/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /
Views on religion
58 replies
1643 days old
last post: Feb 28, 2024
Return

Views on religion

1 Name: Anonymous : 2019-08-29 18:24
What is your position on G-d and religion so we can debate and discuss those important aspects in a civilized way.

For my starting 5 cents, we should not assign any attributes to G-d as any attribute in human language will be failing and will offer worse understanding as such, similarly I think imagery should not be worshipped (looking at you, Catholics) and at best be symbolic and non-descriptive (i.e. abstract).
2 Name: sage : 2019-08-30 04:05
Man, I just wrote out a 3500 word post about why religion is dumb.

But then I remembered to take it easy and decided to post this instead.
3 Name: ה : 2019-08-30 08:19
Truly edgy of you.
4 Name: Huh.... : 2019-08-31 05:27
I guess I'll share what I know about this. warning, long read.
5 Name: Anonymous : 2019-08-31 05:28
You have been lied to about EVERYTHING
How to go on a better path

(TL;DR warning. This is a very long read but contains some very good stuff and very interesting knowledge and wisdom. It's basically a totally free MASSIVE XP BOOST in a video game, but in this case- towards the growth of your soul, the quality improvement of your soul, and help with your soul's journey to be with God in heaven)

==(Warning #2: Don't depend on others posts replying to this information. Many make very stupid assumptions without reading a single world in the entire thread and then post equally stupid replies. Even worse, some people intentionally make completely baseless and dishonest comments with the intent to mislead other readers. Moral is, read it yourself first before reading other people's replies or you will never understand in a corruption-free context.)==

example:
someone says
"LOL CHRIST CUCK"
Even though I make a huge effort to make it very clear that all religions are very screwed up, and God is just God. (not some bathrobe sandal hippie vampire zombie fish jewish dude)

==''Hey, what is this thread about so I don't waste my time?''==
This thread is a guide on how to cut out all the BULLSHIT and corruption and just simply be very close to God in the most innocent and pure and undiluted way possible while you experience your very temporary stay on earth, (or in this "universe") which is essentially hell and a fake reality like the matrix. When your time is up, (and only God knows when and how) you basically go to heaven (which is real reality) if you were a good kiddo (because we're all children of God) and then everything is really happy and there is no more evil forever. You're home safe! To explain everything in simple but very interesting terms:

Religion DEMANDS that you believe, but never allows one to KNOW.
KNOW GOD.
LOVE GOD.

What do think is life's purpose? A test? Or some kind of grimdark fantasy that's supposed to be fun?

God had foreknowledge and had impact on Eve and Adam's decision to eat the forbidden fruit.
God set them up to eat the forbidden fruit because it was part of the story of the way things were meant to go. It is impossible to truly defy and go against God because everything that happens is the will of God.
6 Name: Anonymous : 2019-08-31 05:28
The fact that Eve did not know the difference between Good and Evil when she ate the forbidden fruit (The fruit of the knowledge of good and evil) is very paradoxical, since She and Adam literally had no way of knowing that disobedience was a bad thing since they had not eaten the fruit which gives this type of understanding. Adam and Eve were basically in all honestly like totally one hundred and twelve percent retarded because of the fact that they were the first human beings ever. This meant that they had less experience and knowledge than even the dumbest baby alive in todays world. They are technically being punished for doing evil when they specifically didn't know what evil was or that eating the forbidden fruit was wrong other than the fact that they were told not to eat it, but that goes back to the fact that they had no way of knowing that disobedience was a bad thing. At least one of the MANY MANY reasons for life to exist is because we are supposed to learn what it is to know what is good and bad and knowingly choose to avoid what is bad so that we may choose to be distinctly good. Our entire life is a slow motion bite through the apple. As we spiritually bite through the apple (that God set us up to eat, because we had to learn- and that's okay) we are immersed in "the matrix" and we experience our entire life. When our life ends, it's because we finished the bite. Souls that know good and evil fully and completely, but choose good get to go be with God in heaven forever. Souls that know good and evil fully and completely but still choose evil get thrown in the poopoo box.

heaven (real reality, also is God):
real
nature is true nature and in perfect harmony and there is no death
no bad limitation (freedom)
eternal (outside of time and lasts forever)
automatically perfect
good
home

earth universe (hell simulation):
fake
nature is a fake and sad mess of life killing and feeding off of other life to survive in almost all examples. Very few exceptions of healthy and non-harmful symbiotic relationships compared to the rest of "strife/life"
limitation (everything is such a problem)
temporary and temporal (time bound and doesn't last forever)
intentionally flawed
bad
camp/boarding school
7 Name: Anonymous : 2019-08-31 05:34
Big warning:
==DO NOT WORSHIP THE CREATIONS OF GOD==
==ONLY WORSHIP GOD==
==WE ARE NOT CREATORS==
==ONLY GOD IS THE ONLY CREATOR==

why do you think that matrix means "womb?" why do you think apocalypse means "the lifting of the veil"? what do you think renaissance really means? "rebirth".
we are in an artificial simulation womb reality and god is lifting the veil covering the vagina and we are all going through rebirth.

A lot of people have abandoned god in this harsh world we live in. These times are tough, but I understand what's really going on. A huge reason for their abandonment of god is that they believe that god has abandoned them, but they made a huge mistake and misunderstanding by believing that just because religion has abandoned them, that somehow God has abandoned them. This is a mistake because religion is an imperfect human interpretation of the divine. Religion is a mistake because they took something personal like the connection between an individual and god, and turned it into something very impersonal and generalized and vague and then they added several thousands of rules and bureaucracy and red tape and nonsensical stories to make the act of personally loving God and being loved by God personally more complicated and frustrating and confusing, and more exclusive and excluding to those who can't keep up with the complicated rules and are therefor "not good enough". Very intense efforts were also made to make some religions very dumbed down and uncomplicated so that they would also appear very simple or stupid and unattractive, and they even filled many with false teachings and false promises of forgiveness even for the most horrible things if they just beg for forgiveness or give the church or temple some money even if they don't really regret their sins. Consider this: Humans created religions as their imperfect human interpretation of the divine. Religion is imperfect because it was created by imperfect humans. Religion is imperfect. Since religion has abandoned people, It is actually Imperfect humans who have abandoned imperfect humans.
8 Name: Anonymous : 2019-08-31 05:34
This plan was set in motion a very VERY long time ago by a satanic cult that believes it rules the world. It's a really deep plan because what this eventually does is make people feel rejected by God so that they are attracted to the opposite, and join the satanic cult.

All religions and their books and monuments (buildings and statues and paintings and art and so on and so forth) and saints and messengers and everything else are directly worshipped IN PLACE of god. This means that all religions, even those that warn of false idol worship are in fact false idols. RELIGIONS ARE ACTUALLY FALSE IDOLS IN DISGUISE.

