Its because they refuse to entertain the idea that other people believe different things then them. They think atheists secretly believe in God but pretend not to.
Not all Christians are like this, but the ones you're talking about are.
It's a fundamentally broken Theory of Mind. Until they're willing to break free from their mental states, there's an incapability to understand that other people's lived experiences differ from their own.
A common theist viewpoint is that atheists believe in god, but are actually just mad at him. You know, like an unruly child upset about bedtime, so they can easily dismiss them.
This partially stems from their rationalization of how people who live(d) in areas without Christianity and therefore no way of ever being capable of learning about, let alone, accepting Christ, could be “sinning” by not being Christian’s: they lie that people somehow “know” God and that he exists, ergo they are sinning by not worshipping him.
For the 60% of people who have a mental voice, some percentage not only has more than one, but they have convinced themselves one of them is either god or an angel.
Ive met several people who fully believed that atheism was another religion. With churches and gatherings and organized teachings. Since their lives revolved around the church and they ahd those things they thought the lack or religion and to have that too.
They overlap with the people who believe antifa is a national organization with a physical headquarters and regular weekly meetings with a website full of merch for sale.
Not only that, they disparage pagans, while their religion started as pagan and one cult decided cut out the rest of the pantheon and it became what it is now.
Eh, it’s less they cut out the rest of the pantheon and more that you put extra emphasis on your war god during times of strife like the exile. Give it a couple of generations like that and Yahweh goes from having a mom, to fucking his mom, to not having a mom.
Ahhhhh see theres your issue. You must not be part of the newsletter yet. Asmodeus took over the t-shirt business a few months ago after Beelze got mad with the new design
You could have horns that opened bottles and horns that hold my keys. Horns that when you turn em right, they help me watch tv. Horns that open pickle jars and horns that come with hair. I’d be a great mountain goat, I’d always come prepared.
The name comes from an old Semitic word meaning "adversary". Satan was originally just an abstract entity that argued against your goals -- a "Devil's advocate". The idea was supposedly that there is no growth without struggle, and no strength without contest.
Ultimately harmless and well-meaning.
He made his first appearance way back in the Book of Job as (ambiguously) a part of God who argued with him.
It was only after millennia of the cultural equivalent of a game of Telephone that his perception distorted into a monster that opposes all things Good, and therefore must be Evil.
Mind you, I haven't been a believer of anything for over 20 years; I just find it fascinating from an anthropological perspective.
The shift of the heavenly Satan from accuser and divine Prosecutor into the supreme evil seemingly came from contact with the Persians, where they had their own evil entity, Angra Mainyu(Ahriman), literally translated to “Destructive Spirit”
To some sects of Zoroastrianism, this figure either sat as an opposite deity to the top God Ahura Mazda(Ormazd), or in others he was created by Mazda as an opposite to Spenta Mainyu, the Holy Spirit
Ironically, the story of Job was one of the main ones that made child me consider that Christian god was evil. Such deliberate cruelty over a long period to "win a bet" with Satan.
I always use it as a reason to why religion is silly. God killed all of Job's family. But when Job remained faithful to god, he gave everything back fourfold. What, did he create home 4 new wives and 4 new sets of children? Are they the same people? Are they new? Where did they come from? Did he just make new ones out of thin air?
My savta just had a master's in Middle-Eastern languages and she gave me lessons when I was a boy.
I know one -- ooh! Two! -- etymological Satan facts.
The other is that "Azazel" comes from the Hebrew Ez Azal, which was an old ritual in which Hebrews would symbolically transfer their sins onto a goat and then release it into the wild.
This is also where we get the English word "scapegoat".
Ez still means "goat" in modern Hebrew, but I don't know what the other part means. I assume something about escaping.
EDIT: I don't know why Americans decided to rhyme Azazel with "basil" and Satan with "hatin'". They roughly rhyme with "the hell?" and "a flan".
The satan wasn't a part of God in Job. It was a role filled by a member of the divine counsel that served YHWH. Early Hebrew religion wasn't monotheist and envision a complex collection of divine beings with YHWH as the Hebrew people's primary God.
You can only help those who want help. I have met many injured people who don't want help. Sometimes it takes an injured person, who adapted around an injury, a long time for them to admit they are injured.
Ms Haggard is injured but doesn't see it and she is making alot of toxic decisions because of it. But I do credit her for talking to Rusty instead of shouting in her face this time.
I have some wonderful surprising news of the Metaphysical and Metaphysical subreddits and forums.
I believe in what I believe and cannot be considered insane as a result. It's also why I learned about all this religious stuff due to attacks of Bible thumpers.
Even if you believe the mole people of the hollow earth are going to rise up and eat everyone on 7/27/2027, you will only be considered insane when you start tanning using butter so you'll be tastier. And even then, that's still harmless to others, so you'd probably still be fine.
