Pope Leo XIV confirmed his intent to include LGBTQ parishioners within the Catholic Church ahead of their planned Holy Year pilgrimage to Vatican City.
Paganism both neo and reconstructionist are minor religions practiced in the modern day with an incredible variety to them. My lsd inspired version shouldn’t be taken as the default by any means but yeah. I once protested alongside an odinist. Earth devotion is very pumpkin spice pagan, but for good reason we’re quite certain earth exists.
Lol not at your beliefs, but that last sentence caused me a chuckle because I talked to a guy at work last night, whom before-which I’d never met. Honestly dude sounded drunk AF, but he was a flat earther trying to explain how he only understands things he can see in front of him. Like the earth is flat because the pond by his house looks flat. But then he said that earth is “probably” real. I kinda felt like a dick because I kept laughing at everything he said. He was a nice guy, just… Profoundly stupid. It was like I was having a conversation with someone out of time. Yes, earth definitely exists, even if you subscribe to the idea of projection on the walls of a black hole. Or a simulation, even if we are a simulation, as far as we’re concerned, earth exists and is fact. Again, I don’t mean to compare your beliefs with his, but I am just interested how you left a religion of one God, and went on to believe in many gods.
I think I was like, 7 or 8 when I started reading the Bible, mostly as a way to convince myself it was real. I was like 6 or so when I started questioning my “faith”. I definitely remember believing in Santa longer than I believed in God. So I started reading the Bible to try to push myself back in, but by the time I finished it, I was more convinced than ever that it was bullshit. It took me almost to my 10th birthday to finish that fucking thing. By then I had zero doubt in my mind that it was all make-believe. Sure, some cities and people were probably real. But to me it was like saying the ninja turtles were at the battle of Gettysburg. If this sounds offensive to you, I’m sorry, I truly don’t mean it to be.
There are enough rationalists online that I don’t even assert that me thinking is definitive proof of my existence lest discount Descartes attempt to argue with my predominantly empirical approach to material reality.
But religion is for non material reality and I find it helpful so I picked one that spoke to me and whose deeper truths helped me. Worst case scenario I’m pissing off a god I wasn’t going to believe in anyways. I was a cringy atheist for a while when I left Christianity. And I moved into my beliefs with the aforementioned psychedelics and through slowly adopting parts that helped without being too disagreable. Saying a little prayer when I’m stressed helps though. Keeping the year wheel and celebrating the solstices and equinoxes and the midpoints and meditating on the seasons helps ground me to time. Telling the earth how beautiful her forests and frosts are helps me appreciate the world around me. My polytheism is a lot closer to the Hindu style of divided pantheism.
Just as I’m sure the Christians here feel, religion is like any other moral and social structure. It should be helping you live a happier and better life and making you a better person. If it’s doing that it’s good. But any belief can be a cudgel in the right hands.
Hey, no judgement here. If it helps you and makes you a better person, cool. I just saw it all as magic.
And yeah if a Christian actually believes in the teachings of Jesus, more power to em. But so so many pick and choose what they want to believe in from it and most prefer to ignore what they don’t like that the whole thing gives me a bad taste in my mouth.
And that Includes other religions. Muhammad was a child molester, Buddha specifically said he shouldn’t be a god or idol but they worshipped as such anyway.
Pagan? Like legit believe in pagan gods? I’m an atheist but I use paganism to piss off christians.
Paganism both neo and reconstructionist are minor religions practiced in the modern day with an incredible variety to them. My lsd inspired version shouldn’t be taken as the default by any means but yeah. I once protested alongside an odinist. Earth devotion is very pumpkin spice pagan, but for good reason we’re quite certain earth exists.
Lol not at your beliefs, but that last sentence caused me a chuckle because I talked to a guy at work last night, whom before-which I’d never met. Honestly dude sounded drunk AF, but he was a flat earther trying to explain how he only understands things he can see in front of him. Like the earth is flat because the pond by his house looks flat. But then he said that earth is “probably” real. I kinda felt like a dick because I kept laughing at everything he said. He was a nice guy, just… Profoundly stupid. It was like I was having a conversation with someone out of time. Yes, earth definitely exists, even if you subscribe to the idea of projection on the walls of a black hole. Or a simulation, even if we are a simulation, as far as we’re concerned, earth exists and is fact. Again, I don’t mean to compare your beliefs with his, but I am just interested how you left a religion of one God, and went on to believe in many gods.
I think I was like, 7 or 8 when I started reading the Bible, mostly as a way to convince myself it was real. I was like 6 or so when I started questioning my “faith”. I definitely remember believing in Santa longer than I believed in God. So I started reading the Bible to try to push myself back in, but by the time I finished it, I was more convinced than ever that it was bullshit. It took me almost to my 10th birthday to finish that fucking thing. By then I had zero doubt in my mind that it was all make-believe. Sure, some cities and people were probably real. But to me it was like saying the ninja turtles were at the battle of Gettysburg. If this sounds offensive to you, I’m sorry, I truly don’t mean it to be.
There are enough rationalists online that I don’t even assert that me thinking is definitive proof of my existence lest discount Descartes attempt to argue with my predominantly empirical approach to material reality.
But religion is for non material reality and I find it helpful so I picked one that spoke to me and whose deeper truths helped me. Worst case scenario I’m pissing off a god I wasn’t going to believe in anyways. I was a cringy atheist for a while when I left Christianity. And I moved into my beliefs with the aforementioned psychedelics and through slowly adopting parts that helped without being too disagreable. Saying a little prayer when I’m stressed helps though. Keeping the year wheel and celebrating the solstices and equinoxes and the midpoints and meditating on the seasons helps ground me to time. Telling the earth how beautiful her forests and frosts are helps me appreciate the world around me. My polytheism is a lot closer to the Hindu style of divided pantheism.
Just as I’m sure the Christians here feel, religion is like any other moral and social structure. It should be helping you live a happier and better life and making you a better person. If it’s doing that it’s good. But any belief can be a cudgel in the right hands.
Hey, no judgement here. If it helps you and makes you a better person, cool. I just saw it all as magic.
And yeah if a Christian actually believes in the teachings of Jesus, more power to em. But so so many pick and choose what they want to believe in from it and most prefer to ignore what they don’t like that the whole thing gives me a bad taste in my mouth.
And that Includes other religions. Muhammad was a child molester, Buddha specifically said he shouldn’t be a god or idol but they worshipped as such anyway.