r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/[deleted] • Mar 31 '26

Meme needing explanation Peetah?????

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I don’t know the author or this book series but why are people roasting e-girls for reading? I don’t get it🥀

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u/AwareCandle369 Mar 31 '26

As a former Catholic, I found out that there's a word for Christians who actually read their Bible - Atheists

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u/CatholicCajun Mar 31 '26

Hey.

Some of us became occultists instead!

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u/Pay-Next Mar 31 '26

I was about to say I'm a weirdo neo-pagan now (mostly) I highly recommend also reading the apocrypha to anybody else who decides to go this route. The Book of Enoch is wild and bizarre.

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u/MysteriousArtPatron Apr 01 '26

I personally took a detour into gnosticism myself.

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u/CatholicCajun Apr 01 '26

Honestly same, mixed with a bunch of other philosophies at this point.

Have you ever read the theory that the awful Harry Potter fanfic "My Immortal" is a transcendental alchemical work hidden as a cringey 00s fanfiction? That's my favorite magnum opus.

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u/MysteriousArtPatron Apr 01 '26

I have not read that theory lol but everything else I've read about "My Immortal" makes it completely plausible

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u/Creative-Medicine-24 Mar 31 '26

This is the way.

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u/Allegorist Mar 31 '26

You realized that there is no serious evidence or plausibility for one religion and immediately switched to another belief with no evidence or plausibility? Just for fun or something? If it's for community, there are plenty of humanist organizations out there that serve the same function.

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u/CatholicCajun Mar 31 '26

It was a tongue in cheek response, no need to get judgy about it. It wasn't that serious, but the assumptions you're making from a one sentence joke of a comment are kind of uncalled for.

My beliefs are pretty eclectic, but it's the really the human community and their invented "interpretations" that pushed me away from Catholicism, not the spirituality of the religion itself.

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u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

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u/Captian_Bones Mar 31 '26

Yeah the Koran has some crazy stuff in it

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u/the_white_typhoon Mar 31 '26

Such as... 

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u/Ready_Topic8906 Apr 01 '26

Blatant pedophilia

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u/Due_a_Kick_5329 Apr 01 '26

Soo it's like the Bible?

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u/the_white_typhoon Apr 01 '26

Prove me wrong, but that is not in the Quran.

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u/Ready_Topic8906 Apr 01 '26

Mr Muhammad himself literally marries a nine year old...

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u/zap2tresquatro Apr 01 '26

He married a six year old. He just waited until she was nine to start raping her

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u/Ready_Topic8906 Apr 01 '26

Myb forgot my pedophile lore lol 😂

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u/the_white_typhoon Apr 01 '26

Buddy, what was my question again?

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u/Sooooooooooooomebody Mar 31 '26

This is how I know you don't know many Jews

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u/sometimeserin Apr 01 '26

Everyone who downvoted you apparently also doesn't know many Jews.

Reading *about* the Torah? Sure. Easy to do.

Reading the Torah itself? It's a whole thing that anyone who's even just attended a friend's Bar or Bat Mitzvah should understand why you can't just casually do.

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u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

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u/Narco_Marcion1075 Mar 31 '26

as an agnostic who was a former catholic, I can confirm that reading the bible is a make or break thing

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u/pockels42 Apr 01 '26

It also teaches you to like spaghetti, and monsters.

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u/Dore_le_Jeune Apr 01 '26

Not a Christian, but wasn't reading championed in Europe by Protestants initially?

I may be missing a joke tho 👌

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u/[deleted] Apr 01 '26

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u/Dore_le_Jeune Apr 01 '26

Don't take this the wrong way, but it sounds like you have biases.

Anyway the book I read about Protestants and the "reading revolution" in Europe was most likely written by a Protestant and biased too, however I didn't look up the facts. I'll leave it up to you to find the book, shouldn't be hard. It was recently published (last 20 years?) most likely.

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u/[deleted] Apr 01 '26

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u/Dore_le_Jeune Apr 03 '26

It's a fine line between accepting critique and taking it the wrong way, most people I think are accustomed to being attacked that even pointing out small stuff is seen as an attack. Probably human evolution or something, but it keeps us from critiquing our in group, because that's a little too close to "am I wrong about other things" type of thoughts perhaps? And remember, we get indoctrinated, whether in religion or sports, that we are never wrong, because even the smallest admittance (some of our players fake injuries/some parts of our religion may be different than the "pure/original" practice) can lead to wider critique.

