Religion is true to the fool, false to the wise man, and useful to the politician.
There are a LOT of good churches out there, run by good people. Not all churches are good though, and the ones that are bad… tend to be really bad.
Religion is true to the fool, false to the wise man, and useful to the politician.
There are a LOT of good churches out there, run by good people. Not all churches are good though, and the ones that are bad… tend to be really bad.
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 1 day ago
And see, here’s the thing. I’m an athiest, but I think churches COULD be a good thing. It’s an organization that teaches people to be good people. Sure, fine, they believe there’s an all knowing invisible man in the sky that knows everything since the dawn of time. And I’ll ignore the fact that supposedly everything that happens is his plan, but also we have free will…that he planned. I’ll ignore that not making sense, because simple minded as they may be, they’re just trying to be good people. Religion helps them not struggle with the hard questions in life, and just be a human. A good human.
Now for the part where it all comes crumbling down for me.
I have never once met an overly religious person who wasn’t also a massive hypocrite. So now, it goes from being a person just trying to BE good, into being a person just trying to APPEAR to be a good person while hiding all the evil shit they do.
Now, I don’t believe heaven exists. I don’t believe hell exists. I believe earth exists. I believe through the acts of chaos theory that billions of years ago a chain reaction happened in this solar system. I don’t know what led to it happening. I don’t know why it doesn’t happen in other solar systems more often. But I do believe it happened here. And then over the coarse of billions of years, and juuuuuuust the right atmospheric conditions, life exists. Life adapts. Life dies. New life emerges. And I believe that may have also happened outside of our solar system. Not humans. Some other life form. Maybe it’s a planet full of space cows. Maybe something else. Nobody knows. And I may be wrong. Maybe we are alone.
The point is, I don’t believe there is a “good place” to go when I die that rewards my behavior in life, like an all seeing Santa Claus. Which means, when I do good things, when I do morally right things, it’s because I’M the one who determined them to be the right thing to do. I decided that it needs to be done. Not because I’ll get rewarded later, but because it’s the right thing to do.
Now, if I decide to do bad things, I also don’t believe I’ll be held in some firey eternity. I don’t believe I’ll be punished post death for anything I’l done. I don’t believe Hitler went to hell. Not because he doesn’t deserve it (if it were real, he absolutely does). I just don’t think anybody gets praised or punished or exists at all post death.
But that’s not how these people see it. From their perspective, they know they’re doing wrong. Their god knows they’re doing wrong. Their church knows they’re doing wrong too! So wouldn’t that imply this all goes towards their sins list?
But then I get told that sinners can just repent for all their sins, and be accepted into heaven.
Soooooooo…literally your entire life, all your beliefs, all your good deeds, all your bad deeds, all the time in church, all the time praying, it was all one MASSIVE waste of time. Me being an athiest, could repent for all my sins, never having believed in god my whole life, and I’d be let in.
So really, them taking these books doesn’t mean a damn thing to them, until they get the same treatment done to them. Then suddenly we’re the sinners. We’re going to hell.
See? Hypocrites.
NABDad@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I’m gonna respond to a couple points.
I have. Not many. I can think of one. There may be others. However, that’s enough for me to know it does happen.
Absolutely! The bible warns against following false prophets. That’s what these church leaders are.
Yeah, but depending on the church, you have to actually repent. As I understand it, Catholics can confess their sins to a priest and be absolved. However, most other Christian religions consider it a matter between you and God, so you can’t just pretend to repent. It’s has to be real. You don’t get to trick God.
One way it was described to me is like this: to be forgiven for your sins, you have to welcome Jesus into your heart. However, if you have welcomed Jesus into your heart, you wouldn’t sin. So, a sinner who has truly repented and embraced Jesus is forgiven and won’t sin again.
I think the vast majority of people who are going to church don’t believe it any more than you do. They’re in it for the social interaction or for the standing it gives them in their community, and it’s all just bullshit. However, I have met real true believers.
onslaught545@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
The best Christians I’ve known weren’t overly religious people. They were just good people who did good things.
In my experience people who actually try to live by Jesus’s teachings don’t broadcast it every chance they get.
Zedd_Prophecy@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Roman Catholics get to talk to the father in confession and are issued a pennance. In my experience ( I’m since agnostic ) I was issued dumb things like say 100 hail Marys my son. It’s all a joke really. We were expected to confess EVERY week so we would use convenient things like “father I had Inpure thoughts about miss Tucker” even though you didn’t. Most of us didn’t do the pennance. We did however make friends with the altar boys who had access to the wine… Yeah we used real wine. I got a little more than tipsy on the blood of Christ a few times.