this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2024
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What is your general attitude towards those who believe in religion whether they are jewish, Muslim, Christian etc etc.

Do you get on well with any religious friends and neighbours?

Have you ever thought of believing in a religion at some point?

If you do not like the faiths, why?

If you DO, also why? Does this come from your family? Maybe something went bad during your life?

I get that Lemmy might have the same stereotype in Reddit that there are loads of atheists, but there's a good reason why despite criticism of religion, it is still here.

P.S. I am not religious or anti religious in any fashion, I am agnostic.

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[–] zxqwas@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

Attitude: I generally don't care unless they try to tell me what to do based on their religion. This is generally never a problem, I've had more vegans and environmentalists bother me.

Getting along: we have some high faith denomination of Christianity here. I've worked with a few and generally don't notice unless they drop something heavy on their foot and don't swear.

Thought of believing: not since I was 12 or something.

Do not like faiths: I acknowledge they can create a sense of community and belonging. I have a dim view of the dogma that tends to come with them.

[–] fubo@lemmy.world 42 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Imagine if that person did all the same things they do, but without the label of "religion" being attached.

Charity? Awesome! Habitat for Humanity is an explicitly Christian organization and does great work. In my neighborhood, the local Lutheran and Quaker churches give out free food to the poor, and they don't sneak any Lutheran or Quaker cooties into it. If you're good to others because you think God wants you to be good to others, that still really does count as being good to others.

Prayer? Okay, take "religion" off of it and they're meditating, thinking, or talking to themselves. That's good. Unless they're thinking and talking about torturing their neighbors eternally, or something creepy like that. (But even then, better to keep those fantasies to yourself than to act them out in public.) Die Gedanken sind frei β€” thoughts are free.

Going to worship services? Okay, they've got a weekly social event where they sing songs and listen to speeches. Sounds great, unless the songs are about "everyone outside this room is a terrible person and deserves to suffer forever" and the speeches are about hate politics. If they're about how wonderful it is to be nice to each other, or being brave and standing up against oppression, or something else that would be positive even without the label of "religion" on it, great!

Dietary rules? It's okay to have preferences, distinct cultures, cuisines, and so forth. For that matter: my family isn't Jewish, but when I was little, we ate kosher beef hot dogs, because my mom expected the rabbis would care about the meat being sanitary. (Unfortunately in retrospect, kosher slaughter is, shall we say, not clearly better than secular slaughter.)

[–] Krono@lemmy.today 20 points 1 week ago (8 children)

What you said is all true, but you are ignoring the negative aspects of religion.

Religious influence, both on their followers and on government, is anti-science, misogynistic, and anti-LGBT.

Religions are funded like pyramid schemes, with the most desperate and vulnerable as their victims.

Religious indoctrination is child abuse.

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[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

I like this interpretation but last I checked the vegans aren't going to vote for a despot who will kill all non-vegans, and that they don't view the death of all non-vegans as a positive thing. (Most vegans I know are keenly aware they can only participate in veganism because of modern agricultural, distribution, and economic systems. They know veganism is an elitist choice that a lot of the world cannot make.)

I think that's the major difference here.

[–] fubo@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Sure. Voting for religious genocide is just as bad as voting for non-religious genocide: e.g. on the basis of nationalism, pseudoscience, or the like.

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[–] HarriPotero@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I treat religion like my penis.

It's ok not to have one.

It's ok to have one.

It's ok to be proud of it.

But don't display it in public, and don't shove it down people's throats.

And NEVER whip it out in congress.

[–] Shou@lemmy.world 27 points 1 week ago (3 children)

You aren't born religious. You are indoctrinated. I grew up in a cult. It wasn't nearly as bad as cults get, but it has its own insane ~~ramblings~~ "teachings"

I escaped my indoctrination because I took it too seriously. I wanted to adhere perfectly, which resulted in finding out how convoluted and hypocritical it is. It is impossible.

So in my confusion, I started to look more critically at the hows and whys. The result, religions all use the same dirty tactics to get people to believe. False promises, comforting lies and empty threats that will seem real to those who were taught magical thinking.

