Brittany Spears: "I'm an atheist now, y'all."

[RussBLib]

ok, ok, I thought for a minute before posting this here. But wtf. She has a high profile and is likely an "influencer".

Her reasons for becoming an atheist are pretty shallow, if I may judge. I expect her to announce she is "Catholic" again or something else before too long. Hemant Mehta discussed it at Only Sky.

Britney Spears no longer believes in God: ‘I’m an atheist, y’all’
by Hemant Mehta

“I don’t believe in God anymore because of the way my children and my family have treated me,” Spears said.

Britney Spears said in an Instagram audio story yesterday that she now considers herself an atheist. Her explanation, however, feeds right into flawed stereotypes Christians often have about why people stop believing in God.

Most atheists have a story about why they stopped believing in God. Perhaps something caused them to begin questioning their faith, but they only took that final leap after a lot of critical thinking. Yet when they tell people they no longer believe in God, the assumption is that something bad happened to them. That’s it. A logical thought process always takes a back seat to blaming God for some kind of tragedy. Hell, there are entire books written by Christian apologists about theodicy, offering explanations for why God lets bad things happen to good people… as if that’s the only reason people have for becoming nonreligious.

Spears is, by all measures, a decent person who has gone through hell and back over the years. But for her to say she’s no longer a believer because of what she’s gone through—and not because she gave religion serious thought and concluded that God must not exist—plays right into those archaic stereotypes that atheists are born from tragedies, not thought. It reeks of intellectual laziness. You can bet we’ll hear plenty of sermons in the near future all about how God has a plan for everyone, even Britney Spears, no matter how bad things may seem!

That’s not to say her theology is superficial. I have no clue what her journey out of religion has been like. Spears was raised as a Southern Baptist. There was a brief stint with Kabbalah. She flirted with Hinduism. More recently, she claimed to be Catholic (“I just got back from mass … I’m Catholic now.”) But last year, before she got married to model Sam Asghari, Spears posted a picture of a Catholic church on Instagram, saying she wanted to get married inside one, but couldn’t because “they said I had to be catholic.” She then added, “Isn’t church supposed to be open to all????”

the rest at link
https://onlysky.media/hemant-mehta/britney-spears-no-longer-believes-in-god-im-an-atheist-yall/

[LakeArenal]

1. We all have reasons to believe or not believe.

Her reasons aren’t your reasons.

I never realized there’s a stereotypical atheist.

Stereotypes are usually bullshit and complex issues usually have complex reasoning.

One of the stereotypes of Britney:

“ Her reasons for becoming an atheist are pretty shallow, if I may judge.”

I’m guessing Brit is damn tired of people judging her.

[obnoxiousdrunk]

3. +1. n/t

My atheism is better than your atheism.

[pandr32]

2. Good for her.

I'm honestly surprised many are still caught up in religion. I get that community and tradition are important components of religious belief, but we can have those things without a deity.

[Warpy]

4. Britney has never been a deep thinker and she's always been inarticulate

probably because packaging a kid to become a preteen pop star took up all of her time.

She'll probably join some other bunch. She's just pouting because the RCC pissed her off by not renting out their building for what they'd consider a blasphemous ceremony.

She doesn't know what a near miss that was.

[DonCoquixote]

5. you know

How much of that was what her family made her put out, and how much was her? We will find out, and we might find out she had a mind, a heart, that unfortunately, like so many child stars, her midn was beaten and bullied. May she enjoy her new life.

[LiberalLovinLug]

6. "because of the way my children and my family have treated me"

It may not be the most articulate, but its a roundabout way of saying that IF close family can use religion to justify their bad behaviour towards her, then she sees no value in that religion.

She just didn't express it clearly. I see no reason to criticize her journey to what she now believes, or doesn't.

I left for similar reasons. I witnessed all the hypocrisy in my extended evangelical family. Even today, many are die hard Trumpists and spread Fox News stories on FB. They are so blinded by hatred and paranoia they can't even see how much that kind of selfish, arrogant attitude was the antithesis of the kind of spirit that they are supposed to be emulating.