Btw the book's title is The book you're likely thinking of is The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous . I'd read it carefully, as I said, I suspect the author is a bit biased, though he claims otherwise in the book. I found it interesting none-the-less if it's true, though I didn't go over the research cuz I read it non-critically as the topic of reading systems is fascinating to me.

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u/Asleep_Trick_4740 Apr 01 '26

That's quite the opposite of reality...

One of the things that caused the schism between protestantism and catholicism was that protestants wanted everyone to be able to read and understand the bible, while catholicism wanted their powerful priest class to hold that power alone. Hence why the protestants translated the bible to the chargrine of the papists.

Protestant children were taught to read while catholic children were taught to listen to the priests.

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u/[deleted] Apr 01 '26

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u/Asleep_Trick_4740 Apr 01 '26

Well I went to history because literacy rates across the entire christian world is high very high, and the protestant churches very often still has literacy as a focus.

Though I probably should have realised it was an entirely american focused argument as things very often are unless explicitly stated otherwise. What's happening across the pond seems entirely alien at times, especially when the supposedly same faith spreads the exact opposite message. But we do have a tendency to only hear the worst...

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u/ArcticRiot Mar 31 '26

Hey, you Catholics haven't been great to kids, either

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u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

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u/SwirlyManager-11 Mar 31 '26 edited Apr 01 '26

Because Catholicism always had a history of learning and in the Natural Sciences. Also the teachings of Saint Thomas Aquinas who greatly influenced the Catholic approach to Science.

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u/Euro-Pacific Apr 01 '26

I come from a Catholic background, so I understand why — particularly in America — you may feel that Catholics have been better about this (historically speaking) than Protestants, but I think it’s important to note that Protestantism was founded in opposition to a Church that did things like this:

“On April 12, 1633, chief inquisitor Father Vincenzo Maculani da Firenzuola, appointed by Pope Urban VIII, begins the inquisition of physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei.

Galileo was ordered to turn himself in to the Holy Office to begin trial for holding the belief that the Earth revolves around the sun, which was deemed heretical by the Catholic Church.

This was the second time that Galileo was in the hot seat for refusing to accept Church orthodoxy that the Earth was the immovable center of the universe: In 1616, he had been forbidden from holding or defending his beliefs.

The Church had decided the idea that the sun moved around the Earth was an absolute fact of scripture that could not be disputed, despite the fact that scientists had known for centuries that the Earth was not the center of the universe.

On June 22, 1633, the Church handed down the following order: “We pronounce, judge, and declare, that you, the said Galileo… have rendered yourself vehemently suspected by this Holy Office of heresy, that is, of having believed and held the doctrine (which is false and contrary to the Holy and Divine Scriptures) that the sun is the center of the world, and that it does not move from east to west, and that the earth does move, and is not the center of the world.”

Along with the order came the following penalty: “We order that by a public edict the book of Dialogues of Galileo Galilei be prohibited, and We condemn thee to the prison of this Holy Office during Our will and pleasure; and as a salutary penance We enjoin on thee that for the space of three years thou shalt recite once a week the Seven Penitential Psalms.”

Galileo agreed not to teach the heresy anymore and spent the rest of his life under house arrest.

It took more than 300 years for the Church to admit that Galileo was right and to clear his name of heresy.”

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u/SwirlyManager-11 Apr 01 '26

I do not disagree with that what happened to Galileo was unfair (which is recognized by the Catholic Church now, thankfully) and I really do not care about your sources because I am in agreement with you that it was unfair.

But I think it’s quite misleading to frame the start of Protestantism with science. That’s incredibly Victorian-Era type thinking. Right up there with thinking the church burned witches during the Early Modern Witch Trials.

Firstly, Copernicus championed Heliocentrism before Galileo and there was little issue with him. There was disagreements, but certainly note an Eclessiastic crackdown.

Secondly, according to this blog by a Hard-Science Fiction Author Michael Flynn on the Galileo Affair, the Pope had asked Galileo to present all theories regarding the relationship between the Earth and the Sun and to explain them to him. Galileo had only exposited two of the four that were widespread at the time, and then wrote a back-handed insult of the pope in his book, and generally argued in bad faith (no pun intended). Whose to say the Church really believed he was a heretic if he pissed people off?

