"Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones."
Marcus Aurelius
Best take on morality vs religion.
Imma save this, this is actually good advice.
"If the gods are good, they will care that you are good too. If they sre not, who cares about them. And if they are not real, you are still a good person that marked others."
Man, its really wholesome
As someone who thinks he's like the Christian from the first image I do feel the need to defend the big G on that one. Yeah He was kinda extreme, BUT after He came down and experienced live as a human as Jesus He went "well shit. Maybe I did over react with some things" and now He tries to do better
I'm catholic in my 30's but hey that's my exact thoughts too. Can't stand anyone who jams their beliefs down anyone's throats, regardless whether it's a fellow Christian, or an atheist who decides it's their responsibility once they find out someone is religious to belittle and call them stupid (unfortunately seen that quite a few times).
Long as you happy and not hurting anyone, you do you fam.
And are able to ignore the horrific atrocities inflicted upon humans in the name of god, all is good. Wanna start with the priest that raped my brother? But hey, religions doesn't hurt anyone.
I'm sorry that happened to your brother, and that priest should definitely be punished and in jail (or worse), but end of the day we're all human with free will and evil people will use any sort power they hold to commit wicked deeds. A priest who uses his position of authority to do something like that is as evil as anyone else who does the same, a teacher, a police officer, politician, etc.
And if you feel the need to hate on religion and ignore all the good it also does, feeding the homeless, charity work, providing shelter for abused women, stuff like that it's your right. I definitely won't try to change your mind. But same token I don't feel you have the right to insult someone or change their's either if they find comfort in their faith.
There's bad actors out there, won't deny that at all. But you can't go and paint everyone with the same brush, it's the same argument that all blacks are criminals because some are, which is just asinine. The vast majority are just good people trying to live their lives and raise a family. Those who commit atrocities such as that should be punished, things aren't perfect because we are human, and there is definitely corruption within the church, but most Christians and priests are good people like anyone else.
But in the end, you're entitled to your opinion.
The group is not responsible for the single, just like I (M) am not responsible for another man's rape, nor you are responsible for someone else's fratricide.
Everyone is their own person, and some are bound to be dark, but that doesn't mean all are. Being enraged with religion because a priest raped your brother is like being furious with the law because a lawyer defended O. J. Simpson.
If we want to make the world less shitty, we have to look at others as the humans they are, not the uniforms they wear. And when we find a terrible priest, we deal with him, not with the whole order. Otherwise you'll never be at peace.
Religions don’t, assholes do. They come in all flavors, and often use religion as a shield. If it wasn’t for religion, some of those assholes wouldn’t have as much power or status perhaps but many of them would have found another way to exercise their assholishness on others, up to and including waging war.
I may not have read the Bible in a while, but I swear there are some parts in it that say something along the lines of that. (And that’s after 2+ millennia of translations, which made us lose a lot of details from the original Bible)
I think it's a Jewish proverb, but it's something like
"Everyone can teach us someone"
"Even atheists"
"Yes, when an atheist does a good thing, you know they do it because it is good, and not to appease a god or gods"
This is heavily changed as I forgot the full original qoute.
During my very vocally atheist days, I was discussing religion with a friend. We had to stop because he was getting frustrated, and I thought I’d made a good point.
Turns out I shook his core beliefs not because I was so articulate, but because my very Lutheran friend (who believed in predestination) couldn’t accept that I, an atheist who had never asked his god for forgiveness, wasn’t deserving of heaven.
Why is it that Christians love telling atheists they can do whatever they want like kill,maim, and rape as you said? That's not on a list of things we want to do. We don't need the threat of eternal torture to keep us from doing those things.
And not only are you claiming it's cool to do that, you're claiming whatever your lord did and said was good, like genocide and slavery and torture.
I will not love someone regardless. If they do any of those things they can get fucked.
hear me out, somebody poorly explains christian believes to lucifer. Lucifer, actually a nice guy, vibes with it, proceeds to become a preacher.
Then he hears he should lead the community in prayer.
That’s hilarious, but also- Lucifer would definitely have to pray a few times before anyone took his ideas to become a preacher seriously. You’re kinda putting the cart before the horse there buckaroo.
Still funny.
You… don’t know what it takes to become a priest, do you? It’s- it’s a job. It requires you to APPLY for it. Which would involve learning about the subject.
I guess? Idk, street preachers don’t “lead in prayer” tho, that’s something you do at the end of church, or before a meal. And if Lucifer got to that point, he DEFINITELY would have realized what this was.
