. Pass.
The most recent Facebook post I replied to was another one from a family member who shared a video of a girl responding to the question “Why do you tell other people about god?”
Prepare yourself. It’s a doozie.
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My reply was this:
“It’s a bad analogy, in my opinion.
In her example, the snake is physically there. There’s evidence of a snake.
There is no evidence for hell.
And, no matter how many different times or ways she says the she knows, she doesn’t. It’s a belief. It’s an opinion.
Her saying it’s the truth doesn’t make it the truth.
Me saying that my favorite color is blue is a bit different from someone claiming that they know the creator of everything, don’t you think?
It sucks knowing that so many people around you think you’re going to hell due to their beliefs that aren’t based in anything factual 😕
People of other religions claim to “know” that their gods are real. Does that make them right? They could make the same argument.
If her analogy were more accurate, the snake would be invisible, and she would always think it’s in the backyard.”
My girlfriend put it even better than I did. She said “The snake isn’t even invisible; people have only told you that it exists.” *chef’s kiss*
The response I got back was “It hurts that you feel this way about us.”
What?!
I’m just talking about the dumb analogy. And you absolutely think I’m going to hell if I don’t give my life to Christ, so where is the lie? I should be the one who’s hurt. Ugh.
Anyway…
Return of the Pod
If you were subscribed to this Substack last week, then you know I’m bringing the Jesus Unfollower podcast back! And the new episode is out now.
It will likely contain a lot of the same stuff that is in this newsletter, but definitely some extra. Give it a listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcasts!
The Ex-Christian Community
I’ve been creating content as Jesus Unfollower for over 3 years. It started as a way for me to be able to vent about my frustration about Christianity without anyone in my life knowing about it.
It was October 2019, and only a few people in my life knew that I’d been an atheist for the past 10 years. As someone living in the Bible Belt, most of the people around me were pretty staunch Christians.
As I began creating silly memes on Instagram, I started getting comments and DMs about how my content really helped people who were going through faith deconstruction or had experienced adverse religious experiences in their lives.
I’ve had people DM me to say that they like my content, but they can’t follow me because people would see and start to ask them questions.
I’ve been wanting to create some kind of private community for ex-Christians for a while now. Social media is great, but we’re all subject to algorithms; we don’t see half the stuff that we want to see, plus, it’s not easy to have conversations in DMs and comments sections.
Not every conversation has to involve me, so I’ve wanted to have a place where ex-Christians can connect with each other…a place where people can post about what they’re going through and others can respond. A private community, free from trolls and those who invalidate our experiences.
I thought about a Facebook group, but people can still infiltrate those, plus a lot of people hate Facebook, and, again, we’d be subject to any changes that platform makes.
I also thought about Discord (and had a server for a bit), but Discord feels too jumbled for me. Lots of notifications and jumping from server to server…and it feels impersonal. Maybe I sound like an old man, but I want something different from that.
So, I created the Ex-Christian Community on the Circle platform.
In addition to getting a private community, it’s also a chance for people to support the work that I do for just $5/month because I do pour in several hours per day making content and responding to comments and DMs.
I appreciate you taking the time to read this, and I hope that you join!
P.S. You don’t have to be an ex-Christian to join. Anyone who never was a Christian but doesn’t believe or is questioning is also welcome.
Until next week, let logic and reason guide the way!
Kevin
Let me begin with a disclaimer:I'm a Christian. If that means you don't want to read this comment, that'a fine there was your disclaimer, Jesus loves you. I subscribed to hear other people's opinions and beliefs, and don't normally comment, but I wanted to clear up something.
I'm pretty sure the tik tok is attempting to debate a different point then you (though I will agree she's doing it very poorly, plus I only watched the beginning bc I had heard the analogy before). She's trying to debate the reason that we tell people about our religion and the love of jesus, not about the rules. I agree that you shouldn't have people come up to you and go "hey, I have a magic book and a funny feeling in my tummy that proves it, and it says you shouldn't do this". We as christians tend to forget that, that is not only not what the bible says, but ends up turning more people off of Christianity than just about anything else.
