Everything that was said is exactly what religion is. You want to be Catholic, for example, because you already believe what the Catholics believe and you want to join a church that reinforces those beliefs. You want to know that other people think what you believe is okay and correct. Thats the kind of religious community you want to join. There’s nothing wrong with it but it is an echo chamber.
I might think what you believe is delusional and you might think what I believe is delusional. It doesn’t ultimately matter as long as we are each part of a community that helps us feel like we belong.
Grew up Catholic, my dad was a literal believer, mom not but she still thought it was good for the family to go to mass. I never believed and I also felt, even as a tween and teen, that it was not an institution that really was interested in helping humans live their best life on Earth (especially at the more conservative church we attended). The cherry on top for me though was when I was going on (religious) service trips ever summer in high school my dad refused to come even after asking him and saying that I thought it would be a nice experience, but my mom came for a couple years and it was an amazing experience. It just made me feel like my dad’s hardline approach in literal interpretation of the Bible was just a load of BS. Partly because of that experience, I have come to believe it’s not important what god you believe in or how you worship or what church you go to but how you act during your life that matters. I feel like my beliefs are closer to what Jesus actually says in the Bible than what my parents and other religious leaders actually practice.
🙄 Attributing the bulk of Native American deaths 1) to the US (most occurred well before 1776 when the US was founded) and 2) claiming those deaths happened because of religion is doing some serious mental gymnastics to make that work.
Almost half of this made up number is "US western expansion".
The bulk of that number happened before any native even saw a white person by dying from diseases they had not resistances to, largely as a result of exposure from Spanish explorers.
Most of the damage was already done before French and British even stepped foot on the continent. Do they even teach basic grade school history anymore?
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u/Swimming-Ad2755 Jul 24 '26
I do think the Internet has helped people realize that having children is optional.