Is the mother supposed to be sad about religion being a sham or sad that her child doesn’t believe? The comic is too ambiguous to me because the 1st and 2nd panel heavily imply a caricature of atheism often spread by religious people who feel powerless in their own lives.

That sounds like a wonderful journey of reflection.

My personal view is that hope as a foundation is complete bullshit. My foundation is, in the most positive version of nihilism, "ultimately, nothing matters." I look at it as a clean slate. You get to decide what is important to you and persue it! I study all of nature to find purpose or meaning. I take joy in human ingenuity. I take sorrow in callousness. I appreciate what I have and want better for everyone.

Hope is a fine outlook but not something to lean on. It can kill motivation when expecting some 'other' to fix things. That can reward the callous and hamper ingenuity. It does not drive people to be better but can drive them to follow depraved systems of belief when they are promised post mortem reward or punishment.

knowing that they’ve wasted an entire lifetime and hundreds of thousands of dollars in tithing on a con isn’t going to do anything useful at this point.

It always gets me how people can be so comfortable with tithing while so prickly about paying taxes. I've straight up heard "every dollar I give to the government is one I can't give to the church" as an argument, when the town and state I'm living in is joined at the hip with the church they love.

Fifty years ago? Sure, they would have had plenty of time to come to terms with it.

Church is one of those third-spaces that the unemployed and retired flock to when they've got too much time and not a ton of money. A great deal of the appeal of these places, especially back in my parents' day, was as a social center with a feel-good energy. As a born-and-raised Houstonian I've seen it work on enormous numbers of otherwise-religiously-apathetic people. The whole Joel Osteen model is Good Vibes as a religious experience. One big Jesus Themed Pep Rally.

I think you can probably logic your way to a "God's Not Real" conclusion with a generic religiously-ambivalent lay person. But I don't think a simple logic chain is enough to convince folks who consider religion a form of community recreation to stop showing up. No more than you could talk someone out of blaring their favorite brand of Country Music or driving an oversized pickup truck or playing with their toy guns down at the gun range.

These just aren't logical decisions. They are social decisions.

Yeah, I warn those who are challenging their own faith that naturalism isn't for everyone. For me it was a stark process to come to terms that I'm thinking meat, and my species is looking at some imminent great filters even before we are able to create a dependent colony on our own moon, so mostly harmless is going to be more of a footnote than our society deserves.

As someone who had an early aspiration to add something significant to the collective community that it could take with it into the future, this proved to be a bit of a let-down.

Honestly, this is why I don't discuss Mormon history and the massive, gaping chasms in their claims of Truth with my parents. My parents are old--old enough that the family is talking about who is going to call the coroner, who's going to deal with tying up finances, etc.--and knowing that they've wasted an entire lifetime and hundreds of thousands of dollars in tithing on a con isn't going to do anything useful at this point. Fifty years ago? Sure, they would have had plenty of time to come to terms with it. Now? Meh.

To be honest, I don't think a lot of people are ready. It's a hard thing to deconstruct your faith and if you're not careful it can take you to some really dark places. For a lot of people it's the way they find meaning and solace in a world of pain. Ultimately if you can find that comfort without tying it to religion that's better but not everyone can. That's my take on it post-deconversion

When I worked in a nursing home, I was Christian.

I mean, I wasn't. At all. But the dying little old ladies who sundowned so bad that they sometimes thought I was their grandchild? When they asked if I believed in Jesus, I'd bite my tongue and tell them yes. I hated having to lie to their faces, I hate even thinking about it all these years later, but some of them had nothing to look forward to except "going to heaven" by that point. Lying seemed the most ethical choice.

When I worked in a nursing home, I was Christian.

I mean, I wasn't. At all. But the dying little old ladies who sundowned so bad that they sometimes thought I was their grandchild? When they asked if I believed in Jesus, I'd bite my tongue and tell them yes. I hated having to lie to their faces, I hate even thinking about it all these years later, but some of them had nothing to look forward to except "going to heaven" by that point. Lying seemed the most ethical choice.

I would think you’d need to tell lots of lies to someone in that state to not make things difficult over and over for them. Jesus would just be another one on that pile.

You got it. Sometimes the safest thing to do when somebody’s having hallucinations is to play along, and that means telling lots of lies. Sometimes people think their kids (who are well into their 60s) are still newborns, and they will have a panic attack because they don’t know where their “baby” is. I’ve reassured people that I “just set the baby down to nap” numerous times.

I’ve seen people treat dolls like real babies, too, and one time a lady rolled up to me in her wheelchair, asking to see a doctor because her baby (a doll with food smeared over its mouth) wasn’t eating. I even went so far as to get those “magic” doll bottle things that appear to “empty” when you tip them.

Point is, you’re right. But I don’t feel as conflicted about all the other lies I told, I guess the religion thing is just too … I dunno, “icky” for me? I’m an out atheist with pretty much everyone else. I don’t like having to go back into a closet.

I take this comic to be more poking fun at the portion of atheists who make their entire personality around disproving God's existence - people who try to spread atheism the same way christians spread their own gospel. It's largely not applicable to other atheists.

To be honest, I don't think a lot of people are ready. It's a hard thing to deconstruct your faith and if you're not careful it can take you to some really dark places. For a lot of people it's the way they find meaning and solace in a world of pain. Ultimately if you can find that comfort without tying it to religion that's better but not everyone can. That's my take on it post-deconversion

So many people in this thread completely missing the satire. The author is clearly also an atheist poking fun at the highschool reddit atheist stereotype. Taking this way too seriously.

I didn't catch the self-deprecation. What makes it clear?

Religion may be a lie but it's a comforting lie and that helps a lot of people get through their daily life.

Thing is it shouldn't be comforting to anyone if they really take the details seriously. You could do as much damage really educating someone about Deuteronomy and other fun parts of the Bible and ultimately leave them in a worse state than finding a way to make them an atheist.

We forget an atheist is just a non-theist. Someone who doesn't believe in any specific canonical god. I'm an atheist with a genuine faith the universe has more in store for "me" (whatever that is; I don't believe it's necessarily or eternally "ynthrepic") than a mere human lifetime given what we know about the universe as a whole and how mysterious and seemingly fundamental consciousness is to it all. That gives me some relief and comfort from the existential dread. More than I could possibly get from Yahweh and his totally uncompelling biblical heaven and hell dynamic.

Nobody said reality was all smiles and rainbows. However, it’s entirely possible to find happiness without believing in fairy tales so you can sleep at night.

Thing is it shouldn't be comforting to anyone if they really take the details seriously. You could do as much damage really educating someone about Deuteronomy and other fun parts of the Bible and ultimately leave them in a worse state than finding a way to make them an atheist.

We forget an atheist is just a non-theist. Someone who doesn't believe in any specific canonical god. I'm an atheist with a genuine faith the universe has more in store for "me" (whatever that is; I don't believe it's necessarily or eternally "ynthrepic") than a mere human lifetime given what we know about the universe as a whole and how mysterious and seemingly fundamental consciousness is to it all. That gives me some relief and comfort from the existential dread. More than I could possibly get from Yahweh and his totally uncompelling biblical heaven and hell dynamic.