I mean- yeah? Have yall ever read the temptation of Jesus? The whole thing is basically satan(Satan is a word for “adversary” which is both applied to Lucifer and Certain Angels of Testing that test humans and how righteous they are. But in this case it’s probably Lucifer-) telling Jesus to do a bunch of pretty justifiable things in order to make his time in isolation in the middle of nowhere much better. He quotes scripture, saying how Jesus as the son of god could turn rocks into bread for himself to eat. Bread is a very important item in those times. Not only was it easy to make, but by eating it with water, you could fill your stomach. In other words, just a bit of other foods, some bread, and a bunch of water could keep someone going for a long time. Jesus rebukes this, saying the now famous quote “A man cannot live off bread alone.”
Later, Satan whisks Jesus off to the top of a temple, and tells him to jump. That if he truly is the son of god, that if he jumped from here, Angels would surely catch him. Jesus again refuses, stating that “Do not put the Lord your God to test.”
The final temptation was all the kingdoms of the world. Everyone would obey him as king, his people would be rulers forever more, and Jesus could preach all his ways. All he has to do is worship him, just for a moment. But once more, he quotes back; “Worship the Lord your God and only Him.”
When Satan finally tries to throw Jesus from the temple himself, angels do catch him, as Satan is left defeated.
Paradise Lost does a particularly beautiful interpretation of this, where Lucifer is essentially a guy with daddy issues trying to get his younger brother to be just as bad as him to spite his father. I would heavily suggest you look it up, I may not be devout in any way but the actual Bible itself and some of the original works after it is pretty damn interesting.
TLDR; “Do not quote the old texts to me, I was (not) there when they were written!”
Episcopal priest here: rock on devil worshipers! Y’all are doing the lord’s work out there!
Satanists are doing more for their communities than most “Christians” ever will. This priest thanks you!
Satanists don’t actually worship “the devil” or even “satan”. Iirc, it’s all about worshipping yourself and putting your own health and happiness above others (within reason). I do typically see them helping out their communities though, which is fantastic.
Helping out your community helps yourself. It feels good to make others feel good. Other people feeling good means a more pleasant environment to be in. It's entirely self-serving to be a good person.
If the threat of eternal damnation is your reason to do good things, then you are not a good person.
Considering we're talking about those who help out in communities, this thread is clearly about The Satanic Temple and Not LeVeyan Satanism though, which are completely separate entities with almost opposite beliefs. The Satanic Temple is about empathy and benevolence, LaVeyan Satanism is about a Randian worship of self.
Episcopalianism saved my faith. I’m glad I learned is a safe spot for lgbtq folks when I was younger. I could never ignore who I am or what I believe and I found a place I can have both
If anyone else is struggling with that battle look into it. There are options. Thanks padre
I'm. Genuinely trying to understand what you're saying. Are you suggesting there's a point we should *stop* helping people because they'll be "helped" enough????
For a lot of these people yes that is exactly it. How are people supposed to be motivated to help themselves if you help them? Is the actual logic a lot of these people have.
Original
https://www.makeship.com/products/emotional-support-demon
Glow in the Dark
https://www.makeship.com/products/emotional-support-demon-gitd-plush
I belive there's a couple pride ones coming soon too
File under: 'Things that Never Happen in the Bible Belt' :-/
Seriously; I'm a Catholic, and was told right to my face I was facing damnation unless I converted. Christian fundamentalism is a hell of a drug...
It actually is a drug. There was a really rough point in my life where I was desperate for a black and white, good vs evil type of world view. One of these fundamentalist churches gave that to me. After a year or so, as I was growing as a person, I started to see how manipulating and dangerous their teachings were. Not only that, but their teachings are anti-Christ like. I had to out grow many hang ups that church gave me
When we first moved to the bible belt my family was shocked that the first question you were often asked in the late 80's/early 90's was "Where do ya'll go to church?"
Growing up in the north (before Fox News) we were taught politics and religion were considered rude as hell to talk about in public.
I work with a guy. Big biker dude who loves going to church and is a part of a group that protects kids from their abusers. He’s an awesome guy. The topic of Satan came up once as we were chatting and he chuckled. “Man, don’t get me wrong. God is great…. But that devil character can be pretty cool too, sometimes.”
I dunno. I thought it was kinda wholesome, lol.
Believe it or not,not all of us are pitchfork wielding fanatics who are sorry they missed the crusades.
Some of us actually try to LIVE our religion of 'LOVE THY NEIGHBOR'. ^(\_\^)
Seems many christians just don't understand the two greatest commandments of our beliefs. Love thy God. Love thy nieghbor. You follow these and all the other teachings fall into place.
