The Christian bible says exactly the same thing, Christians just ignore it.
Thy shall not make graven images
I’m pretty sure that’s one of the reasons we have Protestants.
The other reason is King Henry VIII wanted a divorce and the pope said no.
I could be wrong but I think one of the dividing issues between Orthodox Christians and Catholic is the depictions of religious figures. The Orthodox is more strict about it.
You know how we tell the story about brutally murdering the Son of God? We want to put that on display, all the time, in His House, so He never ever forgets.
God is love!
But don’t forget, Jesus is also God. Fully, but also distinct. So we’re reminding Him about how He had himself killed so that He could forgive us because some lady who didn’t know anything didn’t follow His directions
Let’s not forget that he’s the one that invented the rules that allegedly required such a stupid and convoluted plan.
And is also omnipotent and allknowing.
and bland and flavorless and crumbly
That’s what the wine is for
doesn’t change the bland jeez-its. if you’re going to magic something into godflesh, why not breakfast tacos? with egg and cheese and a little bacon (or potato if that’s your thing. or both)? at least give us sourdough or tiger bread
Back in the day, at my little corner bagel shop we’d created
the god bagelBacon Ham Egg Scrapple and cheese on an everything bagel, wrapped tightly in aluminum foil to allow it to squeeze into a jaw-able bite.
I’d worship at this alter.
No wonder Jesus hasn’t come back. We never miss a chance to remind him of what happened last time
This reminds me of a joke:
" Aliens make first contact with humans. They are peaceful and start a dialogue with us. The subject of religion comes up, and Christianity is described to the aliens and they respond by saying ’ oh yeah we know Jesus. He came comes to visit you too?’
‘Well yes, once, over 2000 years ago.’
To which the aliens reply: ‘That’s weird he visits us every year, stays for about a week for the high feast we throw in his honor. It’s a recreation of what we did for him the first time he appeared. What happened when he came here? Maybe if you recreated whatever that was…’
‘Oh, um, we crucified him.’
‘Oof. Ok. Makes sense now.’
In Christianity, the crucifixion is the moment of victory. Christ’s sinless death is what allows mankind to be redeemed, and that was the plan all along. So they see the crucifixion as holy, though it is also mourned. It is used as a reminder of the love God has for his people and as a sort of “try to be better” thing.
Christ’s sinless death is what allows mankind to be redeemed, and that was the plan all along.
A good 'ol death cult.
Jesus is the original version of The Dark Knight’s “getting captured was the plan all along” trope.
Pretty weak deity which can’t even forgive the sins they created themselves without all the pageantry. This is why I only worship my TI-83 calculator from middle school. It is capable of completely passive forgiveness, and largely unwilling to resort to damnation under any circumstances.
The explanation I’ve been given is actually kinda cool in a, like, fantasy worldbuilding sort of way. By nature God is perfection, and since Adam and Eve fell short of perfection, mankind is tainted by imperfection. That falling short is sin. (There is some debate about whether God “decides” what is sin, or whether it is some sort of objective nature of God, which I also think is sort of fascinating.) Man needed ways to be absolved from sin to be in communion with God. This largely involved sacrificing animals to cover over sin with blood, and this symbolism is all over the old testament.
Christianity posits that Jesus was both God and Man, combining the two natures. He lived a sinless life, but still faced death (which shouldn’t happen to someone without sin). This causes a sort of divide-by-zero error that cancels out the sin of all who are linked to Jesus through the sacraments (especially baptism and communion). This allows humans to be “in communion with God” without continued animal sacrifice. And now that living a perfect life, which is impossible, is not necessary, Christians should do good things in the world to reflect the grace they’ve been given.
Unfortunately, most Christians know fuck all about their own religion and don’t understand it at a fundamental level, and think it’s their job to go around judging people and telling them to repent.
So God created us imperfect then holds us to an impossible standard and is punishing us for not living up to it? Doesn’t sound very loving. If he had to do it this way because of his nature then he is not omnipotent.
So God created us imperfect then holds us to an impossible standard and is punishing us for not living up to it? Doesn’t sound very loving.
According to the religion, humans were created perfect and chose to sin. Everything since was an effort to redeem them.
If he had to do it this way because of his nature then he is not omnipotent.
Well yeah. Inherently. In fact, I think for any conception of a deity in a religious setting to make sense there must be some kind of limitations on that deity, whether understood by their worshippers or not.
Jesus returns, looks around at crosses everywhere.
“Fuck me. I’m glad I didn’t die accidentally drowning in manure!”
Religion is given far too much respect in the world when it needs to be treated as a mental disorder.
Why is it a mental disorder? Can I have a source?
Shared Psychotic Disorder is where a group of people share a delusion. This delusion can almost “spread,” especially in the case of people who are close to each other. Its very similar to other shared delusions, like supernatural beliefs.
I guess lemmy is also becoming reddit now, shamed for asking a simple question
I’m actually okay with some Gaia religion right now that makes it fundamental to protect the planet and “remove” anyone trying to mess with that, like building data centers.
