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this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2026
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Probably curious about why I, an atheist, have the Book of Mormon, the Catholic Apocrypha, the Books of Enoch, the Quran, and the standard Bible along with my collection of books on energy healing and astrology.
I mean, in my personal experience, non-believers study religion a lot more than ardent adherents.
hence the distinct lack of affiliation.
Those books all together in one place would tell me you're probably an atheist without even knowing you
My reaction would be "I guess they were well-informed about their choices."
Well-read atheists have more credibility
If an atheist didnt have these I'd consider them a contrarian rather than an atheist. Maybe agnostic but not an atheist, atheists have made an informed decision which you can't do without being informed.
I don't have to read fairy tales to refute that they were real events that actually happened. I would tend to agree with your overall sentiment, but if someone was raised non-religious, had to take history classes, and had a light exposure to different mythological frameworks, I would not say that they are uninformed if they claim to be atheist. I dont have to do a deep dive on Christmas lore to come to the conclusion that Santa is not real.
Went to a religious school and hated everything about the religion. Its awful. Constantly being forced to pray and sing, occasionally having to kneel on a hardwood floor with all your weight on your knees. My knees still hurt thinking about it. Fuck everything about it.
Then I got in trouble for saying I didn't believe in god at the age of like 9 or so. Didn't change my opinion, if anything it reinforced how much I hate religion. But I kept quiet about it to keep out of trouble.
Sorry you went through that. I went through the average American evangelical upbringing on the tail of the "satanic panic". D&D, Pokemon, most television shows, horror movies, certain music, all satanic...Gay people bad, willful women bad, closeted racist predispositions...Evolution and science, wrong...Young earth beliefs...
I bought it all initially because I was not as well educated as I could have been. Luckily, I rolled a high intelligence score, and managed to break out. I look back at that me with disdain and regret, I was a horrible person on religion...
I just read books on everything that I was trained to think was wrong. Evolution fake? Read "On the Origin of Species". Communism is an evil satan movement? read the communist manifesto (did not turn me communist, but at least I understand it). Other religions are wrong? Look into some of their texts, look at them from a historic/mythical lense. Conclusion, religions are myths, and nearly nothing I was told as a kid was as black and white as I thought it was...
Very true.
Even the oldest stories carry something... After reading enough of them though they are totally retelling of the same stuff (at least most of the ones I've perused have been).