You can’t butcher a scene from that abomination. Only improve it.

Fair enough.

The explanation I’ve been given is actually kinda cool in a, like, fantasy worldbuilding sort of way. By nature God is perfection, and since Adam and Eve fell short of perfection, mankind is tainted by imperfection. That falling short is sin. (There is some debate about whether God “decides” what is sin, or whether it is some sort of objective nature of God, which I also think is sort of fascinating.) Man needed ways to be absolved from sin to be in communion with God. This largely involved sacrificing animals to cover over sin with blood, and this symbolism is all over the old testament.

Christianity posits that Jesus was both God and Man, combining the two natures. He lived a sinless life, but still faced death (which shouldn’t happen to someone without sin). This causes a sort of divide-by-zero error that cancels out the sin of all who are linked to Jesus through the sacraments (especially baptism and communion). This allows humans to be “in communion with God” without continued animal sacrifice. And now that living a perfect life, which is impossible, is not necessary, Christians should do good things in the world to reflect the grace they’ve been given.

Unfortunately, most Christians know fuck all about their own religion and don’t understand it at a fundamental level, and think it’s their job to go around judging people and telling them to repent.

Religious BS from Reddit

It’s cliche about the odd numbered original movies being bad… but holy crap is that one awful.

Everytime I see someone's house with so many religious imagery, I think of Carrie White's mother.

So, what about personal philosophy? Do you count "Humanism", or "Earthseed" from Parable of the Sower as religions? No magical thinking, but heavily based in ideas of morality which have no objective truth. There is no definition of "Good" that can ever be objective. You need a philosophical basis, like utilitarianism, for example, to work off of.

There are plenty of people (including many adherents, I think) who'd identify those as religions, but I struggle to comprehend how your claim would apply to them.

Jesus returns, looks around at crosses everywhere.

"Fuck me. I'm glad I didn't die accidentally drowning in manure!"

"CHRIST SMASH! RARRGH!"

Oftentimes religious beliefs can change someone's worldviews, including but not limited to, environmental awareness. And I bring my own anecdotal example: since I became a syncretic Luciferian then a sudden Lilithian, I became quite eco-centric, as I got to understand Homo sapiens as just one among countless species instead of some "god's exclusive toy" on this Pale Blue Dot. I also started to personally understand LGBTQIA+ values because, thanks to Lilith, I began discovering a part of me I wasn't aware of, my queer me I've since became quite fond of (e.g. polishing my nails and letting them grow as a cisman-presenting person). Those things would be unlikely to happen if I stayed on christianity (yes, I was christian in the far past and I deeply hate having been one) due to christian brainwashing that makes christians to "fear disobeying god" (now I want "god" to go pound sand). There are religions and religions, faiths and faiths. You won't get a coven of Wiccans knocking at your door at Monday (Moon day) 3AM "do you have 5 minutes to hear about our Mother Hekate?", you won't hear Luciferians screaming "Agios Lucifer, He's coming back to reign" inside a bus/subway while you're commuting, you won't see a Thelemite lawmaker trying to shove Liber AL Vel Legis inside kindergarten and schools, you won't see Goetians bringing a Solomon's Magick Circle inside a hospital room to call upon Stolas to cure the patients with his herbal knowledge... Yet atheists tend to put all religious beliefs into the same box as abrahamic religions which have persecuted both you atheists and us pagans, instead of trying to make some rational distinction between different faiths...!memes@lemmy.world

Baby I think we got ourselves a business model! Take that, creator of the universe!

When I was on my recent trip to Japan, we visited a few shrines and I found it kind of funny how a lot of them had gift shops selling a bunch of religious themed merch. Then I thought about Christianity and all the Jesus merch.

in addition to that, these folks also tend to bitch how abstractionism is not a real art because it doesn't show anything.

a very nordic looking jesus too.

The Christian bible says exactly the same thing, Christians just ignore it.

Thy shall not make graven images

every new one whiter than the previous

A philosophy isn't a religion. You need to think philosophy by yourself, and not just one school of philosophy, since each of them have a point of view that could help you. I also think each of this school can be monstruous and misleading if you follow blindly its principles ; but each may help you to think each situation by yourself more efficiently.

Let's take utilitarianism, maximizing the good. In many situations it applies smoothly. For the trolley track problem an utilitarian easily sacrify the one lonely to save the 5. Yet if you change the problem as: you are in an hospital and 5 patients need a different organ for transplantation ; an healthy universal donor kid is in a room waiting for a minor broken leg ; do you kill the kid to save the 5? Utilitarian principles should still say yes, but you may feel that in that case applying them would be wrong.

Those who would have faith in the utilitarianism, and apply it as a religion, may not see the problem. Of course, some may have both faith and some doubts. But I think they would think better if they think by themselves, using different philosophical principles, and without an authority to share the responsability of their decisions.

Because the bible is not the word of "god" its just the word os Kings and Popes, very real and not divine men

So God created us imperfect then holds us to an impossible standard and is punishing us for not living up to it? Doesn't sound very loving. If he had to do it this way because of his nature then he is not omnipotent.

So God created us imperfect then holds us to an impossible standard and is punishing us for not living up to it? Doesn't sound very loving.

According to the religion, humans were created perfect and chose to sin. Everything since was an effort to redeem them.

If he had to do it this way because of his nature then he is not omnipotent.

Well yeah. Inherently. In fact, I think for any conception of a deity in a religious setting to make sense there must be some kind of limitations on that deity, whether understood by their worshippers or not.

Do you mean we need a religion to counter capitalism?

That fell into the same trap you described. They had faith that the vanguard state would wither.

Yeah, there isn't much originality in Christianity. Besides the point, really.

How many billions of people in 2026 are Hellenistic? Like actually, earnestly, believe in Greek mythology?

What percent of politicians in the US worship Greek gods and use their teachings to inform policy?

Who do you mean by they? And can you develop?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanguardism

I'm pretty sure that's one of the reasons we have Protestants.

If they follow principles without critical thinking, then yes they have a faith and transform their movement into a religion. Yet Lenin's principles are to call for critics, to evaluate situations rationally and to reject dogmatism. So following this principles dogmatically is a bit ironic...

Yet I haven't met anyone claiming being a vanguard yet, or they haven't told me much about their view on Lenin's thoughts.

IDK probably. The show was likely too woke for him.

He’s a skeleton on a stick.

I could be wrong but I think one of the dividing issues between Orthodox Christians and Catholic is the depictions of religious figures. The Orthodox is more strict about it.

Jesus is the original version of The Dark Knight’s “getting captured was the plan all along” trope.

Under Christianity idols are also forbidden. Something about idols being perversions rather than holy. It's just one of those things out of many Christians seems to ignore...

The other reason is King Henry VIII wanted a divorce and the pope said no.

I guess lemmy is also becoming reddit now, shamed for asking a simple question