Around the World, Many People Are Leaving Their Childhood Religions.
-
This post did not contain any content.
If counting Christianity then it will be a lot higher. I'm baptised and stuff like that, but that was just tradition. I never believed in a god.
-
Dunno…too long ago for me to remember many details and as I said, I can’t find a source.
FWIW, those events took place in the USA though, and the article I’m referring to specifically mentioned the U.K.
A yes in 16th century USA
-
Most people have already left, they just don't realise. If you don't go to church or mosque (probably not Buddhism or Hinduism) you already essentially betrayed the values you once were told to hold, but people are scared to admit because of metaphysical punishments in the afterlife
If not that, then public repercussions prevent them from admitting, and what once held the place of religion in communities is quickly being replaced with ideology instead, it provides community, tenets to follow, laws to abide by, and gives purpose for those who lack it
This started way in the past, and Russia would have likely also been more atheist than orthodox if the USSR didn't turn priests into martyrs by forcing a non religious status quo onto everyone and becoming a dictatorial tyrant with so called dictatorship of the "proletariat" which usually only turns into a dictatorship where only bureaucrats and party members exist in.
Honor killings still occur in many religious countries or in migrant families from those countries so yeah people are afraid to admit that they don’t believe.
-
A yes in 16th century USA
lol. Bit of an error there on my part.
-
This post did not contain any content.
If I were to guess why its probably because religious communities always tend to lean into hateful rhetoric against "others".
People realize the closer you are to religion the further from God you feel as you couldn't believe that judgement of other humans is wise from an all knowing being if it exists.
Then the internet of course gives so many alternate sane opinions for consumption and exposure readily at your fingertips.
-
If I were to guess why its probably because religious communities always tend to lean into hateful rhetoric against "others".
People realize the closer you are to religion the further from God you feel as you couldn't believe that judgement of other humans is wise from an all knowing being if it exists.
Then the internet of course gives so many alternate sane opinions for consumption and exposure readily at your fingertips.
Ex-Roman Catholic here. I was never particularly devout but this is what drove me away from the church once and for all. I have never seen people preach about God’s love with so much hate in their hearts.
-
Former Christian here, I'm still very partial to this verse:
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.
Wow that’s a banger, thank you for introducing me to it.
-
I think religion is capable of doing great things, but yeah, more often than not it seems to be a gateway to fascism and other extreme right dictatorships.
The red text of Jesus was based. It taught me that God weeps for the sparrows so we also should value and protect nature. Jesus washing the disgusting feet of people who walked around all day in sandals without socks taught me that truly great leaders use their position to serve the weak and vulnerable. Jesus warning that it was impossible for the wealthy to enter heaven and ordering us to take care of the poor just like we would take care of him if he needed it taught me empathy and helped me become a communist.
So yeah, Christian communism is based, but Christianity under capitalism becomes a tool of fascism.
There's really nothing special about Jesus, if you accept that the voices he heard in his head were not really "the all-powerful creator" speaking to him.
What I mean is that Jesus did not say anything more remarkable or ground-breaking than say Socrates, Marx or .. I don't know Iain M Banks or any other story teller. Way less remarkable in fact.
There's this persistent idea that Jesus was some wonderful caring hippy, and before Jesus everyone was just a callous exploitive bastard. There's nothing new about the share-and-share-alike philosophy Jesus espoused. It's basic game theory. Jesus was just a poor Jewish common person who thought he was the messiah. Just like his compatriots of the time, he believed the Jews to be the "chosen people", and his message was only directed at his compatriots. He had no more grasp of humanity as a whole than any other common person of his time. As the messiah, he believed - as did his followers - that he was going to usher in the end of the world.
It's complete nonsense, and if you truely understand what a scam the modern church is, you would stop promoting him as some kind of revolutionary.
-
This post did not contain any content.
-
Ex-Roman Catholic here. I was never particularly devout but this is what drove me away from the church once and for all. I have never seen people preach about God’s love with so much hate in their hearts.
