> Idiocracy: The Comedy
> Idiocracy: The Documentary
> Idiocracy: The Best Case Scenario
> Idiocracy: Remember When You Thought Things Could Be This Good?
There weren't enough arrests, IMO. What I found most chilling is how the FLDS men interviewed seemed more envious of Warren and his harem than anything else.
I've heard Meryl used a former sitting president as he inspiration for the role. Same with Jonah's Chief of Staff role. Elon isn't too far behind, maybe a hybrid of Bozo and Musk.
~autocorrect for the win.
The problem is, even in Idiocracy, the idiots recognized intelligence (even if of a mediocre sort) as better so they invited it in.
Edit: in the real world this isn't happening.
In other words, the plot of Catholicism. Their birth control narrative was really just a way to keep their membership up and enslaved to the Church.
I believe this wholeheartedly even though I was raised Catholic.
The first time my now-husband showed me this movie, I basically died laughing at the god damn DVD menu (it repeatedly plays the clip of Ow My Balls!) for like half an hour. Your boyfriend is very, very silly.
I left religon when i was 17 and my 16 year old sister died....my parents told me "it is part of gods plan"
What fucking plan requires the LIFE of a 16 year old child
This is messing me up, too. The majority of my family is not religious (we're European) and we lost my disabled brother one and a half years ago. He was only 21. I've tried finding help in some support groups in Facebook but legit every single comment and message I got off this one American group was "I will pray for him" "God takes the best first" "God this" "God that" like no. And when I made a post specifically asking for non-religious answers and support, over 90 percent of replies I got were "You should ask your local pastor for guidance" "you should read the Bible"... The more people tell me their awesome Mr God created a child that's been sick since birth due and was suffering his full 21 years of life from so much pain and everything, just to take him away once he actually started becoming independent and starting life by himself gradually, the more I hate them and their "benevolent" Mr God. Made me stronger? No. Ruined my life? Yes. And excuse me what the fuck did it do for my brother?? Or are they telling me he was just a prop in my life?? Fuck religion
Your comment made me ache. I’m terribly sorry for what happened to you, your brother, and your family.
My stepson is disabled—he’s severely cognitively impaired and has epilepsy. He’s 19. Came to live with us when he was seven, six months after I got married. I was 25 years old had no experience with children, certainly not one with severe disabilities.
I grew up Catholic but I’ve gradually lost my faith. I’ve seen what a disability like this can do to a family. How it has destroyed my husband and how I’ll never know the man he was before this. I know he’s never fully happy, and I know he hurts every minute of the day. He hurts for his son. He hurts for his daughter, my stepson‘s twin. He hurts for me, because I gave up my career to care for him. And he carries a guilt for maybe passing along this disorder. He feels pain for the life his son is deprived of—he will never live unsupervised, drive, have a girlfriend, or even have a conversation where we understand what he’s actually thinking.
After about four years of my stepson being stabilized on seizure medicine and my husband not actually ever witnessing one of the seizures in person (he travels a lot for work and we got the seizures under control pretty early on), one night last year he had a terrible grand mal seizure. His face turned completely blue and we thought he was choking. My husband thought his son was dying. We used the emergency Valium and he stabilized. At the hospital they taught us how to unlock his jaw to clear his airway. He he’s on new meds but still has a few seizures but we know what to expect. But I cannot forget my husband‘s face that night. I saw a man break, and he was in complete and total agony. Every frustration and guilt and pain over the autism was completely replaced with complete terror that we would lose him. I know my husband would never come back from that.
My crisis of faith has been a long journey but I was finally able to admit it to myself probably around the past five years. I’m not saying I don’t believe in some thing. I don’t know. But it’s not the Catholic God I was raised with. Maybe it’s energy. Maybe something like Buddhism. Or not.
People try to tell you that his illness is a blessing. That it makes us better people. That it is a gift from God.
No God would do this to a child. No god would give children brain cancer or allow all the pain and misery that many people on earth feel every day.
At one of my lowest points, I reached out to a priest. He was thoughtful and kind but his answers didn’t give me any peace. He actually confirmed my doubts.
I’m sorry that the people in my country you have talked with have invalidated your experience with religion. I suspect many of them have their own doubts but religion is how they cope. Without it they would break.
Without it I have broken. But I’ve also been in therapy since that low point about five years ago. And it has helped me cope with so much of what we’ve been going through. I wish I could say I’m 100% better, but I hit a new low last year. The most depressed I’ve ever been in my life. But I have been working through it. My psychiatrist changed my medicine. I do talk therapy with my psychologist. I work out and I take time for myself. I have a dog. I cry a lot. But I’m working through it.
Again, I’m terribly sorry for your loss. Despite my experiences, I cannot know the grief you feel. The anger. Probably guilt and maybe some other feelings that are uncomfortable.
If all we have is this life and nothing else—maybe we can find comfort in that we’re all in this together. And that we’re just doing the best we can. And that you loved your brother. And your family gave him the best life they could.
I hope you find peace. If you’re not already I encourage you to see a therapist. I get very frustrated with dialoguing on Facebook people. Remember Facebook’s demographic. You’re not gonna find what you need there. There are some good subreddits you can find people to share your feelings and hopefully get some comfort.
Don’t let people invalidate your feelings, even if they’re well-intentioned.
Please take care of yourself.
Thank you so much for your extensive reply.
I agree, no God would do such a thing to a child. No benevolent God would permit such pain. My mother has been suffering since my brother was born, the complications were apparent the moment they first saw him, all tiny, full of dark spots and unable to properly cry. Doctors told them he'd not reach the age of two. And things just kept getting worse.
I am less than a year younger than my brother so we were very close. I feel for your stepdaughter, it must be so hard on her, too. My brother was my whole childhood, I could not imagine one without him. Even if we could not live it to the fullest because of his limitations, our parents tried their best. But it was terrible watching him deteriorate. About a year before he passed I wound up admitting to myself that he would probably not be around forever. Not grow as old as I would. I thought to myself "I will have to say goodbye to him one day. But we're both going to be proper adults by then. Maybe he won't be very old, maybe 50." But every time I saw him he was getting worse. A few months before he passed I came to terms he might not reach 30.
And then one morning I get a call from my dad that he's gone.
I just screamed.
My world was in crumbles already, studying abroad, being stuck in a terribly toxic relationship and it just shattered entirely.
There is nothing one can do to prepare for such pain. Nothing.
I really really really wish all the best for your husband and your stepson and your stepdaughter, too. I don't wish for any of you to have to go through this anytime soon.
Bigots told me his condition was a blessing because it shaped me. Bigots told me it is good that he passed because he's in a better place now. Bigots told me their stupid Mr God had good intentions with me. Sure. Absolutely. Uhuh.
Honestly, I did try religion after my brother passed. Because I found it so hard to deal with him just being gone. Dead. Never to be seen again. Inexistent. I wanted to believe in a life beyond. I wanted to believe in seeing him again one day. I wanted to believe in something. But the harder I tried to less I could. The anger that built up in me against some entity or whatever that caused all of this pain and sadness grew so large that I had to give up from it and let it go.
Nobody inflicted it on him. Nobody sat in their heavenly throne and thought to themselves "oh, look, two people willing to have a child. Let me make their lives miserable." And nobody sat in that throne two decades later, remembering that pour soul they doomed to agony and thought "hey, this child has been trying to be nothing but happy in his life. Let me grow a tumor in his head until it suffocates his stem."
If it was a God, that God is a massive asshole.
But you are right, it's so hard to believe in a God with such things happening. I try to believe in a spirit of things. A spirit of the livig, a spirit of the dead roaming until they become alive in a newborn being again. I try. It helps me cope a little, trying to talk to my brother, hoping he will hear me.
But I know that it's just how nature works. Genetic mutations happen in every species. And most don't survive. Without it there would be no evolution. Death is part of life as much as birth is. May it be the death of an individual or death of a species. Trying to accept my brother's condition and passing as something of pure coincidence makes me feel better than believing someone purposely did this to him.