I reject religion.

But I cannot hate people who are religious for just being religious. They were a child when taught, or an adult so downtrodden they needed a fairy tale to continue life. Or perhaps just are a bit naive. It's a slippery slope. So... I can't blame people. I get it. I know what it's like and it saddens me the older people get, the less likely they'll ever escape the mental constriction religion brings.

I sure as fuck hate a religious person for commiting hate crimes. They can go to hell.

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[–] Vanth@reddthat.com 26 points 1 week ago

Raised Catholic, and I definitely see organized religion through that lens. I see charismatic leaders manipulating followers. I see systems to keep people, especially women and children, subservient. I see followers giving up responsibility for their own actions and beliefs. Even if a religion doesn't start out that way, the way they organize makes them susceptible to the power-hungry who will corrupt it.

Am I extremely sceptical of organized religion? Yes, doubly so of people who seek positions of authority within organized religion.

Do I recognize some people who follow an organized religion are good and well-intentioned? Yes.

Do I call bullshit on the people who think the only way to be a good person is by following an organized religion? Heck, yes.

[–] mo_lave@reddthat.com 25 points 1 week ago (15 children)

I don't care unless they force me to believe the way they do.

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[–] ssm@lemmy.sdf.org 22 points 1 week ago

I am agnostic, and if a god exists, I hate them.

[–] Zier@fedia.io 16 points 1 week ago

All religions are made up. No one has ever proven that a "god" or supernatural entity exists, no one, ever. It's all mythology, fiction and "supernatural" nonsense. Ghosts, angels, demons, gods, spirits, pick a name, pick a flavor, none of it is real. It's like insisting that Harry Potter, James Bond, Tinkerbell, Captain Kirk or Superman are actually real living people / spirits / entities, and they have the ability to control you now and after you die. Just because you, or someone claims it's real does not make it factual. You are allowed to believe in whatever you want to, but you are NOT allowed to force others to believe that same thing. If you truly believe in your "religion", you would research it in every way possible, reading pro and con information to get a balanced understanding of what you decided to believe in. You will learn where all the stories of your religion originate from, and that will actually decide what you choose to believe in. Religion is a lifestyle choice.

[–] n3m37h@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I consider myself an anti-theist. Religion is used to control unintelligent/mentally challenged people and shouldn't exist in any form.

I don't hate the people unless they are forcing it down my throat.

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[–] Sgt_choke_n_stroke@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I hate the belief not the believer

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[–] shapesandstuff@feddit.de 12 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I don't mind them doing their thing at home, but I could do without them shoving their lifestyle in everybody's face in public.

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[–] hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 week ago

Growing up in religious circles I kinda learned that there's no good in religion. Surely there's good religious people, but they spread the evil word the same as those who want to bring the oppressive shit onto others.

Religion has never been good for anything but for controlling masses

I just don't support dogmatic thinking and indoctrination, especially when it creeps into politics, which is inevitable at the scale of the most popular religions.

In theory I have no problem with other people's faith, but in practice it degrades the critical thinking capacity of our population and, paradoxically, the moral capacity as well. That's a net negative in my opinion.

Charities exist without religion. I think religions often teach good moral frameworks, though very traditional. But those come with a huge caveat that you cut out a big hole in your brain for the belief that God exists and cares about how you behave. That one idea leads to so much trouble, from false prophets to normalized misogyny and hatred of gay people.

[–] daltotron@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 week ago

Mostly I find them annoying. I mildly understand the need for human meaning as it kind of, tends to come up later at night, or for the elderly, or when life really sucks or you tend to even just be really really bored right.

I also understand some of the benefits, right, like. As much as people will despise to admit it, you don't get, say, the number zero without the Muslim science guys, and you don't get science without the enlightenment which stemmed out of some weirdass Catholic Christian theory guys. and then everyone's all like, oh no well you can't attribute that to the Catholics and if anything they hampered progress, and I'd say, well, maybe, maybe, but also maybe science sucks as we commonly understand it and maybe also you can't really divorce any part of things from their cultural context, or else things get fucky.