God is perfect. God loves YOU. God never abandoned people. God never abandoned YOU. People misunderstand what has happened and feel resent and sadness and anger towards god because they have been brainwashed from birth to believe that religion and god are inseparable and one and the same, but that is a lie. Always Love God. Even if you don't like any religion. Love God. Don't believe, KNOW.

ANYTHING OR ANYONE THAT TELLS YOU OR REQUIRES YOU TO THINK OR DO ANYTHING IN A SPIRITUAL/RELIGIOUS SENSE OTHER THAN SIMPLY DIRECTLY LOVING AND KNOWING GOD- IS A TERRIBLE WHIRLING STORM OF DECEPTION.

SHAKE YOURSELF FREE FROM EVIL AND SHAKE EVIL FROM YOURSELF. YOU MAY ABANDON RELIGION AS IT HAS ABANDONED YOU BUT KNOW YOU ARE INSEPARABLE FROM GOD AND GOD IS INSEPARABLE FROM YOU.

You guys should really understand that we're constantly fed lies from the moment we're born, no matter where we are born or who we are born to. It's all compromised. Everything is fake or if it is true is is twisted truth. We are lied to about God and we are lied to about the world and what is beyond all around us. We are lied to on every level so that our foundations of understanding are based on lies, meaning that everything that is built up from that false foundation is also false. Understand that and know that the wisest of people understand that they truly know nothing. The only truth that you can be sure of is to know God. There is no substitute. False gods are fake and satan is fake but many bad people exist and those bad people want others to believe in fake bad things so that they can do bad things in general and get away with it. There is nothing other than God that is worth accepting as 100% pure honest truth. God knows everything, God controls everything, and God is the one and only God. To depend on religion of any kind to give you a clean and un-corrupt understanding of God is to betray yourself in your search for the truth of God. God is of truth and truth is of God. There is no substitute to the one and only God. More and more are inevitably arriving to this understanding. religion is an attempt to put a box around god and create false rules and limitations that humans have for god, which is absolutely disgusting and false and which simply can not happen ever no matter what in any way. Only God controls everyone and everything, and can not be controlled by anything or anyone.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS LUCK.
9 Name: Anonymous : 2019-08-31 05:34
Giant list of simple pro tips:
Try to be a good person by your own standards.
It's okay to explore and consider others standards but don't let something you don't fully understand or agree with define or enslave you.
Keep trying to improve your own standards. Don't get glued to old ways and never improve, but Don't try to fix what isn't broken and as a result break everything good.
Avoid things you know are completely bad for you and present no opportunities for growth or falsely dangle the possibility of growth in front of you at a terrible risk or cost.
Try to expose yourself to things you know are healthy. Try to keep yourself and your surroundings as healthy as possible. Some will view this as sheltering or as selfish but just like "It's okay to be white(or any other color)" (truly hateful and racist people will disagree and shame people for being who they are) It's also Okay to love yourself. Taking good care of yourself is not selfish.
Try to do your very best to avoid adding any more pain and suffering back into the world. I'm not trying to sound preachy, But trust me- things go better when you don't poison the water you swim, bathe, drink, and breath in.
Try to do your very best to send out good feels and good energy out into the world around you, but be very careful who you do this around or for, and where. Being good turns you into a giant target like a nice cool glass of ice water in the middle of a desert. You actually have to hide your power level, and know when to use it.
Choose all your metaphorical and or figurative battles very wisely. A battle is worthless if you don't win the war in the end. It's okay to feel whatever you need to feel, so long as you understand all the reasons exactly why you are feeling it- but you must also learn to control your emotions and at very imporant moments even shut them off in order to make careful decisions using only logic, but you must also learn when to trust your emotions, your gut instincts and shut off logic too. Knowing when and how and why to balance and in what direction is very important.
Keep trying to learn more good things, and keep trying to unlearn more bad things. You're going to want to have a good amount of self confidence but also be careful about knowing when to question yourself and take a huge deep look at everything and rethink it and see if your know is nice and solid. (you can only truly know God, everything else is up in the air)
Just love and know God. pray whenever you want, wherever you want. no dumb ceremonies, no dumb rituals. you don't even have to talk. just whisper to God in your own mind with your soul and pray. just pray.

science is as much a religion as religions are a religion, and as religion in its limited perception of the universe is imperfect; therefore so is science.
science, just like religion has many different versions and subsections of people with entirely different beliefs.
religion and science both get things right
religion and science both get things wrong
science is very often wrong
religion is very often wrong
if science was 100% right all the time, we wouldn't need science to figure out how the reality around us and everything beyond functions.
if religion was 100% right all the time, we wouldn't need religion to figure out how the reality around us and everything beyond functions.
if science was 100% right all the time, we wouldn't need religion to figure out how the reality around us and everything beyond functions.
if religion was 100% right all the time, we wouldn't need science to figure out how the reality around us and everything beyond functions.
science is the religion of trying to understand the world or "universe" around us.
religion is the science of trying to understand God.
religion and science are both created by human beings.
10 Name: Anonymous : 2019-08-31 05:35
Giant list of simple pro tips:
Try to be a good person by your own standards.
It's okay to explore and consider others standards but don't let something you don't fully understand or agree with define or enslave you.
Keep trying to improve your own standards. Don't get glued to old ways and never improve, but Don't try to fix what isn't broken and as a result break everything good.
Avoid things you know are completely bad for you and present no opportunities for growth or falsely dangle the possibility of growth in front of you at a terrible risk or cost.
Try to expose yourself to things you know are healthy. Try to keep yourself and your surroundings as healthy as possible. Some will view this as sheltering or as selfish but just like "It's okay to be white(or any other color)" (truly hateful and racist people will disagree and shame people for being who they are) It's also Okay to love yourself. Taking good care of yourself is not selfish.
Try to do your very best to avoid adding any more pain and suffering back into the world. I'm not trying to sound preachy, But trust me- things go better when you don't poison the water you swim, bathe, drink, and breath in.
Try to do your very best to send out good feels and good energy out into the world around you, but be very careful who you do this around or for, and where. Being good turns you into a giant target like a nice cool glass of ice water in the middle of a desert. You actually have to hide your power level, and know when to use it.
Choose all your metaphorical and or figurative battles very wisely. A battle is worthless if you don't win the war in the end. It's okay to feel whatever you need to feel, so long as you understand all the reasons exactly why you are feeling it- but you must also learn to control your emotions and at very imporant moments even shut them off in order to make careful decisions using only logic, but you must also learn when to trust your emotions, your gut instincts and shut off logic too. Knowing when and how and why to balance and in what direction is very important.
Keep trying to learn more good things, and keep trying to unlearn more bad things. You're going to want to have a good amount of self confidence but also be careful about knowing when to question yourself and take a huge deep look at everything and rethink it and see if your know is nice and solid. (you can only truly know God, everything else is up in the air)
Just love and know God. pray whenever you want, wherever you want. no dumb ceremonies, no dumb rituals. you don't even have to talk. just whisper to God in your own mind with your soul and pray. just pray.
11 Name: Anonymous : 2019-08-31 05:35
Science is a religion because scientists and mathematicians and historians and archaeologists panic if someone else (for example another scientist) discovers some problematica that does not fit into their current established standard model of "what is" and fearfully try to aggressively discredit or discard or silence the discoverer or data as quickly as possible to protect their credibility and careers. If you do not repeat and parrot what is already "their truth" you labeled as a phony mentally unstable and insane heretic and a scam artist, all to protect their religion from change, improvement, scrutiny, or even constructive criticism of any kind.