-
That is weird to me because Jesus repeatedly condemned the rich. He even violently kicked them out of temples by whipping them and flipping tables. Jesus even said the wealthy will never enter into heaven. Jesus was essentially a proto-communist
Many Christians have never read the Bible. They hear about eternal salvation so long as you dunk in some water and say you're sorry and they're sold. If they even consciously think about it in the first place.
Christianity is just another one of Plato's caves
-
“
MoneyReligion is the root of all evil.” -
There's a lot of Buddhist teachings I agree with but do we really need all the supernatural baggage to teach people to be less materialistic and to be kind to each other?
I've found Zen Buddhist koans, essentially short stories to be contemplated over, to be deeply calming and insightful.
My favorite one is this.
"A man was walking through the jungle, when he spotted a tiger. The man immediately fled, but the tiger gave chase. Approaching a cliff, the man saw only one option… A hanging vine. He jumped off of the cliff and grabbed the vine, hanging on for dear life.
The tiger came to the edge of the cliff, snarling.
Just as the man thought he was in the clear, he noticed another tiger prowling below.
And then, if things weren’t difficult enough, the man then saw two mice above him (one black, one white) gnawing away at the vine.
In this state of impending doom, the man looked over his shoulder to the sight of a strawberry patch on a ledge, at arm’s length.
The man reached over, plucked a strawberry and ate it. It was the best damn strawberry he ever had."
-
Its a problem with all of them. How can any christians be non pacifist when direct from christs mouth was the very direct command:
"Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain."
I have had discussion and its ludicrous the other parts they engage in mental gymnastics to work around it. Its the same with the 4 noble truths and the 8 fold way. Its pretty obvious its about looking inward and delving into anyone elses life except to help them would be feeding into desire. Sihks have this whole thing about goofy practices of other religions and then have their own goofy practices. No idea how jainism gets corrupted or other faiths off the top of my head but im sure they are there.
-
Most people are not good without religion, they are good because of civilization. If society breaks down, everyone is going to get real mean, real quick.
The most evil people in Nazi Germany were generally anti-religious.
I don't know if evil is the right word. However, most people are self serving and will do "evil" things to enrich themselves. Whether that makes them evil is up for debate. As far as I can see, it's a matter of human nature following the rules of game theory.
-
This post did not contain any content.
Religion is for three kinds of people:
Fools
Liars
Disobedient children with fools or liars as parents
Tolerance of religion is a paradox as every religion is intolerant of other religions.
Yes Buddhism too.
Respect is earned. Trust is earned.
Religion deserves neither.
-
This post did not contain any content.
It doesn't necessarily mean they become atheists; some switch religions. While in the West religion is in overall decline, in the global south, Christian evangelicals are on the rise. This is especially the case in Brazil where Catholicism is on decline but evangelicals are growing.
-
This post did not contain any content.
You only see two types of people who believe in religon:
1- Bad people who abuse it for evil to benefit in life: Such political indoctrination and control, pedo cults, Israel zionists, ISIS Islamsits ..etc.
2- Oppressed and poor people who use it as a coping and hope mechanim for the afterlife: This applies globally across all religons and continents from South America to East Asia.
-
This post did not contain any content.
Religion has nothing to do with God, even if you believed God exists, then since God is omnipresent you can have a relationship with God from anywhere. Why would you need to gather with a group of people and have middle men priest who claim to speak on behalf of God. Religions are about power, control, elitism and us vs them tribalism. If there was a god, he'd be disgusted by the barbaric things done by religious people in his name.
-
I can’t find any sources for this now, but a while back I read an article that basically said in the 1500s (roughly) people were starting to turn against the rich holding the bulk of the wealth. So the rich met up with some priests over a tankard of mead and came up with the idea that the church should say the rich deserved their wealth.
The Marquis de Condorcet wrote about the evils of Christianity back in the 1790s.
He wrote about how it was a tool of oppression, not just of the person, but of the mind and spirit.
And nothing has changed in the last 200 years.
