ⓝⓞ🅞🅝🅔

Let go and let entropy. 🌌

  • 7 Posts
  • 46 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: June 16th, 2023

help-circle






  • You’ve touched on a number of the things that give religious organizations cohesion and strength. The indoctrination is important when it comes to reinforcing those things and building on them. Health cooperatives, college scholarships, support when life circumstances hammer you into the ground… there’s a lot of benefits to being a part of the system. Most people never realize how much they’ve lost by being a part of the system. Why? Because they’re kept ignorant of the things they’ve lost. Keeping that knowledge and experience away from them is important to maintain the desired control.

    PS. I’m truly sorry that your nephew didn’t get to realize his dream. I’m in a similar circumstances where I gave away decades of my life to these kinds of teachings and beliefs. Goodness, what I would give to go back and make different choices. But… I’ve still got a lot of years left, so I’m trying to gain my footing and make the best of this life.


  • Christianity is quite broad and this question will yield a different answer depending on the variant.

    The example tract you shared looks like a Chick tract (or similar). That’s a specific breed of American Evangelicalism. Unfortunately, the number of followers in this brand of theology is quite numerous in the United States.

    Evangelicals are definitely proponents of education, but very specifically things that align with their theology. So education in dogma, apologetics, and their brand of theology is heavily pushed.

    Unfortunately, education in the sciences (particularly biology) is actively fought against because their theology and the sciences conflict on a number of matters. So long as the science agrees with their theology, they’re okay with people being educated in it. That which disagrees with their interpretation of scripture, is interpreted as lies from Satan polluting people’s minds and turning humanity from God.

    These Christians will always speak of how important education is, but it takes the form of indoctrination. The more they can solidify people in their beliefs, the better and more “truly” educated they are as a result. If you believe in the sciences of evolutionary biology, then you’ve been deceived and misled.

    With that said though… it’s important to remember that there are quite a number of Christians that are not adherents of this form of evangelicalism and who are strong proponents of the sciences.

    Religion is about control. The more fundamental the religion is, the stronger that control needs to be. This isn’t a Christian problem or even an evangelical problem. It’s common with numerous religions and why so many devastating wars I’ve been rooted in religion. This problem is a religious problem.





  • Haha. Are you telling me that we all don’t mutually love these attempts to personalize advertisements? There’s nothing better than knowing our personal information is being used for our benefit this way. Look at films like Blade Runner. I can’t wait to have bright fluorescent ads on every corner and open space.

    Without these things, how else am I going to know which medication I should be insisting my doctor prescribe me? And clearly this insurance company with the funny ad is totally going to be there on my side when something happens. That’s why they made the commercial, duh. So I would absolutely be certain I can trust them to quickly and fully process a claim.

    There’s nothing cozier than the snug embrace of consumerism, where we find a peculiar warmth, as if cocooned in a comforter spun from the very fibers of advertising’s allure.



  • Sorry to hear that. Truly. Growing up, bullies made life hell.

    I think one of the most important things I’ve been able to gift my kids is the ability to accept others as they are and not treat them like shit (which is ever so easy by default it seems).

    The most interesting thing about my eldest child’s troop is that nearly every youth is neurodivergent. I mean, in terms of autism for instance, members are on the opposite sides of the spectrum. It makes for challenging interactions at times, but I’m so proud to see how they work hard to be inclusive and navigate said challenges.

    They affectionately call themselves the “Weirdo Troop” and take a strange, wonderful pride in being so different especially in contrast to other more homogeneous troops.

    Recently a youth was visiting the troop to see if they might join. Their pronouns are they/them and the kids all got along really well. I was curious how this was going to go if they were interested in joining because of their mom occasionally misgendering them as she/her. The scouts use the gender recorded on the application rather than a birth certificate to determine how to place a child. They/them pushes things to a new realm.

    Even though both boys and girls are allowed in the scouts, there are rules in place to keep them separated during events like camping. A trans boy is clear. (Well, for those accepting because there remain troops with bigotted leaders.) But… how do you handle tent divisions and male/female leadership quotas when a person doesn’t identify as binary? Unfortunately, they didn’t decide to stay and were just testing the water. I kind of wish they did though because I got along well with their mom and it’s nice to click with parents when possible.