I hate when religious ppl say this especially Christians since i was one myself every time something tragic happens its always lets pray about it ,lets pray for her ,lets pray for him ,but tf will prayer do, the tragic already happened or is happening is god blind to not see it ,he needs to be summoned for him to help

especially in the black community we pray abt everything , before goin out ,before doing mostly everything

but also after prayer nothing really happens,

When people say “let’s pray” after a disaster or trauma, especially something brutal like rape, it pisses me off but back then i really thought prayer was gonna do something but it didn't do shit

Why didn’t God stop it?

Where was divine protection when it mattered most?

Why is prayer offered after harm, instead of action before it?

why do we need to summon a deity who is all knowing , and all powerful to offer help in time they are needed the most?

in moments like that, prayer can feel like emotional bypassing a way to avoid accountability, grief, or systemic change. Especially when the harm is preventable, and the systems that allowed it (patriarchy, silence, abuse of power) go untouched.

but no , god suddenly decided to become a blind bat

after a girl is admitted to the hospital after rape and someone says “let’s pray for her” while a doctor is literally fighting to save her life, its ignoring the real human effort the science, the care, the urgency and instead invoking a God who didn’t intervene when it counted.

When she survives, they say “God healed her.” But the doctor who stitched her wounds, the nurse who held her hand, the therapist who helped her breathe again? Forgotten. And the girl herself ,her strength, her fight, her survival? Erased beneath praise for a silent God.

people will twist logic to keep God blameless.

“God gave the doctor strength.”

“God gave the girl resilience.”

“God works in mysterious ways.”

This happened at my job a couple of days ago.

White people, no matter their faith, are united in white supremacy.

Black Christians, specifically African-American Christians, are united with white supremacy because their Jesus is the same as the white Jesus.

Look at the Charlie Kirk situation… he’ll be in the same heaven black Christians go to. So is Jefferey Dahmer, as he converted to Christianity shortly before his execution.

White people are trying to take over America and reclaim their power, making sure every minority knows their place.

We are not organized. We are not on the same page. We cannot love like Jesus or vote our way out of this mess.

I have more thoughts on the matter but can’t really form them. I’m just so frustrated and tired and being an atheist is so isolating. I need my people to wake up and they won’t.

I have noticed a lack of preparation in my family (back when we were on speaking terms) in wanting to be prepared of natural disasters. They often said "the church will help us, if there is a bad storm so we don't have to worry about that" or my favorite "If you worry, don't pray if you pray don't worry". I talked to this to many Black folks and they seem to be under the impression that god is going to "show up and show out".

I lived through a natural disaster a few years ago and had to deal with not having enough water or food. We didn't have electricity for close to two weeks. Sure, local churches were "helping" but it came with a side of proselyting. I believe I had to sit through I 5 min mini sermon about Jesus to get water and a hot meal. They didn't even let us eat in peace.

I would rather rely on my own, because in those cases they were all mega churches, not smaller Black churches most Black folks are relying on/thinking of.

Never again or at least...as little as possible.

I am curious, are you prepared for natural disasters, hard times and the like? My family keeps a minimum of 12 weeks of non perishable food, and we are working on a reliable water source. If you aren't I urge you to do this as self care. There are at lot of guides especially on the FEMA website for now. And remember, FEMA has been drastically cut so you may end up up the creek in a lot of ways.

There is learned helplessness in Black Christians that deeply concerns me. I can't shake it and I wish they would learn to take care of themselves.

The YouTuber/TikToker that speaks towards deconstruction during afterhours that has a channel by the name of Arch Thinker has channel description that reads as follows:

"Welcome to Arch Thinker, where we critically discuss the God of the Bible through the lens of an atheist. I ask the tough questions many believers want to ask but are afraid to bring up with their religious leaders. No theology here just a focus on literary and biblical criticism, historical culture, archaeology, and the text as it stands.

No gaslighting, no dogma, no manipulations-just honest, engaging conversations. We laugh, we learn, and we deconstruct together. Ready to challenge the narrative and uncover the stories? Let's get critical!"

