Ex Catholic - Blog Posts

You are my favorite blog on this site. Also as a fellow ex-Catholic, I have a question. What was the metaphor that your church used for purity and virginity? Mine was a rose with plucked petals.

The rose with plucked petals was definitely one but I also heard a tape metaphor where having multiple partners was akin to sticking a piece of tape to mulitple different surfaces. Obviously the tape would lose its effectiveness and ability to stick to anything and somehow that meant you too would lose the ability to bond with your partner if you had a few sexual partners before them. From what I can remember, there seemed to be more of an emphasis on outright implying that you were dirty and used up if you lost your virginity rather than using analogies or metaphors.

Black Friday/Good Friday is coming up which means it’s time to blast Judas on repeat!!!

it's really weird having a first dog be blind and then getting a second who can see...like how was I supposed to be prepared for this.

this creature can perceive when I put the treats up on the high shelf. or when I hide stuff behind my back. I can't fool her!! she's always watching me and she shouldn't have this much knowledge!!!

I walk around at night and I shine my flash light directly into her eyes and I'll just be standing there staring at her weird blue orbs for like 5 seconds until I realize it's probably extremely annoying to her, because she has eyes!! I'll turn on the light in the room and she gruffs and grumbles like ?? oh right!! light wakes you up!! the fuck??

Just saw another "if you hurt people because of your faith you don't really have any faith" post, and wanted to point out once again that this weird thing we do where we pretend that "real" religion is incapable of doing harm isn't doing us any favors. Of course people with "real" faith can hurt people! Christians beat their queer kids because they have real faith that being queer gets you tortured forever after you die, and that beating kids is a 100% god-approved activity! India's beef vigilantes kill their Muslim neighbors because they have real faith that cows are sacred animals that shouldn't be killed!

Stop this No True Scotsman shit! All it does is cede the moral high ground in every situation to religious belief, automatically agreeing that religion makes you a better person, and anything that makes you a worse person can't be religion.

im sorry reddit made atheism cringe for your or whatever but i'd take an annoying atheist over a weirdo esoteric christofascist any day

Actually, ex-Christians have earned the right to make fun of Christianity. It comes free with the religious trauma.

I can’t think of nothing more cruel than forcing a woman to gestate the child of a rapist because you believe that your imaginary omnipotent friend will be angry otherwise. It’s barbaric.

Hopefully this isn’t something that happens outside of the internet, but i wanna say that no matter how much you’ve been hurt by religion or religious people, do NOT sexualize women who practice modesty for religious purposes, even if it’s out of spite. I saw this going around online and their excuses are always related to their religious trauma regarding purity culture.

I know they have a grudge and many of us do, but sexualizing them only causes harm and does absolutely nothing to criticize religion. I’ve seen (mostly male) atheists who would edit photos of modest religious women (including hijabis and nuns) to put them in clothing that they would never be comfortable in. The sexualization is misogyny disguised as criticism of religion.

Don’t let them make you feel guilty.

“Not to shade religious people but it’s kinda chilling how some folks praise Abraham for being willing to kill Isaac for God to prove his devotion. Like idk about y’all, but if God told me to kill my son i’d kinda be like maybe this isn’t the god for me.”

Religion prioritizes submission, devotion, obedience, blind faith, etc. so it’s obvious what that tale was trying to do. They’re telling the followers that they will be rewarded for putting their god above any other.

“You must submit, but you have to do it willingly (like Abraham), forced submission is the same as no submission.”

They’re portraying this behavior as something to be praised and something to strive for. Abrahamic religions only give the illusion of “choice”. The tale is used to keep the followers in line while making them think that they’re admirable and worthy of praise because they chose to submit.

Kids who were called "one of the most deep spiritual thinkers I've seen" by their pastors are all apostates now

Soooo true

Someone i know even admitted that the only reason he’s a zionist is out of fear of “God’s Wrath”.

Listen, i dont mean to sound like a reddit atheist, but... You ever think about how evangelical Chriatians very literally believe that there will be a genocide in which billions of humans, mostly just innocent everyday people, are condemned to suffer in hell?

And, like, that's the end. That's the finale. Of everything they believe. That's their solution for the world. A final one, if you will.

And they don't rebel. They don't say "hey, wait, that's a bit much" and appeal to their God to maybe reconsider. They don't even seem to really mind.

Instead, they worship. They conjure up an image of a genocidal maniac, and they worship it. The word "praise" is bandied about a lot. Praise. For a leader whose endgoal, very transparently, is genocide.

Suddenly a lot of history makes a little more sense.

Jeanie Tomanek, Assumptions

im literally forever obsessed with this because it implies the following:

The Rapture, as described by Christian Evangelicals, has happened

Parents witnessed their son disappear during The Rapture, but remained atheists anyway (based)

Instead of sinners and nonbelievers going to hell or getting killed, they just... stay on Earth.

In the country i live in, christianity is not the dominant religion, and it’s pretty crazy how the christians always mention religious freedom when another religion tries to convert them, yet the same people would then go around harassing non-christians and trying to convert them.