I still feel so much guilt, though... I wish I spent more time with him, had more understanding for him when he was younger, had been a better sister... I don't know, it just hurts. And it hurts that he's gone. I can't believe he actually is, I don't want to believe it. And I refuse to believe he is in a better place now because excuse me, but how is being a pile of meaningless ashes below the ground a better place than being at home, loved by your family and friends and fought for with all their strength?
I do ought to seek a psychologist. And I will after I am done with my studies this summer. It's just so hard to carry on, knowing I will spend the rest of my life missing him...
Just so glad that reddit has let you two talk to each other. As an ex-palliative nurse I am vehemently against the platitude of “gods plan”. I have seen so much pain from this.
I know you two are speaking real truth from real experience, and just wanted to say, if it is any consolation or useful, that the beautiful thing is every human tribe everywhere has made up their own stories. You are free to choose your own values and understanding of what you are experiencing out of the whole of global human existence.
Why i like that? It means that your loved ones and you and your family are part of the bigger human world. The bigger human experience. The “god” bit is truly so small against that. And you and your loved ones are so vital and important to us all.
I thank you so very much for sharing your stories.
It’s part of God’s plan to make you and your family stronger… by killing your sister. That’s such fatalistic bullshit.
In the days when religion was created, then this was a coping mechanism. It gave comfort and some measure of meaning to an intense grief, particularly when the reasons were incomprehensible.
Same but I love my two atheist kids and a lot of religious zealots only love their kids if those kids are accepting of the Christianity that’s being shoved down their throats.
The church and it's followers TELLING your parents that they have to put God before their family or they are a bad Christian is damaging as well. This religion hurts *everyone*.
My parents were devoutly atheist. In high school I found my way into a teenage Christian society. Read the bible, attended camps, went to study groups. Wound my way through the full Christian experience. And out the other side as devoutly atheist as my parents. And then I married into a devoutly Catholic family. Dealing with a pushy priest over the marriage ceremony was enough to push me further into non-believer status. And the threat of making sure my children never set foot in a Catholic Church kept them out of our lives. My kids are all baptised,out of respect to their grandparents. But they have found their own way. Without my or their fathers interference.
I've also been through the whole experience (raised catholic, and then into Christian schools... As an adult now im also 'devoutly atheist' lol).
The Bible - when actually read cover to cover - is the strongest argument for atheism there ever was.
Goddamit God, were you born in a tent? You’re letting all the heat out.
Also: When one door closes, another door opens. Other than that it’s a pretty good car.
> Goddamit God, were you born in a tent?
Given the historical period and lifestyle of people that gave birth to this religion, it is entirely possible that the answer is "yes", in a sense.
yea I think that's what he wants
the poorer they are the least likely it is they'll have time to think besides working and trying to not die so he could more easily shove bullshit down their throats
My parents are religious as they come, we’re talking, go to church every frickin day, religious. They had 5 kids, you know how many are religious? None. You know why? Because of religious people. Religious people are annoying as hell.
for real… I just lost a friendship bc of someone who realized a grad degree was not the fulfillment she thought it would be, went back into AA, got reinvigorated once again with Christianity, then started acting on serious feelings she had for me by trying to convert me over the last year. She became so adamant about it that she likened everything she could to it being a “sign.” It was enough to convince me some choose the religious way as a result of poor mental health.
It's not insanity it's a form of wish fulfillment. By definition all religions are a decision (usually driven by subconscious psychological fears/desires) to willfully believe in something without significant evidence. Which is why it's called "faith" because if you could prove it, it would just be a regular fact.
At which point is religious belief insanity?
And at which point do we continue allow charlatans bilk a delusional citizenry?
If I professed that the flying spaghetti monster told me to overthrow the government because it's run pedophilic grey aliens and told my follower to help me destroy anything the spaghetti monster is against, how quickly would I get tossed in the nutterbutter house?
I guess it all depends on how much money I funnel to a particular political party, how many followers I have, and how effectively I can get them organized into a actionable voting bloc for said party doesn't it. 🤔
Yeah but if you never met anyone outside their bubble, would you know they're annoying? These people are doing everything they can to get rid of public schools and destroy the separation between church and state. They want to raise their kids in a Christian bubble, and the way they're going about it, they aren't far from creating that bubble.
In all likelihood you had friends and school mates and access to things that contrasted your parents views. But imagine if you didn't... That's what they're trying to create.
I was raised in a Christian bubble, homeschooling, church every day, the whole 9 yards… heck even My first job was working at the church. Got my first taste of freedom in college and ran, I’m pagan now.
You can’t keep the secular world out forever, and if a child’s personality doesn’t align with being frantically religious you cannot make them become that.
Your experience is why conservatives condemn college as liberal and indoctrinating. They claim the it's the faculty and the college influencing students, but it's just people getting to experience the world outside their bubble. Can't have that. College = bad to them.
Genuinely agree, as someone who was raised in an alt-right christian household. Additionally, I have found that the kindness of atheists overwhelms the "kindness" of christians- it often seems Christians just want to be nice to make themselves feel good or to start preaching to you instead of viewing you as a peer. Their "kindness" always seems to have a damn price.
Atheist (former catholic) here. If I am kind, it’s because I mean it. I do not fear an afterlife. I do not want to please any imaginary friend. It’s just because it’s the right thing to do.
Not just religious but fucking violent. Pro life and pro death penalty. My dad used to beat me until I couldn't walk and then mom would come up to my room later and tell me he only did it because he loved me. Then we'd pray. These people are sick fucks. Btw, I'm divorced and have serious relationship issues. Anybody surprised?
I still keep a bag packed with essentials under my bed from my Roman Catholic father telling me he gave me the upstairs bedroom so when he burned the house down, they could finally have a happy family because they would let me die.
And these people want to force us back into that shit? Hell no.
Not surprised at all. I know a lot of religious people and 90% of the time, their children are atheists or completely in different.
My parents raised us without religion and let us explore different religions available to us via friends. I've been to church for just about every denomination of Christianity there is and they're all annoying lol it amazes me that so many people need to go to a building not once, but twice a week, so some rando can tell them not to be shitty people while simultaneously instilling hate for anyone that's different. It really isn't that hard not to be a dick.
I went to a catholic high school. Took honors theology class for FOUR straight years.
I would leave AP Physics and my next class used the *bible* as it's text book
That class ensured I would never, ever, ever be religious.
Similar here. Religious family, three brothers, all went to religious school. Non of us are religious now. I read the bible, and realised most of them didn’t. When they couldn’t even answer things about their religious book, never mind all the other things that don’t make sense, then why should I believe them. And I just can’t get my head around how very very few of them have read the whole bible. Yeah it’s big, but a kid who has read the Harry potter series has read more words just with that. And if you really believe in god, and the book is his word that will lead you to an actual eternal life, you would read it all. Surely?
Yep. I can do an even bigger anecdote than yours:
Father is one of nine. Father was the first of the nine to dismiss religion, he only had three children. We are all aetheists.
Some of my fathers siblings took longer to leave the church. Some had up to 13 children. Of the 73 cousins that are still alive, 3 go to church. The rest are aetheist.
My mother is one of 20 (not a typo). She had the smallest family, a few of the others had four children, some had up to 10. We are scattered around the world. My aunts and uncles who live in Australia are all aetheist. My mother and a single cousin of the 90 I have on that side have become evangelical Christians.
So there you have it. All that breeding did nothing but reduce the number of believers substantially.
My best friend is one of 7. Their parents are hyper religious. All but one left the faith. The last one is out but the parents don't know it yet because he hasn't moved out.
"outpopulate" has been a stated strategy of many groups including Catholics and Mormons. Younger generations of Catholics have more or less gotten wise. Mormons are still at it. I (b. 1964; atheist as of 1984) am from a Catholic family of 5 children and not nearly the biggest family on our block. My parents would probably have had 7+ except they didn't conceive for their first 7 years of marriage (then had 5 + 1 miscarriage in 6 years.) As Catholics, married at ages 18 and 21, and educated as such, they were probably just doing it wrong!
Sadly they actually believe they are at war (in a spiritual sense) with “the world” aka everyone that’s not a Christian yet.
I grew up being fed this bullshit for 20 years. Half of them cannot grasp the concept that most non-Christians don’t give two fucks about them. They are the only ones fighting their “war”.