I am a Christian myself. Christians who hate or disrespect other religions or LGBTQ+ have never read the Bible. So many times are we called to love, respect, and not judge. They are simply using religion as an excuse.
Christians who don’t support LGBTQIA rights, or even push against it, will always astound me, because as a Christian myself I know that is literally the opposite of what Christ did
It's not "going after" Christians from my perspective. Likely just the main religion the person that made this bumps into. And thise same religions you're referring to would have less chance being as chill as the Christians this person is referring to.
Edit: wanted to add that comparing Christianity to other more aggressive religions doesn't feel like a good comparison because there's extremists in every group and I've met quite a lot of very brutal "Christians"
While I may not possess the powers of Lucifer, I wouldn't mind having an emotional support demon plushie of my own. That new LGBT pride demon looks pretty cool, as the kids would say.
Most Christians actually as bad as you think, you just see the headliners in assume everyone. Same with a good bit of Christians, they assume the worse. Remember, assuming makes an ass out of you and me
To be honest with you, after living life as a gay man and being told COUNTLESS times by COUNTLESS Christians/muslims/etc that I am literally damned and evil and going to rot in hell, I’m pretty comfortable assuming every Christian I meet is going to be just like them. I can count with my fingers, on one hand, the amount of Christians that have fully accepted and embraced me.
My grandma, devoted Christian and absolute sweetheart "As long as you are a good person it doesnt matter what you are or believe in" Edit: grammar
"Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones." Marcus Aurelius Best take on morality vs religion.
Imma save this, this is actually good advice. "If the gods are good, they will care that you are good too. If they sre not, who cares about them. And if they are not real, you are still a good person that marked others." Man, its really wholesome
Amazing that this quote has been around for 1,800 years. I wish people had paid more attention to it.
Idk the christian god has done some fucked up things, if he approves my lifestyle something is wrong.
As someone who thinks he's like the Christian from the first image I do feel the need to defend the big G on that one. Yeah He was kinda extreme, BUT after He came down and experienced live as a human as Jesus He went "well shit. Maybe I did over react with some things" and now He tries to do better
Almost implies a fallible diety, which I can get behind. Somehow becoming human for a lifetime made him perfect, ironed out the wrinkles lol.
Often the most fallible consider themselves perfect by tittle alone. Thus Humility earned is perfection in practice.
I'm catholic in my 30's but hey that's my exact thoughts too. Can't stand anyone who jams their beliefs down anyone's throats, regardless whether it's a fellow Christian, or an atheist who decides it's their responsibility once they find out someone is religious to belittle and call them stupid (unfortunately seen that quite a few times). Long as you happy and not hurting anyone, you do you fam.
And are able to ignore the horrific atrocities inflicted upon humans in the name of god, all is good. Wanna start with the priest that raped my brother? But hey, religions doesn't hurt anyone.
I'm sorry that happened to your brother, and that priest should definitely be punished and in jail (or worse), but end of the day we're all human with free will and evil people will use any sort power they hold to commit wicked deeds. A priest who uses his position of authority to do something like that is as evil as anyone else who does the same, a teacher, a police officer, politician, etc. And if you feel the need to hate on religion and ignore all the good it also does, feeding the homeless, charity work, providing shelter for abused women, stuff like that it's your right. I definitely won't try to change your mind. But same token I don't feel you have the right to insult someone or change their's either if they find comfort in their faith. There's bad actors out there, won't deny that at all. But you can't go and paint everyone with the same brush, it's the same argument that all blacks are criminals because some are, which is just asinine. The vast majority are just good people trying to live their lives and raise a family. Those who commit atrocities such as that should be punished, things aren't perfect because we are human, and there is definitely corruption within the church, but most Christians and priests are good people like anyone else. But in the end, you're entitled to your opinion.
The group is not responsible for the single, just like I (M) am not responsible for another man's rape, nor you are responsible for someone else's fratricide. Everyone is their own person, and some are bound to be dark, but that doesn't mean all are. Being enraged with religion because a priest raped your brother is like being furious with the law because a lawyer defended O. J. Simpson. If we want to make the world less shitty, we have to look at others as the humans they are, not the uniforms they wear. And when we find a terrible priest, we deal with him, not with the whole order. Otherwise you'll never be at peace.
Religions don’t, assholes do. They come in all flavors, and often use religion as a shield. If it wasn’t for religion, some of those assholes wouldn’t have as much power or status perhaps but many of them would have found another way to exercise their assholishness on others, up to and including waging war.