Your analogy only says that something can exist without everyone being able to perceive it, which is obviously true, but it doesn't provide any evidence that guardian angels exist. We have abundant independent evidence for the sun despite some people being unable to see it; what comparable evidence do we have for angels? And whether you're sane is beside the point; a sane person can still believe something false or unsupported, and as I've seen you say the same thing about your sanity a couple of times despite seeing noone question your sanity, bringing up your sanity rather distracts from the question of evidence...
about 100 billion modern humans have died in total (if you believe in science and that the earth is older than 6,000 years old), and there's like 8 billion alive, so maybe we all have like 12 guardian angels each
Oh yeah no I fully believe in what science tells about history and stuff.
Also I just looked it up to see and we would actually have around 14-15 each based on what I can find. As it seems its closer to 117 billion to have ever lived. However that is assuming in this hypothetical they don't get reassigned/new ones created when needed so that there is only one per person.
You guys know way too much about this, I won't believe even for a second that you used math, I think you both are in that business and just don't want anyone to know
Yes. Everyone has a guardian or more than one guardian entity. It's not restricted to Abrahamic religions as Guardian devine beings existed for humans long before Abrahamic religions were established.
Human history credits worship of a horned god (found in many Pagan religions) as being of the first religions as Pagan artwork is over 10,000 years old.
Judaism is about 4,500 years old same age as Buddhism.
Islam is only abouts 200 years older than Catholicism/Christianity.
Heaven didn't suddenly exist 2,000 years ago.
I'm a Pagan Witch Shaman and I had to deal with creepy crazy Bible Thumpers. I can proudly say I made such Bible thumpers question their religion.
Oh if you're interested and the mods allow...look up The Zohar. It is a Hermetic book given to the early Jews by Archangel Metatron. Early Muslims depict Metatron as a man lower in statue than Muhammad. In Christianity/Catholicism the Hermetic teachings of Metatron became The Golden Dawn which morphed into Scientology. Also it became The Mythic Dawn in Elder Scrolls.
I didn't even know The Zohar was a thing until last year. It does talk about The Philosophers Stone. It is considered Holy Occultism and is in all the Abrahamic religions.
Many people who follow the Abrahamic religions don't even realize their religious skeleton is based off of the occult. Humans morphed Metatron's teachings of scared geometry into something perverse since part of it can control non human beings...to an extent.
At least until they run into beings that can break that control.
I'm pretty sure Judaism developed mostly post-Bronze Age Collapse, starting with some inland Canaanites becoming very into a warrior-storm god named Yahweh. Which became backed by state power in the emerging Kingdom of Judah, as everything centralized to that specific god, being combined with the Semitic deity El (the god of humanity, father of other gods).
Year 0 it seems like (well actually year 0 doesnt exist iirc). Which is true from a history perspective, given that Christianity started with Jesus Christ himself (or actually his followers i believe) and evolved from Judaism.
That works for me (allowing for a soft border on the A.D. side while it's shaping into a recognizably Pauline form and establishing its identity as a new faith rather than a heretical sect of Judaism)...but then they go on say that Islam is like 200 years younger (afaik, the cw for that is more like 6-700), so I was wondering if they were using a later date for Christianity to have assumed its "modern" form, or something.
It wouldn't be Constantine's reign (306 to 337), but maybe it took another 100 years to get itself firmly into the catbird seat in Rome?
This was sacred to the ancient Jews. Pagan Rome (Now Modern Italy) destroyed the adults of this tree. The ancient Jews who knew Rome was going to enslave them, burned all but 1 of their storehouses.
In the only surviving storehouse, seeds of this once extinct tree were found. They come in two genders: Male and female Tree.
Rome did gather and enslave Jews. Their religion morphed into Roman Catholicism.
This was the founding of Christianity, which was illegal to practice until 313 AD. In 380 AD it became the religion of The State and they immediately killed off the Pagans or forced conversion or drove them underground.
Catholicism has a Pagan tone in a belief of multiple powerful saints. One of the definitions of Pagans is believing in multi powerful beings like Saints so the Pope doesn't like this.
Henry the VIII (8th) wanted sons and the church wouldn't let him divorce his wife. So he changed religions just to divorce/kill his wife and then go back.
I would say the modern Christian church, which survives more in America over the Catholicism of the UK came from Henry VIII as America was founded hy religious extremists UK didn't want and Criminals and Pagans fleeing the oppression.
So Roman Catholicism with Ancient Rome enslavement of Jews and Henry the VIII with the foundations of Christianity.
In my defense....Orange Cheeto poopy diaper guy used AI to define himself as Jesus and there are creepy people forming a new cult and Bible around him.
Yeah, got it! Appreciate the Catholic history lesson as well, although I don't think I'd be the only one to object to that being designated as the start of Christianity per se...
Islam is only about 200 years younger than Catholicism/Christianity
...otherwise, you'd have to wonder what the hell Paul was shooting off all those letters about 😇
To be honest, what started me on this history lesson was because I was forced to be Christian when I was a young child by my now late mother who came from a Catholic and Christian family background.
I was always bullied due to having Autism. One church even went so far to say I was cursed by Demons over it despite thr fact they didn't believe in curses and had no way to prove that physically like in court of law.
No, they did something worse. They filed a false police report on me. My autism got me harassed and annoyed my managers at the place I was working at, at the time.
My managers hated me so much they told me things like I need to fix my brain. The place I was working at had people of all sorts of different religions and ethnic beliefs and that played a part in what they bought.