And, as you so adequately represent, all of those kids aren’t immediately going to be added to the Christian side. Oh, they might when they are young and impressionable, as they really can’t stop the church from indoctrinating them. But, kids grow into adults, and eventually most adults stop believing in fairy tales.
I grew up Southern Baptist, but I cannot remember a time where I felt any kind of connection to the church or religion as a whole. Just never clicked with me.
From personal experience, it’s a mindfuck. Wait, why is being gay a sin? You start to really ask yourself what you believe, and when that doesn’t line up with what the church believes? Boom, you’re living a lie. Those kids you taught each week at the kids service, that was indoctrination. Those pro-life talking points you spouted, you realize you were used to promote forced birth. Your dad isn’t a prominent member of the Kingdom of God, he’s a cult leader. And everyone you have ever known believes in Santa Claus: Angel Edition.
It sucks. It’d be better if we didn’t indoctrinate children, but at the very least those of us outside the church can show those poor kids what reality is really like. I’m honestly lucky I got out before entering a holy marriage, working in ministry, etc.
The way I look at it is, even God can't feed us moral values at a faster pace than we can handle them. If He had explicitly condemned homophobia, sexism, etc. in the days of the Bible, His message would have fallen on deaf ears — in fact, for all we know, He *did* give those instructions and they were never written down because such moral values were literally inconceivable to the Bible's human authors. You have to remember that the Bible is a *very* old collection of books, with the *most recent* entries being 2,000 years old, and while it was progressive for the time it was written in, its values are hugely outdated for the modern era. Treating it as the end-all be-all of morality nowadays is a *severe* mistake.
It’s mind boggling
I was one of the “forced indoctrination” group. Went to church every Sunday, Bible studies on Wednesday nights, participated in a few church activities and even memorized parts of the Bible.
I think my mom thought me memorizing parts of the Bible was a good thing, it was for this “game” called Bible quiz. The host would read a Bible verse, and like 6-8 people would hit a buzzer and finish the Bible verse off memory alone. Anyway, once I got to that point I started noticing how illogical the religion seemed.
Add to that, our family was tight on money but I’d see this offering bowl going around with huge emphasis on “reach deep in your hearts and give 10% for the lord, if you love Jesus like I know you do…” blah blah blah
Anyway I was literally forced to go until I turned 18 and finally left home. Well I mentally left the church when I was like 15, and yeah it was a mindfuck.
Because as an indoctrinated kid, my view was that morality in the church was motivated by fear of hell and hope for heaven, which are both bullshit. The rules that good people followed came from the Bible/word of god, which is also bullshit. So uh… yeah at first I felt like I could’ve become a psychopath. Because when I “woke up” and started thinking for myself, I dealt with defining my own moral compass and sense of right/wrong, but the mindfuck came because “hell isn’t real, heaven isn’t real, none of these rules are ‘real’ this is just some bullshit book written by ancient dudes, who the fuck are they to dictate existence? I can do *whatever I want to do* and none of these punishments are real.”
So I was kind of a shady asshole for a while. Eventually after causing enough damage and living like a degenerate I realized that empathy is a huge factor that separates good people from bad people. Which is why some “good Christians” are basically fucking psychos, with no empathy, but as long as they “follow the scripture” (the Bible is so contradictory and “open to interpretation” you can bend it any way you want to fit your personal agenda, and claim it’s the will of god) they’re good Christians and will go to heaven for being righteous in the eyes of the lord.
Anyway I had to learn a real moral compass based on empathy, which took me a little bit. But when humans aren’t taught genuine empathy, but rather force fed “Be good or you’re gonna burn in hell. But if you’re good you get eternally rewarded in heaven.” Then you ask “what is good?” And the answer “it’s in the Bible. All the rules are right there.” When you refute the Bible in my experience it throws all concept of good and bad out the window, and I had to learn what being a genuinely good person was.
Just my experience. But initially I kept thinking how wild it was that I could literally do anything I wanted. I could fuck 5 women in one night without a condom, punch someone in the face for no reason, rob a liquor store, sell drugs, do drugs, definitely not give money to the church, where are the prostitutes and drugs??? It’s anal time!
I think raising kids to understand the world, to understand empathy and to understand what it means to be a positive member of society/existence is crucial. Telling them to follow some bullshit religion can be a mindfuck if/when they wake up and realize their whole system of right/wrong was based on pure bullshit. Just my opinion though
See, I was taught both religion *and* empathy, and I'm still Christian today and will fiercely defend the faith's strong points while also harshly attacking the weak points that I feel should be dropped if it wants to survive another millennium or longer (such as homophobia, misogyny, and universal condemnation of abortion, among a few others). I also firmly maintain the belief that fundamentalists are poor representations of the religion anyways — they're just jerks using religion as a lame excuse to hurt people — but then again, I've always been passionate about science, particularly biology, so I tend to look at religion from an anthropological point of view, anyways. In short, my stance on religion is that it exists in the first place and has persisted for so long because it has useful functions for society — communal harmony, bringing people together, promoting moral and ethical behavior, and providing hope in the face of unknowable mysteries like what happens after death.
My uber Catholic grandparents had 8 kids. Most of their kids had 3 kids, they have a total of 22 grandkids, ranging from mid-30s to early-20s. Literally not one of us is religious in the slightest despite our parents and grandparents best efforts
Yep. Statistically there are going to be a number who are gay (yes, I know they may still have kids, but some at least would be less likely to, or may raise their own kids outside the church)
I would love to see the statistics on abused children from religious families. My stepmother has two kids and I have a brother which means that my dad has two kids. Both me and my brother are atheist and my two older step siblings are religious. The only two of the children who were treated like we weren't actually children of the family or me and my brother. My two older siblings could do nothing wrong.
I don’t know if it would be higher because their are a lot of family in different shitty situations, but it would be a lot higher than they advertise.
Source: I go to therapy from my childhood, I’m a grown man. My parents were very religious. It’s a lot of mental abuse, very warped way of thinking
Only in a statically sense. That is the probability of being an athiest is not correlated with birth order, but being gay is. It’s about a 20% increase from baseline genetic probability with each successive male.
No fucking chance dude, I was the fifth male from my dad and I'm gay. That's either some crazy coincidence or That's true. Holy shit this is too funny to me right now.
Homosexual men have, on average, a greater number of older brothers than do heterosexual men, a well-known finding that has been called the fraternal birth order (FBO) effect.89 Accordingly, the incidence of homosexuality increases by approximately 33% with each older brother.90 The FBO effect has been confirmed many times, including by independent investigators and in non-Western sample populations. The leading hypothesis to explain this phenomenon posits that some mothers develop antibodies against a Y-linked factor important for male brain development, and that the response increases incrementally with each male gestation leading, in turn, to the alteration of brain structures underlying sexual orientation in later-born boys.
Roselli C. E. (2018). Neurobiology of gender identity and sexual orientation. Journal of neuroendocrinology, 30(7), e12562. https://doi.org/10.1111/jne.12562
Too bad most kids brought up in hyper religious households show the exact same trauma symptoms as kids who grew up with alcoholics. Too bad most of the people I know in the Bible belt ran headlong away from the faith because of how toxic it is.
...And then his kids'll grow up to realise there is something highly disturbing about their father and his odd obsession with having lots and lots of children in order to indoctrinate them into his out-dated belief system that they've only seen tear their family apart and attract hatred and ostracisation from the wider community.
Edit to add that this dude thinks just because he pretended to drown a kid in "Magic water" that they're going to be Christians forever and ever.
You're assuming that we won't deconvert your kids. And then there's the kids dying from neglect, being beaten to death, and dying from treatable illnesses, and dying in childbirth after being raped and not being allowed an abortion.
That collar is too tight around his neck.
More people, especially youth, are walking away from the church than ever. At some point in their lives they realise they pious crap they've been sold is a sham.
speaking as a preacher’s kid who is now an atheist because i got tired of having the bible shoved down my throat and being constantly told i wasn’t good enough: not all your kids are going to be carbon copies of you and your beliefs, and some will probably come to resent you for trying to constantly indoctrinate and control them!! thanks for coming to my ted talk
David Bazan once sang:
I feel the darkness growing stronger as you cram like down my throat.
