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this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2023
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I was raised in a fundamental christian extremest environment and stuck with it for 30 years. I'm now a card carrying atheist.
I was raised Baptist, with all the shitty bells and whistles. I'm now an agnostic theist. Part of me is still fond of Christianity, but definitely not the more eyebrow-raising stuff nor the church.
I am proud of my new theistic beliefs now, as they remain rational and embrace how little we really can know. And now I validate atheism as rational and normal too. At least in principle— some atheists can be as cultish and angry as some Christians or some vegans or any other community that focuses on world-scale beliefs and issues. But I digress.
Congrats on getting away from extremists and forming your own beliefs, fam.
If you're carrying a card you're still in a cult.
TIL my local library is a cult
The cult of the shhhs
Church of Satan
I always call those people anti-theists, as opposed to atheists. The ones who almost have their lack of religion as a religion in itself and criticise (and let's be honest, demean) anyone with a faith.
By all means, criticise the church, and the structures, which harm people. Criticise the willfully misinterpreted doctrine. The religions themselves, people's beliefs? Leave them alone.
Do you think there is something inherently good or harmless in religion and that harmful practice is always the result of misinterpretation?
Most of the time yes. A really simple example is the Bible line "thou shall not lie with men as women", the original text says boys not men. The Jewish peoples saw the Greeks fucking kids and said "hey, uh no, let's make that a law, that you shouldn't do that". Boy became men, and that's been used to claim the Bible forbids homosexuality.
I don't think there's anything ultimately wrong with religion as such. People always try to find meaning and purpose in life. If religion gives them a way of doing that, then excellent; if religion plays no part, then also excellent. The goal is to be a good person, regardless of why you do it. Is a Christian who follows the tenent "love thy neighbour" worse than someone who loves their neighbour? A Jew who helps Muslims despite the tensions between their faiths, and they help because YHWH says to? Are they worse than an atheist who chooses to not help? Religion isn't the problem. People are, people are always the problem.
FYI, people's beliefs can be wrong. If someone's religion says the Earth is 6000 years old, then that religion is harmful and we should not tolerate that belief.
Obviously there is nuance here. It's not ok to be prejudiced against religious people, but we shouldn't let people get away with nonsense by calling it religion.
Oh absolutely, criticise the beliefs that don't make sense, and are tolerated. But pretty much everyone of most major faiths believe in science. There's the fundamentalists, who are extremely loud in their ignorance, but the majority of people aren't that.
Those people's beliefs destroy society. It's the #1 citation for abortion legislation. Literal wars have been fought over "beliefs" about who is the best magic sky fairy. Ever heard of Sharia law? Believe it or not, based on these "beliefs".
So no. Fuck no. I will not leave them alone.
And the 99% of people who don't loudly practice extreme beliefs which have been coopted for nefarious purposes?
In 2016, nearly 80% of Ireland identified as Catholic, and that was a low point for the country. Yet in 2015, we voted for same sex marriage; in 2018, we voted to legalise abortion; in 1995, we voted to legalise divorce; in 2018, we voted to stop treating blasphemy as an offence; in 1973, we voted to recognise other religions and stop putting Catholicism on a pedestal.
There's plenty to criticise mass religion, and especially institutions for, but don't conflate the powerful, and the extremists, who choose bigotry and hate over love and compassion, with the everyday person who just wants something to provide them with peace.
Not even close. Try again