On the other hand I find them annoying and I find that all to be totally null and void because the vast majority of people are just using it as an opiate to placate literally all of their anxieties about the world with a bunch of meaningless thought terminating cliche style statements, and even actively reinforce their own participation in some of the worst aspects of their own culture and society even at points in which they really don't want to or know that it's horrible and is causing them pain.

So I dunno, mostly it sucks.

[–] klemptor@startrek.website 10 points 1 week ago

I'm atheist. My mom is a devout catholic (and raised me that way) and my dad is an atheist Jew. I never truly believed and mostly think religion is dumb, but I'm fine with everyone believing or not as they see fit. I'm not fine when others' religion is forced on anyone else - e.g., abortion restrictions, the 10 commandments being displayed in Louisiana classrooms.

I used to be fence sitter agnostic but Qanon has made me deep on the athiest side. I don't care what ones religion is but I don't want to hear about it. Its fine to mention it but if someone is always talking about it then I will avoid them.

[–] lud@lemm.ee 9 points 1 week ago

I don't really care if they believe in something.

I would never try to convince them to stop or anything like that.

I think the type of people that frequent Reddit and Lemmy and constantly complain and mock religious people are the worst.

[–] Zerlyna@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

I’m an ex-Christian, the more I read the Bible, the more it doesn’t make sense. But I respect others choices to believe in their higher power, whatever that may be that makes their life work. Double points if they respect back. They all can’t be right.

[–] Nemo@midwest.social 8 points 1 week ago

I myself am Christian and have never had trouble getting along with others no matter their religious beliefs. The only conflict is when someone thinks their religion or religious precepts should be made law; I have no tolerance for that.

[–] juliebean@lemm.ee 8 points 1 week ago

personally, i don't get, like, at all. i don't care what nonsense folk put their faith in, so long as they don't use it to justify being a dick, or try to justify others being a dick. maybe they get some pity/sympathy from me, to a point, cause they probably got brainwashed when they were a child, or otherwise in a vulnerable state, and maybe some amusement depending on how 'out there' their counterfactual beliefs are.

i generally get on well enough with my religious friends, but it's not a topic that comes up much in real life.

i don't usually care for organized religion, but that has more to do with my anarchism than my atheism.

this all goes equally whether we're talking about conventional religions, modern conspiracy theories, new-age mumbo jumbo, or what-have-you.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Despite the claimed ostensible "good" Religion can supposedly bring...

We're literally in the middle of a mass extinction event and facing our own extinction and belief in this religious horseshit precludes people from caring or believing in man-made disaster.

We're literally facing our own extinction because these people can't be fucked to face up to reality instead of playing cult games of "but I'll have everlasting life after death so who cares what happens to the planet!"

I don't give one flying fuck what "good" it can do for an individual, it's going to be the downfall of human fucking civilization.

Whatever "good" it brings is destroyed and overshadowed by the cult like behavior that would worship corrupt figures like Donald Trump and who choose to live in a false reality simply because it is more comforting.

[–] EleventhHour@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (58 children)

Those who believe in an invisible sky wizard (or any other delusion) belong in psychotherapy.

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[–] Brickardo@feddit.nl 7 points 1 week ago

Don't ask don't tell

[–] Haus@startrek.website 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

For the don't-anger-the-sky-daddy religions, roughly the same as having a crazy aunt who gives 10% of her shit to a psychic or Trump. I haven't experienced the be-one-with-the-universe religions being as exploitative, but I guess those wack Theravadan Wats don't pay for themselves.

[–] space_of_eights@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 week ago

I respect the fact that people believe. They even can form their own clubs as far as I'm concerned. Forcing those beliefs onto other people is something I do have an issue with.

[–] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 6 points 1 week ago

Same way I get on wih other people who have imaginary friends, I just ignore them and worry about the inevitable indoctrination (aka abuse) of their children.

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