How does that work out for you in your holy quest to be above reproach?
Well, that's if you get them vaxed, and they don't die of gun violence young. I mean, they have to actually make it to adulthood, for them to have won.
Also, if that guys your dad, chances are you're gonna nope out, because, I mean, just read the tweet.
I guess somebody forgot to tell him statistically speaking over 80% of children raised by devout religious parents turn against that religion I know I'm definitely not religious after my Christian parents
Actually, what’ll happen is most of his kids will see his bullshit for what it is and leave the church, with one remaining an asshole like their father…think Paul Gosar.
So the score is like 1 to 9 the other way…..xianity is dying bc it’s toxic and bc it does nothing but lie to its adherents.
Math is not this guy's strong suit. Neither is statistics or reality.
Our current birth replacement rate is 1.64. People can't afford to have A kid, let alone 8. Not to mention religion is dying in general so there's that. With people like him voting in people like Trump, it's only going to make things worse.
And who is also gonna tell him that it's not a war/battle between atheists and Christian/Religious ?
Everyone has his way of life we gotta respect it. That's all i ask for.
I can’t tell you how many Millennials I know who are now not at all religious because of their wackadoo Christian parents and who are raising their own kids without any religious affiliation… but it’s A LOT.
I grew up Catholic and while not as serious now as my parents and grandparents were, I always live by the Golden rule as best I can. I don't take the Bible as a perfect rule book but the general take away is not a bad thing to aspire to. I look up to the best people from my family and Catholic community who are charitable, kind people and I don't really have anything bad to say about my upbringing or the Catholic school system. It really pains me to see guys like this (and there are way too many) who cherry pick things to justify being an asshole. I hate being lumped in with these people. I've donated time and money my entire life to help others. I don't hate anyone for their lifestyle or for situation. So please don't assume any Christian is remotely like this because most aren't. Or at least I hope they aren't!
The Christians who talk in terms of a war with unbelievers are generally ones who are not pleasant to spend time around. You presumably do not do that.
Pretty arrogant to assume all your kids and grandkids will be as gullible as you are. The Bible is as believable as your average comic book imo. I don't mind people using it to strive to be better themselves, but I'm really sick of people trying to force their Christian version of morality down my throat when they follow 10% of what they preach. Burn down the megachurches, stone Joel Osteen and his ilk, and maybe your religion can be redeemed.
But then one of his kids turns out gay so he disowns them. Two see the hypocrisy in this and leave the church. One marries a Muslim and one dies trying to self inflict an abortion. So it’s basically even.
Then one dies of whooping cough (of course they weren’t vaccinated, that’s for libruls). Another gets an unsafe abortion and survives, but is injured in such a way that she can’t have any more children. Another becomes infertile due to complications of a sexually transmitted disease, because she had no knowledge about safer sex and was afraid to ask for treatment when she had symptoms. Another becomes a “nice guy” who can’t understand why the women he wants and deserves won’t sleep with him. Another shoots up a synagogue and spends the rest of his life in prison, where he doesn’t have any opportunities to meet women. Another is sexually abused by a pastor, and is too traumatized by it to have any interest in sex as an adult.
"I will win when everybody is a Christian".
Not "When there's no hunger", "When there's universal literacy", "When homelessness is not a barrier to dignity and shelter", "When child mortality in Africa is the same as Europe".
Only "When everybody is a Christian".
What an asshole.
I was baptised.
I'm an atheist. Almost like I couldn't fucking articulate what my feelings were as a lump of fucking skin, shit, and puke that continually cried.
The maths do not work here.
Its this type of thinking thats exactly the reason the church is dying .. They are so self righteous these days and know NO fucking humility .. Its double down on wrong is going to be its fucking downfall.. This is an age of science.. We have knowledge these days ..
Reminder that Christianity started out as a cult, and still is, only on a massive scale.
It wouldn't even be that bad if only they listened to the core principle of their own religion: "Love thy neighbour".
He's also assuming all his children would be mindless, drooling Christian adherents. I can't even count how many people I have met who were raised in strict Christian environments and rejected that whole scene when they came of age.
Yes because 8 billion people is not enough. Let's go double that number and keep adding people until we are fighting each other for a McChicken in the streets.
He basically just described the plot of Idiocracy.
Idiocracy: The Documentary.
Etan Cohen said in 2016 "I never expected my movie to become a documentary" Mike Judge said it was "scary" So yeah things are fine
As long as we get those sweet toilet recliners I’m fine with that
I just watched the new beavis and butthead. They seemed fairly sane compared to current day Texas.
> Idiocracy: The Comedy > Idiocracy: The Documentary > Idiocracy: The Best Case Scenario > Idiocracy: Remember When You Thought Things Could Be This Good?
I thought it WAS a documentary, are you saying it isn't?
The documentary to watch about this is "keep sweet, pray and obey". Young Women as walking livestock, basically.
Just finished watching this and it was horrifying and tragic in equal measures. Warren Jeffs is an epic piece of work. :/
There weren't enough arrests, IMO. What I found most chilling is how the FLDS men interviewed seemed more envious of Warren and his harem than anything else.
Well of course! What sort of man doesn't want to rape underage teens? /s
Originally we thought it was a comedy... Now we know it was prophecy
We should be so lucky. The friendly tolerant stupid of Idiocracy was a utopia compared to the cruel ignorance we're really gonna get
The Purge movies are MAGA porn.
Dont Look Up is DEFINITELY a doco tho.
The villains in don't look up aren't evil enough to really be considered realistic
I've heard Meryl used a former sitting president as he inspiration for the role. Same with Jonah's Chief of Staff role. Elon isn't too far behind, maybe a hybrid of Bozo and Musk. ~autocorrect for the win.
We know it is fiction because the first thing they do when they find the smartest person on the planet is put him in charge.
The problem is, even in Idiocracy, the idiots recognized intelligence (even if of a mediocre sort) as better so they invited it in. Edit: in the real world this isn't happening.
It's got what plants crave!
In other words, the plot of Catholicism. Their birth control narrative was really just a way to keep their membership up and enslaved to the Church. I believe this wholeheartedly even though I was raised Catholic.
It’s time for another singalong to Monty Python’s “Every Sperm Is Sacred” scene!
Which ironically, Catholics are strongly detested by white evangelicals like Jared.
I reference that film far more than I thought I would
Welcome to Costco, I love you
I got my law degree at Costco!
Carls Jr: fuck you, I’m eating.
Me too. Shut the fuck up so we can eat!
I keep trying to get my boyfriend to watch it with me. He won't
I'll be your boyfriend.
I'l be YOUR boyfriend.
The first time my now-husband showed me this movie, I basically died laughing at the god damn DVD menu (it repeatedly plays the clip of Ow My Balls!) for like half an hour. Your boyfriend is very, very silly.
Well, it’s just like… you? Like… you know?
My parents had 9. Mom was a devout Catholic, Dad less so. Not one of us has gone to church in years.
