Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   Derek Powazek 🐐 (fraying@xoxo.zone)'s status on Thursday, 17-Aug-2023 21:47:42 JST Derek Powazek 🐐

   If you were raised Christian, or just raised in the Christian soup of the US, and then you grow up to reject your religion, cool, good for you. But don’t assume that all religions are bad just because American Christians are largely batshit. Not everyone was raised in that soup. Assuming all religions are bad because yours was is actually still perpetuating Christian hegemony because it fails to consider that other faiths, with other practices, exist.

   • Embed this notice
     Thaiis Thei 𓁟 (oozenet@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 17-Aug-2023 21:47:33 JST Thaiis Thei 𓁟

     in reply to

     • Rhiannon Grant

     @rhiannongrant @fraying The most common one I see is faith. They 100% do not understand that there even are religions that don't even have the concept of faith, or dogma. They get super confused when you agree with them that's is a super bad idea.

   • Embed this notice
     novatorine 🏴🏳️‍⚧️ (anarchopunk_girl@kolektiva.social)'s status on Thursday, 17-Aug-2023 21:47:33 JST novatorine 🏴🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • Thaiis Thei 𓁟
     • Rhiannon Grant

     @Oozenet @rhiannongrant @fraying out of curiosity, how do you define faith and how does religion without faith work? I'm in agreement with the general points here that a lot of atheist ex-Christians don't seem to understand that not all religions are the same as Christianity and/or necessarily harmful or evil and we should just leave people with non harmful beliefs alone, but my understanding of religious belief still indicates to me that there's faith involved — i.e. a choice to believe in something that imbues your experience of life with more meaning and wonder and explains and gives coherency to your life, despite it not being necessitated by any particular personal experience (since you can always come up with perfectly fine naturalistic explanations) or evidence (whether scientific or otherwise).

   • Embed this notice
     Rhiannon Grant (rhiannongrant@mastodon.org.uk)'s status on Thursday, 17-Aug-2023 21:47:38 JST Rhiannon Grant

     in reply to

     • Thaiis Thei 𓁟

     @Oozenet @fraying totally agree. I got someone commenting on my TikTok the other day who wanted to tear down my terrible religion (I'm a Quaker), but he couldn't seem to get that I already agreed with him about evolution (it happened) and that didn't change my religion at all.

   • Embed this notice
     Thaiis Thei 𓁟 (oozenet@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 17-Aug-2023 21:47:39 JST Thaiis Thei 𓁟

     in reply to

     @fraying So much yes. All the yes. These people want to argue religion with me, a theologian, and get real angry when I reveal to them their ignorance. I understand they have been hurt by Christianity, but that's no excuse for sloppy research.

   • Embed this notice
     Derek Powazek 🐐 (fraying@xoxo.zone)'s status on Thursday, 17-Aug-2023 21:47:41 JST Derek Powazek 🐐

     in reply to

     What I’m trying to say is, I have witnessed a particular pipeline from Christian to atheist to online anti-religion zealot from people who have never actually looked deeply into any religion besides the one they grew up with. And when they lambast all religions, I always want to say, dude, you’re just lambasting Christianity. Go ahead and be specific.

   • Embed this notice
     novatorine 🏴🏳️‍⚧️ (anarchopunk_girl@kolektiva.social)'s status on Friday, 18-Aug-2023 01:50:10 JST novatorine 🏴🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • Thaiis Thei 𓁟
     • Rhiannon Grant

     @fraying @Oozenet @rhiannongrant that's really cool, thank you for sharing <3 honestly the more I learn about stuff like Judaism, quakers, etc, the more I like them. I've said this before and I'll keep saying it, I'd much rather be around and make common cause with people from those religions and the like than your average antitheist atheist

   • Embed this notice
     Derek Powazek 🐐 (fraying@xoxo.zone)'s status on Friday, 18-Aug-2023 01:50:12 JST Derek Powazek 🐐

     in reply to

     • Thaiis Thei 𓁟
     • novatorine 🏴🏳️‍⚧️
     • Rhiannon Grant

     @anarchopunk_girl @Oozenet @rhiannongrant Being Jewish is being a member of a people/communuty first, and a set of beliefs second. “Faith” as a test of self is a very Christian concept. If my Jewish upbringing gave me faith in anything, it’s a set of values around things like questioning, learning, and trying to better the world in whatever ways I can.

   • Embed this notice
     novatorine 🏴🏳️‍⚧️ (anarchopunk_girl@kolektiva.social)'s status on Friday, 18-Aug-2023 05:45:51 JST novatorine 🏴🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • Pax Ahimsa Gethen
     • Thaiis Thei 𓁟
     • Rhiannon Grant

     @funcrunch @Oozenet @rhiannongrant @fraying yeah I know Buddhists can be atheists, but I don't define faith as only being about believing in deities, so this doesn't help super much. Thanks tho

   • Embed this notice
     Pax Ahimsa Gethen (funcrunch@me.dm)'s status on Friday, 18-Aug-2023 05:45:52 JST Pax Ahimsa Gethen

     in reply to

     • Thaiis Thei 𓁟
     • novatorine 🏴🏳️‍⚧️
     • Rhiannon Grant

     @anarchopunk_girl @Oozenet @rhiannongrant @fraying

     Regarding how "religion without faith" works, if faith is defined as belief in a deity, there are a number of religions that are not centered on this. Buddhism, for example (though some Buddhists do recognize and/or worship deities). I identified as both a Buddhist and an atheist for a good 20 years.

     As not all atheists have the same views about divinity, I wrote about what it means to me to be an atheist here:

     https://funcrunch.medium.com/atheism-explained-713528c574d1?sk=12f70ab8a8cf4c63539b951f28ea5513

     novatorine 🏴🏳️‍⚧️ repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Thaiis Thei 𓁟 (oozenet@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 18-Aug-2023 08:45:22 JST Thaiis Thei 𓁟

     in reply to

     • Pax Ahimsa Gethen
     • novatorine 🏴🏳️‍⚧️
     • Rhiannon Grant

     @funcrunch @anarchopunk_girl @rhiannongrant @fraying Defining faith as belief in a deity is perhaps the most common misconception that is prevalent among atheists from a Christian background. As you say in your article, you haven't done much investigation into other forms of deity, and thus other religions. As a result your concept of atheism is strongly defined by Christian concepts of deity.

     1/3