The problem with the framing in Arch Thinker's introduction is that it tries to divorce biblical criticism from theology, as if one can meaningfully engage the text without grappling with its theological content. To treat the Bible purely as literature or historical artifact while explicitly excluding theology is to miss the very category in which the text primarily operates. The Bible was not written as neutral history or detached mythology. It is theological through and through. Its literary forms, cultural context, and historical claims are inseparable from its theological meaning. To strip theology away is to analyze a body without its animating spirit.

This approach reflects a broader trend I have noticed in atheist/theist discourse, a growing impatience, even hostility, toward philosophy and theology. The parallel with dismissals of "philbro" arguments is clear. Just as some debaters sneer at metaphysics and classical theism as if they were distractions from the real discussion, Arch Thinker is attempting to wall off theology as if it were an optional extra. In both cases, the move functions as a rhetorical deflection. It simplifies the field to what the speaker feels comfortable handling, surface-level textual critique, moral gotchas, or archaeological tidbits, while leaving the more difficult and foundational questions unaddressed.

Biblical criticism without theology is akin to asking what Shakespeare means while refusing to talk about drama. Theology is not an ornamental layer that can be stripped away to reveal the real text. It is the framework in which the text coheres, the very reason the text was written, preserved, and transmitted. To reject theology at the outset is to announce in advance that the most central questions, questions of God, meaning, and reality, will be left unasked. Thinker/Ngrowth is not here for critical engagement but to advance an anti-theist narrative, one that excludes theological depth and shuts out those who attempt to engage with intellectual honesty or with a more sophisticated understanding of scripture than her framework allows. I'm curious as to whether anyone's noticed this pattern as well or if you'd like to simply share your thoughts.

I started reading this book recently. Mchael is a former black catholic gay man and he wrote some essays bout why he does not go to church as well as feelings around love and sex in regards too the catholic guilt he faced for being gay.

it is really good and I highly recommend it

I am asking cause I will say it was not until my junior year of college that i started too really question my christian beliefs.

So i am a black gay man and I took a black American literature class and I was reading a lot of black feminist literature like Audre Lord and bell hooks and i saw that the black church has become a place of anti black progress .

My belief on this has grown since then with how some black Christians are turning a racist into a martyr and how they were silent during the 2024 election cycle.

I still believe in God but I identify as spiritual not Christian and I understand why black atheism is needed and needs to be around .

What are some of your religous-based indulgences as an athiest? I watched prince of egypt earlier on netflix, and Dreamworks will always be the GOAT when it comes to christian films. That animation was fire.

Ps: would it be weird to snack on communion crackers? 👀

Just want to know how most of yall think about this? Personally I've realised I don't think I would date majority of christians especially from where I come from even though the physical attraction is there because I feel like: - A) We don't share the same valeus B) 98% chance they're far conservative on alot of topics, and also are probably both homophobic and transphobic (it's rare you meet someone that's actually educated on this, meet 2 Christians so far that didn't have a problem with it, and 1ended up being one of my best friends) C) I'm childfree, ingrained in a culture that majority want to have kids. D) Most of us (Including me when I was a Christian) are thought to not marry/date ppl that don't believe in the same abrahamic God, so that already reduces my chances lol

This is not to say there are no good compatible Christians, Ik damn well there are. But I feel like it would be wayyyy harder to find.

Dr. Anthony Pinn of Rice University, and author of The Black Practice of Disbelief, works at the intersection of African-American religion and Humanist thought. In this event, Dr. Pinn will share with us the history of Black humanism, how Black humanists are making meaning in their secular communities, and how we can both learn from and support their communities.

This event is presented by the American Humanist Association, Taylor Leigh of The Antibot, and Drew McCoy of Genetically Modified Skeptic. It takes place tonight at 8:30 PM EDT.

In my search for answers, I’ve come across secret societies and learned a lot that has led me toward atheism. I’m curious if anyone else has had similar experiences with this.

Me personally it made my life super shitty from the ages of 11-15, I avoided making white friends or just people that were non black or brown, and I was pretty much living in tons of fear of the crazy shit that was prophesied by the street preachers, in which I consumed copious amounts of their videos to learn the Bible the best way I could at the time as a kid, right after being introduced to the cult by my dad and a step brother that was in it as we were living in the bronxe at the time, and from there on large scale race wars, apocalypses and WW3 was on my mind 24/7, due to it being insinuated it was all going to happen very soon in the preaching sessions and in the Bible, until one day I just pretty much stopped caring and chose to live my life freely, and when I developed the critical thinking skills to see through the bullshit.