It's important to understand that IQ tests are tests created by imperfect human beings to poorly and terribly inaccurately attempt and immediately fail to measure the divine consciousness or "intelligence" in a person. If you fail to correctly (By their imperfect human standards of correctness) complete all the different questions or tasks in the test, then you fail and are given false judgment by imperfect human beings and are rated as low intelligence (by their imperfect human standards of intelligence). It does not matter to them if you're clever or able to do anything else "smart" outside the artificial boundaries of their "oh so very official and legit" "test".

Science is no longer about observation or trial and error.
Science is no longer based on method.
Science used to be the idea that you should test claims and not believe them on pure faith.
Science has long ago abandoned logic and has since began operating from an entirely false premise.
Science is about making shit up and making sure it sticks.
Nobody is allowed to ask "how the fuck did we get here"

Science Used to say "here is the observation, lets find a theory that agrees with this"
Science now says "here is a completely random baseless theory, lets find an observation that agrees with this, and panic if it doesn't"
12 Name: Anonymous : 2019-08-31 05:36
So essentially science and religion is an attempt at observing and making observations (science physically) or (religion spiritually) and attempting to discuss and understand (science the universe around them) or (religion God)
Science says that the universe was compressed into a very tiny infinitely small point billions of years ago and then exploded and the galaxies and stars and planets formed. Religion says that in the beginning there was nothing and then God created the earth and the sun and the moon and the stars. The problem is that we don't know if the same people that have infiltrated religion and science decided to make up a lie and spread it through both science and religion, or if the good people in religion and science are just doing their best and were able to attempt to tell what they believe is truth on this subject and it just simply came out similar sounding because God helped guide them to the truth or close to it. Winging it.

human beings are imperfect, therefor what they think and create is imperfect.
We're all just trying our best. We're all just winging it. Everything we do as imperfect human beings is just an attempt, but we can't actually "DO" anything. Only God can truly "DO" anything.

Dedicating yourself strictly to any one type of science or any one type of religion and shutting out the wisdom and lies of the rest of the different kinds of systems is the death of creativity, curiosity, learning, and innocence. we are meant to explore and learn and find out the truth. during this process we are inevitably exposed to lies and we must strengthen ourselves against those lies so that we may grow in our search for the truth. beware that intentionally going out of your way to immerse yourself in an ocean of many lies and little truths is a fools game for the most manipulative, evil, and self-dishonest. intentionally surrounding yourself with many lies in an attempt to discover the truth is like drowning for a small bubble of dirty air. (many evil cults do this on purpose)
(notice some of these are smart tips from multiple different religons and spiritual beliefs. there are little pieces of truth scattered about and hidden in everything. there are also lies scattered about everywhere also, which is one of the biggest reasons why you never fully trust anything other than God)

It's imporant to try to have an understanding of many different perspectives to get a better grasp of what's really going on, know thy enemy, some of that sun tzu type stuff I guess, but try to not become the monster in the process and all that. Just be careful and don't become what you know is evil. Check yourself often for corruption. Are you falling into a trap? Being fooled? Be careful!!!
13 Name: Anonymous : 2019-08-31 05:36
I'm going to try to explain
How to listen to God
Listening to God is of the utmost importance
Humans talking about (what God wants) are not actually talking about what God wants. The bibile/ any written test "of God"/ any religion of God. is not actually of God
What God wants from/for each human is different
It's important to try not to commit the "sin" the imperfect human beings who wrote writings of gods and religions make. a lot of these imperfect human beings attempt to claim authority and falsely claim officiality as they try to imperfectly extrapolate the message of god into a broad message easily digestible for everyone in such a way that it is used to control them or further confuse them by covertly and indirectly distancing people from god by giving them false ideas to worship- Which is not the nature of the message of god because the message is personal to each and every human being. I would be would be somewhat guilty the same as them if I told you how to talk to god and how to receive the message of god the way that others do, which is why I'm trying to convey the most simplest understanding that I can. I am NOT condoning or supporting the idea of creating another religion. this is designed to free people from limiting and false ideological chains and corrupt ideas so that they may simply love God. that's it.

Remember that there is wisdom in all religions but there is also corruption in all religions so read up on pretty much everything but be very careful. believing everything you read or experience in life as perfect, that's the problem.
14 Name: Anonymous : 2019-08-31 05:37
God is truth.
There is no religion higher than truth.
There is no religion equal to truth.
All religion is lesser and lower than truth.
God exists. God exists not as a theory and not as a concept of the false matrix universe, but as an actual thinking real individual/beyond being/entity of pure power and love and permanently unmatched and immeasurable intelligence that is capable of beyond infinite multitasking better than any computer or program that has ever, does, or will ever exist in any way shape or form.

God is eternal
God is outside of time
God is actually heaven
God is real reality
God is true nature (not the same nature as our reality)
God is a being that has no beginning and no end and no limits and technically also a special place that has no beginning and no end and no limits

to the imperfect perception and definitions and standards of humanity, perfection is percieved and defined as a dead end because people make the foolish assumption to believe that once perfection is reached that you are simply "there" which is completely incorrect. but true perfection, as in the true perfection of God is always growing and changing and improving in amazing ways that nobody will ever be able to keep up with. God is already perfect, but always becoming even more perfect.

no human no matter how perfect or great could ever be as great and as perfect as God is. God is on an entirely different level that is unreachable forever. period.
15 Name: Anonymous : 2019-08-31 05:37
God created humans but God is not human. God is great, endless, limitless, and imperceivable by humans. you can only ever really truly and wholly perceive and appreciate God when God takes you if God decides to do so.

