Just like they leave behind their other imaginary friends
I believed in Santa longer than I believed in God. I don’t know how that happened.
Santa was more believable.
Youngest of 5 i never even had a chance to believe in Santa.
I have always believed that religious and non religious people have both dismissed the existence of different forms of life, though. Not supernatural or extraterrestrial but more non-carbon based.
You only see two types of people who believe in religon:
1- Bad people who abuse it for evil to benefit in life: Such political indoctrination and control, pedo cults, Israel zionists, ISIS Islamsits …etc.
2- Oppressed and poor people who use it as a coping and hope mechanim for the afterlife: This applies globally across all religons and continents from South America to East Asia.
Mixing bigotry against religious people with classism and a sprinkle of racism does not make it rational. There is plenty of religious people who are neither oppressed or poor, nor do they use their religion for oppression of other people.
I didn’t downvote neither upvote your comment because I kind of agree with you.
IMO, I feel those people are on auto-pilot faith which they inherted from their parents, but also because it has a positive presence in their lives. However, unlike people who endure jail or injustice, or oppression or poverty who need faith to survive life. just my personal view point
I did, then returned but… Not to the hateful, exclusionary version taught by parentals.
my mom: “I just want a community to hang out with on Sundays and sing comforting hymns with. I don’t know why instead, everyone has to be weird about it.”
I’m a proud atheist. And I get where she is coming from. Community is lacking and that’s sad.
it’s a vicious cycle under capitalism. community breakdown pushes people into dependency on products and subscriptions, which means they have to work more hours to afford them, which means they then need more products and subscriptions because they have less free time, but then they’ll need to work more hours to afford it, repeat ad absurdum until social collapse
If that’s all churches did nobody would be celebrating their demise
She should try joining a D&D group instead.
lol she’d make a great cleric
cleric character who is fed up with corruption and bigotry in their church and goes on a divine quest to establish the Church of We Just Want To Hang Out and Sing Hymns Without Anyone Making It Weird
Not me. I was born a snake handler and I’ll die a snake handler.
Yeah, probably not enough of the to create real change though.
It will, especially when they become a majority
If I changed Jesus name to Bob and worshipped Bob in the exact same way id be called insane.
If your religion is somehow linked to the place you were born it’s not your religion. You are indoctrinated.
Religon is brain cancer.
It’s a control mechanism from some of the earliest human societies, and today it is a dangerous tool that was just left lying around for any con man to take advantage of.
I can’t find any sources for this now, but a while back I read an article that basically said in the 1500s (roughly) people were starting to turn against the rich holding the bulk of the wealth. So the rich met up with some priests over a tankard of mead and came up with the idea that the church should say the rich deserved their wealth.
It’s nothing new either. Kings were given divine rule before capitalism was a thing for centuries before.
The south were pissed the north judged them for slavery, so they schismed the Baptist church to the southern Baptist church, where the only difference is that slavery was a commandment from God, and black people deserved it becausw of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_Ham?wprov=sfla1
It’s weird how many religions tell you to obey priests without question, isn’t it?
Well that might explain christianity but what about other religions like Hindu, buddhism etc.
The idea of religion is different there and it’s more of a way of life rather than believing in a supreme god.
The Marquis de Condorcet wrote about the evils of Christianity back in the 1790s.
He wrote about how it was a tool of oppression, not just of the person, but of the mind and spirit.
And nothing has changed in the last 200 years.
Haha, that’s certainly a curious interpretation of the crisis of the 16th century. You’re referring to this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_work_ethic
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_General_Crisis
This series basically modernises a classic book on the subject that’s about 100 years old on the topic if you want to know more: https://hellonearth.chapotraphouse.com/views/podcast/
Dunno…too long ago for me to remember many details and as I said, I can’t find a source.
FWIW, those events took place in the USA though, and the article I’m referring to specifically mentioned the U.K.
A yes in 16th century USA
lol. Bit of an error there on my part.
The 16th Century Crisis was across Europe and that last link centers around the UK in the end in the English Civil War. It’s a whole thing that led up to it.
That is weird to me because Jesus repeatedly condemned the rich. He even violently kicked them out of temples by whipping them and flipping tables. Jesus even said the wealthy will never enter into heaven. Jesus was essentially a proto-communist
Many Christians have never read the Bible. They hear about eternal salvation so long as you dunk in some water and say you’re sorry and they’re sold. If they even consciously think about it in the first place.
Christianity is just another one of Plato’s caves
Former Christian here, I’m still very partial to this verse:
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.
Wow that’s a banger, thank you for introducing me to it.
I agree. I look at it this way…how many of those that claim to be Christian actually have Christian values or live by the Ten Commandments?
…how many […] actually have Christian values…
All of them, it’s how you know what “Christian values” really are (not just the cleaned-up public-facing image they use for marketing) and it turns out they’re pretty shit.
Jesus also didn’t proclaim himself to be the literal son of God, nor a part of God. That was invented by the churches some 300 years later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Nicaea
Both Judaism and Christianity had their scriptures altered over time, serving political goals of the scholar’s class. This is why Islam puts such a strong focus preserving the Quran exactly as it was revealed.