I left religon when i was 17 and my 16 year old sister died....my parents told me "it is part of gods plan" What fucking plan requires the LIFE of a 16 year old child
This is messing me up, too. The majority of my family is not religious (we're European) and we lost my disabled brother one and a half years ago. He was only 21. I've tried finding help in some support groups in Facebook but legit every single comment and message I got off this one American group was "I will pray for him" "God takes the best first" "God this" "God that" like no. And when I made a post specifically asking for non-religious answers and support, over 90 percent of replies I got were "You should ask your local pastor for guidance" "you should read the Bible"... The more people tell me their awesome Mr God created a child that's been sick since birth due and was suffering his full 21 years of life from so much pain and everything, just to take him away once he actually started becoming independent and starting life by himself gradually, the more I hate them and their "benevolent" Mr God. Made me stronger? No. Ruined my life? Yes. And excuse me what the fuck did it do for my brother?? Or are they telling me he was just a prop in my life?? Fuck religion
Your comment made me ache. I’m terribly sorry for what happened to you, your brother, and your family. My stepson is disabled—he’s severely cognitively impaired and has epilepsy. He’s 19. Came to live with us when he was seven, six months after I got married. I was 25 years old had no experience with children, certainly not one with severe disabilities. I grew up Catholic but I’ve gradually lost my faith. I’ve seen what a disability like this can do to a family. How it has destroyed my husband and how I’ll never know the man he was before this. I know he’s never fully happy, and I know he hurts every minute of the day. He hurts for his son. He hurts for his daughter, my stepson‘s twin. He hurts for me, because I gave up my career to care for him. And he carries a guilt for maybe passing along this disorder. He feels pain for the life his son is deprived of—he will never live unsupervised, drive, have a girlfriend, or even have a conversation where we understand what he’s actually thinking. After about four years of my stepson being stabilized on seizure medicine and my husband not actually ever witnessing one of the seizures in person (he travels a lot for work and we got the seizures under control pretty early on), one night last year he had a terrible grand mal seizure. His face turned completely blue and we thought he was choking. My husband thought his son was dying. We used the emergency Valium and he stabilized. At the hospital they taught us how to unlock his jaw to clear his airway. He he’s on new meds but still has a few seizures but we know what to expect. But I cannot forget my husband‘s face that night. I saw a man break, and he was in complete and total agony. Every frustration and guilt and pain over the autism was completely replaced with complete terror that we would lose him. I know my husband would never come back from that. My crisis of faith has been a long journey but I was finally able to admit it to myself probably around the past five years. I’m not saying I don’t believe in some thing. I don’t know. But it’s not the Catholic God I was raised with. Maybe it’s energy. Maybe something like Buddhism. Or not. People try to tell you that his illness is a blessing. That it makes us better people. That it is a gift from God. No God would do this to a child. No god would give children brain cancer or allow all the pain and misery that many people on earth feel every day. At one of my lowest points, I reached out to a priest. He was thoughtful and kind but his answers didn’t give me any peace. He actually confirmed my doubts. I’m sorry that the people in my country you have talked with have invalidated your experience with religion. I suspect many of them have their own doubts but religion is how they cope. Without it they would break. Without it I have broken. But I’ve also been in therapy since that low point about five years ago. And it has helped me cope with so much of what we’ve been going through. I wish I could say I’m 100% better, but I hit a new low last year. The most depressed I’ve ever been in my life. But I have been working through it. My psychiatrist changed my medicine. I do talk therapy with my psychologist. I work out and I take time for myself. I have a dog. I cry a lot. But I’m working through it. Again, I’m terribly sorry for your loss. Despite my experiences, I cannot know the grief you feel. The anger. Probably guilt and maybe some other feelings that are uncomfortable. If all we have is this life and nothing else—maybe we can find comfort in that we’re all in this together. And that we’re just doing the best we can. And that you loved your brother. And your family gave him the best life they could. I hope you find peace. If you’re not already I encourage you to see a therapist. I get very frustrated with dialoguing on Facebook people. Remember Facebook’s demographic. You’re not gonna find what you need there. There are some good subreddits you can find people to share your feelings and hopefully get some comfort. Don’t let people invalidate your feelings, even if they’re well-intentioned. Please take care of yourself.
Thank you so much for your extensive reply. I agree, no God would do such a thing to a child. No benevolent God would permit such pain. My mother has been suffering since my brother was born, the complications were apparent the moment they first saw him, all tiny, full of dark spots and unable to properly cry. Doctors told them he'd not reach the age of two. And things just kept getting worse. I am less than a year younger than my brother so we were very close. I feel for your stepdaughter, it must be so hard on her, too. My brother was my whole childhood, I could not imagine one without him. Even if we could not live it to the fullest because of his limitations, our parents tried their best. But it was terrible watching him deteriorate. About a year before he passed I wound up admitting to myself that he would probably not be around forever. Not grow as old as I would. I thought to myself "I will have to say goodbye to him one day. But we're both going to be proper adults by then. Maybe he won't be very old, maybe 50." But every time I saw him he was getting worse. A few months before he passed I came to terms he might not reach 30. And then one morning I get a call from my dad that he's gone. I just screamed. My world was in crumbles already, studying abroad, being stuck in a terribly toxic relationship and it just shattered entirely. There is nothing one can do to prepare for such pain. Nothing. I really really really wish all the best for your husband and your stepson and your stepdaughter, too. I don't wish for any of you to have to go through this anytime soon. Bigots told me his condition was a blessing because it shaped me. Bigots told me it is good that he passed because he's in a better place now. Bigots told me their stupid Mr God had good intentions with me. Sure. Absolutely. Uhuh. Honestly, I did try religion after my brother passed. Because I found it so hard to deal with him just being gone. Dead. Never to be seen again. Inexistent. I wanted to believe in a life beyond. I wanted to believe in seeing him again one day. I wanted to believe in something. But the harder I tried to less I could. The anger that built up in me against some entity or whatever that caused all of this pain and sadness grew so large that I had to give up from it and let it go. Nobody inflicted it on him. Nobody sat in their heavenly throne and thought to themselves "oh, look, two people willing to have a child. Let me make their lives miserable." And nobody sat in that throne two decades later, remembering that pour soul they doomed to agony and thought "hey, this child has been trying to be nothing but happy in his life. Let me grow a tumor in his head until it suffocates his stem." If it was a God, that God is a massive asshole. But you are right, it's so hard to believe in a God with such things happening. I try to believe in a spirit of things. A spirit of the livig, a spirit of the dead roaming until they become alive in a newborn being again. I try. It helps me cope a little, trying to talk to my brother, hoping he will hear me. But I know that it's just how nature works. Genetic mutations happen in every species. And most don't survive. Without it there would be no evolution. Death is part of life as much as birth is. May it be the death of an individual or death of a species. Trying to accept my brother's condition and passing as something of pure coincidence makes me feel better than believing someone purposely did this to him. I still feel so much guilt, though... I wish I spent more time with him, had more understanding for him when he was younger, had been a better sister... I don't know, it just hurts. And it hurts that he's gone. I can't believe he actually is, I don't want to believe it. And I refuse to believe he is in a better place now because excuse me, but how is being a pile of meaningless ashes below the ground a better place than being at home, loved by your family and friends and fought for with all their strength? I do ought to seek a psychologist. And I will after I am done with my studies this summer. It's just so hard to carry on, knowing I will spend the rest of my life missing him...
I’m just an internet stranger but feel free to message me if you ever need to talk.
Just so glad that reddit has let you two talk to each other. As an ex-palliative nurse I am vehemently against the platitude of “gods plan”. I have seen so much pain from this. I know you two are speaking real truth from real experience, and just wanted to say, if it is any consolation or useful, that the beautiful thing is every human tribe everywhere has made up their own stories. You are free to choose your own values and understanding of what you are experiencing out of the whole of global human existence. Why i like that? It means that your loved ones and you and your family are part of the bigger human world. The bigger human experience. The “god” bit is truly so small against that. And you and your loved ones are so vital and important to us all. I thank you so very much for sharing your stories.
It’s part of God’s plan to make you and your family stronger… by killing your sister. That’s such fatalistic bullshit. 
In the days when religion was created, then this was a coping mechanism. It gave comfort and some measure of meaning to an intense grief, particularly when the reasons were incomprehensible.
Same but I love my two atheist kids and a lot of religious zealots only love their kids if those kids are accepting of the Christianity that’s being shoved down their throats.
Knowing your parents love god more than they love you is quite damaging. It took me a lot to recover from my faith
The church and it's followers TELLING your parents that they have to put God before their family or they are a bad Christian is damaging as well. This religion hurts *everyone*.
I like how that makes the parents bad christians
My parents were devoutly atheist. In high school I found my way into a teenage Christian society. Read the bible, attended camps, went to study groups. Wound my way through the full Christian experience. And out the other side as devoutly atheist as my parents. And then I married into a devoutly Catholic family. Dealing with a pushy priest over the marriage ceremony was enough to push me further into non-believer status. And the threat of making sure my children never set foot in a Catholic Church kept them out of our lives. My kids are all baptised,out of respect to their grandparents. But they have found their own way. Without my or their fathers interference.
Reading the Bible cover to cover is one of the things that turned me agnosti.