God is the one and only God

If someone believes in the one and only God then they automatically believe in the right real truth that is more real than the reality we currently live in. to know the one and only God is to believe and know the truth. God automatically knows that they mean the right and only true choice since they are accepting that everything else is fake and false. God automatically understands that people who believe in the one and only God could only possibly mean the God, the one and only. if you accept the unbreakable and incorruptible fact that there is only God and you believe in and love and know the one and only God then God automatically protects you since God knows you don't mean something else like a false god or false idol or false cult or false religion and so on.

all who have ever lived- live now- and ever will live, have failed to- and always will fail to represent God perfectly.

God created everything

God knows everything

God controls everything

God created free will. God controls free will. <- yes this is a paradox. God also created paradoxes. God also controls paradox. see adam and eve fruit example.
16 Name: Anonymous : 2019-08-31 05:38
What is God? Hard-mode: use evidence.
Do you understand how difficult that is for imperfect human beings living in a false reality simulation (which was designed by God to be essentially perfectly imperfect) to describe something that is an exterior exception to the common rule of imperfection in the false reality around us, and the thing we attempt to describe is perfect? plato's cave. It's like trying to explain what a color is to a blind person who has never seen before. God is the one and only all knowing immeasurable being of power and consciousness and love that is infinite and beyond infinite, eternal and beyond eternal, perfect and beyond perfect. God is heaven, real reality, truth. God has always existed, exists, and always will exist. God exists outside of the limitations of time. Try to grasp the concept of infinity. Now try to grasp the concept of greater than that which is already endless. Then try to grasp going so much more greater beyond that deep into the realm where is stopped making any sense to your logical foundations about an infinite number or more of attempts ago and keep going forever more. You're not even a fraction of a percent of a percent of a percent close to even being close to understanding or explaining God. We're beyond babies and God is, well, God. The simple answer is you can't "get" god. Only God can grant you the gift of being got by God.

all things that happen percieved by people as good or bad are things that God chooses to make happen

we are imperfect human beings and we can not push God away, nor should we want to. we cannot shake our hands and make God fall away from us like flour from baking bread, nor should we want to. we can not wash God from ourselves no matter how hard we scrub, nor should we want to. even the evil globalists who blaspheme against God and commit horrible crimes can not shake God from themselves no matter how desperate they may be to do so. we can not sell our souls to anyone else or any other cause, nor should we want to- because we are all in the hands of God. We are not our own to give away to anything else, and there is nothing else, and that is good. we are all children of God. all is as God wills it. this is an absolute unbreakable fact.

there is no devil or bad spiritual/religious enemy figure, and these false idol characters are always created by people who childishly refuse to give God credit for all events that take place.
17 Name: Anonymous : 2019-08-31 05:39
people who can't handle giving God credit for everything in every way, are accidentally foolishly insulting the intelligence of God by pretending they are taking away power from God by inventing false idol puppets like jesus and satan.

some people can't handle giving God all the credit for everything because "my puppy died" and they rationalize "my puppy is good" so how can God be good if God made my puppy die? it's extremely sad and I'm not denying how these people feel even if I know that they are being stupid. not everyone can grasp the big picture, but even those who can grasp it are only grasping like a baby grasps at their mothers breast.

God made the earth, the sun, the moon, ''and'' the stars and said "and it was good" it was not good for humanity, but good for the purpose God has for humanity.

you don't have a soul, you ARE a soul and you are given a body by God so that you may function and interact here like an avatar does in a videogame. treat it well, and do good by the gift God has given you. don't disrespect it.

God communicates directly with every human being. You've been doing so your whole life, but not everybody realizes it.

When you first learn to listen, it is very easy to convince yourself (and for others to convince you) that you are insane.

It's not always a good idea to tell others what you are experiencing because they might react in very irrational ways that are harmful to your health and wellbeing. however, this is a great way to test who your real friends are. warning: you may end up alone, but you are never truly alone because God is always with you.

there is no such thing as a random thought in your head. everything you think was meant to be thought of. yes, we all have silly or disturbing thoughts pop into our heads like this very simple and shallow example: "what If I choked on the food I'm eating right now?".

some thoughts are given to you so that you can hold them in your mind and consider them without agreeing or disagreeing with them, similarly to how ideas are handled by the most intelligent people.

some thoughts come up as miraculous ideas
18 Name: Anonymous : 2019-08-31 05:39
some thoughts come up so that you can think "No! that's stupid, that's totally bad, lets not do that." because it can make you aware of what Not to do.

God will offer undeniable proof to you if you ask. But, and here's where it gets kind of funny… the proof is not transferable. The proof will absolutely convince you of the truth, but will not be anything that can convince others.

Once you have a personal relationship with God, that supersedes all other teachings, the bible, any type of teachers (religious/spirutual or not), and history.

you don't need to go to a church or a temple or mosque or synagogue or any other religious place to pray or be close to God.

you don't need to pray for God to know all of the things in your heart and soul, even if you won't know it for years or forgot about it.

even though God knows everything, God still likes it when you pray.

<"But I ask. How can we have free will if praying is supposed to be effective?"
this is a great question and it has a great answer. God is all powerful and knows everything. God created everything. since God created everything, God controls everything. since God controls everything, there is no such thing as free will. God created free will, but since God created free will, God controls it, so there is no free will but of course this is a special paradox created by God. since God created paradoxes, God also controls paradoxes. God controls all, in true reality and in fake reality. It doesn't have to make sense to our imperfect human minds. since God knows everything and is all knowing and all powerful, God is responsible for all the thoughts that enter your mind. God knows all the thoughts you ever had, all the thoughts you ''ever could have __had__'', all the thoughts you ''might ever have'', all the thoughts you will ''never'' have, and all the thoughts you ''will'' have. because of this, technically speaking, prayer is obsolete and isn't necessary. that being said, things like prayer do make God happy. God likes it when you pray even though God already knows what you are going to pray. it's just a nice thing on our part, a small effort as if to say that we are doing this nice little thing for God because we know it pleases God. I hope this answers your question.

