Backrooms is good too and arguably more horrifying depending on what kind of things scare you. Both universes would be shit to live in
My brother's 5 year old son died last week very unexpectedly after having some weird health issues the past couple of months, they were going to see a specialist in the coming weeks before this occurred. Sadly my brother and his wife were all in on the "we don't understand God's plan, but he called <my nephew> to heaven early" when I saw them last Friday and the funeral on Saturday. The pastor too, as any good Southern Baptist does, used part of the eulogy and his sermon to of course evangelize and saying roughly "if you don't know Jesus's love then you may not understand, but it's not too late to become born again." I was a pallbearer for the funeral and this being incredibly upsetting and tragic I didn't say anything to disagree, it was a fucking awful enough weekend that the Agnostic leftist brother doesn't need to argue in front of the family. My wife grew up occasionally going to a Unitarian church which is so far removed from my own experience. She was pretty disgusted at this framing since she's never sat in on a good old hypocritical Southern Baptist funeral or service. Conceptually I can understand being able to take comfort in thinking that your child didn't die because life is very cruel and unfair and rather it was a higher power that willed it, but it just blew me away since I had forgotten how much of it is less a celebration of life and community and rather it's basically boiled down to "you need to accept Jesus as your savior or you're going to hell."
What a tragic experience for your family. I’m myself am Not religious, but if helps your brother, etc process and accept this kind of tragedy and make it easier then I hope for them It does. Sorry this happened to your family.
The worst was Jake Fromm. He'd always talk about how god had blessed him. Dude came from a well off family. He's not aware enough to realize how that comes off to kids who maybe didn't get everything handed to them. Used to piss me off.
My parents were religious, but never pushed it on us as kids. Now that we are adults they certainly try to. Not too much, but enough to aggravate. My mom passed away this year, so we do go to church with my dad now, but that’s to help him. My son has gotten involved in the churches youth program and I’m ok with that. As he gets older he can decide what he believes.
That sort tragedy only makes sense to me in the absence of God. Everything else seems cruel and unfair. It’s so much easier for me to accept random shitty luck than intentional suffering for what purpose? But that’s how I’ve handled it and that’s definitely not everyone.
Non believer. Not mad @ people being religious if it helps them get through the day. Just don't push it on anyone else. Evangelicals are a curse on this country, using religion to try to control everyone and further their agenda.
Based on a super low information viewpoint too. On one hand I'm all for believe what you want to believe; on the other I'm concerned about people literally believing in doomsday cult stuff
I asked God for help a million times when I was going through a rough childhood. There was no salvation, and I didn't find any peace/solace in the church. My mom said that "God doesn't give us any challenges we can't handle." I beg to differ and as a teenager came to the conclusion that if God was real he was a dick or went out for a pack of smokes and never came back.
Freedom of religion is being able to practice your faith unharrased as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. It's not freedom to subjugate everyone else to your beliefs and their rights be damned.
I’ve known people who’ve told their parents about struggles they’re having and the parents being like well I’ll pray for you. What the fuck? I’ll pray for you? That’s it? No advice or commiseration? That’s not helpful at all and is actually really dismissive and hurtful.
Right there with you. If someone gives me tragic news, me thinking about them positively is not a useful sentiment. I feel empathizing and, if I have the means, offering to assist or even just be an ear are exponentially more useful.
If I’m dealing with tragedy and someone wants to pray for me that’s fine.. however, I don’t think of that as helpful for me. As some mentioned above I think there are better ways to help people. Provide a meal, monetary support, run errands for folks while they are in crisis. Just sit with them so they don’t have to be alone, etc, etc, etc. all those simple things are more impactful and just more genuine than “I’ll tell god I’m worried about ya!”
I grew up with this and had catholic school forced on me despite me making it known at a young age I didn’t believe and it was impacting my mental health issues in a negative way. My mother is a die hard Catholic latina who came from the ghetto and thinks god got her out of it and my father is a far right just slightly left of a Trump style Republican. My issues with depression and my brother’s heroin addiction issues were all because we didn’t have faith. My mother doesn’t like black people and my father doesn’t like Mexicans, they gave us a good life and we were spoiled but I find so much joy in knowing their two sons both ended up atheist and one is dating a Haitian woman and one is dating a Mexican woman.
my fil told my wife this weekend we were doing a great job raising our fifteen month old but “we could be doing more for her spiritually”
At least my parents are smart enough to not say dumb shit like this around me, because my immediate response would be "and you could be doing more to help give us a break like coming over to baby sit."
My MIL has makes my wife feel guilty that we don’t force religion on our kids. Very frustrating…. My kids excel in school and are extremely compassionate individuals that genuinely care for people. They don’t need religion to be good people
Yeah, if God created your kids already good, then why muddle it up? On what planet does the one true god need his balls licked by sycophants who would rape and murder if left to their own devices?
It does get wilder year by year to see adults who earnestly believe stuff like Heaven/Hell, resurrection, supernatural intervention by a person-like God etc. On one hand it's to each their own, everyone knows something you don't. On the other it's like seeing people still believe in Santa Claus
Opening my Bible app and furiously searching for the following terms: America(n) Patriot Republican Guns Which one of you fuckers is responsible for canceling the best parts of that book?
The concept of Satan is another thing that I find perplexing. The idea being that Satan has power to influence people to do things they otherwise wouldn’t. So if Satan causes you to do something you wouldn’t have done without that temptation, why does a just God punish you for it? Also, has Satan been punished for anything since his fall? Seems like he gets off pretty easy, all things considered. Though I suppose he has to hang out with evangelical Christians all day, so maybe I just changed my mind on the last point.
I’ve long held the belief that a higher percentage of atheists than Christians are good, compassionate people. Generally, I think people that can acknowledge science over creation are also more capable of recognizing institutional failure. Too many use it as a crutch or misconstrue confession/forgiveness as something they can go do after they commit their premeditated sin. That is not to say any of you kind gentlemen here fit that mold. But in southern churches and, especially outside of church where you see an absurd number of projectionist bumper stickers, that is the case. Your Jesus fish decal doesn’t excuse the fact that you just about ran someone off the road because your face was buried in a text.
But you see, that's the Devil putting those scrutinous thoughts in your head in the first place and you need to get them out of there immediately!
I love how we learn Greek mythology in school and it's like "lol, these are just stories. Of course no one believes this." Then some turn around and be like "no, the rising from the dead thing is absolutely real." (There's been like ten zillion religions that were believed with 100% local credulity over time. But yes, yours is the special one)
The yearning for meaning in a seemingly happenstance and meaningless existence is such an interesting piece of human psychology.
I’m partial to Norse Paganism. I was getting good shit on Facebook related to that since I listed it publicly as my religion for several years prior to deleting my account. That was the only content I enjoyed on that allfather-forsaken website.