Society Religious Discussion and Q&A Thread

[hokageji]

A parody of christianity

...

1. A dog poops in a yard.

2. Christians pray To God to deliver them from the poop. They refuse to pick it up themselves. They think God is supposed to magically solve everything for them. That God is supposed to give them endless free stuff, as if God were Karl Marx.

3. Dog continues to poop. Eventually the entire yard is full of dog poop.

4. Christians beg God to know why He did not save them from the poop.

5. Apply this to the economy, politics, education and everything else important in the world and everything starts to make sense.

As a born hindu, i cant resist the opportunity to say "now you wish you had more gods"... just move to a different god who will grant your wishes..

just kidding....
But in seriousness, religion and politics should never overlap. You should not make policies based on religious word or convenience. but unfortunately, taht's whats happening widely around the world.

 

[Sanity Check]

So you're saying Christians who think prayers are the solution shouldn't be able to make decisions for people? If so, I agree.

What if christians never had to study for any test in school.

They could pray and God would give them all the answers.

What if christians never had to wash their car, walk the dog or clean up after pets.

They could simply pray to God and He would handle everything.

That's the mentality most of them have.

There's nothing wrong with prayer.

Its attempting to substitute prayer for due diligence where things get strange.

--- Double Post Merged, Aug 13, 2022, Original Post Date: Aug 13, 2022 ---

I think characterizing Christians as only being into it for the "free stuff" is a less charitable characterization than most atheists would produce (same with it not even showing an understand of Marx either), and yet you fashion yourself as a "true believer". Rather confusing really.

The lure of free stuff is very seductive.

If you remember that Joe Biden ran on a platform of "free education" and "free healthcare". The typical "free stuff" Karl Marx leaning candidates promise.

What ever happened to Joe Biden's promise to forgive student loan debt for "free" btw.

 

[shionoro]

Things being free is good.
Even more, things should be owned by communities, so everybody feels responsible for maintaining them together.

 

[ninjabot]

...why do you keep turning the religion thread into a politics thread lol?

 

[Sanity Check]

...why do you keep turning the religion thread into a politics thread lol?

Real world application is fundamentally important to religion.

That's another huge obstacle people face is translating the bible into modern day terms.

 

[shionoro]

The basis of religion is human need for community and meaning.

Religion needs to be measures by what it achieves, not what people think it could be in an idealized version of it.

--- Double Post Merged, Aug 13, 2022, Original Post Date: Aug 13, 2022 ---

I think one of the quality control questions i would put a believer through, to test his religion, is:

Does he do what is best for his next? Or does he do what he thinks is best for some abstract idea of society? If it is the latter, his religion is dangerous.

I can accept and possibly trust someone who might have misguided ideals but has the wellbeing of the people around him as a priority, even if they disagree with him. I cannot trust someone who claims to have good itnerests but only for abstract people and not the ones around him.

I cannot trust the american version of christianity.

 

[xi0]

The lure of free stuff is very seductive.

If you remember that Joe Biden ran on a platform of "free education" and "free healthcare". The typical "free stuff" Karl Marx leaning candidates promise.

What ever happened to Joe Biden's promise to forgive student loan debt for "free" btw.

What does it have to do with Christianity though? Say someone only spent their time praying for shit they wanted but didn't deserve, what exactly stops them from doing that? If their prayers are answered they'll keep doing it and if they'll still do it anyway if they actually believe. Who does this offend though really? Why give a shit at all?

The reality is, monotheism as we know it created the idea of a personal God. Blame those responsible for that or something.

Your political tangent is absurd at this point, but Marx's ideas were not about "free shit", state programs are not "Marxist".

 

[Sanity Check]

The body posture of christians, when God tries to save them from their sins.

 

[ninjabot]

Well MH folk? Is it? Is it not?

Discuss!

 

[M3J]

Religion can be good, but so many people use it as a shield to justify their bigotry and hatred.

 

[Sanity Check]

Spoiler

 

[xi0]

Well MH folk? Is it? Is it not?

Discuss!

I didn't watch it really but I find it interesting that Shapiro says there's compelling evidence for god not existing but also thinks there's compelling evidence for god existing. Isn't that kind of zero-sum, in a sense? How exactly does one think there's compelling evidence on both sides here? You either believe a god exists or you believe he doesn't. The middle ground is an agnostic approach that says there's no way to prove existence either way and "belief" doesn't really factor into the discussion, the entire basis for this approach is evidence isn't compelling enough in either direction. Or maybe I'm stumbling over my own logic here, idk

Well anyways, the answer to your question is more nuanced than "yes" or "no". Religion could have been a more universally positive thing whether it holds value to the individual or not, but since Religion goes hand and hand with authority, it's used in ways that foster and reinforce the worst aspects of humanity. Fundamentally, religion exists as a "God of the gaps", and while there's useful aspects of it, humanity has outgrown its social utility IMO.