I'm going to make a nice prayer now right here.
please God almighty the one and only God the most wise and the most powerful who is our God and our heaven, hear my prayer. thank you for allowing 8chan to exist so that we imperfect human beings who are secretly the greatest philosophers of our time and yet rejects of an even more imperfect society could be allowed to converge here and discuss what need be discussed with true freedom of speech by your will. thank you God for sending your voice to us so that we may have a positive and good effect on the world. Amen.
19 Name: Anonymous : 2019-08-31 05:40
many religions are designed to get in everyones way and tie them up with tedious obsessive busy work that accomplishes nothing and gets them nowhere and entraps them in very limiting belief systems (just like schools and college and jobs in this world) (if you are too busy stressing out trying to do your homework and pass tests and exams and get good grades and figure out your taxes and pay all your bills, and worry about insurance, you can't stop and think clearly to improve on philosophy and wonder why you're doing any of this in the first place) bad people say what they say, but they really always mean- "there is no fun allowed, you are not allowed to wonder, you are not allowed to ask questions, you are not allowed to feed your curiousity, you are not allowed to learn, you are not allowed to have passion, you are not allowed to be free, you are not allowed to dream." So never listen to them. Just because you are being paid does not mean you are not being enslaved, and Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.

many religions are intentionally designed to trick people into thinking they need to go to a special building to worship God so that they don't feel as if they are being heard by God as well as if they were praying in the (((approved place of worship))) like churches, synagoges, and mosqs.

the bible and all religious texts from most if not all religions are flawed and imperfect at the very least because of the fact that human beings wrote the bible and human beings are flawed and imperfect (many examples in the bible where both good and bad people had a chance to write/add things in while it wasn't done yet) "the love of money is the root of all evil" but "money answereth all things"
20 Name: Anonymous : 2019-08-31 05:41
human beings are imperfect, and everything they make, say, do, and so on is imperfect, including bible, scripture, stories, any religious texts, books, teachings, and so on. some things in life like a sturdy house are well built and good quality but nothing we do is perfect by the standards of God.

the word of God doesn't come from the bible. everything here is a false idol including the bible, money, statues, kings, and so on.

Exodus 20
"You shall have no other gods before Me."You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth."

Deuteronomy 5
You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.

the word of God only comes straight from God.

what all imperfect human beings are searching for is not temporary, or lasting, but rather eternal peace and and happiness and love and freedom. this can only be reached through not obtaining, grasping, or driving yourself or others crazy, but rather being gifted perfection by God.

perfection is not a human definition. any idea of perfection that human beings have is imperfect. God is the sole true understander and beholder of perfection. God is perfect, and only God can grant perfection. (being let into heaven to become better)

==different kinds of responses I got to my thread and my answers for them==
If you're smart enough to figure any of that out you should also be smart enough to realize that anyone else as smart would have also done so, and that posting it here is only going to make those that aren't smart enough further build their ego in rejection to the idea.
"Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast. ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them. under their feet, and turn again and rend you."
tl;dr retarded newfags will never get it even if you tell them
<I know anon. I know. but if it's pointless, if it doesn't matter because evil will always reject God then who am I to deny this wisdom to those who seek it but do not know it? just because they haven't found it yet? maybe they are smart enough but they havent been given guidance.
<you hear me you good ones out there? this is for you.
21 Name: Anonymous : 2019-08-31 05:42
But by attacking religion you are attacking the only thing which has protected humanity in history and you are attacking the very reason humans are allowed to exist!
If you maintain your anti-religious views you are forfeiting your right to exist as a human on this plane and will face the karmic consequences of such acts!
Religion did a great job of protecting humanity, becase humanity still exists! If there had been no religion you wouldn't be online typing that, because you would be extinct!

Saying that religion did a great job of protecting humanity is like saying that hardcore illegal street drugs did a great job of making many people feel better because humanity still exists. Lets just totally disregard how many lives have been destroyed by hardcore illegal street drugs (and the gang wars, drug wars, and actual wars it's created) as well as religion and the wars it's created right? Just because something bad existed and posed a challenge to humanity- and humanity survived doesn't mean that it was entirely beneficial or even good at all. because of religion, people were tortured in dungeons because their beliefs didn't line up with the beliefs of those who were torturing them.

Religion has been one of the biggest methods by which human beings have manipulated and controlled each other as well as one of the biggest reasons for almost every single war that has ever been fought up until and including modern history. Protecting humanity? Religion is a scam. It's a business just like war. "Hey be very afraid so give your church all this money because god needs your money and he loves you but you're going to hell forever so no killing, meanwhile go kill all these people because they don't believe what you believe! also, do whatever we say or god will be very upset with you!"
"Hey let me in!, Who is it? It's jesus let me in! Why? Because I need to protect you! From what? FROM WHAT I'M GOING TO DO TO YOU IF YOU DON'T LET ME IN!"
Religion is a cucked up scam that distances people from God. why worship an impefect human created system when I can just worship God directly?

The only pure and honest founding reason in history for the creation of religion is to bring people closer to God. humanity is imperfect and has since corrupted the world around it and failed religion and thus humanity has failed God and humanity has also failed itself. religion was supposed to protect people by teaching them how to be closer to God but but it caused countless wars and hurt many people in many ways beyond physical wounds. religion was supposed to bring people closer to God but instead it became a business about gathering as much money from it's followers as possible and manipulating them and controlling their lives through fear. religion filled peoples minds with false and limiting ideas and left so many people with such a bad taste in their mouths that so many in their disgust and confusion sought to reject and spit out religion but instead pushed themselves away from God. religion CREATED atheists.
If you seek to preserve humanity you must preserve the love that humanity has for God. only __GOD__
22 Name: Anonymous : 2019-08-31 05:42
Very similar example can be found in first six star wars movies by george lucas.
Jedi rules forbid attachment (but promotes compassion) (as they wage wars for political/religious bullshit, and ignore the cries for help from others who are in need like anakins dying mother)
So love isn't forbidden since compassion is like universal love as anakin explains in episode 2 I believe. This attatchment isn't about love, it's just ''any'' attachment ''at all''. Some of the crystal chakra anons say similar things sometimes as an example. (meh...)
All Jedi are ignorant to the fact that they are all very attached to the Jedi Order
This is a huge problem because they start to think the way that brainwashed liberals or lazy burnt out conservatives do (Plenty of offense intended, but in good will. Rediscover your roots) **Liberals in the old fashioned sense wanted more freedom for good reasons. Conservatives in the old fashioned sense want to preserve or conserve and protect what freedom already exists. our founding fathers of our country USA were a special mix of old fashioned liberal and conservative in the same body, per each individual. In 2019, Liberals run wild demanding the destruction of freedom and Conservatives are lazy sleeping hippos that don't conserve anything. Both suffer from an immense lack of ''Self Awareness''. The reason the USA was successful was that people had a balance of the right types of liberal and conservative thought with a very high amount of self awareness... for their time, yea nothing is perfect, I know.** **I'm not making a force balance argument here. I think that the sith, jedi, grey, are all BS. You can have any powers and use any color light saber but how you use them is what makes you good or bad. Titles are just a BS mask.**

Similarly, different religions make a serious effort to warn their believers or readers to avoid intentionally or accidentally worshipping false gods or false idols but fail to properly warn anyone against falling victim to considering the religion and its books and symbolism as idols as gods. At the end of every religion, people forget about the god that is mentioned in its pages, and they bend over and bow down and worship the book itself. This is the same exact trap the jedi fall into and it's exactly why they fall. The first fall is in their mind, this allows them to fall in every other way. VERY sad, and even more sad the fact that they don't even see or accept their own flaws and mistakes as they are falling. Because they are attached.