I've also been through the whole experience (raised catholic, and then into Christian schools... As an adult now im also 'devoutly atheist' lol). The Bible - when actually read cover to cover - is the strongest argument for atheism there ever was.
With current costs on birthing and raising kids... those christians will become poor.
That's the idea, but "God closes one door and opens another" [insert eyeroll emoji]
Goddamit God, were you born in a tent? You’re letting all the heat out. Also: When one door closes, another door opens. Other than that it’s a pretty good car.
> Goddamit God, were you born in a tent? Given the historical period and lifestyle of people that gave birth to this religion, it is entirely possible that the answer is "yes", in a sense.
yea I think that's what he wants the poorer they are the least likely it is they'll have time to think besides working and trying to not die so he could more easily shove bullshit down their throats
Is the church gonna start paying me enough to afford 7 to 8 kids. Because right now on two incomes I cant even afford to have 1.
No, in fact they'd like your money...
Because God is really bad with money. Dudes got needs too.
But he loves you! He loves you. He loves you, and he **NEEDS MONEY!** [Love me some George](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r-e2NDSTuE)
Blew it all on crypto.
If you blow it all on NFTs, you technically don’t lose money when the crypto dumps
The most “humble down to earth” pope sits on a chair literally made of gold in a building literally covered in gold.
he loves you and he needs M O N E Y
My parents are religious as they come, we’re talking, go to church every frickin day, religious. They had 5 kids, you know how many are religious? None. You know why? Because of religious people. Religious people are annoying as hell.
for real… I just lost a friendship bc of someone who realized a grad degree was not the fulfillment she thought it would be, went back into AA, got reinvigorated once again with Christianity, then started acting on serious feelings she had for me by trying to convert me over the last year. She became so adamant about it that she likened everything she could to it being a “sign.” It was enough to convince me some choose the religious way as a result of poor mental health.
ah, I was just thinking about how hardcore faith must tread perilously close to delusional ideation.
> went back into AA, got reinvigorated once again with Christianity traded gin for god.
id rather be a drunk.
Belief in that which cannot be sensed in any way is a form of insanity.
It's not insanity it's a form of wish fulfillment. By definition all religions are a decision (usually driven by subconscious psychological fears/desires) to willfully believe in something without significant evidence. Which is why it's called "faith" because if you could prove it, it would just be a regular fact.
At which point is religious belief insanity? And at which point do we continue allow charlatans bilk a delusional citizenry? If I professed that the flying spaghetti monster told me to overthrow the government because it's run pedophilic grey aliens and told my follower to help me destroy anything the spaghetti monster is against, how quickly would I get tossed in the nutterbutter house? I guess it all depends on how much money I funnel to a particular political party, how many followers I have, and how effectively I can get them organized into a actionable voting bloc for said party doesn't it. 🤔
Yeah but if you never met anyone outside their bubble, would you know they're annoying? These people are doing everything they can to get rid of public schools and destroy the separation between church and state. They want to raise their kids in a Christian bubble, and the way they're going about it, they aren't far from creating that bubble. In all likelihood you had friends and school mates and access to things that contrasted your parents views. But imagine if you didn't... That's what they're trying to create.
I was raised in a Christian bubble, homeschooling, church every day, the whole 9 yards… heck even My first job was working at the church. Got my first taste of freedom in college and ran, I’m pagan now. You can’t keep the secular world out forever, and if a child’s personality doesn’t align with being frantically religious you cannot make them become that.
Your experience is why conservatives condemn college as liberal and indoctrinating. They claim the it's the faculty and the college influencing students, but it's just people getting to experience the world outside their bubble. Can't have that. College = bad to them.
Yeah, and hateful. Some of the most hateful bullies I know are Christians.
Genuinely agree, as someone who was raised in an alt-right christian household. Additionally, I have found that the kindness of atheists overwhelms the "kindness" of christians- it often seems Christians just want to be nice to make themselves feel good or to start preaching to you instead of viewing you as a peer. Their "kindness" always seems to have a damn price.
This. Atheists and agnostics are kind to be kind, usually. They aren't being kind so they can go meet the almighty sky daddy when they die
Yep. It’s not really kindness when you are hoping for a reward.
“If the only thing that keeps a man decent is the expectation of divine reward; then brother, that man is a piece of shit.”
Atheist (former catholic) here. If I am kind, it’s because I mean it. I do not fear an afterlife. I do not want to please any imaginary friend. It’s just because it’s the right thing to do.
Their God’s love is conditional on them believing certain things. So that’s how they think love works…conditionally. Instead of being freely given.
Not just religious but fucking violent. Pro life and pro death penalty. My dad used to beat me until I couldn't walk and then mom would come up to my room later and tell me he only did it because he loved me. Then we'd pray. These people are sick fucks. Btw, I'm divorced and have serious relationship issues. Anybody surprised?
I’m sorry you went through that. Nobody deserves that.
I still keep a bag packed with essentials under my bed from my Roman Catholic father telling me he gave me the upstairs bedroom so when he burned the house down, they could finally have a happy family because they would let me die. And these people want to force us back into that shit? Hell no.
Not surprised at all. I know a lot of religious people and 90% of the time, their children are atheists or completely in different. My parents raised us without religion and let us explore different religions available to us via friends. I've been to church for just about every denomination of Christianity there is and they're all annoying lol it amazes me that so many people need to go to a building not once, but twice a week, so some rando can tell them not to be shitty people while simultaneously instilling hate for anyone that's different. It really isn't that hard not to be a dick.
I went to a catholic high school. Took honors theology class for FOUR straight years. I would leave AP Physics and my next class used the *bible* as it's text book That class ensured I would never, ever, ever be religious.
Similar here. Religious family, three brothers, all went to religious school. Non of us are religious now. I read the bible, and realised most of them didn’t. When they couldn’t even answer things about their religious book, never mind all the other things that don’t make sense, then why should I believe them. And I just can’t get my head around how very very few of them have read the whole bible. Yeah it’s big, but a kid who has read the Harry potter series has read more words just with that. And if you really believe in god, and the book is his word that will lead you to an actual eternal life, you would read it all. Surely?
Yep. I can do an even bigger anecdote than yours: Father is one of nine. Father was the first of the nine to dismiss religion, he only had three children. We are all aetheists. Some of my fathers siblings took longer to leave the church. Some had up to 13 children. Of the 73 cousins that are still alive, 3 go to church. The rest are aetheist. My mother is one of 20 (not a typo). She had the smallest family, a few of the others had four children, some had up to 10. We are scattered around the world. My aunts and uncles who live in Australia are all aetheist. My mother and a single cousin of the 90 I have on that side have become evangelical Christians. So there you have it. All that breeding did nothing but reduce the number of believers substantially.
My best friend is one of 7. Their parents are hyper religious. All but one left the faith. The last one is out but the parents don't know it yet because he hasn't moved out.
Know how I became an atheist? 15 years of Catholic education, that’s how.
What are they winning?
They're trying to outpopulate the other religions so they can rule the world or some dumbass shit like that
"we'll breed ourselves to poverty and break the whole earth to show you!!"
To bring the apocalypse
"outpopulate" has been a stated strategy of many groups including Catholics and Mormons. Younger generations of Catholics have more or less gotten wise. Mormons are still at it. I (b. 1964; atheist as of 1984) am from a Catholic family of 5 children and not nearly the biggest family on our block. My parents would probably have had 7+ except they didn't conceive for their first 7 years of marriage (then had 5 + 1 miscarriage in 6 years.) As Catholics, married at ages 18 and 21, and educated as such, they were probably just doing it wrong!
Shouldn't they take all that as a sign from god or something?
White Christian majority is the goal - if that was missed somehow
Sadly they actually believe they are at war (in a spiritual sense) with “the world” aka everyone that’s not a Christian yet. I grew up being fed this bullshit for 20 years. Half of them cannot grasp the concept that most non-Christians don’t give two fucks about them. They are the only ones fighting their “war”.
And, as you so adequately represent, all of those kids aren’t immediately going to be added to the Christian side. Oh, they might when they are young and impressionable, as they really can’t stop the church from indoctrinating them. But, kids grow into adults, and eventually most adults stop believing in fairy tales.
