My point is that religion isn’t inherently a negative thing. And not worse than any other human institution solely because of its belief in the supernatural, and that organized religion is just as susceptible to corruption and weaponization as any institution.
To be clear, I’m an atheist.
Had to go check the Elon jet tracker. Maybe next time!
Right. And FIFA, a secular organization headquartered in Switzerland, selected Qatar knowing all this and they were perfectly ok with that sort of exploitation to make the World Cup happen. To say nothing else of their history of bribery and corruption.
Companies with no religious affiliation are no better. They’ll produce bombs, sell weapons to terrorists and genocidal governments, whatever brings home the bacon.
PTAs and school boards discriminate against trans and queer kids all the time. HOAs discriminate against minorities all the time.
People in groups have always used their power to enrich themselves, hurt others, and control the world around them. This is a phenomenon that isn’t limited to any one organization, sacred or secular.
Governments and the concept of nation-states have never been used to instigate ethnic cleansing? Sports organizations have never been complicit in something as heinous as slave labor?
You make a lot of great points here that I try (often to no avail) to explain to people all the time. Namely these two:
Arguing whether there’s a creator or the universe began spontaneously doesn’t really matter, as the existence of a creator (or architect, or programmer, you could phrase it different ways) only moves the goalposts one spot and the question still remains: why does anything exist rather than nothing?
Religion isn’t inherently bad or evil. It’s a human construct and is as susceptible to corruption and misuse as any other, from governments to sports organizations to scientific groups to academic institutions to PTA boards and HOAs.
I think they’re appearing more sensible lately since this administration is so batshit crazy. It’s one of the perks of lifetime terms with a high barrier for removal. They’re not beholden to any political party or branch and they’re free to rule as they see fit without fear of retribution, even the Trump appointees.
Rare Supreme Court W. Although I gotta admit I’ve been pleasantly surprised by this court lately.
Maybe they did, which is why they were at an event to discuss delivering more aid to Gaza.
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cy9vr10n732t
These were young idealists trying to make a change. But the shooter didn’t care about the distinction, and it seems many others don’t either.
How do you know they were lobbying for genocide? For all we know they were against it and working for a peaceful solution. Not everyone who works for a government is part of the ideology. That’s no better than saying every Democrat is MAGA.
Watch in release order. This is the way they were written so it will make the most sense as a first time viewer.
You will hear about the Machete order if you research Star Wars viewing orders, but this is best for subsequent watches.
Aside from the OT and PT, the projects I recommend are the Clone Wars series (it’s a lot though), Rogue One, Andor, and the Mandalorian.
Kenobi was meh but had some really good moments.
Watch the sequel trilogy once if you must, but I think they’re pretty bad and forgettable.
No problem, I like supporting all the neat content creators I follow while others are happy to rip them off because they feel entitled to free content.
And don’t give me the “support them on patreon” line because a) I already do and b) ain’t no way the majority of you who pirate YouTube are donating money to everyone you follow.
I just pay for premium. Worth every penny with the amount of YouTube we watch.
Can’t pardon his state conviction though.
Regional networks would be good. But I don’t wanna take a train to California.
Do you expect companies to never lay anyone off?
This would almost certainly depend on the contracts themselves.
Greatness always attracts haters.
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Because I’m a skeptic, and I don’t see any reason to believe in a creator or higher power. And if I did, a creator/architect is as far as that belief would go, I wouldn’t think that being was personally involved in our lives or morals, just someone who pressed play on the program.
And if there was one, I don’t think any human-made religion is so wise as to have found all the answers. That’s just prideful foolishness.
I’m open to the idea that there may be aspects to our existence and the universe of which we are not entirely aware, though as long as we can’t see any evidence of it I don’t think there’s much need to dwell on it.
On a more personal note, I think the way organized religion is the most damaging is how it makes people satisfied in their ignorance. Both because in their eyes it already explains so much so there’s no need to learn more, and also because there is a divine plan so there’s no need to question why things are the way they are or how they could be different.
Yeah sure, wars and genocide and slavery and all that. But like I said, people can find any excuse to be horrible and greedy and hurt others. It’s not hard to do, doesn’t need to be divine. But I think it’s a lot harder to convince someone to keep themselves uneducated when humans are naturally curious.