 

[M3J]

 

[Darklord#10]

Just realized that the hatred between westerners and Muslims can never be gone. I don't know why it's like this, and honestly people like isis and al Qaeda all this extremist aren't even helping matters their rulings on women is so unfair and I just don't get it, women are human beings to just like men. Even I am a Muslim and I really don't like western people anymore. It's no wonder there's always friction when there's peace talk between middle Eastern countries and western countries or UN. They can never see eye to eye. Donald Trump can go fuck himself

Islam didn't come during the time of Muhammad SAW. If was finalized during the time of Muhammad SAW because the message of Jesus was lost. We Muslims believe that Jesus Moses Abraham David Noah Muhammad SAW all preached the same thing which is submitting to Allah. I am not trying to preach I'm just trying to make somethings clear

 

[ninjabot]

Just realized that the hatred between Westerners and Muslims can never be gone.

Between certain Westerners and Muslims? Sure. Racism and Islamaphobia is a real thing. But not everyone hates Muslims. The more that Islam becomes watered down and more humane, the more it will be accepted in America. Look at Kamala Khan in Marvel comics. She's THE most beloved young comic character in Marvel.

Even more so than Miles Morales nowadays. Granted they downplayed her Islamic heritage in the show, but you know. Baby steps.

I don't know why it's like this,

Well to be fair, you say you "don't know why it's like this" but then bring up the extremist groups lol. Don't you think they have something to do with it?

People hate Islam for the same reason people are gradually leaving churches in America: the behavior of some of the people (not an insignificant amount either) who practice these religions is reprehensible, and reprehensible actions tend to draw the ire of the people around you. People are mostly remembered for the worst thing they do, not the best thing they do, and 9/11 is synonymous with Islam. 9/11 was a big reason for the New Atheist movement too.

It's also important to point out America isn't a theocracy, even though the majority of people have a god belief over here, so it's a lot easier for the teachings of the bible to be ignored here than in say, an Arab nation. Christianity is responsible for a lot of reprehensible beliefs and actions, but we aren't held to them via law.

Even I am a Muslim and I really don't like western people anymore.

Pretty fucked up of you to generalize an entire group of people based on the actions of only some of them :/

 

[Raven]

I understand the current hate of western countries toward Muslims, Imagine having a religion replacing your religion or people replacing your people. It is eating at them hard and they can only feel hate because they feel scared about their identity and future.

I lived on both sides and both sides share similar feelings in that regard, I live in Egypt and here there are Syrian and Sudanese refugees and you see the same mentality like western people, They call for deportation of the refugees and even people hate them openly despite all parties being Muslims. Syrians got really successful in Egypt and their business is blooming everywhere and some Egyptians just can’t stand it and it eats at them. Same thing with Sudanese refugees claiming they build the pyramids and ofc they received a lot of hate for it.

It doesn’t have anything to do with religion or race imo, If you are going to another country and you happened to have big influence or success, You will get hate for it. I dont really blame any side but personally if I’m going to another country and settle there I will mind my own business and try to blend if I can’t at least I will not force my believes on anyone.

with that being said, Muslims always been victims of the media in the west, And Islam as religion got deformed in the eyes of many but recently I see dramatic change and people are more open and tolerant about Islam. It wasn’t like that just a decade ago.

 

[ninjabot]

I understand the current hate of western countries toward Muslims, Imagine having a religion replacing your religion or people replacing your people. It is eating at them hard and they can only feel hate because they feel scared about their identity and future.

As an Atheist in America, I love it. I love the hypocrisy. To have someone use their religious beliefs to justify heinous actions, and then turn around and ridicule another group of people for using their religious beliefs to justify heinous actions makes me feel vindicated.

with that being said, Muslims always been victims of the media in the west, And Islam as religion got deformed in the eyes of many but recently I see dramatic change and people are more open and tolerant about Islam. It wasn’t like that just a decade ago.

Yep. Arabs became the new Russians in action media. Where it used to always be Russian terrorists in action films of the 80s and 90s, they were always Arab in the 2000s for obvious reasons.

 

[hblock]

Its roots probably come from their neighborhood, western countries always had muslim nations within each of their borders for centuries or more. Considering their difference in religion, ethnicity and language, it's only natural that they developed some kind of ennemity towards each other.
In modern ages, there're many obvious reasons but the main one is the rise of zionism and its massive impact and control over every aspect of life in the western world although many western folks started seeing through it ever since the current genocide. The rise of social media platforms also had great impact as information is represented as it is with little to no deformation from the leading political sphere in comparison to mainstream media.

 

[Sanity Check]

One interesting facet of islam is its portrayal of hell as a rehabilitation center rather than final destination.

(Thank the castlevania anime for giving Isaac that "one day hell will be empty, and its gates will rattle in the wind" line. I searched for references to it, only to realize it was verse from the koran, interestingly enough.)

Every once in awhile I stumble across something mind blowing & brilliant reading about religion.

People treat religions as if it were sports team rivalry.

But in essence religion is valuable as a means of helping us to better comprehend ourselves and others.

By learning more about our origins, history and nature.

 

[Darklord#10]

Thank the castlevania anime for giving Isaac that "one day hell will be empty, and its gates will rattle in the wind" line. I searched for references to it, only to realize it was verse from the koran, interestingly enough.)

Show me the source