Post Ak5XCeaSCIm0NiO63E by Denian@chaos.social
 (DIR) More posts by Denian@chaos.social
 (DIR) Post #Ak5X90LPMWS8hbbtDs by aiju@chaos.social
       2024-07-19T10:52:46Z
       
       1 likes, 1 repeats
       
       i think one of my pet peeves with atheism is that they tend to reduce “should you practice religion?” to “is what the religion says literally and objectively true?” which i think is ironically a way of viewing things strongly influenced by christianity and its own advertising
       
 (DIR) Post #Ak5X92RrXUnvECe4Yq by aiju@chaos.social
       2024-07-19T11:09:59Z
       
       1 likes, 1 repeats
       
       the real question is “does this practice make you/your life better?” (by whatever metric relevant to you). and like, lots of practices make people’s life worse, i don’t deny that. but i think the categorical statement that it’s always bad is also clearly false, seems dogmatic to me, even.
       
 (DIR) Post #Ak5XCeaSCIm0NiO63E by Denian@chaos.social
       2024-07-19T11:15:00Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @aiju I obviously can't speak for other atheists here, but in my case, I consider the very concept of "an omniscient, omnipotent deity who loves all of creation yet is content to watch it burn" to be unsolvably paradox, and if that isn't the very foundation of Christianity that should be taken literally, then what is?
       
 (DIR) Post #Ak5XCfXeeC81LK5NKK by aiju@chaos.social
       2024-07-19T11:23:44Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @Denian honestly christianity is a bit weird bc it’s very inflected by the western philosophical tradition so likes to pretend it makes logical coherence (even though it doesn’t). it’s easy to poke holes in its dogma but it’s not really relevant to christianity as a *practice*.
       
 (DIR) Post #Ak5XCgWyyBBWPWmLuy by Denian@chaos.social
       2024-07-19T11:30:47Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @aiju The problem - at least for me - is that spreading that hole-y dogma (rather than fixing it, or even removing it because it's honestly not necessary) is part of the practice, and I just don't have the patience for a religion that keeps hiding its actual message under a mountain of bullshit. That's just an invitation for idiots to take the bullshit literally, become extremists and start "holy" wars.
       
 (DIR) Post #Ak5XEPHQ4zJVUFJw12 by aiju@chaos.social
       2024-07-19T11:35:58Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @Denian yea that’s like the core of my complaint of christianity-as-it-exists as well. but i view at as more of a fixable problem — at least in principle fixable. it’s a lot less of a problem in buddhism bc of a different relationship with dogma (though lots of buddhisms are still bad in practice, ill admit that)
       
 (DIR) Post #Ak5XHQdXUX7SZ06jxI by Denian@chaos.social
       2024-07-19T11:51:19Z
       
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       @aiju I actually like several of the old polytheistic religions. Most of them arose out of attempts to understand the world, so you get stuff like water deity X having a child with fire deity Y, thus creating cloud deity Z, or whatever. Trying to understand the world is a good thing, and so is a certain amount of caution about things you know to be beyond your control.
       
 (DIR) Post #Ak5XHRYG5eUPOue2Ma by Denian@chaos.social
       2024-07-19T11:53:16Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @aiju "Modern" religions, though? Call me a cynicist, but...Christianity: "Obey without questioning or you will go to hell, for we are the represantatives of god's will."Buddhism: "Do your work, slave, and don't even dream about a better position in life or you'll be punished in your next life."As much as people keep talking about positive values attached to their religions, I fail to see those values actually being practiced on a larger-than-individual scale...
       
 (DIR) Post #Ak5XHSLB9lcZqdX6cC by aiju@chaos.social
       2024-07-19T11:58:20Z
       
       1 likes, 1 repeats
       
       @Denian i think a lot of religions (esp big name religions) got turned into tools for social control for obvious reasons and so a lot of the good stuff gets relegated into like, footnotes and secret/esoteric teachings
       
 (DIR) Post #Ak5XPpTd1JlDv8TgLA by Hyolobrika@social.fbxl.net
       2024-07-19T12:27:24.633493Z
       
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       @aiju @Denian The Buddhist relationship with dogma is one of "don't trust us and do your own research", right?I like that.
       
 (DIR) Post #Ak5sXaQAykaaa2P3XU by randrews@somewhy.net
       2024-07-19T15:58:03Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @aiju I agree with you but I think the answer to both questions is "no."