Comment on US education
neukenindekeuken@sh.itjust.works 1 week agoAs an American raised in a religious household who’s extremely familiar with European culture, people, and living; you are unfortunately wrong.
American Christianity is its own brand, and Europe has absolutely nothing like it. Nothing. Not at the scale of US religion absurdity.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blasphemy_law
There are parts of Europe where the fanaticism is so entrenched that you can be fined or go to jail for blasphemy.
So I’m seriously doubting your opinion that American Christians are on the whole crazier and more fanatical than Christians anywhere else.
From your source:
Germany
In Germany, religious defamation is covered by Article 166 of the Strafgesetzbuch, the German criminal law. If a deed is capable of disturbing the public peace, defamation is actionable. The article reads as follows:[53]
§ 166 Defamation of religious denominations, religious societies and World view associations (1) Whoever publicly or by dissemination of writings (§ 11 par. 3) defames, in a manner suitable to disturb the public peace, the substance of the religious or world view conviction of others, shall be fined or imprisoned for up to three years. (2) Whoever publicly or by dissemination of writings (§ 11 par. 3) defames, in a manner suitable to disturb the public peace, a church existing in Germany or other religious society or world view association, or their institutions or customs, shall be punished likewise.In 2006, the application of this article received much media attention when a Manfred van H. (also known as “Mahavo”) was prosecuted for defamation for distributing rolls of toilet paper with the words “Koran, the Holy Koran” stamped on them.[54][55][56] The defendant claimed he wanted to protest the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh in 2004 and the London bombings of 2005. Beyond the sentence he also received death threats from Islamists and needed a police bodyguard.[56]
What is called “Blasphemy law” here is just protection of religious people, in particular minorities against persecution and incitement of hatred. You know, because last time when it was en vogue in Germany it led to millions of people being exterminated for their (alleged) religious affiliation.
If such a protection is called “Blasphemy law”, the same would have to be said for laws protecting LGBT, disabled people, ethnic minorities and other vulnerable groups.
What they have on the books and what they enforce and how people live, are two very different things.
I appreciate that link, it’s enlightening, I didn’t know some of those countries still had it on their books.
However, the actual people living in Europe (at least Western Europe) ignore pretty much all of that. Everyone blasphemies all the time, nobody cares.
If anyone’s religious, they generally keep it to themselves in the EU.
If they’re religious in the US, they talk about it as if everyone else is as well, and pray for you and will pray to God to heal you from whatever affliction you have.
You pretty much cant’ escape the religious fanaticism that exists in the US from the people. It’s got nothing to do with the laws on the books (yet, but give the Christo-fascists time…), and everything to do with the insanity that is being religious in the US and making it a part of every aspect of your life, and forcing everyone else around you to participate whether they want to or not.
I’ve spent a good bit of time in Europe, and never once, not even remotely, have I ever been asked anything religious or had anyone talk about God, or Jesus, or offer to pray for me, etc.
I met a Tattoo artist the other day that said he’d pray for me and that Jesus can “do all things through Christ” (which I guess is Jesus doing everything through himself?) completely unprompted and without displaying anything other than a plain black t-shirt.
This happens constantly. Everywhere in the US. And if you’re anywhere near a mega church, holy shit, those people are pure insanity. I’ve been to sermons where people are speaking in “tongues” and yelling jibberish, flopping about on the floor during a big tent-revival thing, hitting people to smack the “demons” out of them, screaming and rolling on the ground to escape demons (or praise God, it’s difficult to tell sometimes), etc.
Nothing like that exists in western Europe to my knowledge. Or if it does, nothing even close to the scale it’s displayed in the US exists.
Did you see the picture of the Vatican I posted in comparison to that evangelical weirdo’s little theater in the US? So much for “keeping it to themselves” there is practically a sovereign state for one branch of Christians in Europe.
Man, I’m trying to help out here, but you’re making it difficult by conflating these things.
They are not the same. You seem to be on the same side as everyone else here in terms of disliking/hating organized religion. With you on that. I have a deep, deep, deep hatred and mistrust of that given my upbringing in the US.
However, it is not a fair comparison that the Vatican or the way religion in Western Europe is in any way similar to what’s going on in those evangelical revival tents/places.
I’ve been to and lived in/through both, and so have a lot of people replying to you. It seems like your first hand experience with religion in Western Europe is perhaps extremely limited and you’re looking at extremely superficial similarities (like the opulence of the Vatican or how it’s basically its own country, sort of thing).
It’s tradition. You’re looking at things from the times during the crusades, sort of thing. What’s left in Europe is mostly just traditional religion stuff, that’s more about ceremony and habit than any actual true fanatical belief in anything.
There are no preachers on street corners in Europe that I’ve ever seen or heard of. There’s no big tent revival things. There’s no people shoving their religion down your throat. There’s no crazy mega-church speaking in tongues shit.
That’s largely contained in the US. Whatever superficial similarities you’re seeing between the two regions is just that, superficial.
I encourage you to go over to Europe and visit these sights.
I’ve been to the Vatican. It’s basically just a bunch of money thrown at artists during the Renaissance period because the church had too damn much money. It’s an attraction. It’s a circus. A sideshow.
Even the devout Catholics over there keep it to themselves. They’re science focused (generally), and tend to not let it affect their social discourse too much. Nobody ever asks for your religion over there or assumes you’re a Christian.
Europe has an absolute shitton of non-believers, especially depending on the country we’re talking about (Norway/Finland/Iceland are some of the highest number of Agnostic/Atheists).
There’s not many other ways I can explain this right now other than you are wrong. It’s understandable why you think what you think, because on the surface you could make these connections, but I absolutely promise you, if you were to go and live in Western Europe for even a week or more; you’d learn quickly how little religion plays a part in anyone’s life over there.
That’s because Europe sent us all their religious crazies right at the start.
some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I too was raised with religion (Catholicism) in the US, while my wife grew up going to Baptist churches - our childhoods could not have been more different. I was taught that studying science and the processes of observation and inquiry bring you closer to God, while for her the sciences were alternately ignored or lied about. Our family gave into the collection basket of our own will because we believed raising funds for good causes was the right thing to do. Her family was under compulsory tithing - 10% of all income. I was allowed to read whatever books, consume whatever media, and wear whatever I wanted, she was not. The list goes on…
I’m not trying to whitewash Catholicism - it obviously has its own major issues that shouldn’t be ignored, but it’s a far cry from the fundamentalist book burners who my family thought of as zealous nut bags.