Pearls Before Swine has become one of my all-time favorite mainstream comic strips. Stephan Pastis is both a comic genius and an insightful commentator. This is one of my favorites:
Also, he's constantly putting himself down with his own characters, which I love.
Usually, religion is just a front for different political interests
What no historical materialism does to a mfer.
The major ones are about loving people in said religion. People who don't follow "the rules" can get fucked.
That's not really what most of them are theoretically about, but many of their followers treat it as such. I don't accredit that to religion though, I think some people are simply going to try to opress others regardless of whatever reasoning they use. There are bad people and good people in every population, and blaming the actions of those bad people on their larger group is (usually) to be avoided.
Imagine a nascent nomadic cult of a fictional kingdom called Canaan, grown and composed of the downtrodden of its society, that when the kingdom begins to encounter problems beyond its control because it does not know how to or cannot treat them, like plagues and disease, the cult begins blaming the rest of society for not worshiping their god, El, enough nor in the right way by their real name, and begin eulogizing killing the rest of society off in extremely violent ways after they manage to survive the plague and disease due to their seclusion.
Imagine then how no one would ever want to admit to being a Canaan because of the risk of getting persecuted when the cult begins to conquer territory, and imagine this happening to such an extent that even the members of the cult, now a full-fledged religion due to its conquests and expansion, denies any relation to said society, making up a story instead about coming from some far off kingdom like Egypt that most people in the region would know of but would not really know the specifics about. It would sound similar enough to already preexisting mythos.
Imagine if this sort of attitude didn't just persist into the "modern" world, but involved offsprings of that very same cult holding power and influence in governments throughout the world. It would be a testament to a cultural unwillingness to overcome its own collective ego and overextended fictional narratives to recognize its flawed conception.
"el" literally just means "god" lmao
So does Allah. Your point?
Yeah. Arabic Christians literally call their God "Allah" too.
It's all the same invisible sky daddy anyway, just interpreted through different hallucinations 🤷
That you've been doing something ridiculous for a long time doesn't make it any less stupid. Quite the opposite.
Also, this is Lemmy, not Reddit.
Holy strawman, Batman!
I'm very far from being a nihilist. I believe in things that can actually be verified. I believe in some people and some ideals.
I just don't base my beliefs on self-contradictory and often batshit insane orders from long dead idiots and wielders of unearned authority pretending to represent a fictional being that's its own dad.
In another comment you kept linking Christianity with paedophilia, which is a big strawman. And trying to ask me why I didn't drown nonce priests like I am in charge of a completely different denomination which I am not even a member of.
you kept linking Christianity with paedophilia, which is a big strawman
No. There is a shitload of evidence of widespread child rape committed by Christian churches. There's no evidence of me being a nihilist and there wouldn't be since I'm not.
And trying to ask me why I didn't drown nonce priests
That was obviously a facetious rhetorical question.
Yes, but there's evidence of athiests being nihilists and claiming that 'nothing matters' and believing in subjective morality, which has led to atrocities. So suddenly Christianity represents the actions of all Christians but Athiesm doesn't represent the actions of all Athiests?
So if you're using various Christian institutions as arguments against Christianity, then I could easily point to large Athiest countries like Maoist China and Soviet Russia who murdered millions. Or Nazi Germany (Don't try and claim Hitler was a Christian; he most certainly was not and was only using the label to get votes) who tried to dehumanise humans into being less than animals.
Ah, but see, if you don't call him by his real name, wackytoodlerpops, you are committing blasphemy by worshipping a false idol. Ergo, free grounds for some chop chop in my cult, at least until we get to the religious stage and actually have to establish a stable society which has to consider things like trade from and mingling with the outside world. That's sort of why Scientology has had to tone down on its fair game policy.
Imagine if this sort of attitude didn't just persist into the "modern" world, but involved offsprings of that very same cult holding power and influence in governments throughout the world. It would be a testament to a cultural unwillingness to overcome its own collective ego and overextended fictional narratives to recognize its flawed conception.
I would say its a testament to the fact that humanity isn't so stupid they will opress the followers of a peaceful religion for crimes their ancestors supposedly commited.
That's a lot of pseudo-intellectual nonsense to mask your obvious antisemitism. The way you snake around your point and avoid naming the religion you are condemning would almost be impressive were it not so awful.
I feel like I'm the only person who actually bothered to read that and didn't just mindlessly upvote it.