In the end, the jedi's lack of self awareness and their religion are the most responsible for the creation of the sith. the jedi forget that they serve the force and nothing else.
In the end, religion and its creators lack of self awareness is the most responsible for the creation of athiests. people forget that they serve God, and nothing else.

==Just a small note: If natural order natural law anon starts mentioning stuff, We do disagree on most things and that's cool and everything but I'm just saying then you know that's not me (OP)==
23 Name: I hope you liked : 2019-08-31 05:43
I hope you liked
24 Name: Anonymous : 2019-09-02 11:42
While I'm not religious myself, I think religion has its upsides and downsides.

Religious unity often unites a people group and that causes less unnecessary wars.

But it also makes troubles because of their differences in a respective religion compared to other.
25 Name: Paperplane : 2019-09-20 05:27
I think there is no room for traditional religions in a modern society.
Churches are corrupt, religious zeal leada to wars and generally completely irrational reactions like how they banned Harry Potter in a school in the US because muh evil witches. It's really backward.

Since scientists discovered the vastness of the universe and can pretty plausibly explain how the earth came to be most religious text were just plain disproven. No god created the earth 5000 years ago, magic isn't real, the earth isn't just an island floating in water etc. etc.
The Age of Enlightenment finally created a disparity between belief and reality. You now HAVE to ignore facts in order to belief or you HAVE to ignore many of the accounts in religious texts and treat them as faslehoods which, imho, renders the whole belief as a whole irrelevant.
Religion just isn't compatible with the vastness of a globalised world and scientific progress.
And I personally can't (even though I really tried to) just ignore all our knowledge and still wholeheartedly believe that there's a God and that Jesus walked on water etc.
26 Name: Anonymous : 2019-09-20 07:20
>>25
But isn't religion more than just explaining the how and why we are here? I'm not religious or anything but I always thought many of the more "magic" stories were to be taken metaphorically.

Anyway, for many people religion and the holy book of their choice is a way to cope with hardships, a way to deal with problems and a offers worldview that gives peace of mind. Instructions that help you deal with life and in that sense I doubt it'll go away especially when everything in this world is constantly changing and constantly posing new challenges. But on the other hand, many functions of the church have been taken over by the government so a traditional role of the church is pretty much gone. Science can explain our world but I don't think you should simplify religion merely to a book with alternative facts.

That's just my opinion.
27 Name: Anonymous : 2019-09-20 11:40
>>5
>>22
>>23
That was a very good read. Thank you anon.
I actually have come to a similar understanding to your post but you've easily conveyed your message in a better context than I could at my current state and obviously added a lot more into the realm of it all. I'm very glad that I decided to get on here this morning and take the time to read all of it. It's opened up a lot of the missing links to my own philosophy.
28 Name: Paperplane : 2019-09-21 05:14
>>26
metaphors
That's exactly the trade-off I mentioned: For thousands of years, people ACTUALLY believed what their religious texts said.
The huge backpaddeling only came whith the age of enlightenment and then it all became wishy washy
yeah ok it didn't actually happen it's just a metaphor :^)
Which is just people in the future trying to salvage thousand year old beliefs.
You know how religion used to have a governing function in the past? People thought that if they don't follow the rules e.g. commandments their souls will go straight to hell and that when they're a "good" believer they'll go to heaven. They actually believed that their king was literally (!!) chosen by god to rule ovee them. It wasn't metaphorical, it was firm conviction.
But when humanity found out about evolution, about other solar systems, about dinosaurs etc. these beliefs just became radically implausible. And it didn't even need to be these major scientific discoveries, just the discovery of different cultures on earth:
Who says that our beloved Christianity is more correct than the nature worship some africans in jungle do?
It's the same idiocy with Horoscopes:
For thousands of years hundreds of peoples around the globe have been seeing different shapes in the night skies but that one specific interpretation is supposed to be the correct one ans floating rocks billions of miles away are at fault that Tracy is a bitch?
Come on!

Anyway, my argument is that without belief - and I mean actual conviction - religion doesn't mean anything. And what's e.g. modern Christianity been doing for 100+ years now?
Uh well ok there isn't actually that specific thing (e.g. pre-hell) we all believed in for thousand years and oh no this isn't to be meant literally it's just a metaphor yknow?
It just crumbles and loses its teeth, its consequences, its meaning
You don't need religion to have a moral code, you can easily explain the importance of laws and moral as a nece8 for our society. You don't need religion to form communities, there's sports, music, work, games, art and politics.
Now what job is left for religion? You don't need religion to govern a country because there's politicians and parliaments. You don't need religion in order to get people to donate money to the poor, there's plenty non religious charities. What's left?
Escapism? The comfort that my soul will go into heaven because I was a good boy?
Yeah good luck getting people to still believe in that one.
29 Name: Anonymous : 2019-09-22 00:27
>>28
who are thou quoting?
30 Name: Anonymous : 2019-09-27 23:06
>>2
Why would you say something so controversial yet so brave?
31 Name: Anonymous : 2022-01-26 03:21
>>28

What’s the point of a relationship?
32 Name: Anonymous : 2022-01-26 04:26
i think the aesthetics of religion are fun, although i dont worship any in particular i feel that the passion that goes into the work of cathedrals, shrines, paintings and whatnot is sacred within itself, and it is important to keep that kind of spark in culture. perhaps a society without god is possible, but it will never be as beautiful.
33 Name: Paperplane : 2022-01-26 20:29
>>28
Even though I have not a single esoteric/spiritual fibre in my body, I now acknowledge the importance religion had on the human civilisation and that myths and stories are probably the best vehicles to convey morals and other ideas/virtues.
That makes me view religion more as a useful tool humans built to help them on their way but nothing transcendental, let alone God given. Since the old religions like Islam and Christianity are rooted in very old traditions that couldn't keep up with the modern world, I believe that one day there will be a surrogate.

If technological progress continues and one day humans will colonize the solar system and send genreational ships through the galaxy, I doubt stories like in they're found in the Bible will be able to touch someone born on Mars because the context changed so radically. If we forward another 2k years, I could see someone like Elon Musk becoming the basis of a new religion. He's already being worshipped. Give it a thousand years and actually succesful colonies on Mars, the myths around him starting it all might be the begining of a new cult, at least that's how I think religious figures like Jesus or Mohammed cemented themselves in their respective religions.
The need for religion won't go away but the ability for the currently most widespread religions to fulfill that need is already waning.