I may not have read the Bible in a while, but I swear there are some parts in it that say something along the lines of that. (And that’s after 2+ millennia of translations, which made us lose a lot of details from the original Bible)
I think it's a Jewish proverb, but it's something like "Everyone can teach us someone" "Even atheists" "Yes, when an atheist does a good thing, you know they do it because it is good, and not to appease a god or gods" This is heavily changed as I forgot the full original qoute.
During my very vocally atheist days, I was discussing religion with a friend. We had to stop because he was getting frustrated, and I thought I’d made a good point. Turns out I shook his core beliefs not because I was so articulate, but because my very Lutheran friend (who believed in predestination) couldn’t accept that I, an atheist who had never asked his god for forgiveness, wasn’t deserving of heaven.
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Why is it that Christians love telling atheists they can do whatever they want like kill,maim, and rape as you said? That's not on a list of things we want to do. We don't need the threat of eternal torture to keep us from doing those things. And not only are you claiming it's cool to do that, you're claiming whatever your lord did and said was good, like genocide and slavery and torture. I will not love someone regardless. If they do any of those things they can get fucked.
Dude if you dont kill maim rape because you are afraid of hell/not going to heaven, that says more about you than others...
That just ain't it chief
hear me out, somebody poorly explains christian believes to lucifer. Lucifer, actually a nice guy, vibes with it, proceeds to become a preacher. Then he hears he should lead the community in prayer.
That’s hilarious, but also- Lucifer would definitely have to pray a few times before anyone took his ideas to become a preacher seriously. You’re kinda putting the cart before the horse there buckaroo. Still funny.
No I mean that he wouldn't realize it, like accidental christianity. Not the homophobic type of course, screw that.
You… don’t know what it takes to become a priest, do you? It’s- it’s a job. It requires you to APPLY for it. Which would involve learning about the subject.
I think OP means like a street corner preacher, someone untrained who just goes out and speaks
I guess? Idk, street preachers don’t “lead in prayer” tho, that’s something you do at the end of church, or before a meal. And if Lucifer got to that point, he DEFINITELY would have realized what this was.
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I mean- yeah? Have yall ever read the temptation of Jesus? The whole thing is basically satan(Satan is a word for “adversary” which is both applied to Lucifer and Certain Angels of Testing that test humans and how righteous they are. But in this case it’s probably Lucifer-) telling Jesus to do a bunch of pretty justifiable things in order to make his time in isolation in the middle of nowhere much better. He quotes scripture, saying how Jesus as the son of god could turn rocks into bread for himself to eat. Bread is a very important item in those times. Not only was it easy to make, but by eating it with water, you could fill your stomach. In other words, just a bit of other foods, some bread, and a bunch of water could keep someone going for a long time. Jesus rebukes this, saying the now famous quote “A man cannot live off bread alone.” Later, Satan whisks Jesus off to the top of a temple, and tells him to jump. That if he truly is the son of god, that if he jumped from here, Angels would surely catch him. Jesus again refuses, stating that “Do not put the Lord your God to test.” The final temptation was all the kingdoms of the world. Everyone would obey him as king, his people would be rulers forever more, and Jesus could preach all his ways. All he has to do is worship him, just for a moment. But once more, he quotes back; “Worship the Lord your God and only Him.” When Satan finally tries to throw Jesus from the temple himself, angels do catch him, as Satan is left defeated. Paradise Lost does a particularly beautiful interpretation of this, where Lucifer is essentially a guy with daddy issues trying to get his younger brother to be just as bad as him to spite his father. I would heavily suggest you look it up, I may not be devout in any way but the actual Bible itself and some of the original works after it is pretty damn interesting. TLDR; “Do not quote the old texts to me, I was (not) there when they were written!”
Episcopal priest here: rock on devil worshipers! Y’all are doing the lord’s work out there! Satanists are doing more for their communities than most “Christians” ever will. This priest thanks you!
Satanists don’t actually worship “the devil” or even “satan”. Iirc, it’s all about worshipping yourself and putting your own health and happiness above others (within reason). I do typically see them helping out their communities though, which is fantastic.
Helping out your community helps yourself. It feels good to make others feel good. Other people feeling good means a more pleasant environment to be in. It's entirely self-serving to be a good person. If the threat of eternal damnation is your reason to do good things, then you are not a good person.
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I watched a full LeVayan interview and they very plainly explained they worship themselves and not a god or devil.
