The amount of cognitive dissonance needed to bridge the gap between your average westerner's religious sentiments and cut throat bootstrapping mentality is truly insane.
I really think that most evangelicals/protestants don't actually believe in God
Like they wouldn't actually sacrifice their first born to prove their allegiance to god (like moses does in the Bible) but they believe in the concept of god like they believe in the concept of the Republican party :zizek:
Moses doesn't sacrifice his son, I think you're misremembering the Binding of Isaac, where Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son Isaac(or his other son Ishmael according to Islam) to God. He is ready to, but then an Angel stops him at the last second, as all that was needed was the proof of belief. This is intended to show that believers need to be ready to give up everything they have for God, but also that God will not take things from us unnecessarily. It also contrasts God's care for His followers with the pagan gods which would accept human sacrifice, especially of firstborn children, in the rest of the near east. However, I agree with the rest of your point. God is a justification to them, not a real being which we are to love and understand. He is distant and unknowable, but very angry to them.
Where I'm from (Scandinavian welfare state) we don't have political Christianity in the theocratic American scripture-spewing sense. What we have is a type of political "Christianity" that is completely devoid of meaning; you don't have to go to church or pray or follow a moral code or study or really believe anything. They don't want to ban abortion or divorce or gay people (trans people is still a problem though). For these people being Christian simply means not being Muslim. It is a completely made-up excuse for excluding Muslims.
In the former USSR 90% Christians go to a church only for baptism, sometimes wedding or funeral, and pretty much ignore religious teachings altogether. For them "Christianity" of their variety is just a part of identity. Muslims in more developed parts of the former USSR (Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, urban areas in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan) are basically the same with religion being just an identity.
In the former USSR 90% Christians go to a church only for baptism, sometimes wedding or funeral, and pretty much ignore religious teachings altogether.
What, don't you guys have your own Christian Democrats? (Note to Germans: The Finnish ones are a minority party, with an emphasis on minority, for religious weirdos) There was a period where every single time their showed up in the media leader to say something hateful about LGBTQ folks, young Finns left the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland in droves :data-laughing:
Note: Most Finns belong to said church- it's basically the state church. Despite the name, they're not Evangelical in the American sense
Also, our churd party, the True Finns, has some American-style religious nut politicians and are also generally anti-LGBTQ along with their base- the True Finn voter might not be religious themselves but they certainly worry about Finland's proud Christian traditions, like when religious hymns get dropped from school ceremonies
We have a Christian democratic party that was founded as a reaction to the legalisation of abortion and pornography in the 1960's. Today their base is mostly in the strict Lutheran sect Inner Mission that is one of the more gloomy and joyless tendencies within the national church that is mostly found in western Jutland. They like to present themselves as a soft humanistic centre-right party and talk about good stuff like childcare and work-life balance. They're also not racist in the same open and demonstrative way politicians here usually are. It has an audience as lots of people want to vote for the right-wing coalition while still maintaining a moral fig leaf that allows them not to feel like complete assholes.
They are able to build some popularity saying all the good stuff but it is always short-lived. The popularity bubble pops the moment someone asks them about their opinions on abortion and gay marriage (two things that virtually everyone here supports). You can see them squirm as they try to defend their policies while also distancing themselves from them in an attempt not to look like the bigoted fundamentalists they are.
They haven't been able to clear the 2 percent threshold for parliamentary representation for decades.
also the family values crowd have keep cutting aid to help children eat
The amount of cognitive dissonance needed to bridge the gap between your average westerner's religious sentiments and cut throat bootstrapping mentality is truly insane.
How far can it stretch before it snaps?
Not sure I'm not into erotic asphyxiation
Western Christianity has already mutated into a capitalist death cult.
:same-picture:
I really think that most evangelicals/protestants don't actually believe in God
Like they wouldn't actually sacrifice their first born to prove their allegiance to god (like moses does in the Bible) but they believe in the concept of god like they believe in the concept of the Republican party :zizek:
Moses doesn't sacrifice his son, I think you're misremembering the Binding of Isaac, where Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son Isaac(or his other son Ishmael according to Islam) to God. He is ready to, but then an Angel stops him at the last second, as all that was needed was the proof of belief. This is intended to show that believers need to be ready to give up everything they have for God, but also that God will not take things from us unnecessarily. It also contrasts God's care for His followers with the pagan gods which would accept human sacrifice, especially of firstborn children, in the rest of the near east. However, I agree with the rest of your point. God is a justification to them, not a real being which we are to love and understand. He is distant and unknowable, but very angry to them.
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Damn. My Christian K-8 education was a fail
you gotta go for the preK-12
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although that is true, there are a lot of misconceptions about what God did in the Old Testament, so I think the full story is important.
Christians are already into blood sacrifice and shit, don't pin that on ol' Moises
Where I'm from (Scandinavian welfare state) we don't have political Christianity in the theocratic American scripture-spewing sense. What we have is a type of political "Christianity" that is completely devoid of meaning; you don't have to go to church or pray or follow a moral code or study or really believe anything. They don't want to ban abortion or divorce or gay people (trans people is still a problem though). For these people being Christian simply means not being Muslim. It is a completely made-up excuse for excluding Muslims.
In the former USSR 90% Christians go to a church only for baptism, sometimes wedding or funeral, and pretty much ignore religious teachings altogether. For them "Christianity" of their variety is just a part of identity. Muslims in more developed parts of the former USSR (Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, urban areas in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan) are basically the same with religion being just an identity.
TIL Finland was part of the former USSR
What, don't you guys have your own Christian Democrats? (Note to Germans: The Finnish ones are a minority party, with an emphasis on minority, for religious weirdos) There was a period where every single time their showed up in the media leader to say something hateful about LGBTQ folks, young Finns left the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland in droves :data-laughing:
Note: Most Finns belong to said church- it's basically the state church. Despite the name, they're not Evangelical in the American sense
Also, our churd party, the True Finns, has some American-style religious nut politicians and are also generally anti-LGBTQ along with their base- the True Finn voter might not be religious themselves but they certainly worry about Finland's proud Christian traditions, like when religious hymns get dropped from school ceremonies
We have a Christian democratic party that was founded as a reaction to the legalisation of abortion and pornography in the 1960's. Today their base is mostly in the strict Lutheran sect Inner Mission that is one of the more gloomy and joyless tendencies within the national church that is mostly found in western Jutland. They like to present themselves as a soft humanistic centre-right party and talk about good stuff like childcare and work-life balance. They're also not racist in the same open and demonstrative way politicians here usually are. It has an audience as lots of people want to vote for the right-wing coalition while still maintaining a moral fig leaf that allows them not to feel like complete assholes.
They are able to build some popularity saying all the good stuff but it is always short-lived. The popularity bubble pops the moment someone asks them about their opinions on abortion and gay marriage (two things that virtually everyone here supports). You can see them squirm as they try to defend their policies while also distancing themselves from them in an attempt not to look like the bigoted fundamentalists they are.
They haven't been able to clear the 2 percent threshold for parliamentary representation for decades.