“see how any religion applies?!”
Atheist of fundamentalist protestant extraction. Aren’t like some of the Buddhists pretty cool? Especially the Zen Buddhists. Also, Sikhs seem cool. And the Jainists.
I could totally be wrong. Organized religion is a terrible thing in almost all of my experience.
Wiccans have been real cool in my experience. They have really fun orgies.
You’re right. It should say “most religions”. Jainists are the top example of a non harmful religion but very few Jainists exist. Sikhs do seem pretty cool but I haven’t done too much research on them. Buddhism is actually rife with violence and encourages masochism though the Zen sect is definitely better.
I think the real point though is that saying, “I’m religious”, should be an embarrassing and negative statement. Not something that means the person should automatically be given the benefit of the doubt because a minority of religious people are just harmlessly misinformed. It’s like saying, “I’m a cannibal, but don’t worry, I’m part of a special Zen cannibal sect that only eats people after they die of natural causes and consented to being eaten because we think that it really helps the circle of life and the environment”. It’s not technically hurting anyone but it’s still weird and when you hear cannonball in general you should still automatically assume that person is dangerous.
Different person sticking their nose in, but I really respect what the Satanic Temple is doing. Like in general, but also specifically their stance that religion should not be ceded as the territory of superstition.
Like it or not, religion is one of the fundamental building blocks of community. It provides gathering. At its best it encourages sharing, both of burdens and of blessings. Prayer is so often just meditation focused on helping one another.
I was raised in Christianity, and I am downright resentful of so much of what they did to me. But god I miss the community. Kink is the closest thing I have found in secularism.
No Satanic Temple near me unfortunately. I’d love to have something like that in my life.
Holy cow! I have my TST card and everything. Kink has been incredibly important to my girl and I building a feeling of community.
Was in the hospital once. My family organized prayer circles and shit and I had to shut off Facebook. Then they tried to do some deathbed conversion shit while I was on heavy opiates. I giggled at the guy they sent to my room and called him an alien. The kink community brought my girl, and our former partner, food and ran errands for us. Ran interference with the hospital over our poly realtionship. The kink community took care of my people when I couldn’t.
Like any other community, it has its problems, but has been pretty wholesome.
I bet you and I would get along well.
The main thing for me is that spirituality and faith don’t need organization. If you believe in buddah and his teachings go fo it, you don’t need a temple to tell you how to do it. If you believe in jesus just follow his word you don’t need to supporr and give money to a company just so you have a building to go pray.
God, Jesus, Buddah, Allah, Shiva, Ogun, the great pastafari… it doesn’t matter who you believe they don’t care about buildings, gold and pretty clothes and they don’t need a “special” person to “guide” you throgh you faith.
Your faith is yours only
Edit: Just to add that a community that supports you and helps you when you need has nothing to do with religion. It can be your neighbours, school friends, work friends, even relatives sometimes lol