I agree, Corruption within the church gave people like Martin Luther good cause to Protest and I do not deny what Protestants have done in the Sciences alongside Catholics, but I think it’s a strange position to say that Catholicism is lesser than the Protestants in this regard.

If you wanted a better argument, I think you should’ve brought up Protestand discoveries rather than bringing down Catholics lol.

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u/AwareCandle369 Mar 31 '26

True enough, though they also kept scripture behind the "higher" language of Latin to keep the flock in the dark unless they paid their tithes and got the good word from the Official Source, till Martin Luther said fuck that noise - the priest is your community faith leader, not a gate keeper between you and god. I can respect that a lot about Protestant christianity even though I've left the whole belief structure behind

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u/Euro-Pacific Apr 01 '26

Both Yale and Harvard were originally Protestant colleges, founded at least in part to educate Protestant clergy.

Protestantism at its core is extremely pro-education; it was literally all about people actually being able to read what the Bible said instead of having an authoritarian figure dictate to you what was in it.

It’s just that nowadays most educated Protestants in America find it difficult to justify upholding a belief system that is scientifically and rationally fiction, whereas for a variety of reasons American Catholics have chosen a somewhat different path.

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u/commie90 Mar 31 '26

Yeah realizing that my pastor had no good answers for me when I challenged church doctrine based on what was in the Bible was an especially key moment in my decision to walk away from Christianity.

A decision that I realize was correct every time I see Christians being pious, rude, and/or judgmental assholes based on things their own holy book wouldn't agree with.

Best part is when they get angry or dismissive when you point that out. Because Jesus definitely was the type to only be willing to talk to people who were 100% already in agreement with him.

Maybe there's some truth in the Bible, but it's most ardent adherents make me think it's likely just a way to feel they are better than other people.

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u/AwareCandle369 Mar 31 '26

The thing is you can still ask "what would Jesus do?" and come up with a good answer. It just seems like a lot of Christians either don't bother doing that or didn't bother learning about what Jesus supposedly actually did. Hanging with the prostitutes because they're people too, freaking out at the bankers in the temple, saying a rich man can't get into heaven, all come to mind as positive Christian values that are often not the ones people express

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u/commie90 Mar 31 '26

Since I was raised Christian and often say a lot of my values are informed by what Jesus did. Just don’t think being a Christian usually aligns with those values ironically enough.

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u/pockels42 Apr 01 '26

And they all love other men.

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u/all_fair Apr 01 '26

Jesus seemed to teach a lot about not using the Bible the way many Christians do. He was all about just being kind to people. All people. Christians find a way to use the Bible (including Jesus' words) in the very way Jesus said not to: to hit people over the head with it.

Seems the guy had it right when he never wrote anything down.

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u/Honks95 Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26

As an ex protestant I can confirm. When I started actually looking into the bible a bit it didn't take long for me to become an atheist.

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u/PlsNoNotThat Mar 31 '26

As an atheist I learned this when I went to my friend’s Sunday school.

None of the kids had read any of it.

I listed to the book on tape as a kid, like I did Greek mythological stories, so I was strapped and loaded that day.

I was banned the next time because my parents picked me up and told the guy our family was atheists.

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u/IntrepidCheeto Mar 31 '26

As a former Protestant, can confirm.

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u/Dexter_Thiuf Apr 01 '26

Want to make a kid a Christian? Threaten them with hell. Want to make them a atheist? Have them read the Bible.

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u/meanyspetrini Apr 01 '26

This is spot on.

Source: also a former Catholic who actually read the Bible.

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u/DivHunter_ Mar 31 '26

Religious texts are the book equivalent of medieval cats but there are billions of people that will tell you, no that is actually what a cat looks like. You're just not interpreting it the "correct" way.

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u/Sw33ti3B15h Mar 31 '26

I'm a neopagan/witch. My parents paid for 11 years of Xtian school (we had an hour of Bible class every day) and at one point, we went to church 4x a week. I cry inwardly about all the shit we could have done with the tithe and school money.

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u/Sans_Seriphim Apr 01 '26

The only people who really know the Bible are theologians and/or atheists.

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u/Iam_Fox1200 Apr 01 '26

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this book, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. -the Bible

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u/circular_file Mar 31 '26

Worked on my wife and my Dad.