Israel/Palestine

[TDub]

I thought we had

[ousdahl]

Dangit. I edited out the “and uteruses” cuz I figured someone could say “but how is it live and let live to let unborn babies die!?!?!”

But actually, the whole anti-abortion debate rages on strong. States are advancing all sorts of bills further restricting it.

In fact, it sounds like scotus will hear what are pretty direct challenges to Roe and/or settled law (even though, didn’t scotus say they wouldn’t?)

Cuz that is the most important thing Merica has to address nowadays.

[MICHHAWK]

Cuz that is the most important thing Merica has to address nowadays.

covid is over. so it very well may be. not for me to say.

[Overlander]

Yeah, if this country is lacking in anything...unwanted babies has to be in the top 2.

[zsn]

I wonder how much of a role religion has had in making other issues like politics and science and education into dividing issues.

At the end of the day, much of the religious experience comes down to this “us and them” sort of tribalism.

And religion was and is very much an attempt to explain the world around us when we otherwise didn’t have the scientific understanding to explain it yet.

Tangential - when was the last time Merica was more United? Prob post-911, when we were divided against the terrorists?

You misspelled ‘Muslims’ at the end of your post. We were so United that we lumped everyone wearing a headdress and attacked Sikh shop owners thinking they were Muslims

[ousdahl]

Yeah, I was waiting for that.

What does religion do to unite - specifically, to unite more than just the believers?

[Deleted User 863]

How many edibles have you eaten?

Stop your crusade to vilify religion at every turn. It's almost as bad as the religious people preaching their nonsense (i mean that respectfully).

I think religion does plenty to unite people. It also does plenty to divide and isolate people...but that can be said about nearly anything.

If you are constantly looking for the negatives then that is all you will see. Live and let live. The vast majority of religious people (of all religions) are probably good people with good intentions. Just as the vast majority of non religious people are probably good people with good intentions.

Where'd i put those edibles? Brb...

[Deleted User 880]

Would the world be a better place if only one religion existed? I say hell yes.
Diversity is great and all but the DIFFERENT religions divide people more than unite them.

[ousdahl]

Dangit, illy lost the edibles! Classic stoner move.

gutter roundabout points out something interesting...pretty much every religion’s end game is one religion, right?

as if the world would be better off monocultural

[Cascadia]

Religion is inherently evil.

[Mjl]

Dangit, illy lost the edibles! Classic stoner move.

gutter roundabout points out something interesting...pretty much every religion’s end game is one religion, right?

as if the world would be better off monocultural

No, not right. Jews don't recruit/prosthelytize. (Except for orthodox that recruit only internally)

Not sure about eastern religions either.

[Cascadia]

Dangit, illy lost the edibles! Classic stoner move.

gutter roundabout points out something interesting...pretty much every religion’s end game is one religion, right?

as if the world would be better off monocultural

No, not right. Jews don't recruit/prosthelytize. (Except for orthodox that recruit only internally)

Not sure about eastern religions either.

lol, more proof that religion…….

[ousdahl]

Now I’m curious. I guess Jews don’t, in a sense, compared to Christians (and Muslims?), for which their “spreading the gospels” also coincided with world colonialism and conquest.

And at least the particular school of Buddhism i dabbled in for a while didn’t really “recruit” either. But maybe that’s cuz it’s just too radical, particularly for westerners.

“A Buddhist is as a Buddhist does,” which is to say, if you’re being an asshole then you’re doing it wrong....no way that would fly in Merica!

[Deleted User 863]

You're pretty judgmental for a buddhist...

[ousdahl]

Yea.

It’s cuz I was raised Catholic.

According to Catholics, I can’t ever stop being Catholic, since they confirmed me before I had the choice and all

[ousdahl]

There’s a thought - what would religion numbers look like if the practice was to let believers wait til adulthood and decide for themselves whether to go all in on it.

With Catholicism, at least, you’re expected to receive the sacrament of baptism at birth, reconciliation and communion by the 2nd grade, and be fully confirmed by the 8th grade.

In other words, you gotta pledge your existential allegiance before you can drink or vote or drive a car.

[Overlander]

Once again, the only thing you need to know about religion:

[defixione]

There’s a thought - what would religion numbers look like if the practice was to let believers wait til adulthood and decide for themselves whether to go all in on it.

With Catholicism, at least, you’re expected to receive the sacrament of baptism at birth, reconciliation and communion by the 2nd grade, and be fully confirmed by the 8th grade.

In other words, you gotta pledge your existential allegiance before you can drink or vote or drive a car.

The Amish and, to some extent, the Mennonites, practice this.

[Deleted User 863]

There’s a thought - what would religion numbers look like if the practice was to let believers wait til adulthood and decide for themselves whether to go all in on it.

With Catholicism, at least, you’re expected to receive the sacrament of baptism at birth, reconciliation and communion by the 2nd grade, and be fully confirmed by the 8th grade.

In other words, you gotta pledge your existential allegiance before you can drink or vote or drive a car.

All that shit means nothing in the grand scheme of things. That is parents forcing that on their children. Once those children grow up they make their own choices.

[ousdahl]

Yea.

But the tradeoff is, even if the kid grows up to make their own choices, that indoctrination inevitably shapes who they are, how they view the world, their sense of trust on existential levels. Let’s not act like it’s easy to just shrug it off and decide on some new world and spiritual views, just like that.

I mean, shit, look how fucked I ended up!