On a side note, I noticed a "new" counter culture among /pol/ types and cohorts on 4chan and social media to pretend to be hardcore christians again. That's interesting to see how the American youth emancipated from their religious parents in the 80s-90s and early 2000s, up to a point where atheism became associated with uncool, fedora types again and now "faith" has become a mere counter signal. A superficial gown for the edgy to adorn themselves with to argue for abortion laws and to rebel against the pop science fanatics of reddit.
It's easily deconstructed once put into context but still funny to see the pendulum swing like that.
34 Name: Anonymous : 2022-01-28 05:33
>>33
Religion and the associated practices also make sense if you consider their practical utility: e.g. why are some religions prohibited from eating pig? It's highly likely people noticed that people got sick more often from eating pigs, and despite not knowing about germ theory made the correct conclusion. Codifying it in the religion made it easy to ensure this knowledge would survive.

I'm even more impressed by the eastern religions, who also made more subtle observations about how different types of breathing can influence the body's regulatory systems.
35 Name: Paperplane : 2022-01-28 17:04
>>34
Agreed! It really is a useful tool after all.
36 Name: Anonymous : 2022-07-28 20:17
I’m strongly against organized religions. They’re the result of people from ancient times trying to understand the world around them when they had little information to go on, and they really don’t offer any good reason to believe that their claims are actually true. The more I learn about the Bible, for example, the more I see it as essentially just being a collection of culturally important myths that has had its reputation built up over centuries far beyond its actual worth as any kind of spiritual guidebook. I’ve actually read comments from out-of-body travelers that suggest that strong religious belief is more harmful than helpful in the afterlife due to being conducive to a limited and boxed-in conception of reality, whereas existence is said to offer much more abundant possibilities to those who can move beyond narrow ideological purviews. Even if you based a religion on the otherworldly experiences of modern individuals with more scientific mindsets, you’re still ultimately promoting blind faith if you don’t encourage people to have similar experiences and to try to piece together the truths of existence for themselves.

While it’s not wrong to say that religious traditions can play a positive societal role in certain ways, that doesn’t make their specific ontological claims any more true. I can’t get behind the idea of a noble lie.

With that said, I like learning about the Bible and don’t have any problems with religious stories and imagery when they’re not being presented as something more than valuable cultural heritage. I’m not one of those people who gets butthurt at nativity scenes around Christmastime or anything. I also try to not to be too hard on religious people, since I used to be a very adamant one myself. On the other hand, I'll also firmly stand my ground if people try to convert me.
37 Name: Anonymous : 2022-07-28 22:53
>>1
imagery should not be worshipped
yes
(looking at you, Catholics)
There is a difference between doulia (veneration) and latria (worship), which lots of western religiosity flattens.

If you want to know what I believe, look up the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed
38 Name: Anonymous : 2022-07-29 09:12
Been getting some religious vibes from the way science has been treated as the solution to all our problems and answer to all our questions. Especially the past 2 years.
It makes me a bit wary.
39 Name: Anonymous : 2022-08-07 08:44
>>38
The main issue is that science mandates reevaluation of what may look like rock-solid tenets near constantly and people don't like that. They tend to pick conclusions and stick to them. On top of this, science provides no moral framework whatsoever. And yet somehow one seems to emerge from it for the sorts of people you are talking about.
40 Name: Anonymous : 2022-11-26 20:59
i am coptic
so, i believe in god
that is it, fear it, pagans
41 Name: Anonymous : 2022-11-29 13:07
No gods, no masters...we're all here to just fart around, as Kurt Vonnegut once said.
42 Name: Anonymous : 2022-11-29 19:26
Religion is pretty much dead but I believe that something rather essential was lost in humanity in the process. It's like a whole layer of meaning is just gone and we never replaced it with anything.
43 Name: Anonymous : 2022-11-30 05:38
I'm not religious and I don't believe in God but you're retarded if you discount the social purpose of churches and religion. For that reason I'm not against religion in general. Without it, you lose a lot of social cohesion.
44 Name: Anonymous : 2022-12-07 12:32
I'm of the belief that while you can't prove that a God exists, you can't disprove their existence either. Outside of one's own faith the only other way to truly find out is through death, and I don't think we'll be bringing people back from it any time soon.

>>43
I agree with this.
45 Name: Anonymous : 2024-02-12 16:47
I think the E-Christian trend is gay and I'm glad that it's dying.
46 Name: Anonymous : 2024-02-12 17:27
>>45
Is it?
47 Name: Anonymous : 2024-02-12 18:26
>>46
With how cringe AF is. I'd say so. The entire reason this became a trend in the first place was because a lot of the big atheists back in day became SJWs, and as a result people started to second guess their critiques of religion. "These SJWs are so disingenuous in their arguments against us, so maybe they acted the same way to those fundies" the thinking was. However with the shit coming out against AF and other religious grifters , I think people are now realizing that these fundies were being targeted not because they were opposing some vast Satanistic Marxist agenda, but because they were fucking retarded which made them easy targets.
48 Name: Anonymous : 2024-02-13 02:00
There is no real religion in today's world. Even those fundies who call themselves religious are being inauthentic. Secular liberalism is the dominant ideology of our time.

What is religion? The perennial question in philosophy and religious studies. During the Enlightenment, secular liberal rationalists begun labeling ideas they personally didn't like as "religion" Its an insult, like calling someone a n **er. Basically, the whole concept of religion is just projection, a way of shitting on ideas and people you don't like.

When Napoleon spread the French revolution by the sword and the British carried the Enlightenment plague to their colonies, they begun describing the strange beliefs of others as simply "religions" or "cults" that were irrational and stupid. Buddhist scholars in Japan and African shamans suddenly became "clerics"; ignorant peddlers of this thing called religion. Overnight, they went from esteemed scholars in their society, heirs of a great philosophical tradition, to being branded as reactionaries. A class of natives, brainwashed by European schooling, created a new secular class poisoned by liberal humanism and scientism. Before this of course, the scientists and mathematicians were Buddhist scholars, but now the economy of knowledge was forever split in two. Out came the Ataturks and Maos of the world, obsessed with Enlightenment and utter self-hatred for their own kind.

We now live in a world where a single epistemology (rationalism and scientism), a single cosmology (scientific materialism) and a single ethics (fanatic individualism) is the standardized operating system of our global industrial mode of production. Anything that goes against this bureaucratically imposed truth is "backward" or instantly deemed "religious" or mentally ill, not on the basis of its philosophical merit but simply because it goes against secular liberalism. Armies of NGOS, missionaries of development and Enlightenment, have spread out to the Third World to preach the gospel of liberalism and turn the Bedouin tribesman of today into the suit wearing NYT reader of tomorrow. Like his American brothers, he'll abandon his cattle and his desert and live in a self-imposed prison (suburb), work in an enslavement facility (office), and drink kale while listening to whatever crap they play on the radio these days while being as hopelessly dependent on industrial products as a dope addict.

