I was in that mindset a long time ago, indoctrinated into the cult. It's not healthy, in fact it's antisocial and the psychosocial foundation of narcissism and resembles a type of psychosis. If a person has an organic based psychotic disorder like schizophrenia, it will likely create worsening delusions.
i'm pretty firmly agnostic and i would agree, like clearly the intended method of interpretation of reality that religions encourage is still rational and interpretive in some sense, at least in the context of like, religious scholars and not frothing uneducated zealots.
My favorite "god loves me most" thing is when an athlete like an MMA wins his bout, purses his lips, nods his head, looks up, and points up with both index fingers as if to say "Hey, God - did you see that massive KO? I'm awesome, right?"
Same in American football touchdown celebrations. These Herculean-physiqued men would have been epic battlefield assets or maybe gladiators only a few millennia ago. But instead of armor they now wear pads and tights and concuss themselves and each other for fake points and frat bro sports betting.
well, and millions of dollars. don't forget the millions of dollars.
I always wonder how many historical conflicts might've been less brutal (or might not even happened) if not for this kind of thing.
it probably depends a lot on the context. its possible that polytheists are more readily accepting of co-existence with Others compared to monotheists who might use their imagined superiority as an excuse to wipe out other cultures. i find this to be true of some white new athiests as well, who see it as their mission to destroy all religious thought on earth without really understanding how non-christian, especially polytheist religions, work.
ehh, this has to be placed into historical context. the rise of hindu fascists in India shows that those brainworms can pop up anywhere if the material conditions are right.
Anti-theism is, in the western world at least, definitely an evolution of Christian chauvinism, from my perspective at least. It fulfills much of the needs of the religion, namely a dogmatic rejection of beliefs and faiths that conflict with Christianity, while being ostensibly secular and anti-christian, but never offering any real threat to the church itself. Atheism alone, without the automatic assumption of every religion being evil, is far more dangerous to the church since atheists can freely work with believers to combat the reactionary political and cultural structures of christianity that hold the religion together.
Well I’m opposed to religion because for an entire decade I had hordes of good boy small town Christians threatening me with death and torture and suffering both here and now and in the afterlife for sexual deviancy.
You can oppose Christianity without opposing faiths that are not responsible for Christianity's crimes. Equating all religions diminishes the responsibility of Christianity for its role in abusing and exploiting people.
Guess I could have phrased it better. My main experience is with Christianity, so that’s all I can really comment on.
I can't imagine what it's like believing that the omnipotent ruler of the multiverse cares about you more than others, enough so to rig random things in your favor.
"Oh yeah, me and the all-powerful creator of reality are besties. Sometimes He makes two sodas fall out of the vending machine for me because He cares about me that much. He also rigs sports games for my favorite team because I asked Him to really hard."
Narcissism doesn't even come close to describing that thinking.
God doesn’t care about slavery, hunger, war, death and all manners of suffering but will bend over backwards to make sure some cracker dipshit isn’t mildly inconvenienced and makes their kid Brayxtayley’s youth soccer team win.
They should be thanking God every second for not exploding the Sun.
