RE: ??1?? Question Everything?
P.S. A secular humanist is basically an atheist that does their best to not be a jerk in how they interact with and treat religious people. I see religion/religious ideas as a natural human phenomenon and not something to be hated, in and of itself. And humans should never be permanently hateful to each other, (temporary hate happens within even the best of humanity for both good or bad reasons) since none of us will perfectly meet each other's expectations, etc. In my opinion, life is too short to go around hating people just because their minds, hearts and philosophies are different than mine. As long as people's individual or collective philosophies are not promoting violence or oppression of "non-believers," then I'm fine with any belief system that causes people to feel better about their time and existence on our shared reality/planet called earth/nature. :)
A very honest answer and a lot to unpack and think about!! I'm a Christian and believe God came to earth as a man around 2000 years ago and revealed himself to us in Jesus. Fully God and fully man and he reached out to us and was sacrificed for us all. Just the fact that his very name can slice through the heart and cause hatred or adoration is telling. You don't get that as much with other religions IMO, but sometimes I have assurance issues, other times not. Anyway, peace to you too. :)
Thanks for not being a jerk! ;) My dad's a very outspoken athiest as well. Love him to pieces!! Anyway, thanks for responding, it was kind of a loaded question. :) <3
I like questions of any kind. (I question everything.) Loaded or not. hahaha Don't worry, I used to be VERY religious and I know the mindset. I was raised in basically a cult. (mormonism) Mormonism is especially cult-like with it's missionary program. I spent 2 years from 1995-1997 as a full-time missionary. The rules were insanely strict like no reading newspapers, watching TV, or dating or basically doing anything for yourself. It was 24/7 working for the "Lord" and basically total self-sacrifice to the cult. Luckily, it was "only" 2 years but that immersive cult experience really messed with my mind/sanity for many years afterwards. (I resigned in 2012 from mormonism when I was 35) The other parts of mormonism that are specifically cultish are the secret temple ceremonies with their silly clothes and the dictated underwear I had to wear as a member. (If you are interested to see the ceremonies, then go to YouTube and look up a guy named NewNameNoah because he is an ex-mormon that snuck a camera into some LDS temples and filmed most/all of the ceremonies, etc.)
Basically, I'm trying to say that I fully understand your impulse to share what you believe to be the "good news" of the gospel. (gospel is a contraction of the words god-spell) Every religion taps into a part of the human brain that triggers very powerful emotions and transcendent feelings/ideas. I'm fine with people getting "high" on those kinds of things but religion is not simply a set of feel-good natural internal personal occurrences/experiences. It has political and social consequences that often end up being rather anti-intellectual and harmful to both religious and nonreligious parts of humanity.
When I was religious, I also felt that people either loved or hated my beliefs and the characters (like Jesus, etc.) I worshipped at that time. But as I have experienced more of life, etc. and have traveled and lived in places like South Korea and Taiwan that are not Christian centric, I realized that most people on the planet are actually apathetic about Christianity unless they have interacted with Christians enough to form more passionate positive or negative opinions about Christianity.
Anyway.... yes, there is lot to unpack in regards to religion and any other complex sets of beliefs that humans have developed over centuries and longer. Thanks also for not being a jerk and cruelly judgemental of someone that doesn't share your same beliefs. :)
I used to be an athiest too actually. At the risk of being too pushy: https://steemit.com/christianity/@snowpea/eternity-in-your-heart
I agree that there has been too much dehumanization lately. The causes are a complicated thing to analyze. We had opposite experiences in the sense that my religious beliefs were making me suicidal and atheism actually saved me from desiring to end my life. This is the only life that we all know with certainty that we have. All else would be a bonus. (an afterlife, heaven, etc.) But I'm not going to govern my life based on my or anyone else's hopes for the future, but by my hopes for the here and now. Have you heard of the atheist's wager? If not, I recommend reading this wikipedia article about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheist%27s_Wager
Conclusion: We all need to be kind and helpful to ourselves and each other, no matter what the future may or may not hold for any of us. :) Take it easy!
@lundgreenman I don't consider myself religious. We don't even refer to the guy who preaches at out church as a minister or pastor or anything. There are no rituals, in fact we don't even pass the plate haha! It's super low key. I'm sorry you had to endure Mormonism. Two years is still a long time!! It's so funny because the most suicidal day of my life was when two Mormons messed with me. The first time they came around they asked if I needed any services like lawn cutting and I said, "no." I told them that I would never accept Joseph Smith as a prophet, ect. Then a couple of days later they parked right in front of my house, then went to my neighbor's house to cut her lawn. I thought, maybe if they wanted to, they could cut mine too, since they offered. I asked and one of them said, "maybe." But when they were done with my neighbor's lawn, they literally ran to the car and sped off. I was in a really low point in my life already and that was the straw that broke the camel's back at the time and really sent me over the edge lol. It doesn't sound like much but at the time it really hurt. Haven't been visited by a Mormon since. https://steemit.com/gangstalking/@snowpea/my-experience-with-organized-gangstalking-and-being-a-tartgeted-individual
You take it easy too. Nice meeting you!! :) Since we're about to eat a late dinner I'll look at the links you shared in the morning. :) Much love, @snowpea