Take a look at the average Christian or Muslim preacher online. All they do is argue about which religion is the most modern i.e. which is closest to Enlightenment liberalism or which is the most rationalist or compatible with science. They are just shitty liberals and proud of it, like a black slave trying to prove he's a real man by acting as white as possible.

I'm not anti-Christian or anti-Buddhist or anti-Islam. I am anti-secular and anti-liberal. Secularism is a belief system that simply doesn't make sense. Its a tool of thought control and nothing more. A clever tool governments and self-anointed experts can police truths and paint anyone who disagrees with them as deranged schizos. The ultimate irony is that it was the partisans of Enlightenment and modernity, be they social conservatives or ultra-leftists, that created our modern sickness of impending nuclear holocaust, environmental destruction, mass extinction, epidemic depression, high suicide rates, technology making humans obsolete, and capitalist exploitation. What did fundies ever do? Knock down a couple towers? I'd rather the world be ruled by the Amish than the government that nuked two cities and carpet bombed half of East Asia.
49 Name: Anonymous : 2024-02-13 06:48
>>45
I'm with this anon here. It has always been just a form of counter culture and virtue signaling for their in-group.
>>48
I think it is interesting that you came to the conclusion that secularism is a form of thought control when the church in non-secular states is and was way more controlling. Instead of experts you just had people saying "god said so, now burn the witch!"
I personally enjoy living in a (mostly) secular state where the church has almost no power because I am extremely certain that life would be worse then.
50 Name: Anonymous : 2024-02-13 09:16
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xglo2n2AMGc
51 Name: Anonymous : 2024-02-13 22:36
I used to think religions were dumb and some cranky backwards things people believe in, but I realized that's a very naive and reductionist way of seeing things.

Where I think there's truth to be against religion. It can easily become too dogmatic and people tend to abuse the power it has. Although I'm not sure if that didn't just happen because religion was taken more seriously in the past, which made power hungry people focus on it more. You kinda see the same thing with what we value today. Think politics, economy, science. There's also the matter of rules religions give, which sometimes seem completely bizarre to us.

Yet, with that said. religion as opening yourself up to the grander structure of the universe and the humility something like that gives should be done more. I think that's where religions are aiming for as destination, yet never reaching it. You see it in the holy buildings like churches, mosques or temples. Which were build hundreds to thousands of years ago, yet have carved in details and complexity that puts modern architecture to shame. In general I feel as you move away from spirituality, things tend to become more ugly and distorted. It's like a connection with life in the whole universe we are closing ourselves off from.

I believe that connection to life is also where spirits come from. Not as in transparent people haunting empty homes, but more so as this structure of life. You know how tons of "primitive" people tend to have mountain spirits, forest spirits and what not? I think that's because these things tend to really have life in them. You see a forest move around, adapt, die off, be born again. There's this question people have of how life is possible as it seems like a weird thing, but it might be the opposite. Life is primary to the world, and the inanimate is just a weird case of something having less life than usual.

If I can be a bit more controversial, the lack of this care for the bigger intuitive emotional picture of the world is also why we are in trouble all the time. People tend to make plans on new year eve to lose weight, yet they never do. And that's because they try to reason about something and believe that's primary, yet what they should do is have a big emotional connection to their physical well being. They don't. They just rationalize their desires without any change happening. The same thing happens with the environment. You hear all the time about how we should take care of the planet as we are making a mess out of it, but we continue making a mess out of it. Because we see it as means to extract utility. There's ultimately no respect to it or harmony in the world. We just get feedback that we are messing it up too much, so we try to find ways to mess it up slightly less, while not changing ourselves. The problem isn't solved, but pushed few hours into the future.

I think a way to regain a bit of that connection to life would be through spending time in nature, and perhaps art. Both of these things are valued less and less as they don't give you any direct utility, but they are good ways to get your mind off and let it wander around. Notice things you didn't see before and think about the bigger picture for a bit.
52 Name: Anonymous : 2024-02-14 01:27
>>49
I don't think they are really that different. Today, modern governments have privacy invading technologies and armies of technocrats to prosecute and purge society of undesirables. It was actually the Catholic church that helped invent this system. Think of the confession box, the way in which the priesthood wrote up these massive studies of sinfulness or how to identify a witch and what to do with her, then the army of pastors fanning out across Catholic Europe to govern the souls of people, kick out heretics, purge society from sin. Although they didn't perfect it, they did create this big technocratic system of surveillance and policing. Our modern secular priests (e.g. psychiatrists, social workers, sex therapists) pretty much do the same. We don't hunt imaginary witches, we go after the homeless, immigrants, the mentally ill, deviant sexual behavior, drugs, disobedient teens, extremists, or just anything abnormal.

To be clear, we shouldn't generalize this history to all religions in the world or even all of Christianity either.

I personally enjoy living in a (mostly) secular state where the church has almost no power because I am extremely certain that life would be worse then.
That's a fair point but it depends on your situation. I'd hate to be a Shia in Saudi Arabia but I'd also hate to be a Christian in Soviet Russia or a Muslim in modern day France. There are freedoms in a secular state but they are freedoms for some and other people get treated badly. This is what liberals ignore. They see secularism as something neutral when its just another belief system like any other and if you ram it down people's throats it will have the same effect as a Catholic Inquisition.
53 Name: Anonymous : 2024-02-14 12:32
>>52
Yes, I agree and I didn't want to imply that we live in a Utopia just because we have secular states now but I still believe that NOT having a church (be it Christian, Islamic or whatever) with political power is better overall. Religion to me is something deeply personal and I'm strongly against organised religions (at least at the scale of something like the big Christian and Islamic denominations).
This may sound cynical but I think the evils of those in power are now more transparent than before.
54 Name: Anonymous : 2024-02-15 14:24
The human animal is inately religious. The limits of one man's knowledge are very low, and neccessitate the sort of lateral or intuitive thinking a religion provides, whether or not we call it that.
We've just traded the old ones for the current one. We don't live in a secular society in any sense other than the religion that is adhered to doesn't have a proper name.
55 Name: Anonymous : 2024-02-15 21:28
>>54
see
>>50
56 Name: Anonymous : 2024-02-16 03:30
>>55
That is not at all what I am referring to.
57 Name: Anonymous : 2024-02-28 06:22
>>49
To be fair the medieval Catholic Church taught that witchcraft was not real and belief in it was heresy.
58 Name: Anonymous : 2024-02-28 06:43
I was raised a rural catholic. I don't have a bad experience with it. It was a nice franco ethnic community. They helped their communities out. Each other out. They were always merciful and helpful. Catholic holidays have nice rituals. I just don't believe gods are real. I kind of miss it.
Going to mass every sunday was boring though.

Return

Name:
/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /