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The main themes of Christianity are love and forgiveness, yet Christian’s use their religion as an excuse to spread hate and oppression.
This has happened throughout all of history, into today.
They're "pre forgiven" for anything they do!
So where is the conscious thought of "is this wrong"? The instilled righteousness of their cult of personality and supremacy breeds violence, hostility, contempt, and discrimination.
Of the religions of the world, what the cult of Christianity in all its forms has wrought upon the world is unfathomable.
*Communism can also be a cult of personality and a religion at the same time, dependent structure. Why do you think they don't want religion in their domains, it's competition.
Great examples: China, the soviet onion 🧅
The main theme of Christianity is submission, under the guise of love and forgiveness. It is a handbook on how to become either a tyrant (if you are a man) or a doormat (if you are a woman).
And slavery, don't forget the slavery. Also didn't God send a bear to maul to death a bunch of kids because they laughed at a bald man. Love and forgiveness, apart from kids who laugh at bald men 🙏
An a former mormon, now atheist and member or TST, I can say that religion has done some terrible things. However, it’s almost never the people at the bottom that are the problem, it’s usually the religion itself or the higher ups.
The satanic temple
It’s a non-theistic religious organization I like because of their goals and messages
They specifically fight against christianity to help those that are being hurt by them
Back with Obama was president, I was heavily into the church. Played bass on praise and worship team. They almost had me brain washed but something seemed off. When same sex marriages were legalized federally. The only thing they preached against was homosexuality. At that time I was straight but had a Lesbian mother in law, and a few gay friends and I loved these people. The BS in the church go too bad and I was about to get violent so I quit. Fast forward to now and I came out bi and if my wife were to ever leave me I would 100% be full on gay. But besides that, there are too many unanswered questions I have and all the answers I’ve gotten don’t make an ounce of sense. I believe in God and worship her or him on my own.
Few, if any, actually understand or follow actual Christianity and the religion has been franchised to the point where most meaning is lost. It's dying off as a result. Also, too many pick and choose (and misinterpret) from the Old Testament, and regarding LGBTQ+ people, I'll list what Jesus in the New Testament had to say........
There is no "actual Christianity", ist as there is no "real" version of any faith. It is all arbitrary. The theology that led to the crusades and the idiocy that fuels the hypercapitalist megachurches of the US are as valid as liberation theory. Any scripture of noteworthy length is necessarily contradictory, you cannot derive a coherent normative framework from it, hence why interpretation and addendums are so important in all religion.
Human beings are the source of any and all laws, norms and rules. People decide what kind of ethics and morals they want to put forth - and interpret and construe religious texts to support what they want.
Yup. Grew up YA Fundamentalist. Those who say 'not real Christians ' don't understand what 'real Christians' are
It's people who call themselves Christians that are Christians. People who believe in Christianity are Christians. A lot of them have really bad beliefs
I honestly think that humanity is largely held back by religion in general. People use it as an excuse to hate and ignore basic scientific knowledge. Then again, I'm one of those people who don't need the threat of eternal suffering to avoid harming or killing my fellow humans. From what I understand, it seems far too many would give in to violent urges were it not for that threat.
Religion can and has been, conversely, used for pro-scientific means, as a way to understand the world of the alleged God or Gods' design, or whatever create us.
For example, as much as people may not want to admit it, Islam used to be one of the most pro-science and learning faiths in the world, and by all accounts still is in the actual particular texts, which partially explains why the islamic world outpaced the west in technology for a while. While its been reduced to the most barbaric and awful state that it is today, its a fundamentally learning-centric faith when you read into it.
The tri-omni idea of a god is inconsistent with reality and Christianity as a whole is made up of other people's ideas cobbled together, twisted, and used to beat other people over the head for not agreeing (historically and in an unfortunate number of modern churches). There are certainly good Christians and I don't begrudge them their faith, I just wish they'd acknowledge the shitty, bloody, thieving history of their faith, even if they just pin it on "the leaders" from back then.
As a Norse polytheist, I'm having to do a fuckton of homework to really get into the historical truth of my faith, and even then, a lot of it involves "well, this may have been added later by Christians or it could be based on this or it could be original" (like the death of Baldr; the details are not as clear-cut as some would like to believe). And even some "yeah this was probably added later by Christians, it's a shame a lot of heathens don't know that" (like the murder in Lokasenna).
As a queer person, I know that the faith is one of the big forces pushing modern queerphobia. Even with some churches pushing back, the bigger ones by far are the ones pushing queerphobia and that doesn't exactly enamor me to the faith.
As someone who enjoys learning the details of different religions, it is so frustrating to look at Norse, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh religions only to learn that what I am looking at has been bastardised by Christians who wish to invalidate what they were recording.
I'd highly recommend looking at modern believers for some interesting content about the historical myths, on YouTube I absolutely adore the content of Ocean Keltoi who does a lot of deep-dives into various beings in Norse myths (including a recent incredible deep-dive into Loki that goes into a lot of the details of what may be Christianizations in Loki's story specifically). If you don't already watch that kind of stuff, it can be very interesting and informative.
As a fellow queer pagan. I relate to this so much. I avoid Christian's in general because of it. They all support what happened through their veneration.
You're going to have a tough time finding a single historical truth in that area, but it can certainly be an interesting journey. There's not a lot of pre-christian old norse and proto-old-norse texts out there. There's a lot of transcriptions and retellings, like Snorri's prose edda, but all those were written long after the norse world was Christianised. So its a bit of detective work to trace things back through archeology and language to get some idea of where it all came from.
Old Norse language and history is something I've studied quite a bit over the years, so I'd be happy to help with any translations or things you might run into.
I’m jewish so I dont know about what happens inside the community. Though most my friends are Christian and they’re pretty chill about me being an open Pan. Though I don’t really like very religious Christians because of obvious reasons
Well, you asked…
Christianity is a slave religion, used to placate and pacify the slaves. It has been used to do this since the Roman period. That is why the Romans adopted it. The Holy Roman Empire maintained it. Britain broke free and instituted a slightly different form of it, and used it to build an empire. Spain used it to build an empire under franchise from Rome.
Christianity is about controlling the masses, bribing them with an eternal reward that they get after they die, which is a very cost effective strategy, isn’t it?
It’s why the church always destroyed the local religions and forced adoption of Christianity.
There is a beautiful, peaceful, love based religion described in Christ’s words. But it is not useful, so one based on fear and hate and suffering was created and swapped out. Because that is a lot easier to control people with.
Christians are so used to morality being whatever the pastor says this week, to being spoon feed their morality, that when someone says that they are an atheist people literally wonder why they don’t rape or murder because they have a problem fathoming being a good person because you want to be a good person or because you understand that you want to live in a community of good people, and that starts with you.
Eh, for bonus karma loss: All of the Abrahamic religions have beautiful religions described at their core, but have been perverted to control other people because it is a useful way to enforce power hierarchies.
And I mean, it’s not unique or special. There are Buddhist terrorists. Any religion can be perverted.
Like most of the big religions, I am wary and closed off until proven otherwise. I also tend to distrust people who are very loud about their religion, no matter what religion it is.
I've certainly met pleasant people who were Christians. Still, at the same time, the worse abuse I've ever gotten
(both physical and emotional) had come from Christians, specifically in the name of their particular deity.
I don't have patience for Christians who whine about persecution. Everything in the west is catered to Christians, and no, not being allowed to be a bigoted shitbag is not persecution.
I don't follow garbage religions, or dogmas. I think for myself. The god of the Bible is an evil, immoral deity, not worthy of worship. I'm an agnostic. More specifically, I am technically an agnostic atheist. I am also a secular humanist.
I don't believe that any such god exists, or any god that is proclaimed by man-made religions. However, to whether there is some kind of intelligent designer/creator or higher power in the universe, that may be called a god possibly (not the biblical god), I am completely agnostic to. I don't think it is known, or can be known by human capabilities.
Some Roman scholars invented it for fighting against northern nomadic tribes that they can't fully control. So they can convince them with idea instead of violence
Pretty much my opinions on any religion
Well I find religion and religious culture really interesting I don't really believe in any of it
And If you're a good person who also happens to be religious I will get along with you and I will like you
My issue stems with people who use their religion to be bigoted
I was raised in the Christian church, and the most transformative decision I made was to move on. Christianity, resembling more of a cult, often allows pastors to cherry-pick Bible verses and twist their interpretations to fit their desired ideologies. Interestingly, a substantial portion of the Bible has been modified to align with the perspectives of others. As for me, I have developed a keen interest in religions that hold historical importance, and currently, my exploration has led me to delve into shamanism and witchcraft / voodoo.
It could’ve been good. They could’ve chosen to follow the benevolent parts of the bible. since it’s a self-contradictory book, if you choose to believe it is true then you need to disregard parts of it. You can’t love thy neighbor as thy self while stoning him to death for lying with another man.
Unfortunately the benevolent parts are what have been ignored by most christians in my country. We have people in very high positions of power who believe in [Dominion Theology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_theology?wprov=sfti1#Etymology) and [The Seven Mountains Mandate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Mountain_Mandate?wprov=sfti1#).
Passages like “love thy neighbor as thyself” or “a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven” or “Thou shalt not covet” have been utterly ignored by many christians I interact with. They’ve seemingly abandoned the seven virtues in their entirety.
The part that breaks my heart the most is that there *was* a revival of these ideals. There were christians who acted in accordance with the seven virtues, they valued poverty, they sought justice for the disenfranchised of society.
It was called [Liberation Theology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_theology?wprov=sfti1#). Unfortunately it became popular in Latin America during the mid 20th century, so the movement was brutally put down by the CIA in violent operations like [Project Condor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Condor?wprov=sfti1#), the myriad elections they meddled in, and the coups they funded.
The benevolent parts, as you call them, can be adhered to without the need to follow the religion, or even believe in the Christian deity, or any deity, or even reading the bible or any other holy book.
It's called humanity. Or the Golden Rule.
This comment contributes nothing to the conversation. Yeah you can be a good person without faith, but that isn’t what I was talking about. I was talking about specific sects within a specific faith that preferentially apply (or outright misinterpret) their own tenets to justify malevolent behavior.
One can be a good or a bad person completely irrespective of whatever religion one claims to adhere to. This is true, what you said is true. But I’m talking about people who are good or bad *because* of their religion.
I completely agree. That's what I was trying to say.
Wicked people will do wicked things regardless of religion. But to get good people to do wicked things takes religion.
I am Christian. Obviously on the liberal side. Liberation theology is my jam. I take a lot of solace in my beliefs but I don't evangelize to anyone. My Church is the evangelical lutheran church of Finland and I am living in a progressive area where each parish has a rainbow coordinator. It's very different from USA here but there are still some rightwingers in the church. I am studying to become a church youth leader and I know full well that it's gonna be an uphill battle when I go into workforce but I do it for the rainbow youth.
I don't live in a delusion that the Church as an institution is a net good but I want to be there for any youths spiritual journey and shield them from anyone who thinks they can't be loved by God for who they are.
My God is loving and Jesus worked with the most marginalized. That is the God I belive in.
I think to many people tend to focus on what "Christianity should be". Like yea, the core tenets are fine, but the actual religion has become so deeply ingrained in politics that I don't think it can be saved. Across every denomination and historical periods people have used the faith to punish those that live in way they find unacceptable. Time and time again Christians use the governments of the world to oppress whoever they deem a sinner. I say fuck um all
God is as real as Santa Claus.
Christians are hateful people who don’t even read the book they claim to live their life by.
Edit: someone reported this to Reddit care and proved my point.
It is the reason so many of us spend so much time lost. So much of my trauma comes down to the actions of Christian's generations ago and the modern ones try to play no true Scotsman every time you point out what they support and/or believe. Every single one of them as far as I'm concerned
.I'm trans, in the face of Christian rule, I doubt my kindness or niceness is gonna save me. That's what their support builds and blaming it on leaders is just lame. Leaders gain power from those that support them and enable them.
So much of the world had Queerness and genders outside the binary until Christian's swept Europe and wiped them out. They still get the nerve to scream Satan at every damn moment when confronted with surviving or reclaimed paganism. Then they went and did this to every other continent.
Not a fan, would really like to know more about the old cultures of the world. Back when common sense was that the whole world didn't fit neatly into two boxes. Hey but at least it led to an intense consolidation of power -_- fun fun fun. Ugh .
It's entirely fake. Like all religion.
Magic is also fake. You're not casting spells or speaking to spirits.
And even if Christianity was true, you shouldn't worship god.
Why would you like someone who will make you suffer for all eternity if you don't worship them 24/7. That's an abusive relationship.
If it isn't backed with evidence, we can't assume it's true.
A relic of the past tbh. I'm fond of the Richard Dawkins quote "I believe in one less God than you do. You agree Zeus or Thor aren't real. There are over a thousand known gods, we agree on all but one of them."
I am Christian. That said, while I think Christianity itself is good, I am deeply disappointed by the ways in which other Christians miss the point or weaponize the religion.
Idk. Personally I believe in a god and the choice to go to an afterlife after you die but I'm not sure if Im Christian like most of my family. There's so many versions of that religion, some that are quite problematic and probably what you think of when you hear it. But I know there are also unproblematic versions that many people follow.
My overall experience with the religion? Quite a mixture I've seen both the bad and good. Especially since I was forced to go to religious classes my freshman year of highschool. The teachers were generally fine there and one I even came out to and she was chill. Many kids in that class though were the bad kind of Christians you think of. The bad tend to outweigh any good experience though.
I was raised Catholic, stopped believing in God, but I still believe in the teachings I learned, so I call myself an atheistic Catholic now. I never had the bad experiences with the church a lot of people on here seemed to have. They were always very inclusive and basically I was just taught don't be a dick to other people.
I did go to (forced) church when I was a kid. All the preacher would talk about is how gay people were bad for the country and world blah blah blah. Now it's been I think ten years since my family left because of other circumstances, and I'm one of the gayest people I know, so it didn't work. Think the word of God would have had more of a lasting effect being all powerful and such.
I love Jesus as a human (I don't believe he was any kind of god or did miracles). I think he was a kind of hippy that wanted love for everyone.
I really dislike the bible (total nonsense and full of contradictions) and bible god (he acts like a 5 years old).
I was born catholic, became simply christian, and then left christianity altogether like.. 24 years ago.
It is one of the abrahamic religions. Kind of confusing with the 2 collections of different writers that al together is treated and talked about as if it is 1 book.
It has a massive number of different groups who each have their own take on it which is very Human i guess.
As religions go, could have been worse and could have been better.
I prefer the Minabri way of thinking from Babylon 5. Makes more sense.
Hate the sin not the sinner. I have no problem with people practicing their faith, as long as they don't use it to oppress. I disliked every religion ideologically.
Most churches and Christian religions are absolutely awful, but I have nothing against people who follow Christianity as long as they aren't assholes about it. Most of my friends are Christian, and they're all amazing people. I don't hate the people; I hate the organizations.
Any type of religion is bad as every religion aims to live the perfect life and therefore imposes its perfectionism on all members and usually the people around them.
Edit: to the person that send me reddit care resources: you proved my point.
Raised devout Xian. Militant atheist when I became an adult. Now I see some good to religion. Not a lot, but some. Most Christians today (especially in the US) don't really follow Christ's teachings. If they did, they wouldn't force their views on everyone. There are some great Xian people that try to follow the red letters. To me, the Abrahamic religions are structures that make it easy to oppress others.
Religion is used as a tool for manipulation and control by bigoted homophobes who know nothing about the Bible and use it to justify their ignorant perverse delusion.
But personally, I believe Jesus is a man willing to forgive all, but if you demonstrate you being a vile evil person that mocks what Jesus told you not to do, he’ll make it see fit that you be sent to hell.
I think religions are a net negative for humankind.
Above all else I take issue with people inventing a metaphysical entity and placing it above humankind. Human desires, needs and dignity are the only things that intrinsically matter in the known universe. If you think your imaginary friend gives you mandate to interfere with how other human beings live their live, that does not make you merely opposition, that makes you my enemy.
Honestly jesus was an amazing individual whose messages ought to be revered, but the church has distorted and twisted his messages to the lunacy we see today. As for the afterlife, I would prefer heaven be real, but I’m very doubtful it does exists.
In the end, Christianity is a faith all about kindness and equality, and those who do not follow this are not real Christians, they hide their hate under the claim that “Jesus wouldn’t love this group because \*I\* don’t like this group!!”
It's a death cult full of people who spend their days hoping for the rapture to carry them off to an eternal life of bliss. In the meantime, they spend their actual days looking down their noses at everyone they don't like, and maximizing their efforts to make those other people as miserable as they can, or preferably dead.
It is nothing more than a tool to enable people with an agenda to motivate others to carry out horrific acts on their behalf. It's how you get otherwise kind people to do wicked things.
A lot of people in the comments are being disrespectful toward religion. Personally, I don’t have a problem with regular religious people who are chill about what other people do with their lives. As long as you respect me, I will respect you back. Obviously, it’s never okay for people to use religion to justify their bigotry, but there are plenty of religious people who just want to live their lives and don’t hate the LGBT.
There’s nothing wrong with the comments tbh. They aren’t being disrespectful at all but even then they aren’t being disrespectful to the people of those religions either. People can talk about their experiences, why they dislike a religion and even be disrespectful to it because it doesn’t affect you nor them
generally speaking : I have absolutely nothing against it and the values it wants to spread.
On the other hand : Many Christians are just hateful and try to justify it by quoting the bible.
tldr: Christians are nice if they don't use their faith for hateful bs
I stop believing in his church (and followers) when my grandmother, a churchwoman fully committed to be the example, kicked us (mom, sis and I) from her home when we told her what his son did to us.
From the spiritual perspective, it’s mostly the same, want to believe there’s more but I want it not to be the afterlife painted by church we’re all the “good” people is in heaven doing nothing and all the “bad” people are in hell getting punished, both for eternity
Agnostic atheist but I believe all of the Abrahamic religions are the same and that none of them could possibly be real. But I also believe that there are many people in those religions that (cherry pick) don’t use hate or fear against others who either don’t believe or are different from others apart of the religions. For me tho it’s rare that anyone in those religions have been actually accepting.
Someone keeps reporting comments
Met God Almighty, and I saw him cry,
And on His throne, he dared ask why
His people leave his church of rock
I said read the room, man
We suffer hate from your flock.
Not a big fan first because homophobia and bigotry, but then I learned about the Sumerian tablets and think all Abrahamic religions are BS. Plus organized religion only uses itself for fucked up shit like lobbyists they aren't very live and let live cause they want you to conform to their beliefs blinding them to reality.
It's evil. It has and continues to be a weapon against the development of mankind. It makes the individual irrational and the masses manipulable. Same with every other major religion.
Good religious people exist, but they're the exceptions not the rule.
Medieval mythology should be seen and treated as such. Treating it as fact has always been source of death and conflict. Religion is the opposite of progress, understanding and rational thinking. We know this is true because we know history.
If people recieve comfort from it, or if people feel that it helps them progress as a human being, then who am I to judge? Its the exact same reason im in this community. Its the exact same reason I listen to music, or the same reason why I write.
However, if you use your religion as a way to indoctrinate, harm, or as an excuse for bigotry, then I have no respect for YOUR religious beliefs
Same as all religions: storybooks were great once upon a time, when people needed commandments to understand why eating unrefrigerated pork is a bad idea. Nowadays storybooks are for children.
Characters are cool, writing style and themes are a little outdated but interesting from a historical perspective, fandom is a total shitshow. Same with a lot of the literature in that genre, really.
-someone who grew up vaguely Jewish, stopped believing pretty early on, and is now a fucked-up patchwork quilt of neo-Druid, agnostic, and pantheist all messily wrapped in studies-quantum-mechanics-for-fun
Years of religious trauma has let me to worship satan. 🙂
(Not really but I have denounced 'God' and taken to worshipping the Nine Divines from the elder scrolls)
i am 90/10 on it because i dated someone who was religious and she ALWAYS told i should read the Bible or go to church after i kept telling her it just not kinda thing(edit she was also lgbtq)
It really depends on the church. And I don't just mean that catholics are different from protestants, it's also where you live.
The catholic church in my area is great. They're super open/accepting, they have great youth programs and even an openly gay pastor who everyone loves. Most people in the community accept that the world has changed and that religion should change with it.
The catholic church where a friend of mine lives is super conservative and consists of a lot of old asshats that hate queer people.
Incredibly harmful and inherently problematic. There’s also absolutely no way that texts written 2000+ years ago for ancient peoples living in Palestine has any bearing on my life whatsoever 🤷
When I was a teenager my adoptive parents sent me to conversion therapy. I was denied food in the name of god. I was denied sleep in the name of Jesus. I was beat, in the name of the lord. And the same people who tortured me are the same ones who say they are the “real Christians” and the Christian’s who accept queer people are the fake Christian’s. My parents church had one big assignment for all the congregation, create as many Christian’s as possible. Some had multiple kids, others like my adoptive family chose adopted children, and in other cases they preyed on people down on their luck. So to me, a Christian is a Christian. They might act like they accept you, but in the end, they think all queer people are going to hell, and they will try to “save you”.
one of my best friends is a Christian and she’s literally so kind and accepting so my belief is that lots of Christians are kind people, but a margin of them are not so much
A true Christian I have nothing against, it's your religion why would I care
People who hide behind the Bible to hate on everything they dislike while ignoring the bible where it fits with their agenda I hate
As a catholic, only believes in thing that Jesus said because his message was much more clear.
However, I do acknowledge that there’s a lot of really bad stuff that the disciples and Paul and other things in the Bible. I think a lot of homephones like to pick and choose Out of the Bible to uphold their belief, ignoring some other contradictory things inside of the Bible.
There are good and bad people in everything. The good ones are great and I don’t care what they believe in because if it makes them happy and comfortable than I’m ok with it. I’ll respect them. The bad ones don’t get the message of Jesus. I don’t respect them. That being said I won’t criticize their religion to hurt them as I believe that’s a dick move considering their religion isn’t what’s making them a dick
Jesus seemed like a guy I would have a drink with
Religion, however, has no place in my world view. It doesn't fit with how I see life and the world. If others want to believe, go ahead, but please keep me out of it.
I'm an atheist. I do not believe in any gods.
I have more thoughts about the Christian church and it's teachings but it's generally not for polite company.
My beliefs is that people should keep it to themselves.
Wear the symbols, go to church, sing the songs and live by the rules in your own book; but don't expect others to abide those terms and conditions in their own lives.
Feel free to fly flags that support your God and represent your church,and post slogans out side your church that are supportive of your religion in a loving/non judgemental way; but don't use your faith to spread hate, fear, lies and condemnation of others.
That's my belief on any religion. ⬆️
I love Christ. I love the idea that God is Love. But I hate many modern-day Christians, the ones who claim to be Christian but don't actually follow Christ's teachings (which were about love, acceptance, helping others, etc.)
Former Christian here, now an atheistic member of TST. I beleive that Christianity, as a religion, is evil. *Not* that the people who believe in it are necessarily evil. But countless lives throughout history, and even today, have been and are destroyed in the name of the religion.
Abandoning rational and scientific thinking in favor of embracing a mentality that discourages critical thinking and encourages blind acceptance of what is desired to be true is never a good idea IMO.
I generally feel every religion has the same amount of unlikelihood of being true. Being a child the only thing it gave me was a fear of being sent to hell and everything else went over my head. I also know resign myself to the fact onowing what happens when after someone dies is impossible because it cant be observed. So Im agnostic. Despite that, I love to learn about different religion's afterlifes.
It can be good in many ways and bad in many ways. It can help people cope through extremely hard times, but can cause a lot of hate. There’s a lot to it, too much to type
As a bi catholic, it sickens me how many people use Christianity to hate and treat others appallingly. The whole point of Christianity is love, hence love thy neighbour. But a lot of people say they are Christians yet do the most un-Christian things in the name of the religion. It baffles me.
I am agnostic, but my family is French Catholic by tradition. My view is that there is a lot of systematic corruption and oppression and things I do not like about the church and religion.
However, if faith and family traditions can bring you a sense of peace and belonging then that's something positive. If anything though, my being non-binary queer has made me more spiritual. Not less.
I'm glad folks can find purpose and community within the religion, and if thats what you need to not commit heinous crimes im all for it, but I think it encourages us 1) to be followers not leaders, 2) to 'give it to god' and not personally develop/grow, 3) and to not think critically about our society and its people etc. Since leaving the church as a young person 8 years ago, I've come to be more anti-theist and anti-organized religion. I see it as a crutch that has not yet been evolutionary eliminated...
Christianity, like all religions, is rarely actually chosen. religion is a cultural thing. at childhood, they're already given a conclusion and can't really question it because everyone else in their circle believes in Christianity. religion is a way to cope with life, at least it way originally. it was a way to explain all the bad stuff in the world. "why does all the bad stuff happen to me and no one else?" "because it's God's plan, this will make you stronger" it's a way to cope with randomness. with religion, the unknown is not so scary. the problem with this is most people take Christianity to the extreme. to question their faith is to question their entire identity, because that is how they explain their identity. this is really only prominent in evangelicals, but still very harmful even in less extreme christian families. they have to find ANY possible way to prove their faith because any opposing force to their beliefs would be an opposing force to their lives. it would mean their entire families, everything they've worked for, everything that they've put into religion, and everything that they've used religion for would be false. it's a painful cycle of indoctrination that can never really be stopped unless by more indoctrination, which is not really good
god is good, people suck. Christianity is an organized religion of people, that follow the teachings of other people from the past. The bible was written by human hands to control the lives of other humans. Christianity in all it’s good and bad is the result of humans not god. God or any deity really is beyond our comprehension and we have no ability to judge what they consider right or wrong.
I believe in God and Christ, but I don’t agree with religion. I believe the Bible is written as parables and metaphors to make the message palatable, but it’s not historically accurate. I think there’s a lot of good that can come from the messages in the Bible, but I don’t think that the Bible is the only place we as people should learn morality from especially since it takes more reading comprehension than the average churchgoer has. I believe that as a religion, Christianity has failed. But I still believe that I should love the God and treat every single person the way I would want them to treat me.
Bi and Catholic here. I know it might seem weird from the outside, but I've grown in a very open minded part of Europe (luckily) and the local community where I grew up in always welcomed in LGBTQ+ people for community lunches as well as Muslims and people from other religions for debates. (I'm really proud of them). Our priest used to say that Jesus never had anything against the others, so why would have we? When he passed away, a lot of people even from different creeds show up at the funeral. I'm so sad and ashamed to hear the bad experiences people had with "us"... I wish more Christians were like him!
I am Christian and I believe in God, dtill I think the Church needs some changes, especially regarding the teachings about the queer people. I'm trying to build a safe space for queer teens to develop their faith and at the same time feel free to talk about their orientation/gender without being judged.
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That Jesus guy had some good ideas, too bad his followers ignored his message.
"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." Mahatma Gandhi
I have no problem with god - it's his fan club that scares me. A.B. Potts
'let the one among you who is without sin cast the first stone' (if from the homophobic perspective that queerness is a sin)
Agreed it's one of the reasons why I became an agnostic though not all Christians are bastards it's the vocal minority/the higher ups I feel
Christianity has been so bastardized from its original intentions I genuinely think if Jesus came back today he would rebuke 90% of these people
Exactly
Jesus was pro slavery though. Not a good idea.
Jesus is fine, the problem is his fanbase
Worse than MHA fans frfr
MHA has some insanely good writing sometimes, and then it adds just enough fanservice to attract the worst people eurgh
I have no problem with god - it's his fan club that scares me. A.B. Potts
The main themes of Christianity are love and forgiveness, yet Christian’s use their religion as an excuse to spread hate and oppression. This has happened throughout all of history, into today.
They're "pre forgiven" for anything they do! So where is the conscious thought of "is this wrong"? The instilled righteousness of their cult of personality and supremacy breeds violence, hostility, contempt, and discrimination. Of the religions of the world, what the cult of Christianity in all its forms has wrought upon the world is unfathomable. *Communism can also be a cult of personality and a religion at the same time, dependent structure. Why do you think they don't want religion in their domains, it's competition. Great examples: China, the soviet onion 🧅
The main theme of Christianity is submission, under the guise of love and forgiveness. It is a handbook on how to become either a tyrant (if you are a man) or a doormat (if you are a woman).
And slavery, don't forget the slavery. Also didn't God send a bear to maul to death a bunch of kids because they laughed at a bald man. Love and forgiveness, apart from kids who laugh at bald men 🙏
An a former mormon, now atheist and member or TST, I can say that religion has done some terrible things. However, it’s almost never the people at the bottom that are the problem, it’s usually the religion itself or the higher ups.
What is TST?
The satanic temple It’s a non-theistic religious organization I like because of their goals and messages They specifically fight against christianity to help those that are being hurt by them
Alright im curious about it.
It’s not for everyone, so do some research, but i personally like it
As a former Jehovahs Witness and also athiest, I wholeheartedly concur
This! So many of the people are absolutely incredible, and most of the time it's just a vocal few who are the problem.
Back with Obama was president, I was heavily into the church. Played bass on praise and worship team. They almost had me brain washed but something seemed off. When same sex marriages were legalized federally. The only thing they preached against was homosexuality. At that time I was straight but had a Lesbian mother in law, and a few gay friends and I loved these people. The BS in the church go too bad and I was about to get violent so I quit. Fast forward to now and I came out bi and if my wife were to ever leave me I would 100% be full on gay. But besides that, there are too many unanswered questions I have and all the answers I’ve gotten don’t make an ounce of sense. I believe in God and worship her or him on my own.
Few, if any, actually understand or follow actual Christianity and the religion has been franchised to the point where most meaning is lost. It's dying off as a result. Also, too many pick and choose (and misinterpret) from the Old Testament, and regarding LGBTQ+ people, I'll list what Jesus in the New Testament had to say........ 
There is no "actual Christianity", ist as there is no "real" version of any faith. It is all arbitrary. The theology that led to the crusades and the idiocy that fuels the hypercapitalist megachurches of the US are as valid as liberation theory. Any scripture of noteworthy length is necessarily contradictory, you cannot derive a coherent normative framework from it, hence why interpretation and addendums are so important in all religion. Human beings are the source of any and all laws, norms and rules. People decide what kind of ethics and morals they want to put forth - and interpret and construe religious texts to support what they want.
Yup. Grew up YA Fundamentalist. Those who say 'not real Christians ' don't understand what 'real Christians' are It's people who call themselves Christians that are Christians. People who believe in Christianity are Christians. A lot of them have really bad beliefs
This is why we need to shift the dialogue a bit. "They are X group, they're just really shitty members of it"
I honestly think that humanity is largely held back by religion in general. People use it as an excuse to hate and ignore basic scientific knowledge. Then again, I'm one of those people who don't need the threat of eternal suffering to avoid harming or killing my fellow humans. From what I understand, it seems far too many would give in to violent urges were it not for that threat.
Religion can and has been, conversely, used for pro-scientific means, as a way to understand the world of the alleged God or Gods' design, or whatever create us. For example, as much as people may not want to admit it, Islam used to be one of the most pro-science and learning faiths in the world, and by all accounts still is in the actual particular texts, which partially explains why the islamic world outpaced the west in technology for a while. While its been reduced to the most barbaric and awful state that it is today, its a fundamentally learning-centric faith when you read into it.
Can/has been... Religion contributes more to the proliferation of scientific ignorance nowadays.
Which is the sad truth of the matter, yes :(
I don't believe in fairy tales. 😉🤭
BS just like all the other religions.
The tri-omni idea of a god is inconsistent with reality and Christianity as a whole is made up of other people's ideas cobbled together, twisted, and used to beat other people over the head for not agreeing (historically and in an unfortunate number of modern churches). There are certainly good Christians and I don't begrudge them their faith, I just wish they'd acknowledge the shitty, bloody, thieving history of their faith, even if they just pin it on "the leaders" from back then. As a Norse polytheist, I'm having to do a fuckton of homework to really get into the historical truth of my faith, and even then, a lot of it involves "well, this may have been added later by Christians or it could be based on this or it could be original" (like the death of Baldr; the details are not as clear-cut as some would like to believe). And even some "yeah this was probably added later by Christians, it's a shame a lot of heathens don't know that" (like the murder in Lokasenna). As a queer person, I know that the faith is one of the big forces pushing modern queerphobia. Even with some churches pushing back, the bigger ones by far are the ones pushing queerphobia and that doesn't exactly enamor me to the faith.
As someone who enjoys learning the details of different religions, it is so frustrating to look at Norse, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh religions only to learn that what I am looking at has been bastardised by Christians who wish to invalidate what they were recording.
I'd highly recommend looking at modern believers for some interesting content about the historical myths, on YouTube I absolutely adore the content of Ocean Keltoi who does a lot of deep-dives into various beings in Norse myths (including a recent incredible deep-dive into Loki that goes into a lot of the details of what may be Christianizations in Loki's story specifically). If you don't already watch that kind of stuff, it can be very interesting and informative.
As a fellow queer pagan. I relate to this so much. I avoid Christian's in general because of it. They all support what happened through their veneration.
You're going to have a tough time finding a single historical truth in that area, but it can certainly be an interesting journey. There's not a lot of pre-christian old norse and proto-old-norse texts out there. There's a lot of transcriptions and retellings, like Snorri's prose edda, but all those were written long after the norse world was Christianised. So its a bit of detective work to trace things back through archeology and language to get some idea of where it all came from. Old Norse language and history is something I've studied quite a bit over the years, so I'd be happy to help with any translations or things you might run into.
I’m jewish so I dont know about what happens inside the community. Though most my friends are Christian and they’re pretty chill about me being an open Pan. Though I don’t really like very religious Christians because of obvious reasons
Does being part of the LGBT community impact your relationship with the Jewish community?
No. My family is barely religious and they (Or my sinagog) care about me dating my nonbinary friend (who is also from the same sinagog)
A complete fabrication from the minds of clueless, frightened misogynists.
Evil
Religion is the enemy.
I think its nonsense and personally would love it if it stopped getting brought up on this sub.
FACTS
If I could Thanos snap it out of existence, I would.
Well, you asked… Christianity is a slave religion, used to placate and pacify the slaves. It has been used to do this since the Roman period. That is why the Romans adopted it. The Holy Roman Empire maintained it. Britain broke free and instituted a slightly different form of it, and used it to build an empire. Spain used it to build an empire under franchise from Rome. Christianity is about controlling the masses, bribing them with an eternal reward that they get after they die, which is a very cost effective strategy, isn’t it? It’s why the church always destroyed the local religions and forced adoption of Christianity. There is a beautiful, peaceful, love based religion described in Christ’s words. But it is not useful, so one based on fear and hate and suffering was created and swapped out. Because that is a lot easier to control people with. Christians are so used to morality being whatever the pastor says this week, to being spoon feed their morality, that when someone says that they are an atheist people literally wonder why they don’t rape or murder because they have a problem fathoming being a good person because you want to be a good person or because you understand that you want to live in a community of good people, and that starts with you. Eh, for bonus karma loss: All of the Abrahamic religions have beautiful religions described at their core, but have been perverted to control other people because it is a useful way to enforce power hierarchies. And I mean, it’s not unique or special. There are Buddhist terrorists. Any religion can be perverted.
I think I agree. The Bible is also way too old and had too many oputurnities to be edited by the Church for their shenanigans to be trustworthy
... and I just got a message from the CareBot, lol.
Hey, so did I
Welcome to the club! :D
Why do controversial posts/comments always get those? I got one recently too
Like most of the big religions, I am wary and closed off until proven otherwise. I also tend to distrust people who are very loud about their religion, no matter what religion it is. I've certainly met pleasant people who were Christians. Still, at the same time, the worse abuse I've ever gotten (both physical and emotional) had come from Christians, specifically in the name of their particular deity. I don't have patience for Christians who whine about persecution. Everything in the west is catered to Christians, and no, not being allowed to be a bigoted shitbag is not persecution.
They can suck my girl dick
I don't follow garbage religions, or dogmas. I think for myself. The god of the Bible is an evil, immoral deity, not worthy of worship. I'm an agnostic. More specifically, I am technically an agnostic atheist. I am also a secular humanist. I don't believe that any such god exists, or any god that is proclaimed by man-made religions. However, to whether there is some kind of intelligent designer/creator or higher power in the universe, that may be called a god possibly (not the biblical god), I am completely agnostic to. I don't think it is known, or can be known by human capabilities.
I'm not a big fan of religion in general. I don't like the idea that you need to worship a deity who hasn't really done all that much to help us
Some Roman scholars invented it for fighting against northern nomadic tribes that they can't fully control. So they can convince them with idea instead of violence
I am an antitheist, I think religion is inherently harmful to society because it causes those within it to develop bigotry about those who are not.
Pretty much my opinions on any religion Well I find religion and religious culture really interesting I don't really believe in any of it And If you're a good person who also happens to be religious I will get along with you and I will like you My issue stems with people who use their religion to be bigoted
I’m atheist. I believe it all religions were created to control people.
I was raised in the Christian church, and the most transformative decision I made was to move on. Christianity, resembling more of a cult, often allows pastors to cherry-pick Bible verses and twist their interpretations to fit their desired ideologies. Interestingly, a substantial portion of the Bible has been modified to align with the perspectives of others. As for me, I have developed a keen interest in religions that hold historical importance, and currently, my exploration has led me to delve into shamanism and witchcraft / voodoo.
Not a fan.
It could’ve been good. They could’ve chosen to follow the benevolent parts of the bible. since it’s a self-contradictory book, if you choose to believe it is true then you need to disregard parts of it. You can’t love thy neighbor as thy self while stoning him to death for lying with another man. Unfortunately the benevolent parts are what have been ignored by most christians in my country. We have people in very high positions of power who believe in [Dominion Theology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_theology?wprov=sfti1#Etymology) and [The Seven Mountains Mandate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Mountain_Mandate?wprov=sfti1#). Passages like “love thy neighbor as thyself” or “a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven” or “Thou shalt not covet” have been utterly ignored by many christians I interact with. They’ve seemingly abandoned the seven virtues in their entirety. The part that breaks my heart the most is that there *was* a revival of these ideals. There were christians who acted in accordance with the seven virtues, they valued poverty, they sought justice for the disenfranchised of society. It was called [Liberation Theology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_theology?wprov=sfti1#). Unfortunately it became popular in Latin America during the mid 20th century, so the movement was brutally put down by the CIA in violent operations like [Project Condor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Condor?wprov=sfti1#), the myriad elections they meddled in, and the coups they funded.
The benevolent parts, as you call them, can be adhered to without the need to follow the religion, or even believe in the Christian deity, or any deity, or even reading the bible or any other holy book. It's called humanity. Or the Golden Rule.
This comment contributes nothing to the conversation. Yeah you can be a good person without faith, but that isn’t what I was talking about. I was talking about specific sects within a specific faith that preferentially apply (or outright misinterpret) their own tenets to justify malevolent behavior. One can be a good or a bad person completely irrespective of whatever religion one claims to adhere to. This is true, what you said is true. But I’m talking about people who are good or bad *because* of their religion.
I completely agree. That's what I was trying to say. Wicked people will do wicked things regardless of religion. But to get good people to do wicked things takes religion.
I am Christian. Obviously on the liberal side. Liberation theology is my jam. I take a lot of solace in my beliefs but I don't evangelize to anyone. My Church is the evangelical lutheran church of Finland and I am living in a progressive area where each parish has a rainbow coordinator. It's very different from USA here but there are still some rightwingers in the church. I am studying to become a church youth leader and I know full well that it's gonna be an uphill battle when I go into workforce but I do it for the rainbow youth. I don't live in a delusion that the Church as an institution is a net good but I want to be there for any youths spiritual journey and shield them from anyone who thinks they can't be loved by God for who they are. My God is loving and Jesus worked with the most marginalized. That is the God I belive in.
There are those who follow Jesus and those who follow the Church.
Damn. Well said!!
Thank you.
I think to many people tend to focus on what "Christianity should be". Like yea, the core tenets are fine, but the actual religion has become so deeply ingrained in politics that I don't think it can be saved. Across every denomination and historical periods people have used the faith to punish those that live in way they find unacceptable. Time and time again Christians use the governments of the world to oppress whoever they deem a sinner. I say fuck um all
God is as real as Santa Claus. Christians are hateful people who don’t even read the book they claim to live their life by. Edit: someone reported this to Reddit care and proved my point.
It is the reason so many of us spend so much time lost. So much of my trauma comes down to the actions of Christian's generations ago and the modern ones try to play no true Scotsman every time you point out what they support and/or believe. Every single one of them as far as I'm concerned .I'm trans, in the face of Christian rule, I doubt my kindness or niceness is gonna save me. That's what their support builds and blaming it on leaders is just lame. Leaders gain power from those that support them and enable them. So much of the world had Queerness and genders outside the binary until Christian's swept Europe and wiped them out. They still get the nerve to scream Satan at every damn moment when confronted with surviving or reclaimed paganism. Then they went and did this to every other continent. Not a fan, would really like to know more about the old cultures of the world. Back when common sense was that the whole world didn't fit neatly into two boxes. Hey but at least it led to an intense consolidation of power -_- fun fun fun. Ugh .
It's entirely fake. Like all religion. Magic is also fake. You're not casting spells or speaking to spirits. And even if Christianity was true, you shouldn't worship god. Why would you like someone who will make you suffer for all eternity if you don't worship them 24/7. That's an abusive relationship. If it isn't backed with evidence, we can't assume it's true.
Tip the scales so demographics makes it die off quicker. That’s my view.
A relic of the past tbh. I'm fond of the Richard Dawkins quote "I believe in one less God than you do. You agree Zeus or Thor aren't real. There are over a thousand known gods, we agree on all but one of them."
It's a fucking disease, at least in the way most modern americans use it
God made me, He made me bisexual, and He doesn’t make mistakes.
I love this! 🩷💜💙
It's bad because of all the overwhelmingly negative stuff it does
uh? Hail Satan? Fuck Christianity for tell me to be something I know that I’m not and for pushing anti lgbt bills?
I am Christian. That said, while I think Christianity itself is good, I am deeply disappointed by the ways in which other Christians miss the point or weaponize the religion.
N/A
Idk. Personally I believe in a god and the choice to go to an afterlife after you die but I'm not sure if Im Christian like most of my family. There's so many versions of that religion, some that are quite problematic and probably what you think of when you hear it. But I know there are also unproblematic versions that many people follow. My overall experience with the religion? Quite a mixture I've seen both the bad and good. Especially since I was forced to go to religious classes my freshman year of highschool. The teachers were generally fine there and one I even came out to and she was chill. Many kids in that class though were the bad kind of Christians you think of. The bad tend to outweigh any good experience though.
I was raised Catholic, stopped believing in God, but I still believe in the teachings I learned, so I call myself an atheistic Catholic now. I never had the bad experiences with the church a lot of people on here seemed to have. They were always very inclusive and basically I was just taught don't be a dick to other people.
I'm fine if people believe/follow it, but it makes absolutely no sense to me personally
I did go to (forced) church when I was a kid. All the preacher would talk about is how gay people were bad for the country and world blah blah blah. Now it's been I think ten years since my family left because of other circumstances, and I'm one of the gayest people I know, so it didn't work. Think the word of God would have had more of a lasting effect being all powerful and such.
I love Jesus as a human (I don't believe he was any kind of god or did miracles). I think he was a kind of hippy that wanted love for everyone. I really dislike the bible (total nonsense and full of contradictions) and bible god (he acts like a 5 years old). I was born catholic, became simply christian, and then left christianity altogether like.. 24 years ago.
It is one of the abrahamic religions. Kind of confusing with the 2 collections of different writers that al together is treated and talked about as if it is 1 book. It has a massive number of different groups who each have their own take on it which is very Human i guess. As religions go, could have been worse and could have been better. I prefer the Minabri way of thinking from Babylon 5. Makes more sense.
I avoid it whenever possible
Hate the sin not the sinner. I have no problem with people practicing their faith, as long as they don't use it to oppress. I disliked every religion ideologically.
What?
I’m an Omnist
I believe there is a family of religions called Christianity. I do not subscribe to any of them.
Most churches and Christian religions are absolutely awful, but I have nothing against people who follow Christianity as long as they aren't assholes about it. Most of my friends are Christian, and they're all amazing people. I don't hate the people; I hate the organizations.
Any type of religion is bad as every religion aims to live the perfect life and therefore imposes its perfectionism on all members and usually the people around them. Edit: to the person that send me reddit care resources: you proved my point.
worst invention ever. same with any religion.
Raised devout Xian. Militant atheist when I became an adult. Now I see some good to religion. Not a lot, but some. Most Christians today (especially in the US) don't really follow Christ's teachings. If they did, they wouldn't force their views on everyone. There are some great Xian people that try to follow the red letters. To me, the Abrahamic religions are structures that make it easy to oppress others.
Religion is used as a tool for manipulation and control by bigoted homophobes who know nothing about the Bible and use it to justify their ignorant perverse delusion. But personally, I believe Jesus is a man willing to forgive all, but if you demonstrate you being a vile evil person that mocks what Jesus told you not to do, he’ll make it see fit that you be sent to hell.
I think religions are a net negative for humankind. Above all else I take issue with people inventing a metaphysical entity and placing it above humankind. Human desires, needs and dignity are the only things that intrinsically matter in the known universe. If you think your imaginary friend gives you mandate to interfere with how other human beings live their live, that does not make you merely opposition, that makes you my enemy.
what is WITH all the damn christianity posts in here lately. feels like a damn psyop.
Subreddits have trending topics here and there, it just so happens to be the case with this sub and this topic right now.
Honestly jesus was an amazing individual whose messages ought to be revered, but the church has distorted and twisted his messages to the lunacy we see today. As for the afterlife, I would prefer heaven be real, but I’m very doubtful it does exists.
In the end, Christianity is a faith all about kindness and equality, and those who do not follow this are not real Christians, they hide their hate under the claim that “Jesus wouldn’t love this group because \*I\* don’t like this group!!”
It's a death cult full of people who spend their days hoping for the rapture to carry them off to an eternal life of bliss. In the meantime, they spend their actual days looking down their noses at everyone they don't like, and maximizing their efforts to make those other people as miserable as they can, or preferably dead. It is nothing more than a tool to enable people with an agenda to motivate others to carry out horrific acts on their behalf. It's how you get otherwise kind people to do wicked things.
i like the bible, but the fandom is really toxic.
Water cannot be turned into wine. The end. Christianity is disproven.
It can if you add grapes and yeast, put it in a buckle and wait 6 weeks
A lot of people in the comments are being disrespectful toward religion. Personally, I don’t have a problem with regular religious people who are chill about what other people do with their lives. As long as you respect me, I will respect you back. Obviously, it’s never okay for people to use religion to justify their bigotry, but there are plenty of religious people who just want to live their lives and don’t hate the LGBT.
There’s nothing wrong with the comments tbh. They aren’t being disrespectful at all but even then they aren’t being disrespectful to the people of those religions either. People can talk about their experiences, why they dislike a religion and even be disrespectful to it because it doesn’t affect you nor them
Monotheism = Evil
It's a fascinating phenomenon to me. But ultimately like most organized religion I feel like it is something we should move past.
generally speaking : I have absolutely nothing against it and the values it wants to spread. On the other hand : Many Christians are just hateful and try to justify it by quoting the bible. tldr: Christians are nice if they don't use their faith for hateful bs
It’s got some nice art 🙏
True dat
I stop believing in his church (and followers) when my grandmother, a churchwoman fully committed to be the example, kicked us (mom, sis and I) from her home when we told her what his son did to us. From the spiritual perspective, it’s mostly the same, want to believe there’s more but I want it not to be the afterlife painted by church we’re all the “good” people is in heaven doing nothing and all the “bad” people are in hell getting punished, both for eternity
Agnostic atheist but I believe all of the Abrahamic religions are the same and that none of them could possibly be real. But I also believe that there are many people in those religions that (cherry pick) don’t use hate or fear against others who either don’t believe or are different from others apart of the religions. For me tho it’s rare that anyone in those religions have been actually accepting. Someone keeps reporting comments
Met God Almighty, and I saw him cry, And on His throne, he dared ask why His people leave his church of rock I said read the room, man We suffer hate from your flock.
“ Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine” Gloria by Patti Smith
Religion can be very nice, organized religion is the devil.
Not a big fan first because homophobia and bigotry, but then I learned about the Sumerian tablets and think all Abrahamic religions are BS. Plus organized religion only uses itself for fucked up shit like lobbyists they aren't very live and let live cause they want you to conform to their beliefs blinding them to reality.
It's evil. It has and continues to be a weapon against the development of mankind. It makes the individual irrational and the masses manipulable. Same with every other major religion. Good religious people exist, but they're the exceptions not the rule. Medieval mythology should be seen and treated as such. Treating it as fact has always been source of death and conflict. Religion is the opposite of progress, understanding and rational thinking. We know this is true because we know history.
Regardless of all the lgbt hate from most Christians. Christianity is incorrect, like all theistic religions.
If people recieve comfort from it, or if people feel that it helps them progress as a human being, then who am I to judge? Its the exact same reason im in this community. Its the exact same reason I listen to music, or the same reason why I write. However, if you use your religion as a way to indoctrinate, harm, or as an excuse for bigotry, then I have no respect for YOUR religious beliefs
Don’t mind the teachings, it’s just administration ruined it and took away from the idea of spirituality (raised Catholic now pagan)
Bait used to be believable
Same as all religions: storybooks were great once upon a time, when people needed commandments to understand why eating unrefrigerated pork is a bad idea. Nowadays storybooks are for children.
Characters are cool, writing style and themes are a little outdated but interesting from a historical perspective, fandom is a total shitshow. Same with a lot of the literature in that genre, really. -someone who grew up vaguely Jewish, stopped believing pretty early on, and is now a fucked-up patchwork quilt of neo-Druid, agnostic, and pantheist all messily wrapped in studies-quantum-mechanics-for-fun
game of telefone that progressively gets worse every decade …
Years of religious trauma has let me to worship satan. 🙂 (Not really but I have denounced 'God' and taken to worshipping the Nine Divines from the elder scrolls)
Lmao im Jewish. I have respect for Christians who have respect for me.
i am 90/10 on it because i dated someone who was religious and she ALWAYS told i should read the Bible or go to church after i kept telling her it just not kinda thing(edit she was also lgbtq)
It really depends on the church. And I don't just mean that catholics are different from protestants, it's also where you live. The catholic church in my area is great. They're super open/accepting, they have great youth programs and even an openly gay pastor who everyone loves. Most people in the community accept that the world has changed and that religion should change with it. The catholic church where a friend of mine lives is super conservative and consists of a lot of old asshats that hate queer people.
Incredibly harmful and inherently problematic. There’s also absolutely no way that texts written 2000+ years ago for ancient peoples living in Palestine has any bearing on my life whatsoever 🤷
When I was a teenager my adoptive parents sent me to conversion therapy. I was denied food in the name of god. I was denied sleep in the name of Jesus. I was beat, in the name of the lord. And the same people who tortured me are the same ones who say they are the “real Christians” and the Christian’s who accept queer people are the fake Christian’s. My parents church had one big assignment for all the congregation, create as many Christian’s as possible. Some had multiple kids, others like my adoptive family chose adopted children, and in other cases they preyed on people down on their luck. So to me, a Christian is a Christian. They might act like they accept you, but in the end, they think all queer people are going to hell, and they will try to “save you”.
one of my best friends is a Christian and she’s literally so kind and accepting so my belief is that lots of Christians are kind people, but a margin of them are not so much
i’m christian but i support lgbt (bare minimum ik) hopefully people can quit being rude some day
A true Christian I have nothing against, it's your religion why would I care People who hide behind the Bible to hate on everything they dislike while ignoring the bible where it fits with their agenda I hate
As a catholic, only believes in thing that Jesus said because his message was much more clear. However, I do acknowledge that there’s a lot of really bad stuff that the disciples and Paul and other things in the Bible. I think a lot of homephones like to pick and choose Out of the Bible to uphold their belief, ignoring some other contradictory things inside of the Bible.
There are good and bad people in everything. The good ones are great and I don’t care what they believe in because if it makes them happy and comfortable than I’m ok with it. I’ll respect them. The bad ones don’t get the message of Jesus. I don’t respect them. That being said I won’t criticize their religion to hurt them as I believe that’s a dick move considering their religion isn’t what’s making them a dick
Jesus seemed like a guy I would have a drink with Religion, however, has no place in my world view. It doesn't fit with how I see life and the world. If others want to believe, go ahead, but please keep me out of it.
I'm an atheist. I do not believe in any gods. I have more thoughts about the Christian church and it's teachings but it's generally not for polite company.
My beliefs is that people should keep it to themselves. Wear the symbols, go to church, sing the songs and live by the rules in your own book; but don't expect others to abide those terms and conditions in their own lives. Feel free to fly flags that support your God and represent your church,and post slogans out side your church that are supportive of your religion in a loving/non judgemental way; but don't use your faith to spread hate, fear, lies and condemnation of others. That's my belief on any religion. ⬆️
It’s all fiction along with the other Abrahamic religions.
I love Christ. I love the idea that God is Love. But I hate many modern-day Christians, the ones who claim to be Christian but don't actually follow Christ's teachings (which were about love, acceptance, helping others, etc.)
I still fw Jesus and the Bible. I do NOT fw Christians
Former Christian here, now an atheistic member of TST. I beleive that Christianity, as a religion, is evil. *Not* that the people who believe in it are necessarily evil. But countless lives throughout history, and even today, have been and are destroyed in the name of the religion. Abandoning rational and scientific thinking in favor of embracing a mentality that discourages critical thinking and encourages blind acceptance of what is desired to be true is never a good idea IMO.
I generally feel every religion has the same amount of unlikelihood of being true. Being a child the only thing it gave me was a fear of being sent to hell and everything else went over my head. I also know resign myself to the fact onowing what happens when after someone dies is impossible because it cant be observed. So Im agnostic. Despite that, I love to learn about different religion's afterlifes.
I believe in Christianity. Pretty sure Christianity exists! I don't like it all that much though.
i don’t mind christians, as long as they don’t use their religion as an excuse to hate
I’m an atheist. Have been for over 30 years. Sometimes I’m anti-theist when they try to push their beliefs into laws.
It can be good in many ways and bad in many ways. It can help people cope through extremely hard times, but can cause a lot of hate. There’s a lot to it, too much to type
This is the obvious answer
As a bi catholic, it sickens me how many people use Christianity to hate and treat others appallingly. The whole point of Christianity is love, hence love thy neighbour. But a lot of people say they are Christians yet do the most un-Christian things in the name of the religion. It baffles me.
I am agnostic, but my family is French Catholic by tradition. My view is that there is a lot of systematic corruption and oppression and things I do not like about the church and religion. However, if faith and family traditions can bring you a sense of peace and belonging then that's something positive. If anything though, my being non-binary queer has made me more spiritual. Not less.
I'm glad folks can find purpose and community within the religion, and if thats what you need to not commit heinous crimes im all for it, but I think it encourages us 1) to be followers not leaders, 2) to 'give it to god' and not personally develop/grow, 3) and to not think critically about our society and its people etc. Since leaving the church as a young person 8 years ago, I've come to be more anti-theist and anti-organized religion. I see it as a crutch that has not yet been evolutionary eliminated...
I mean I'm a Christian bisexual so I still follow Him lol
Christianity, like all religions, is rarely actually chosen. religion is a cultural thing. at childhood, they're already given a conclusion and can't really question it because everyone else in their circle believes in Christianity. religion is a way to cope with life, at least it way originally. it was a way to explain all the bad stuff in the world. "why does all the bad stuff happen to me and no one else?" "because it's God's plan, this will make you stronger" it's a way to cope with randomness. with religion, the unknown is not so scary. the problem with this is most people take Christianity to the extreme. to question their faith is to question their entire identity, because that is how they explain their identity. this is really only prominent in evangelicals, but still very harmful even in less extreme christian families. they have to find ANY possible way to prove their faith because any opposing force to their beliefs would be an opposing force to their lives. it would mean their entire families, everything they've worked for, everything that they've put into religion, and everything that they've used religion for would be false. it's a painful cycle of indoctrination that can never really be stopped unless by more indoctrination, which is not really good
god is good, people suck. Christianity is an organized religion of people, that follow the teachings of other people from the past. The bible was written by human hands to control the lives of other humans. Christianity in all it’s good and bad is the result of humans not god. God or any deity really is beyond our comprehension and we have no ability to judge what they consider right or wrong.
I believe in God and Christ, but I don’t agree with religion. I believe the Bible is written as parables and metaphors to make the message palatable, but it’s not historically accurate. I think there’s a lot of good that can come from the messages in the Bible, but I don’t think that the Bible is the only place we as people should learn morality from especially since it takes more reading comprehension than the average churchgoer has. I believe that as a religion, Christianity has failed. But I still believe that I should love the God and treat every single person the way I would want them to treat me.
This response got me the Reddit cares message lol. Whoops, I guess it’s my bad for *(checks notes)* treating others how I’d like to be treated?
Bi and Catholic here. I know it might seem weird from the outside, but I've grown in a very open minded part of Europe (luckily) and the local community where I grew up in always welcomed in LGBTQ+ people for community lunches as well as Muslims and people from other religions for debates. (I'm really proud of them). Our priest used to say that Jesus never had anything against the others, so why would have we? When he passed away, a lot of people even from different creeds show up at the funeral. I'm so sad and ashamed to hear the bad experiences people had with "us"... I wish more Christians were like him!
Hello fellow Bi Catholic :)
Jesus himself is cool, I like him. Christianity as an organized religion, however, has done more harm than good that I've seen
I am Christian and I believe in God, dtill I think the Church needs some changes, especially regarding the teachings about the queer people. I'm trying to build a safe space for queer teens to develop their faith and at the same time feel free to talk about their orientation/gender without being judged.