Asklemmy

I'm a Pluralistic individual. I believe everyone has a reason to believe. But I think the way someone believes is very telling about that person's personal values.

Ergo, I don't care what a person's religious beliefs are, I care what that person's values are. I believe that is a much more honest approach that doesn't needlessly alienate anyone or stoke petty, tribalistic behavior.

I am agnostic, and if a god exists, I hate them.

I consider myself an anti-theist. Religion is used to control unintelligent/mentally challenged people and shouldn't exist in any form.

I don't hate the people unless they are forcing it down my throat.

I treat religion like my penis.

It's ok not to have one.

It's ok to have one.

It's ok to be proud of it.

But don't display it in public, and don't shove it down people's throats.

And NEVER whip it out in congress.

You aren't born religious. You are indoctrinated. I grew up in a cult. It wasn't nearly as bad as cults get, but it has its own insane ~~ramblings~~ "teachings"

I escaped my indoctrination because I took it too seriously. I wanted to adhere perfectly, which resulted in finding out how convoluted and hypocritical it is. It is impossible.

So in my confusion, I started to look more critically at the hows and whys. The result, religions all use the same dirty tactics to get people to believe. False promises, comforting lies and empty threats that will seem real to those who were taught magical thinking.

I reject religion.

But I cannot hate people who are religious for just being religious. They were a child when taught, or an adult so downtrodden they needed a fairy tale to continue life. Or perhaps just are a bit naive. It's a slippery slope. So... I can't blame people. I get it. I know what it's like and it saddens me the older people get, the less likely they'll ever escape the mental constriction religion brings.

I sure as fuck hate a religious person for commiting hate crimes. They can go to hell.

I don't really care if they believe in something.

I would never try to convince them to stop or anything like that.

I think the type of people that frequent Reddit and Lemmy and constantly complain and mock religious people are the worst.

I hate the belief not the believer

Imagine if that person did all the same things they do, but without the label of "religion" being attached.

Charity? Awesome! Habitat for Humanity is an explicitly Christian organization and does great work. In my neighborhood, the local Lutheran and Quaker churches give out free food to the poor, and they don't sneak any Lutheran or Quaker cooties into it. If you're good to others because you think God wants you to be good to others, that still really does count as being good to others.

Prayer? Okay, take "religion" off of it and they're meditating, thinking, or talking to themselves. That's good. Unless they're thinking and talking about torturing their neighbors eternally, or something creepy like that. (But even then, better to keep those fantasies to yourself than to act them out in public.) Die Gedanken sind frei — thoughts are free.

Going to worship services? Okay, they've got a weekly social event where they sing songs and listen to speeches. Sounds great, unless the songs are about "everyone outside this room is a terrible person and deserves to suffer forever" and the speeches are about hate politics. If they're about how wonderful it is to be nice to each other, or being brave and standing up against oppression, or something else that would be positive even without the label of "religion" on it, great!

Dietary rules? It's okay to have preferences, distinct cultures, cuisines, and so forth. For that matter: my family isn't Jewish, but when I was little, we ate kosher beef hot dogs, because my mom expected the rabbis would care about the meat being sanitary. (Unfortunately in retrospect, kosher slaughter is, shall we say, not clearly better than secular slaughter.)

I'm greek orthodox, my family, is greek, and the religion comes with it

I get along with all amd you should too, religious or non-religious shouldn't be a question, a party is a party. Get messed up and regret it in the morning

The only one's I don't really like is protestants but thats because ~~of my racism against british people~~ I think quite a few of the protestant demoninations strangle the meaning of what it means to be a christian.

Although surprisingly, I've known anti/atheistic people who gave me meat on several occasions during fasting (where we go basically go vegan) even though i reminded them about it before they even started cooking. We also have some of them in the board with us aswell, the "the religious belong in psychotherapy" types.

One of the biggest mistakes faith has done is try and influence things outside of the church espically in modern day schenanigans like politics. The church should be the peaceful escape from the outside world, not the opposite

From how I see it, my religion is beautiful, provides me an undescribable sense of peace, and I know the people who are at my parish are people i can depend on if i ever need help

I don't care unless they force me to believe the way they do.

Raised Catholic, and I definitely see organized religion through that lens. I see charismatic leaders manipulating followers. I see systems to keep people, especially women and children, subservient. I see followers giving up responsibility for their own actions and beliefs. Even if a religion doesn't start out that way, the way they organize makes them susceptible to the power-hungry who will corrupt it.

Am I extremely sceptical of organized religion? Yes, doubly so of people who seek positions of authority within organized religion.

Do I recognize some people who follow an organized religion are good and well-intentioned? Yes.

Do I call bullshit on the people who think the only way to be a good person is by following an organized religion? Heck, yes.

I just don't support dogmatic thinking and indoctrination, especially when it creeps into politics, which is inevitable at the scale of the most popular religions.

In theory I have no problem with other people's faith, but in practice it degrades the critical thinking capacity of our population and, paradoxically, the moral capacity as well. That's a net negative in my opinion.

Charities exist without religion. I think religions often teach good moral frameworks, though very traditional. But those come with a huge caveat that you cut out a big hole in your brain for the belief that God exists and cares about how you behave. That one idea leads to so much trouble, from false prophets to normalized misogyny and hatred of gay people.

All religions are made up. No one has ever proven that a "god" or supernatural entity exists, no one, ever. It's all mythology, fiction and "supernatural" nonsense. Ghosts, angels, demons, gods, spirits, pick a name, pick a flavor, none of it is real. It's like insisting that Harry Potter, James Bond, Tinkerbell, Captain Kirk or Superman are actually real living people / spirits / entities, and they have the ability to control you now and after you die. Just because you, or someone claims it's real does not make it factual. You are allowed to believe in whatever you want to, but you are NOT allowed to force others to believe that same thing. If you truly believe in your "religion", you would research it in every way possible, reading pro and con information to get a balanced understanding of what you decided to believe in. You will learn where all the stories of your religion originate from, and that will actually decide what you choose to believe in. Religion is a lifestyle choice.