Please don’t… if it is a religion, it involve irrational beliefs that will be armful at some point. To protect the planet we need to know what is good for it, and be abble to find out that some of our knowledges/beliefs are wrong. To find out we were wrong, we need to be rational ; and that require to reject faith.
So, what about personal philosophy? Do you count “Humanism”, or “Earthseed” from Parable of the Sower as religions? No magical thinking, but heavily based in ideas of morality which have no objective truth. There is no definition of “Good” that can ever be objective. You need a philosophical basis, like utilitarianism, for example, to work off of.
There are plenty of people (including many adherents, I think) who’d identify those as religions, but I struggle to comprehend how your claim would apply to them.
A philosophy isn’t a religion. You need to think philosophy by yourself, and not just one school of philosophy, since each of them have a point of view that could help you. I also think each of this school can be monstruous and misleading if you follow blindly its principles ; but each may help you to think each situation by yourself more efficiently.
Let’s take utilitarianism, maximizing the good. In many situations it applies smoothly. For the trolley track problem an utilitarian easily sacrify the one lonely to save the 5. Yet if you change the problem as: you are in an hospital and 5 patients need a different organ for transplantation ; an healthy universal donor kid is in a room waiting for a minor broken leg ; do you kill the kid to save the 5? Utilitarian principles should still say yes, but you may feel that in that case applying them would be wrong.
Those who would have faith in the utilitarianism, and apply it as a religion, may not see the problem. Of course, some may have both faith and some doubts. But I think they would think better if they think by themselves, using different philosophical principles, and without an authority to share the responsability of their decisions.
And that’s how the Church of Infinite Greed keeps winning no matter how rational you are. Their irrationality knows no counter.
I don’t think I understand. Do you mean we need a religion to counter capitalism?
Religions are always serving the ones in power, some times they may set new rulers, but then they serve the new rulers…
And no rulers will be good if it is with a protection that pass all to them and protect them.
So I think rationality and education are more likely to be the solution than any religion (even in those not existing yet).
Do you mean we need a religion to counter capitalism?
That fell into the same trap you described. They had faith that the vanguard state would wither.
Who do you mean by they? And can you develop?
You don’t need a religion to be an environmentalist.
Oftentimes religious beliefs can change someone’s worldviews, including but not limited to, environmental awareness. And I bring my own anecdotal example: since I became a syncretic Luciferian then a sudden Lilithian, I became quite eco-centric, as I got to understand Homo sapiens as just one among countless species instead of some “god’s exclusive toy” on this Pale Blue Dot. I also started to personally understand LGBTQIA+ values because, thanks to Lilith, I began discovering a part of me I wasn’t aware of, my queer me I’ve since became quite fond of (e.g. polishing my nails and letting them grow as a cisman-presenting person).
Those things would be unlikely to happen if I stayed on christianity (yes, I was christian in the far past and I deeply hate having been one) due to christian brainwashing that makes christians to “fear disobeying god” (now I want “god” to go pound sand).
There are religions and religions, faiths and faiths. You won’t get a coven of Wiccans knocking at your door at Monday (Moon day) 3AM “do you have 5 minutes to hear about our Mother Hekate?”, you won’t hear Luciferians screaming “Agios Lucifer, He’s coming back to reign” inside a bus/subway while you’re commuting, you won’t see a Thelemite lawmaker trying to shove Liber AL Vel Legis inside kindergarten and schools, you won’t see Goetians bringing a Solomon’s Magick Circle inside a hospital room to call upon Stolas to cure the patients with his herbal knowledge… Yet atheists tend to put all religious beliefs into the same box as abrahamic religions which have persecuted both you atheists and us pagans, instead of trying to make some rational distinction between different faiths…
every new one whiter than the previous
Can’t sell as much merchandise without a face to go along with the name.
WWJD? SELL SELL SELL!!!
When I was on my recent trip to Japan, we visited a few shrines and I found it kind of funny how a lot of them had gift shops selling a bunch of religious themed merch. Then I thought about Christianity and all the Jesus merch.
Anybody that’s read the Bible knows Jesus was a White man from New Jersey.
With blue eyes and blond hair
White Jesus from the middle east
Portraying people from the middle east as european helps to normalize zionism.
a very nordic looking jesus too.
And then there’s korean Jesus.
One pedophile argues with another:
My pedophiles are better than your pedophiles! Why? It says so right here in my holy book!
Too real for some folks here, obviously.
Idolatrous iconography is cute, but the real elephant in the room with Abrahamics these days is bibliolatry. Hate to make a Potter reference, but so many of these people think their God is Tom Riddle.
It takes a finger to point at the moon, so look at the moon, not the finger.
Solid point there.
I was wrong, it’s more like a horse in the room. The elephant in the room is their rampant abuse of women and children.
Under Christianity idols are also forbidden. Something about idols being perversions rather than holy. It’s just one of those things out of many Christians seems to ignore…