Can you please expound upon that point, re: Jesus didn’t proclaim himself to be the literal son of God. Never heard that before.
Sure. So in Islam we believe that God and the creation are seperate. All Prophets (peace be upon them) are humans, who have been given prophethood for their virtuous character. Any powers outside the realm of human capacities were granted by God to aid their mission, but it wasn’t their inherent powers.
For a longer read on this from an Islamic perspective i found this article: https://www.reviewofreligions.org/27744/jesus-son-of-god-historical-context-long-read/
As for the development of the Christian idea that Jesus would be the son of God. This is a Greek/Roman idea that was pushed to dominance around the fourth century. Notable is the Council of Nicae, where it was agreed that the concept of Trinity (with Jesus as son of God and some abstract holy spirit) should be the used. As for the reason why, it is likely that the Trinity was chosen to make Christianity more palatable to Polytheists, despite the rejection of polytheism and embrace of monotheism being fundamental to the Abrahamic religions. This is also why the concept is strongly rejected by Jews and Muslims. However also Nontrinitarian Christians exist to this day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Nicaea#Outcomes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nontrinitarian#HistoryThat’s an interesting take. Having been raised Christian, but now mostly agnostic, it’s a view I had not heard before. Thanks for sharing this.
I think religion is capable of doing great things, but yeah, more often than not it seems to be a gateway to fascism and other extreme right dictatorships.
The red text of Jesus was based. It taught me that God weeps for the sparrows so we also should value and protect nature. Jesus washing the disgusting feet of people who walked around all day in sandals without socks taught me that truly great leaders use their position to serve the weak and vulnerable. Jesus warning that it was impossible for the wealthy to enter heaven and ordering us to take care of the poor just like we would take care of him if he needed it taught me empathy and helped me become a communist.
So yeah, Christian communism is based, but Christianity under capitalism becomes a tool of fascism.
There’s really nothing special about Jesus, if you accept that the voices he heard in his head were not really “the all-powerful creator” speaking to him.
What I mean is that Jesus did not say anything more remarkable or ground-breaking than say Socrates, Marx or … I don’t know Iain M Banks or any other story teller. Way less remarkable in fact.
There’s this persistent idea that Jesus was some wonderful caring hippy, and before Jesus everyone was just a callous exploitive bastard. But there’s nothing new about the share-and-share-alike philosophy Jesus espoused. It’s basic game theory and has been present in society since before our species even evolved. Even chimps grasp those ideas.
Jesus was just a poor Jewish common person who thought he was the messiah. Just like his compatriots of the time, he believed the Jews to be the “chosen people”, and his message was only directed at his compatriots. He had no more grasp of humanity as a whole than any other common person of his time. As the messiah, he believed - as did his followers - that he was going to usher in the end of the world.
It’s complete nonsense, and if you truely understand what a scam the modern church is, you would stop promoting him as some kind of revolutionary.
I hope it isn’t like the similarly named subreddit where the moderator was against calling Elon’s salute for what it was.
I’ll be honest and a bit jaded, These “uplifting” comunities do feel a bit like the “this is fine” meme (https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/this-is-fine)
Not that I am against uplifting news. I’m just cautious because I’ve seen a fair share of nazi dogwhistle associated with this idea.
If counting Christianity then it will be a lot higher. I’m baptised and stuff like that, but that was just tradition. I never believed in a god.
The thing I notice is there’s not really a good substitute for talking about the big questions yet.
I mean, I’m not missing any religion, but practically there was an hour or so a week dedicated specifically to thinking and talking about life from a non-materialistic perspective, and I think a lot of people now just - never do.
Isn’t that what we do on lemmy?
Not really! I mean like - why does life exist? Is there any relevance in the idea of reincarnation? Does time exist outside of us? What is “good works”?
Someone hold forth on a personal story that exemplifies something good.
You’d think we have enough stoners to get something like that going, but not really. And the esoterica side of Lemmy is very tiny and not well-attended.
tbh I think tumblr’s got more of a corner on that kind of work/vibe.
Not that Lemmy can’t or won’t become that but at the moment it’s more like alternate reality reddit which atm is just fine for most people.
Is there any relevance in the idea of reincarnation?
Of course. In Theravāda Buddhism you will find a highly literal interpretation as well as a more general, “spiritual” interpretation.
In a literal, mechanical, scientific sense, the cells in your body are constantly dying and being replaced using nutrients in the food you eat. The universe is moving through you. You are parts of every other organism that has existed on earth. You are parts of every human on earth. Every other human is parts of every other human on earth. What you do to others is done to yourself. Be kind to people.
Kirsten Lesage, Kelsey Jo Starr, and William Miner titled this erroneously. The title should be:
#Children are learning cults are bad, and their parents tried to indoctrinate them against their will
It doesn’t necessarily mean they become atheists; some switch religions. While in the West religion is in overall decline, in the global south, Christian evangelicals are on the rise. This is especially the case in Brazil where Catholicism is on decline but evangelicals are growing.