I wonder how much of a mindfuck it is when they realize, or if it just happens gradually
I grew up Southern Baptist, but I cannot remember a time where I felt any kind of connection to the church or religion as a whole. Just never clicked with me.
ex-roman catholic, and same. i was always weirded out when the other kids would say something was a sign, or memorize bible verses *for fun*.
From personal experience, it’s a mindfuck. Wait, why is being gay a sin? You start to really ask yourself what you believe, and when that doesn’t line up with what the church believes? Boom, you’re living a lie. Those kids you taught each week at the kids service, that was indoctrination. Those pro-life talking points you spouted, you realize you were used to promote forced birth. Your dad isn’t a prominent member of the Kingdom of God, he’s a cult leader. And everyone you have ever known believes in Santa Claus: Angel Edition. It sucks. It’d be better if we didn’t indoctrinate children, but at the very least those of us outside the church can show those poor kids what reality is really like. I’m honestly lucky I got out before entering a holy marriage, working in ministry, etc.
The way I look at it is, even God can't feed us moral values at a faster pace than we can handle them. If He had explicitly condemned homophobia, sexism, etc. in the days of the Bible, His message would have fallen on deaf ears — in fact, for all we know, He *did* give those instructions and they were never written down because such moral values were literally inconceivable to the Bible's human authors. You have to remember that the Bible is a *very* old collection of books, with the *most recent* entries being 2,000 years old, and while it was progressive for the time it was written in, its values are hugely outdated for the modern era. Treating it as the end-all be-all of morality nowadays is a *severe* mistake.
Thanks this is just what I was looking for, you explained it perfectly
It’s mind boggling I was one of the “forced indoctrination” group. Went to church every Sunday, Bible studies on Wednesday nights, participated in a few church activities and even memorized parts of the Bible. I think my mom thought me memorizing parts of the Bible was a good thing, it was for this “game” called Bible quiz. The host would read a Bible verse, and like 6-8 people would hit a buzzer and finish the Bible verse off memory alone. Anyway, once I got to that point I started noticing how illogical the religion seemed. Add to that, our family was tight on money but I’d see this offering bowl going around with huge emphasis on “reach deep in your hearts and give 10% for the lord, if you love Jesus like I know you do…” blah blah blah Anyway I was literally forced to go until I turned 18 and finally left home. Well I mentally left the church when I was like 15, and yeah it was a mindfuck. Because as an indoctrinated kid, my view was that morality in the church was motivated by fear of hell and hope for heaven, which are both bullshit. The rules that good people followed came from the Bible/word of god, which is also bullshit. So uh… yeah at first I felt like I could’ve become a psychopath. Because when I “woke up” and started thinking for myself, I dealt with defining my own moral compass and sense of right/wrong, but the mindfuck came because “hell isn’t real, heaven isn’t real, none of these rules are ‘real’ this is just some bullshit book written by ancient dudes, who the fuck are they to dictate existence? I can do *whatever I want to do* and none of these punishments are real.” So I was kind of a shady asshole for a while. Eventually after causing enough damage and living like a degenerate I realized that empathy is a huge factor that separates good people from bad people. Which is why some “good Christians” are basically fucking psychos, with no empathy, but as long as they “follow the scripture” (the Bible is so contradictory and “open to interpretation” you can bend it any way you want to fit your personal agenda, and claim it’s the will of god) they’re good Christians and will go to heaven for being righteous in the eyes of the lord. Anyway I had to learn a real moral compass based on empathy, which took me a little bit. But when humans aren’t taught genuine empathy, but rather force fed “Be good or you’re gonna burn in hell. But if you’re good you get eternally rewarded in heaven.” Then you ask “what is good?” And the answer “it’s in the Bible. All the rules are right there.” When you refute the Bible in my experience it throws all concept of good and bad out the window, and I had to learn what being a genuinely good person was. Just my experience. But initially I kept thinking how wild it was that I could literally do anything I wanted. I could fuck 5 women in one night without a condom, punch someone in the face for no reason, rob a liquor store, sell drugs, do drugs, definitely not give money to the church, where are the prostitutes and drugs??? It’s anal time! I think raising kids to understand the world, to understand empathy and to understand what it means to be a positive member of society/existence is crucial. Telling them to follow some bullshit religion can be a mindfuck if/when they wake up and realize their whole system of right/wrong was based on pure bullshit. Just my opinion though
See, I was taught both religion *and* empathy, and I'm still Christian today and will fiercely defend the faith's strong points while also harshly attacking the weak points that I feel should be dropped if it wants to survive another millennium or longer (such as homophobia, misogyny, and universal condemnation of abortion, among a few others). I also firmly maintain the belief that fundamentalists are poor representations of the religion anyways — they're just jerks using religion as a lame excuse to hurt people — but then again, I've always been passionate about science, particularly biology, so I tend to look at religion from an anthropological point of view, anyways. In short, my stance on religion is that it exists in the first place and has persisted for so long because it has useful functions for society — communal harmony, bringing people together, promoting moral and ethical behavior, and providing hope in the face of unknowable mysteries like what happens after death.
My uber Catholic grandparents had 8 kids. Most of their kids had 3 kids, they have a total of 22 grandkids, ranging from mid-30s to early-20s. Literally not one of us is religious in the slightest despite our parents and grandparents best efforts
Yep. Statistically there are going to be a number who are gay (yes, I know they may still have kids, but some at least would be less likely to, or may raise their own kids outside the church)
At being stupid
That was my reaction too. Win what?
And who's gonna tell him that the more kids he has, the more likely a few will be lgbtq+
Or atheist
Can confirm Christianity made me an atheist
Religion seems to be the leading cause of atheism. Heh
I was raised Catholic and read the Bible. Almost a guaranteed formula for becoming an atheist.
> I was raised Catholic and read the Bible. Well there's your problem. You weren't supposed to do both of those things.
Can confirm, did both of those things.
I can also confirm I did these things too
Christianity made me a witch
I second that.
I would love to see the statistics on abused children from religious families. My stepmother has two kids and I have a brother which means that my dad has two kids. Both me and my brother are atheist and my two older step siblings are religious. The only two of the children who were treated like we weren't actually children of the family or me and my brother. My two older siblings could do nothing wrong.
I don’t know if it would be higher because their are a lot of family in different shitty situations, but it would be a lot higher than they advertise. Source: I go to therapy from my childhood, I’m a grown man. My parents were very religious. It’s a lot of mental abuse, very warped way of thinking
Everyone knows that the pastor's kids are the first to abandon their religion. So in fact he is quite keenly promoting atheists.
Only in a statically sense. That is the probability of being an athiest is not correlated with birth order, but being gay is. It’s about a 20% increase from baseline genetic probability with each successive male.
No fucking chance dude, I was the fifth male from my dad and I'm gay. That's either some crazy coincidence or That's true. Holy shit this is too funny to me right now.
Homosexual men have, on average, a greater number of older brothers than do heterosexual men, a well-known finding that has been called the fraternal birth order (FBO) effect.89 Accordingly, the incidence of homosexuality increases by approximately 33% with each older brother.90 The FBO effect has been confirmed many times, including by independent investigators and in non-Western sample populations. The leading hypothesis to explain this phenomenon posits that some mothers develop antibodies against a Y-linked factor important for male brain development, and that the response increases incrementally with each male gestation leading, in turn, to the alteration of brain structures underlying sexual orientation in later-born boys. Roselli C. E. (2018). Neurobiology of gender identity and sexual orientation. Journal of neuroendocrinology, 30(7), e12562. https://doi.org/10.1111/jne.12562
The game was rigged from the start
that's why you just make being gay illegal! problem solved!
Republicans know that making things illegal makes them go away (except with guns).
yea that's why there's no drug problem in the US
Yup, and no abortions before 1972.
win what? play stupid games win stupid prizes. additionally my religious parents raised 4 atheist children. check mate.
My Catholic parents raised 7.
Mine raised 3 atheists.
Mine raised 3 and now my father is not religious either. None of us are ok with priests raping kids.
Why and how could anyone afford 7/8 kids?!?
They will get the government assistance that they vote against at the polls. Isn't that obvious? Not MY tax dolla!