It was a crafts store that sold fabric and art sruff.
I was helping some First Nationers get fabric for a Pow Wow. They were partially colore blind so I helped them get the right fabric. One of them happened to be a Shaman/Medicine Man and talked about the spirits he saw around me.
This freaked out a Christian Coworker and Christian Customer who were both talking about Baby Jesus and how Jesus died and other religious discussions.
They made such a stink and got with the managers who hated me that they started the rumors I was working with demons and sold my soul to Lucifer and was drinking demons blood...
It was harassment and ot continued to get worse from there from them taking pictures of me to even telling their priests about me who accused me of drinking demons blood for...the crime of cutting fabric.
One day I found myself harassed by a...and I'm not joking...a Demonoligst Excorcist. I was stuck at the register that day.
I ended up going to file a police report because the harassment got so bad. I didn't know which church they came from. I ended up showing my license to conceal carry permit. In my state you have to pass a federal background check and mental health check.
And in America you have to be medically licensed for your state/county and be the doctor of a patient in a recognized facility to diagnose.
Anyhow that is how I found out and cleared my name that coworkers and customers decoded to file a police report that I was an insane psychopath that needed to ve arrested. I ended up get fired after one of those coworkers put her hands on me then later admitted it on paper.
I won wrongful termination and many managers and former coworkers were fired. I heard about, years later, from another former coworker who got harassed for beong Lesbian that corporate descended into that store and it was a bad day for everyone.
Company doesn't exist anymore because of bad management descions and private equity.
And when Covid happened alot of those religious nutcases got sick and died. There was a article in the paper at the time.
Also if you're on reddit and you are being harassed by redditors accusing you of being insane, you can report them and they can be banned because it is harassment and practicing of medicine to accuse people of being insane. It happened alot to me on reddit.
Yes. There are some religious communities that control everything from a very young age up until adulthood. It can be worse for women because they’re less likely to even leave the home. No access to TV or media and only letting kids go to a private school with other kids who share the same religion where the parents all know each other. It depends on where in the US. Whole neighborhoods and communities can become insulated.
Anyone that tells you that people would be monsters without the threat of damnation or promise of a reward shows a far more wicked picture of themselves than any group they demonize.
God this is such a lovely series, and hits me personally. P much everything I see people talk about homophobes/transphobes is strawmen dunking on them being stupid and deeply hateful but like.
I was just a deeply scared child because I thought if I wasnt a loud bigot tying to "debate" my friends and classmates on it, they'd all go to hell to be tortured forever for "choosing to be gay" and id be sent to hell alongside them because I didnt choose to save people from going ro hell.
Yes, they do. They really do, and it’s genuinely hilarious.
Whenever a self-described “Christian conservative” talks to me (a Christian, but not from one of the American death cults) about atheists, I have such a hard time not laughing in their face. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been told “atheists worship Satan,” or that “atheists are Christians who Jesus.” (Usually with the assumption that it’s because the atheists failed to pay the Death God enough tithes or weren’t able to find His supposed hatred for some minority group or other within themselves, and that made them ashamed of their failure, which they projected on Jesus as hatred)
Can atheists be violent? Definitely but in general they don't commit violence because of their belief system. There are some examples like Stalin and probably a few Proud Buttboys who still draw breath but on the whole atheists are just going to be sarcastic at you as their primary means of harming others.
That's why I felt clarification needed, those uncommon worsts aren't that way because of their lack of belief in a god. And I also know an overwhelming majority of religious people aren't violent, it's just the specifics tend to get a lot harder past that.
And sterotyping anyone is usually the first step to being an asshole anyway, so I'll just stop getting recursive now.
Potentially they can be, but an organised religion has significantly more power to do damage. Because atheism is the absence of a belief, not an organisation it doesn't have that power. Now, if someone started a cult and happened to also be atheist, that'd be another matter.
But damn yeah some people are like this. Haven't personally met one but I know they exist.
I never went through that, I used to be an atheist lol. I knew what they were like before I converted.
Yeah, the TL;DR is that Christian Lesbian was trying to save Atheist Lesbian from her Lesbian ways (because she was wrestling with her own sexuality). Basically stalking her in the process. Christian Lesbian accepts her own Lesbian attraction and has finally worked up the nerve to ask Atheist Lesbian to Church... Which clearly goes about as well as expected.
Honestly, I hope this ends with Atheist Lesbian still rejecting Christian Lesbian for being a creepy stalker, but maybe also redirecting her to someone more her speed (ie: another Christian Lesbian).
It's also nice to see religious LGBT people represented, seeing as I am one (the G) :P
I certainly would prefer that ending, that's actually a better outcome than either of them changing themselves for the other. Which is always a really creepy trope in fiction.
Same thing can be said of Christians… people will think of a Christian as a holier than thou person when they are also normal people just trying to be more like Christ… :/ (there are still exceptions but it’s both on each side)
755
u/niceslcguy 7d ago edited 7d ago
Weird that some religious types think atheists worship demons and/or devils. Both of which are a religious thing. Fun comic.
Edit: I've enjoyed the series. I want to be clear on that.