Comment on Are we deprogramming empathy in the US?
ArgumentativeMonotheist@lemmy.world 1 day agoYou’re confusing people who say they are/consider themselves A and do/are A with those who aren’t. You understand religion as a superficial, decorative thing because that’s the way it has been in the West since at least the days of Nietzsche, and as such their moral relativism is not surprising at all (ethics are belief/self-determination, check is-ought problem on wiki). Doomsider, I have walked your path, I just started earlier and I’m probably older as well. Your vitriolic gut reaction has to do more with your perception of religion and religious people in a Roman Catholic plus offshoots setting (or just some hypocrites from whatever religious group) than it has to do with belief and monotheism itself, your disappointment is expected. But you haven’t gotten it, you don’t understand what it actually means to believe in something and live your life accordingly in a similar way you understand gravity and don’t jump out of windows. Take care, merry winter solstice! 👋
Doomsider@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Religion is a superficial decoration in modern times. My ancestors true religion was taken from them by sword point. Convert or die, so pardon me if I view modern religion through the lense of conquerors and manipulators.
Argue, I have been married for almost thirty years. I was in your frame of mind back when I was a teenager. I spent decades studying all religions and I still do to this day. I am under no more false illusions or pretenses and have spent a long time deprogramming myself.
I am very satisfied where I have landed and I will not give credence where it does not belong.
ArgumentativeMonotheist@lemmy.world 1 day ago
But that’s you and your great interest in religion which probably stems from a need for something more from life than just empty pleasure, which probably means you value ideas and consistency more than others. As long as you move righteously, idc how you got there and I’m not even the tiniest amount against whatever you believe in if the outcomes are great and similar to what I’m preaching about, but if you don’t see how the vast majority of people aren’t like that and don’t think about it for even a second, and how belief acts as a safeguard, a rail you hold onto when temptation is great, then idk, you lack appreciation for it, I guess.
Also, my ancestors were also murdered with a gun in one hand and a Bible in the other but it doesn’t mean the message of Jesus or the mere concept of objective moral duty that Moses brought about/popularized aren’t highly valuable.
Doomsider@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Like I said, I thought like you many years ago and I have grown so much since then.
Christianity is a bad copy of other religions that came before it. Christ himself was a cultist preaching resurrection on Earth. The end of his story was just his fellow cultists trying to make his lies a reality.
It is a strange tale for sure and I study it out of morbid curiosity rather than seeking a higher truth like I once did long ago.
I wish you luck on your journey.
ArgumentativeMonotheist@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I don’t think Jesus was preaching resurrection on earth, he was more about “give the other cheek”, “rich people will have it hard entering Heaven” (in a society of poor, oppressed people), “take care of your shortcomings before you harass others for theirs”, “don’t be anxious”. This is all almost verbatim from the Sermon of the Mount. He didn’t even like people calling him good, and they made a deity out of him in a little tripartite pantheon…
Anyways, thank you, I send the same good vibes to you. 👋