I think it's pretty clear not only what religion I'm referring to, but what branched off sects and eventually separate religions I'm referring to. I think it pretty much has a lot to do with being an atheist, although I guess you consider those the ultimate antisemites as well for seeing the world outside of a fictional religious shell.
Which peaceful religion are you referring to? I'm having trouble seeing through all the blood.
Not only are you not the only person, you are the norm of this sad trend.
I think it pretty much has a lot to do with being an atheist, although I guess you consider those the ultimate antisemites as well for seeing the world outside of a fictional religious shell.
If you think Jews should not be allowed in positions of power, you are an antisemite. I literally could not give less of a shit what you believe in. I've been an atheist for most of my life, and I'm not an antisemite.
The peaceful religion I'm referring to is Judaism, the religion thats entire point is to spread good. Before you point out instances of Jews doing terrible things, I am aware that they are capable of wrongdoing like every other group of people.
think it's pretty clear not only what religion I'm referring to, but what branched off sects and eventually separate religions I'm referring to.
So are you referring to all abrahamic religions? If so, you should have maybe just said that instead of writing almost exclusively about the Israelites. Regardless, I still disagree with everything you said regardless of how many religions you drag into it.
Not only are you not the only person, you are the norm of this sad trend.
If all of the normal people think you're a lunatic, you may want to consider the idea that you simply are a lunatic. But you aren't mentally capable of comprehending the fact you're just an asshole, so you say every normal person is just a braindead sheep following a sad trend.
You definitely like your strawmans, but I suppose it should be expected.
You can say that to any argument regardless of how accurate it is. To prove I have misrepresented your point, you have to show how I did that. Simply saying I did does not add anything of value to this conversation.
it is possible I misunderstood what you were saying, or you wrote something unintentionally misleading. If this is the case, please elaborate and explain where the misunderstanding occurred. Until then, I'm going to assume your accusation is simply a method of making yourself look correct without actually having to come up with an argument.
I mean the trouble is most religions have been used to spread peace and war. The problem is not religion, it's just the tool. The ruling class will pick up another tool of propoganda to convince the oppressed to act outside their best interests. Feeling smug about being unreligous leaves you vulnerable to alternative methods.
Racism, sexism, nationalism, homophobia, and ageism all serve to divide us whether on a religious or "scientific" basis. No matter the justification we must examine what the end goal of all methods of social control is.
To my understanding at least one religion promotes peace through unified belief (more or less) where the only way the religion is peaceful and loving is if you're a part of the religion. If you believe something different, you're a heretic and must die, for peace.
IDK, killing people in the name of peace seems counterintuitive. There are times that you need to kill warmongers to promote peace, but killing them for peace because their sky friend is different than your sky friend seems like it's a bad philosophy.
I've been aware of this for a while and I have yet to be told I'm wrong, or have anyone provide evidence that I don't understand what it says. I have, however had people verify the concept to me several times. I'm always on edge around people of that religion because if they're being told that people from other religions, and people who won't accept their sky friend as the one true sky friend, should be killed. I'm almost never sure if they're going to try to kill someone to progress their religion by removing heretics. I just can't relax while people from that religion are present because of this. Unless I know them pretty well and know that they reject that philosophy.
Due to this, I'm kind of opposed to "religion is fine as long as it's believers are peaceful" and I'm more in favor of the concept that all religions should be disbanded as a relic of an era where we couldn't comprehend a lot of things that science has since explained away.
I don't subscribe to any religion because they can't all be correct, if any are, and because there's no differentiating information that lends any scientific validity to any one religion, and in the absence of a "God" giving some kind of indicator as to which one is correct, I'm forced to assume that with the plethora of conflicting ideologies, that none of them are correct. I have to believe that if there is a God who wants you to believe and obey one specific set of beliefs, that (s)he would make some kind of effort to clarify which one is correct; this leads me to think that either God doesn't exist, or doesn't care. Given that, I just try not to be a "bad person" and live a moral life, and if I die and find out there is a God, and (s)he wants humanity to believe a certain set of gospel, then I'll have some not so nice words to say to them. Until then, as long as no further information is available about what "God" may actually want us to do, I'll continue down this path indefinitely, and trying to be nice to my fellow man whenever possible, not because they deserve it, but simply because I want to be treated nicely as a person and not promote the suffering that is already far too common in humanity.
/c/im14andthisisdeep
Oh man, I haven't seen a Pearls Before Swine strip in ages
Its just an excuse to in group/out group. Controlling people with religion wields a tremendous amount if power. Weaponizing climate change denial is another example
Pearls Before Swine has become one of my all-time favorite mainstream comic strips. Stephan Pastis is both a comic genius and an insightful commentator. This is one of my favorites:
Also, he's constantly putting himself down with his own characters, which I love.
Love it. Read it every morning.
obligatory This Land Is Mine
(not 100% sure if it's relevant to this specifically but it's def relevant to Israel)
FYI, Nina Paley is a TER"F".
It is a good video though, it's a shame it's made by such a shithead.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
This Land Is Mine
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Why did I think of this
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
this
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Usually, religion is just a front for different political interests
What no historical materialism does to a mfer.
The major ones are about loving people in said religion. People who don't follow "the rules" can get fucked.
That's not really what most of them are theoretically about, but many of their followers treat it as such. I don't accredit that to religion though, I think some people are simply going to try to opress others regardless of whatever reasoning they use. There are bad people and good people in every population, and blaming the actions of those bad people on their larger group is (usually) to be avoided.
Imagine a nascent nomadic cult of a fictional kingdom called Canaan, grown and composed of the downtrodden of its society, that when the kingdom begins to encounter problems beyond its control because it does not know how to or cannot treat them, like plagues and disease, the cult begins blaming the rest of society for not worshiping their god, El, enough nor in the right way by their real name, and begin eulogizing killing the rest of society off in extremely violent ways after they manage to survive the plague and disease due to their seclusion.
Imagine then how no one would ever want to admit to being a Canaan because of the risk of getting persecuted when the cult begins to conquer territory, and imagine this happening to such an extent that even the members of the cult, now a full-fledged religion due to its conquests and expansion, denies any relation to said society, making up a story instead about coming from some far off kingdom like Egypt that most people in the region would know of but would not really know the specifics about. It would sound similar enough to already preexisting mythos.
Imagine if this sort of attitude didn't just persist into the "modern" world, but involved offsprings of that very same cult holding power and influence in governments throughout the world. It would be a testament to a cultural unwillingness to overcome its own collective ego and overextended fictional narratives to recognize its flawed conception.
"el" literally just means "god" lmao
So does Allah. Your point?
Yeah. Arabic Christians literally call their God "Allah" too.
It's all the same invisible sky daddy anyway, just interpreted through different hallucinations 🤷
That you've been doing something ridiculous for a long time doesn't make it any less stupid. Quite the opposite.
Also, this is Lemmy, not Reddit.
Holy strawman, Batman!
I'm very far from being a nihilist. I believe in things that can actually be verified. I believe in some people and some ideals.
I just don't base my beliefs on self-contradictory and often batshit insane orders from long dead idiots and wielders of unearned authority pretending to represent a fictional being that's its own dad.
In another comment you kept linking Christianity with paedophilia, which is a big strawman. And trying to ask me why I didn't drown nonce priests like I am in charge of a completely different denomination which I am not even a member of.
No. There is a shitload of evidence of widespread child rape committed by Christian churches. There's no evidence of me being a nihilist and there wouldn't be since I'm not.
That was obviously a facetious rhetorical question.
Yes, but there's evidence of athiests being nihilists and claiming that 'nothing matters' and believing in subjective morality, which has led to atrocities. So suddenly Christianity represents the actions of all Christians but Athiesm doesn't represent the actions of all Athiests?
So if you're using various Christian institutions as arguments against Christianity, then I could easily point to large Athiest countries like Maoist China and Soviet Russia who murdered millions. Or Nazi Germany (Don't try and claim Hitler was a Christian; he most certainly was not and was only using the label to get votes) who tried to dehumanise humans into being less than animals.
That doesn't answer the "your point?" part lol
Ah, but see, if you don't call him by his real name, wackytoodlerpops, you are committing blasphemy by worshipping a false idol. Ergo, free grounds for some chop chop in my cult, at least until we get to the religious stage and actually have to establish a stable society which has to consider things like trade from and mingling with the outside world. That's sort of why Scientology has had to tone down on its fair game policy.
Do Muslims think that?
I would say its a testament to the fact that humanity isn't so stupid they will opress the followers of a peaceful religion for crimes their ancestors supposedly commited.
That's a lot of pseudo-intellectual nonsense to mask your obvious antisemitism. The way you snake around your point and avoid naming the religion you are condemning would almost be impressive were it not so awful.
I feel like I'm the only person who actually bothered to read that and didn't just mindlessly upvote it.
I think it's pretty clear not only what religion I'm referring to, but what branched off sects and eventually separate religions I'm referring to. I think it pretty much has a lot to do with being an atheist, although I guess you consider those the ultimate antisemites as well for seeing the world outside of a fictional religious shell.
Which peaceful religion are you referring to? I'm having trouble seeing through all the blood.
Not only are you not the only person, you are the norm of this sad trend.
If you think Jews should not be allowed in positions of power, you are an antisemite. I literally could not give less of a shit what you believe in. I've been an atheist for most of my life, and I'm not an antisemite.
The peaceful religion I'm referring to is Judaism, the religion thats entire point is to spread good. Before you point out instances of Jews doing terrible things, I am aware that they are capable of wrongdoing like every other group of people.
So are you referring to all abrahamic religions? If so, you should have maybe just said that instead of writing almost exclusively about the Israelites. Regardless, I still disagree with everything you said regardless of how many religions you drag into it.
If all of the normal people think you're a lunatic, you may want to consider the idea that you simply are a lunatic. But you aren't mentally capable of comprehending the fact you're just an asshole, so you say every normal person is just a braindead sheep following a sad trend.
You definitely like your strawmans, but I suppose it should be expected.
You can say that to any argument regardless of how accurate it is. To prove I have misrepresented your point, you have to show how I did that. Simply saying I did does not add anything of value to this conversation.
it is possible I misunderstood what you were saying, or you wrote something unintentionally misleading. If this is the case, please elaborate and explain where the misunderstanding occurred. Until then, I'm going to assume your accusation is simply a method of making yourself look correct without actually having to come up with an argument.
I mean the trouble is most religions have been used to spread peace and war. The problem is not religion, it's just the tool. The ruling class will pick up another tool of propoganda to convince the oppressed to act outside their best interests. Feeling smug about being unreligous leaves you vulnerable to alternative methods.
Racism, sexism, nationalism, homophobia, and ageism all serve to divide us whether on a religious or "scientific" basis. No matter the justification we must examine what the end goal of all methods of social control is.
To my understanding at least one religion promotes peace through unified belief (more or less) where the only way the religion is peaceful and loving is if you're a part of the religion. If you believe something different, you're a heretic and must die, for peace.
IDK, killing people in the name of peace seems counterintuitive. There are times that you need to kill warmongers to promote peace, but killing them for peace because their sky friend is different than your sky friend seems like it's a bad philosophy.
I've been aware of this for a while and I have yet to be told I'm wrong, or have anyone provide evidence that I don't understand what it says. I have, however had people verify the concept to me several times. I'm always on edge around people of that religion because if they're being told that people from other religions, and people who won't accept their sky friend as the one true sky friend, should be killed. I'm almost never sure if they're going to try to kill someone to progress their religion by removing heretics. I just can't relax while people from that religion are present because of this. Unless I know them pretty well and know that they reject that philosophy.
Due to this, I'm kind of opposed to "religion is fine as long as it's believers are peaceful" and I'm more in favor of the concept that all religions should be disbanded as a relic of an era where we couldn't comprehend a lot of things that science has since explained away.
I don't subscribe to any religion because they can't all be correct, if any are, and because there's no differentiating information that lends any scientific validity to any one religion, and in the absence of a "God" giving some kind of indicator as to which one is correct, I'm forced to assume that with the plethora of conflicting ideologies, that none of them are correct. I have to believe that if there is a God who wants you to believe and obey one specific set of beliefs, that (s)he would make some kind of effort to clarify which one is correct; this leads me to think that either God doesn't exist, or doesn't care. Given that, I just try not to be a "bad person" and live a moral life, and if I die and find out there is a God, and (s)he wants humanity to believe a certain set of gospel, then I'll have some not so nice words to say to them. Until then, as long as no further information is available about what "God" may actually want us to do, I'll continue down this path indefinitely, and trying to be nice to my fellow man whenever possible, not because they deserve it, but simply because I want to be treated nicely as a person and not promote the suffering that is already far too common in humanity.
/c/im14andthisisdeep
Oh man, I haven't seen a Pearls Before Swine strip in ages
Its just an excuse to in group/out group. Controlling people with religion wields a tremendous amount if power. Weaponizing climate change denial is another example
Just in time.