A better analogy for the love of Jesus would be that you have an alleged cure for cancer, that you used on yourself to prove it works. If you had that, you wouldn't hide it, you would want to tell EVERYONE as you just found a way to save lives. That being said, it's an untested drug, that you only have word of mouth evidence for, so some people don't want to take it. You wouldn't shove the drug down their throat without there consent (at least you shouldn't) but you absolutely would go up to every person you can and say "HEY! I found this drug, and I can't explain it, but the cancer that I had is gone. I can't force you to take this drug, but I would be a horrible person if I didn't at least try to convince you too take it".
The reason we as christians try to tell everyone about our faith is because we found a joy that we want to share with EVERYONE, because we all have a metaphorical cancer, being darkness, depression, addiction, anxiety, or whatever you personally struggle with and Jesus' love can cure it.
Thank you for reading this. If you want to debate, or ask questions on any of this, my email is jwkannel@gmail.com.
May the Lord bless you and keep you.
I always enjoy your emails. Very glad that your hard work has paid off for many people to reject their indoctrination. Thanks. Concerning the post from a family friend about the spirituality debate. So much there annoyed me.
“He is coming back some time unknown to man”:
Clearly this person only knows the indoctrination, has never read the texts carefully or thought for himself. Jesus preached that judgment day would happen during the lifetimes of his disciples and other priests, That generation (generation of people he was talking to) all over Matthew, Mark and Luke. This expectation of the imminent destruction of their oppressors, the Romans, by their god was common at the time, not even original to Jesus. This is why Jesus said to sell everything you own and provide the poor, come with him and leave their families. These events were to happen very soon. He described the events such as stars falling to Earth and the moon turning red, the arrival of the son of man to earth with his angels, judgement day where all men would be judged, and then told his disciples that some standing there would not taste death before all these events happened or that these events would happen that generation. Jesus was wrong, never happened. Even Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15, believed judgement day was imminent. A verse often quoted says the precise hour or day is not known, Jesus said during that Generation it would happen. Later Christians realized Jesus was wrong and adapted Ancient Greek Fiction of souls (Socrates & Plato 400 BC) & afterlives (Homer’s Odyssey 700 BC) into the Christian tenet that a person’s disembodied soul would go to heaven/hell when they die. Souls were popularized by Socrates/Plato 400 BC. They admitted they could be wrong. They had zero knowledge of brain physiology, only imagination.
“Greatest man in history”:
No, perhaps the greatest legend in history. Jesus the legend is sourced from the Jewish man Yeshua. His legend grew from ‘games of telephone’, by science ignorant, magic believing, superstitious, primitive people mixing more ancient fictional ideas, stealing from older religions, telling stories to get others to believe in their version of Jesus.
“He had no army, yet kings feared him”:
No, the Roman emperor of that time had no idea who Jesus was, no third party mentions. The Pharisees feared him.
“No battles, yet He conquered the world”:
Not really in many ways. Christianity holds 31 percent of belief in the world today, hardly conquered. The spread of Christianity is due to a Roman Emperor Constantine, for political reasons of control, and had nothing to do with truth. There was much infighting amongst his empire over religions. His mother was Christian. Christianity had only 10% belief at that time. In 312 CE, Emperor Constantine dictated that Christianity would be the prevailing religion, thus putting the power & gold of the Roman Empire behind it. Constantine is mainly responsible for its spread, and later in 391 CE, Roman Emperor Theodosius outlawed its competitor Paganism. Again to unite their empire, control over people.
“He committed no crime, yet they crucified him”:
Sigh, again wrong. Jesus died for breaking the laws of Rome. Charges were political, sedition against Rome. ‘And Pilate asked him, Art thou the King of the Jews? And he answering said unto him, Thou sayest it”. Placard on the cross said King of the Jews. The Barabbas story is fiction, no such historical precedent existed. Josephus the historian makes no mention of Barabbas. That partly created anti-semitism. The entire Jesus died for your sins was made up by later Christians.
“Yet he lives today”:
Only in the minds of indoctrinated Christians. Religion is propagated over millennia by the indoctrination of naive, trusting children by parents who were also indoctrinated as children. A vicious cycle of deceit for control.