this is the exact reason why exile, excommunication, shunning, disfellowshipping, and all the rest are so effective. and a big reason people go along with glaringly wrong bullshit
It’s interesting that being completely shunned and outside of community though makes you either immune to the group think and therefore able to recognize and see the glaring oppositions of reality or lets you completely fall into madness with no recourse to pull yourself out of it.
we’re not as evolved as we like to think we are. ultimately we’re driven by the primate brain’s relentless urge to be part of a group (ANY group, apparently), on top of the more primal survival/mating dance instincts
I had to institute a no-politics rule with certain family members during the pan. It’s saved relationships.
I have zero friends who are intolerant or hateful or shitty to others. If I found out someone I hadn’t spoken to in a long time had become like the right wing nuts in my family I’d first try to talk to them about why that happened with hope of saving them, but if not: get out of my life.
If I found out someone I hadn’t spoken to in a long time had become like the right wing nuts in my family I’d first try to talk to them about why that happened with hope of saving them, but if not: get out of my life.
I had to institute a no-politics rule with certain family members
Typical moderate: full of principles until they require sacrifice.
I love my mother, so you can fuck right off.
I hate that stupid bitch
This describes Christianity (to an extent). When I turned atheist (because I couldn’t believe in God/Jesus anymore, not because I didn’t want to) there is this very Church-shaped hole in your proverbial soul that needs time to close. It’s a very sobering, yet lonely, way to live life, but due to the internet you don’t find yourself lonely for too long, but I imagine it used to be a pretty terrifying way to live life pre-internet.
I am lucky my Christian family still loves me, and I know they only proselytize to me (every now and then) because they care.
My faith in Christianity was actually fading, and I started to research it. Doing so actually strengthened it and led me to being baptised lmao.
church
My faith in Christianity was actually fading, and I started to research it. Doing so actually strengthened it and led me to being baptised lmao.
Its funny, I did the same thing and it actually destroyed any vestiges of faith I still had. The more I know about Christianity/Catholicism, the less I believed. Too much self contradictory bullshit, and too much preaching without enough action to go with the words.
Christianity/Catholicism? Don’t you mean just Roman Catholicism? As you can have Christianity without the Roman Catholicism. When I was researching faith and religion, I was able to rule out Roman Catholicism. I know what you mean about self contradictory BS (things such as purgatory being unbiblical, perpetual virginity of mary despite Matthew’s gospel strongly implying that she consummated her marriage and the Bible mentioning Jesus’ brothers several times, etc). As with preaching and action - I care more about the faith and my own spirituality than letting myself be defined by what others are doing. Of course, I’ll always call people out when they are being heretical and/or abusive or misusing the faith (I remember there was an Indian guy who claimed to have converted to Christianity but I later realised he did it because he hated Muslims so much, and he ended up actually dropping his identity as a “Christian” because I kept telling him that Christians cannot call for a mass extermination of a religious group. Pretty funny but also a sad story), but I wouldn’t stop being a Christian just because other Christians are being hypocrites. Why should I let them take what Jesus did for me away from me?
Christianity/Catholicism? Don’t you mean just Roman Catholicism?
No, christianity as a whole. The sourcebook is a self contradictory slapfight perpetuated by whomever translated the particular copy you’re looking at, and is a convenient shield for those who choose not to follow the faith, but want a way to hurt/control others while pretending they do.
There are a lot of good lessons to take out of the sourcebook, but there’s more chaff than wheat to be had, and I just have no time for it anymore.
Why should I let them take what Jesus did for me away from me?
No one is saying you should let them take that from you. But you don’t have to be a christian to be a good person and to use the positives you gained from your experience. I took the good parts of the religion and moved on with my life. I’m still a good person and have the beliefs my christian family instilled in me, I just don’t care to surround myself with religious types for reasons that most religious people feel offended by.
The Bible doesn’t contain any contradictions. Also, nobody can be a good person, not even Christians.
Tell me you haven’t actually read the bible without telling me you’ve never actually read the bible.
Also, that’s a bullshit copout by bad people who have no intention of improving themselves.
I have read the Bible. I don’t see all of these “contradictions” people talk about
I’m no longer religious, but I find that religion has some sense in its own right. Provided it’s not shoved down people’s throats.
Depends what you mean as “shoved down people’s throats” do you mean normal evangelism via freedom of speech or Christian nationalism, like the Louisiana 10 commandments cringe
You’re getting downvoted because so many Americans experience normal evangelism as people literally thumping a Bible while threatening them with hell and damnation. And evangelists (the religious sect, not the act) are largely responsible for the repeal of women’s rights in the US. They’re currently trying to make women unable to travel without government permission.
So it’s kind of a loaded word.
The religious sect are evangelicals, not evangelists.
A sincere Christian evangelist doesn’t want you to go to Hell - The thing is, we completely believe in it and we are warning you about what we believe is inevitable. The most hateful thing we could do is not warn you about it.
To be honest, even proselytisation can come off as being condescending. A Christian is basically telling to the person “my religion is better than yours. You are a sinful person and you will be cast into the fires of hell. It will not happen to you if you accept Jesus as lord and saviour!” And it is not like evangelisation is done out of pure power of persuasive words and good teachings from the bible alone. Aside from threat of eternal damnation, many missionnaries tend to incentivise people by offering food or help, in exchange for the locals to listen to proselytisation.
Look at it from our perspective, though. We fully believe in Hell, and that everyone is sinful and deserving of it. And nobody can escape it without living a life of genuine repentance to God, trusting alone in the sacrifice that He made for us. The most hateful thing we can do is not warn you about it, but just watch you waltz your own way down to your destruction. Now, yes, there are many hypocrites who aren’t really evangelising at all and only do it to feed their ego, and God will deal with them justly, but for me and many others, we don’t want you to go to Hell. We want you, when your body gives up, to be in Heaven, where there is no more suffering or pain. When I tell people about Jesus and the Gospel - it’s not to further an agenda. It’s out of love and genuine care. And if it means spending resources on feeding people so they’d listen, then it’s worth it. Just like how some places gave out rewards to people who got a COVID-19 vaccine, we wanted to reward someone for doing something that’s for their own good.
If we were absolutely convinced that we had the method to eternal life - and that method is very much free - wouldn’t it be selfish for us to keep it to ourselves and not tell others?
![Opinions [Extra Fabulous Comics]](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/2ee57524-7913-4d39-af44-b9aab226c896.jpeg){kind=link}