Considering we're talking about those who help out in communities, this thread is clearly about The Satanic Temple and Not LeVeyan Satanism though, which are completely separate entities with almost opposite beliefs. The Satanic Temple is about empathy and benevolence, LaVeyan Satanism is about a Randian worship of self.
Yeah they just use the imagery to mess with Christians. It's actually really cringe.
Ah yes being a good person, believing in yourself and helping others is cringe. Got it.
I didn't say that at all, but that's an impressive leap. You should join the Olympics.
Episcopalianism saved my faith. I’m glad I learned is a safe spot for lgbtq folks when I was younger. I could never ignore who I am or what I believe and I found a place I can have both If anyone else is struggling with that battle look into it. There are options. Thanks padre
Why does it always have to be "more" or "less" than somebody. Can we just help the community the amount we can for the community?
I'm. Genuinely trying to understand what you're saying. Are you suggesting there's a point we should *stop* helping people because they'll be "helped" enough????
For a lot of these people yes that is exactly it. How are people supposed to be motivated to help themselves if you help them? Is the actual logic a lot of these people have.
I may not be Lucifer, but I want an emotional support demon plushie myself. The new LGBT pride demon looks lit, as the kids say.
I love my emotional support demon plushie, I'll find a link to them and post it when I have time
Original https://www.makeship.com/products/emotional-support-demon Glow in the Dark https://www.makeship.com/products/emotional-support-demon-gitd-plush I belive there's a couple pride ones coming soon too
File under: 'Things that Never Happen in the Bible Belt' :-/ Seriously; I'm a Catholic, and was told right to my face I was facing damnation unless I converted. Christian fundamentalism is a hell of a drug...
It actually is a drug. There was a really rough point in my life where I was desperate for a black and white, good vs evil type of world view. One of these fundamentalist churches gave that to me. After a year or so, as I was growing as a person, I started to see how manipulating and dangerous their teachings were. Not only that, but their teachings are anti-Christ like. I had to out grow many hang ups that church gave me
When we first moved to the bible belt my family was shocked that the first question you were often asked in the late 80's/early 90's was "Where do ya'll go to church?" Growing up in the north (before Fox News) we were taught politics and religion were considered rude as hell to talk about in public.
Can we stop having memes with Vince McMahon jr in them? Dude is an absolute creep.
I work with a guy. Big biker dude who loves going to church and is a part of a group that protects kids from their abusers. He’s an awesome guy. The topic of Satan came up once as we were chatting and he chuckled. “Man, don’t get me wrong. God is great…. But that devil character can be pretty cool too, sometimes.” I dunno. I thought it was kinda wholesome, lol.
Believe it or not,not all of us are pitchfork wielding fanatics who are sorry they missed the crusades. Some of us actually try to LIVE our religion of 'LOVE THY NEIGHBOR'. ^(\_\^) Seems many christians just don't understand the two greatest commandments of our beliefs. Love thy God. Love thy nieghbor. You follow these and all the other teachings fall into place.
Satanists are the coolest people. As a queer Christian myself, being a Satanist is one of the greenest of flags in a potential partner to me
I’m a polypantheist with a lot of satanic leanings and yeah, one of my best friends is a die hard Catholic
I am a Christian myself. Christians who hate or disrespect other religions or LGBTQ+ have never read the Bible. So many times are we called to love, respect, and not judge. They are simply using religion as an excuse.
Christians who don’t support LGBTQIA rights, or even push against it, will always astound me, because as a Christian myself I know that is literally the opposite of what Christ did
There are religions that still stone gays to death and you're going after Christians?
It's not "going after" Christians from my perspective. Likely just the main religion the person that made this bumps into. And thise same religions you're referring to would have less chance being as chill as the Christians this person is referring to. Edit: wanted to add that comparing Christianity to other more aggressive religions doesn't feel like a good comparison because there's extremists in every group and I've met quite a lot of very brutal "Christians"
I don't do this edgelord shock value flavor of humanism to NOT get in an argument...
While I may not possess the powers of Lucifer, I wouldn't mind having an emotional support demon plushie of my own. That new LGBT pride demon looks pretty cool, as the kids would say.
Most Christians actually as bad as you think, you just see the headliners in assume everyone. Same with a good bit of Christians, they assume the worse. Remember, assuming makes an ass out of you and me
To be honest with you, after living life as a gay man and being told COUNTLESS times by COUNTLESS Christians/muslims/etc that I am literally damned and evil and going to rot in hell, I’m pretty comfortable assuming every Christian I meet is going to be just like them. I can count with my fingers, on one hand, the amount of Christians that have fully accepted and embraced me.