The worst part is they always target people who are at a low point in their life where they’re desperate and vulnerable. Not surprised though, the bible basically told them to force others to convert under the belief that they’re “saving” people from the eternal abyss of hell or whatever.

I also find it weird how hypocritical they are in general and not just on this specific manner, like how they cherry pick which rules to follow on the bible, like not getting tattoos for example and then they go off wearing mixed fabric (which is apparently forbidden.)

I think it’s weird how there’s a double standard when it comes to atheists. So if i tell a religious person that i’m atheist, they’ll start interrogating me about my life. They would just assume that my atheism is because of some trauma that happened to me.

And then they would assume that atheists know everything about the universe. They would show you a phenomenon or whatever and tell you to explain it. And if you don’t know, they’ll think it’s a “gotcha” moment. Yet they allow it when people who identify with their religion barely know anything about it.

Like you can’t expect an atheist to debate with you anytime. We’re not omnipotent. We don’t know every single thing about the world, just like they don’t know every single thing about their religion. They’re holding us on a higher standard. And the reason is obvious.

For me it was moral perfectionism, i would constantly feel like i'm evil and immoral. I would sometimes become a doormat and let others push me around for the sake of that sweet, sweet, moral high ground. And back when i was religious, i would cope with others pushing me around by thinking "they'll be going to hell anyways".

Open discussion: has anyone dealt with perfectionism that most likely came from years of religious trauma?

Religious conservatives love talking about trans people “mutilating their genitals” and then go off to circumcise their children without their consent 😇

Private celebration in my bedroom during a voice call with friends ended when i got forced to attend church for the new years. How memorable. What a terrific way to start the new years. Please do keep preaching about eternal torture while everyone else is having the time of their lives.

*dips my balls in the holy water font*

This blog is a space for apostates/ex-religious, self-proclaimed heretics/heathens, secular/irreligious celibates.

With this blog, i post and reblog topics related to severing my ties with god and religion.

Growing up as religious, I was taught that my purpose is to get married, reproduce, and increase the population of believers, which i reject.

I’m on a journey to find meaning through philosophy and celibacy, without needing to depend on relationships or religion to have purpose in life and find individuality.

hi all, this is oddly specific but a friendly reminder to check up on your queer/trans friends with catholic backgrounds today!

the pope is dead. there are varying feelings going around this, but many of us are scared because pope franics was honestly relatively considerate of the lgbtq+ community (for a pope), and the next pope is not super likely to be, which affects way more than you'd think in some religious communities and households.

sending love to all 🤍

how about a spritz of queer religious trauma induced lyrical analysis for your day ?!?!??!

you down? GREAT read on 🌼

*NOTE - this is not the interpretation anybody probably intended from this song, this is just my own personal joy found in it*

here are some lyrics from the song hallelujah, specifically the jeff buckley cover (not that it matters but.. it does):

I am a queer woman who was raised in the church and now has an ambiguous relationship with religion as a whole. And man, these LYRICS!! They fill my soul.

"Baby, I've been here before / I've seen this room and I've walked this floor"

I see this partially as a call to younger queer people, as an "it gets better, ive been there". But I also see this as a message towards those who are currently religious. I was deeply pious at one point in my life (before a lot of thinking and feeling went down). I know how.. everything works. I was you. I understand your church more than you know. Don't exclude me or cast my feelings to the side because I am not involved in it anymore.

"You know, I used to live alone before I knew you"

My journey through religion (and out of it) was a very, very introspective and intense one. Walking out on that felt like living alone. Learning independence and identity was a grueling, but beautiful thing (and heck, I still am).

"And I've seen your flag on the marble arch, and love is not a victory march.

I've been to a few pride parades and love them- this is not a dig at pride for me. It's a recognition that everything is... so much deeper than pride. Pride is what happens when you are alone at night and telling yourself that you are, truly, okay for being queer. Pride is what happens when you hold your partners hand in public despite being scared. Pride is wearing what you want because it makes you feel good. It's little. Not explosive. (Most of the time).

It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah.

Pride is to be found in exhales of air, sweat, blood, and tears. It is filled with hardship- with the screams of protests that have gone on longer than we've been alive. The most human hallelujah is not a sweet one. It's the sigh of relief when you come out to somebody and they dont.. leave your life forever. It's the trauma that comes from years, and years, and years of hiding and fear and hatred. And the realization that you have survived and you stand here still today to continue fighting. THAT is hallelujah. And some may never understand. But you do.

the proposal

Saturday morning daydreams

Of hands around my waist

It was never his, eventually hers

Interlaced

And I used to long to be

The man behind the ring

Told myself "another lifetime"

..yet another thing

The subtleties will get you

Dangerous darkened yearning

A "crush" on him, but really her

The cause of passion burning

And though your attempts are many

It will all be in vain-

You'll find hiding entirely unfruitful

Become tired of the game

Knowing one day eighty candles will be blown

Looking back on your life

With no desire to conceal

The angel you call your wife