Blind faith only invites others to exert their power over you.
Not wanting my kids getting sexually assaulted is up there as well.
But it builds character /s
I became an atheist because in college I spent a lot more time around fundamentalists. The more time I spent around them and their rediculous justifications for thinking the Earth was 6,000 years old the more that it became apparent to me that if they could be that ignorant of why their beliefs didnt make sense, the same could be true of mine. So I investigated why I believed what I did and over time more and more of my religious beliefs failed to withstand the sort of scrutiny that I put them under and eventually I realized I couldnt call myself christian anymore because I didnt believe any of it.
Religions need to be rebooted. How many times are they in the news for abuse of power, inappropriate behavior, disputes over land and their rules, and their influence on politics and government? Too many, if you ask me.
It's not a bad thing to regularly get people together, form community, and care for each other. They just need to get with the times, man.
Suggestions:
- don't shun "non-believers"
- stop touching children
- don't kill people for inappropriately invoking your God's name or image
- focus less on afterlife and more on the present
- don't try to keep people stupid, the Internet exists and once they find out you'll lose them forever
- don't go full zealot on cherry-picked texts while completely ignoring other ones to make arguments.
- don't be a dick
- have checks on power, money, and influence
- ain't no one got time to read tomes
Going to a religious school works pretty well, too.
Ah yes, comes with a fair amount spite for the religion too.
PS1's Final Fantasy Tactics.
I will not elaborate.
Blame yourself or God.
If he was real, God is a dick.
That said Song of the Fucked Duck by Marge Piercy has a great thought on that:
The will to be totally rational
is the will to be made out of glass and steel:
and to use others as if they were glass and steel.I can still love the sacred in a profane existence.
You gotta be careful though!
The metaphysical / new age religions have a version of "a desire to be totally rational" that is honestly just as bad.
I grew up in one. No glass and steel, but quite the desire to be made out of cosmic sunbeams and spiritual joyfulness.
Humans feel more than that. Pain, grief, loneliness, stress, rage, and pride aren't toxic energy: they are existence. You can't aspire to something that cuts out half of your existence, or you're always going to feel inadequate.
I was an extremely faithful catholic until the age of 18. Around then I decided to start taking my faith even more seriously and started digging into the big questions and what the leaders in my (Catholic) church thought. Very soon after I was a very angry atheist. So very fucking angry,
These days I'm simply not preoccupied with the religion question. I have better things to do.
Same until the last bit. I’m obsessed with religions.
Same. But baptist.
Watching how others with faith act and be disgusted.