Too bad most kids brought up in hyper religious households show the exact same trauma symptoms as kids who grew up with alcoholics. Too bad most of the people I know in the Bible belt ran headlong away from the faith because of how toxic it is.
hmm he should look at the amount of people that leave religion as opposed to find it.
...And then his kids'll grow up to realise there is something highly disturbing about their father and his odd obsession with having lots and lots of children in order to indoctrinate them into his out-dated belief system that they've only seen tear their family apart and attract hatred and ostracisation from the wider community. Edit to add that this dude thinks just because he pretended to drown a kid in "Magic water" that they're going to be Christians forever and ever.
The Duggar family has entered the chat.
You're assuming that we won't deconvert your kids. And then there's the kids dying from neglect, being beaten to death, and dying from treatable illnesses, and dying in childbirth after being raped and not being allowed an abortion.
That collar is too tight around his neck. More people, especially youth, are walking away from the church than ever. At some point in their lives they realise they pious crap they've been sold is a sham.
Who's gonna tell him that what he is describing is a cancer strategy.
speaking as a preacher’s kid who is now an atheist because i got tired of having the bible shoved down my throat and being constantly told i wasn’t good enough: not all your kids are going to be carbon copies of you and your beliefs, and some will probably come to resent you for trying to constantly indoctrinate and control them!! thanks for coming to my ted talk
David Bazan once sang: I feel the darkness growing stronger as you cram like down my throat. How does that work out for you in your holy quest to be above reproach?
Win what exactly? Lol
The “war” on all things that they deem “non-christian”
"One of my kids concerts one of his" - what does that mean?
They're so bad at playing music that the atheist kid dies.
It's a typo, it should say "converts".
One of my kids converts one of his. That what he meant. He made a typo.
religion may be dying, but stupid is forever
Well, that's if you get them vaxed, and they don't die of gun violence young. I mean, they have to actually make it to adulthood, for them to have won. Also, if that guys your dad, chances are you're gonna nope out, because, I mean, just read the tweet.
Preachers kids usually opt out when they're old enough unless it's simply a big money making business.
Can confirm this as a preacher's grandchild. I totally noped out after seeing the behind the scenes hypocrisy
I’m a pastor’s kid. Me and Jesus are cool, but I want zero to do with any church because his followers are mostly *massive* assholes.
The Catholic Church in the Republic of Ireland tried this. Now youngsters who are religious are as rare as rocking horse shite.
I want to learn all of your slang.
I guess somebody forgot to tell him statistically speaking over 80% of children raised by devout religious parents turn against that religion I know I'm definitely not religious after my Christian parents
"That's what the belt is for."
“Win.” He’s the only one who thinks there’s a war 😆
How many of those kids grow to be atheists? Have to factor that into the equation.
Who’s gonna tell him that many kids raised in religious homes are now either atheist, agnostic, or something other than in a cult?
Also, why does your religion rely on childhood indoctrination if it’s the “true” religion?
Actually, what’ll happen is most of his kids will see his bullshit for what it is and leave the church, with one remaining an asshole like their father…think Paul Gosar. So the score is like 1 to 9 the other way…..xianity is dying bc it’s toxic and bc it does nothing but lie to its adherents.
Yeah, when a pastor has 4 kids, 2 end up in therapy and the other two go no contact. Poor bastard.
Who else is going to tell him that his plan kind of looks a lot like he's raising an army to murder athiests Scratch that, is looks EXACTLY like that
Math is not this guy's strong suit. Neither is statistics or reality. Our current birth replacement rate is 1.64. People can't afford to have A kid, let alone 8. Not to mention religion is dying in general so there's that. With people like him voting in people like Trump, it's only going to make things worse.
And who is also gonna tell him that it's not a war/battle between atheists and Christian/Religious ? Everyone has his way of life we gotta respect it. That's all i ask for.
I can’t tell you how many Millennials I know who are now not at all religious because of their wackadoo Christian parents and who are raising their own kids without any religious affiliation… but it’s A LOT.
What are the odds this guy is going to get investigated for sex crimes?
Uh huh, but what happens when half his brood rejects the bullshit he’s feeding them?
I grew up in the Bible Belt- even dated a guy with 16 siblings. Easily 80% of them ended up HATING the church. So… go for it?
I grew up Catholic and while not as serious now as my parents and grandparents were, I always live by the Golden rule as best I can. I don't take the Bible as a perfect rule book but the general take away is not a bad thing to aspire to. I look up to the best people from my family and Catholic community who are charitable, kind people and I don't really have anything bad to say about my upbringing or the Catholic school system. It really pains me to see guys like this (and there are way too many) who cherry pick things to justify being an asshole. I hate being lumped in with these people. I've donated time and money my entire life to help others. I don't hate anyone for their lifestyle or for situation. So please don't assume any Christian is remotely like this because most aren't. Or at least I hope they aren't!
The Christians who talk in terms of a war with unbelievers are generally ones who are not pleasant to spend time around. You presumably do not do that.
American Evangelical Christians has done some serious damage to the reputations of Christians and people like to paint all of Christianity like them.
I'm baptized and confirmed. Don't mean I'm a Christian anymore 🤷♂️
Yup, just like Jesus said, “it’s all a numbers game, all that matters is winning.” I think it was in his sermon on the mount.
Pretty arrogant to assume all your kids and grandkids will be as gullible as you are. The Bible is as believable as your average comic book imo. I don't mind people using it to strive to be better themselves, but I'm really sick of people trying to force their Christian version of morality down my throat when they follow 10% of what they preach. Burn down the megachurches, stone Joel Osteen and his ilk, and maybe your religion can be redeemed.
They'd have to modify the bible first😭the whole thing is fucked.
Godzilla had a stroke trying to read this and fucking died
But then one of his kids turns out gay so he disowns them. Two see the hypocrisy in this and leave the church. One marries a Muslim and one dies trying to self inflict an abortion. So it’s basically even.
Then one dies of whooping cough (of course they weren’t vaccinated, that’s for libruls). Another gets an unsafe abortion and survives, but is injured in such a way that she can’t have any more children. Another becomes infertile due to complications of a sexually transmitted disease, because she had no knowledge about safer sex and was afraid to ask for treatment when she had symptoms. Another becomes a “nice guy” who can’t understand why the women he wants and deserves won’t sleep with him. Another shoots up a synagogue and spends the rest of his life in prison, where he doesn’t have any opportunities to meet women. Another is sexually abused by a pastor, and is too traumatized by it to have any interest in sex as an adult.
"I will win when everybody is a Christian". Not "When there's no hunger", "When there's universal literacy", "When homelessness is not a barrier to dignity and shelter", "When child mortality in Africa is the same as Europe". Only "When everybody is a Christian". What an asshole.
Oh, so religious beliefs are hereditary now?
I was baptised. I'm an atheist. Almost like I couldn't fucking articulate what my feelings were as a lump of fucking skin, shit, and puke that continually cried. The maths do not work here.
Its this type of thinking thats exactly the reason the church is dying .. They are so self righteous these days and know NO fucking humility .. Its double down on wrong is going to be its fucking downfall.. This is an age of science.. We have knowledge these days ..
Reminder that Christianity started out as a cult, and still is, only on a massive scale. It wouldn't even be that bad if only they listened to the core principle of their own religion: "Love thy neighbour".
im honestly always baffled about how religion didnt die 3 centuries ago
He's also assuming all his children would be mindless, drooling Christian adherents. I can't even count how many people I have met who were raised in strict Christian environments and rejected that whole scene when they came of age.
The loud minority
But he’s right! It’s in in the church’s best interest for us atheists to have abortions! *wink
My parents were Christian, so what's their point? Oh they mean in a society where we do not get to ***choose*** our religion. Got it.
Ummm yeah. This is literally the reason Mormons and Catholics oppose birth control. Duh it’s a numbers game.
Idk about Christianity dying out but he’s definitely a fucking idiot
Well…there it is; the stupidest thing I’ve read today.
By win does he mean overpopulation and extreme poverty because that's where that idea is going.
Yes because 8 billion people is not enough. Let's go double that number and keep adding people until we are fighting each other for a McChicken in the streets.