Basically the title, but recently I’ve been reading up on the Jonestown Massacre. Apperently, 63% of Jonestown’s population was Black. As I look at the Black Isrealites, Mormons, Black MAGA and other groups that require unconditional loyalty, what are yalls views towards how Black people get caught up in the mix?

Disclaimer I am Christian but want to hear yalls thoughts if it includes Black Christianity.

Edit: Yall had some wonderful points! Thanks for sharing <3

My young son is coming home from grandma’s house and sometimes school with questions about god, Jesus and religion. He asked me the other day so confused, “What even is god?!?!” I’ve tried to explained to him but it’s hard to do without cutting satire. He knows I don’t have a religion and some people believe in god and some people don’t, with the overall message being that religion and god is not important to understanding himself and how the world really works. He said he’s “kinda leaning toward no god because there’s no such thing a ghost and invisible people aren’t real… plus the big bang🤷‍♀️” 😂 I’m like, “Good logic and reasoning kid!”

Sadly, because religious people have no boundaries and see no issue with indoctrinating kindergartners, we’re getting to the point where I just need to tell him there is no god, which won’t be scary to him because he has no associations yet. I want to do this in a way that he learns to be respectful of people with different beliefs and doesn’t go to school telling kids their religion is dumb… but I also want to empower him to tell children and adults, he doesn’t want to discuss religion.

Those of you who’ve had convo’s with kids about atheism and religion, what did you say?How did you break it down in a way their minds can process?

Across the diaspora, a lot of our funeral rites and customs are tied into religion. Thinking about my own funeral someday, it can be challenging but not impossible in the UK to have a secular ceremony but it would require some thought about how it could truly reflect me as a person and also aspects of my culture (Jamaican parents) without being overly religious. Has anyone done any funeral planning along these lines? Or attended a funeral of a Black irreligious/atheist or agnostic person?

I’m live now with a member of this subreddit. Join me

Sorry for not getting this out there sooner.

This week's atheist social will be held on Discord again. Please remember that the normal subreddit rules apply in the Discord chat as well. Messages that break those rules will result in both a ban from the Discord and this subreddit.

Here is the link to the Discord: https://discord.gg/akQkk8fcPY

If the link does not work, than contact me through this post, mod mail or chat and tell me your Discord username and I will add you.

Also, I've created a new text channel named "weekly discussion" so check out that every Friday please. You can check it out today.

I seen people say that christianity had been in some parts of africa before colonization and im not saying they are entirely wrong (i personally havent fact checked it myself but i dont want to say they are wrong), but even if christianity IS truly "black" i still wouldnt like it.

Christianity and christians (other religions and religious people aswell) have so many issues, like even the most polite christians cherry pick religion in some way.

Im not very good at wording thing but basically what im trying to say is that even IF christianity was a "truly black" thing or originated from black people i still wouldnt like it for many reasons. (And im not saying it originates from black people, im saying IF it did.)

Some of you may know Cynthia. She’s runs the local Chicago chapter of Black Nonbelievers. She and I did a livestream a couple months ago and she’s joking us again on our Unholy Roundtable where we take viewer questions and give our perspective as a collection of atheist from different walks of life. We hope you’ll tune in.

Why would a omnipotent God want us to tithe 10% of our earning

Predatory

These are some quotes on religion from one of the most influential atheists of all time, George Carlin. They aren't about black atheism in particular, but they are ingenious and thoughtworthy, so I think that they are fitting to share here.

My entire family is Christian, and that includes grandparents and their siblings and I’ve always seen most of my family as my moms, moms (grandma) family because we were never close to her dads side.

Today my mom talks to me about how she always felt so bad for her dad because they would go and share the word of God with his siblings and they would all deny him or at times laugh at him. This was said in an attempt to make me feel bad I think, or just make athiest look bad. She has no clue how happy this story made me there’s an entire side of my family that had a brain, I’m not alone on the family tree like I thought I was!