There are people who abuse religion and those who don’t. Let people alone if they let you alone. By no means should religion have any part in government.
I learned recently that “deist” means what it says. Many founding fathers were indeed Free Masons (they knew mathematics and built things-- a topic recently mentioned on Lemmy that got me curious), and the deists believed (and some maybe studied other religions) that no one can tell another what their relationship to the Divine was, or lack thereof. That’s why we have the Separation Clause, and article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli. Btw, don’t let article 11 hi down the memory hole. First Google result claimed it never said USA isn’t a Christian nation and that’s most certainly a contradiction what I read in the Treaty multiple times, over multiple years.
Religion and faith are two related but distinct things. Faith is a particular collection of beliefs about the nature of the world.
Religion is a form of social control that uses faith to imprison those that share the faith. Which is why gods frequently seem so schizophrenic.
They love you unconditionally, but also are the cause of all your suffering. If you don’t worship the right way. If you don’t let the clerics and rich fucks take your girls and rape them, if you don’t give your money. If you upstage the worship leader’s wife, singing that one song.
Ultimately, faith says, “I believe x.” Where religion says “I believe x and if you don’t agree with me, I will kill you.”
Religion will always attract the worst elements. The narcissists, the morally defunct. The ethically challenged. Because that power appeals to them.
The Catholic Church didn’t get fucking rich, and holds the power of a nation-state by feeding the poor and tending the sick.
There are people who abuse religion and those who don’t. Let people alone if they let you alone. By no means should religion have any part in government.
I learned recently that “deist” means what it says. Many founding fathers were indeed Free Masons (they knew mathematics and built things-- a topic recently mentioned on Lemmy that got me curious), and the deists believed (and some maybe studied other religions) that no one can tell another what their relationship to the Divine was, or lack thereof. That’s why we have the Separation Clause, and article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli. Btw, don’t let article 11 hi down the memory hole. First Google result claimed it never said USA isn’t a Christian nation and that’s most certainly a contradiction what I read in the Treaty multiple times, over multiple years.
Religion and faith are two related but distinct things. Faith is a particular collection of beliefs about the nature of the world.
Religion is a form of social control that uses faith to imprison those that share the faith. Which is why gods frequently seem so schizophrenic.
They love you unconditionally, but also are the cause of all your suffering. If you don’t worship the right way. If you don’t let the clerics and rich fucks take your girls and rape them, if you don’t give your money. If you upstage the worship leader’s wife, singing that one song.
Ultimately, faith says, “I believe x.” Where religion says “I believe x and if you don’t agree with me, I will kill you.”
Religion will always attract the worst elements. The narcissists, the morally defunct. The ethically challenged. Because that power appeals to them.
The Catholic Church didn’t get fucking rich, and holds the power of a nation-state by feeding the poor and tending the sick.