Judeo-Christianity-Eternal punishment is a repugnant concept that doesn't take into account proportionality. Also, the Biblical God condones genocide.

Islam-Where do I start? Genocidal loonies.

Buddhism-Buddhism is flat out nihilistic and has the morbid goal of erasing one's individuality.

Confucianism-Hates women.

Taoism-Too vague and confusing.

Hinduism-Has the morbid goal of erasing individuality. Also supports the morally repugnant caste system. Some sects practice child sacrifice.

Paganism (Ancient)-Lacked moral rigor, condoning all sorts of evil practices. (Infanticide, raiding, human sacrifice.)

Paganism (Modern)-Needs work, but a new religion based on reverence for the living universe has some interesting potential.

I believe in Gods, I'm a Polytheist. But we need a new framework, one that reveres the living cosmos and is scientifically based.

6850953
I understand that religion is flawed, but there are some cases that make me think that it is still necessary that it exists. Take america for example, things are spiralling out of control and the people who have left religion are doing things that are completely illogical. Things you hear about including killing newborn babies and throwing away your gender in favor of multiple different things that do not exist in any way shape or form. That's just scraping the top of the barrel.

I may not believe in god anymore, but I can see why people would make a god exist. Sometimes people need that driving force that they think exists in order for them to function better.

6850960
Absolutely.

6850953

I believe in Gods, I'm a Polytheist. But we need a new framework, one that reveres the living cosmos and is scientifically based.

You should read up on Pantheism.

6851027
I'm a Pantheist. (Most Polytheists are).

6850953

Oh, I honestly thought you were a Christian. Do you have a list of gods that you believe in, our of curiosity, or are these more like non-personal gods?

Also I'm not sure there's a scientific basis for a 'living cosmos', so it might be hard to have both of those things. And I'm not sure if any particular 'living cosmos' should be revered... though I'm not exactly sure what you mean by that.

In general, you probably are better off making up your own religion than following someone else's. Won't have the baggage of the identity, there won't be as many people trying to control you through said religion, and you'll probably do a better job of making up morals than most of the religions did. That said, I'm not a fan of supernatural thinking in general and you aways have to watch out for the 0.0001% chance you accidentally start a cult.

You can always join the religion of the flying spaghetti monster. I helped pull his float once

6850960 Why is there a higher percentage of Christians in prison then in a general population then? Statistics show that you're more likely to become a criminal if you're a Christian.

6850953 You forgot to mention that Christianity views human sacrifice as a good thing. Hell, they straight out worship it and wear miniature torture devices around their necks.

6851052
I see. So you're a fan of word salad. You affirm a bunch of words that sound "good" but have no interest in what they actually mean.

6850960
The dissonance you're observing is that the inclination towards "religion" is fairly ingrained in us. For lack of better terms, humans have a "religious impulse." Whatever biological process or processes there are that make this true, the expression of those functions has historically been literal religion (with religion having its own evolution that can illuminate how that impulse has been expressed in more and more sophisticated ways over time). Without literal religion, that impulse remains and we're seeing it expressed in bizarre ways.

I feel it is probably necessary to have something that humans can do that expresses that impulse. Preferably in ways that are actually beneficial to said humans. I agree with you that abortion and transgenderism are not particularly logical, productive, or beneficial expressions of that impulse.

Unfortunately, I don't have any ideas that are "sexy" the way religion is. There is something attractive in the dominant religions that people find appealing. The sense of tradition, majesty, authority, and various other factors hit a wide range of appeal and draw adherents. If we're to offer a better alternative, it must be attractive in addition to being practical.

6851206
The reason for that is that Christianity is a terrible expression of the religious impulse. As you're well aware, it contains many instructions which are vile. On the topic of the thread, Christianity has been tested through time rather thoroughly and been found incredibly wanting as a useful expression of our religious impulse. I feel that other expressions do a better job of keeping folks out of prison, keeping them from engaging in tribalism, and so on.

6851206

I will state that one other reason for that is that prisoners often claim to be more religious than they actually are because parole boards, judges and juries go easier on religious people than non-religious ones. Like in Florida, when they have a hearing to restore certain rights to felons, they ask you if you're religious and if you go to church and if you doooooooon't it doesn't reflect well on you.

Though I don't think that alone is enough to explain it. There's almost definitely other factors and all that.

6851206
Like Cryosite said, it really does look good to your parole. Though as he also said, that may not be the only reason. You could say that about any other part of the world where one religion is dominate too because they would also be that majority in prison, but that's besides the point. I still think that throwing away hundreds of years of science is whats holding humanity back and that also means that religion is doing the same.

Still haven't got anything to replace it with yet unfortunately.

6851367
I didn't technically mean abortion in the sense of that which is inside the womb. I mean, it's their decision if they get rid of said baby within the first trimester, but once its actually born, nobody should be able to kill a living breathing child. I'm surprised that we have gone full circle to a point where a live child can be killed.

Feels like we're living in the stone age again.

6851419

One thing I'd like to point out is that he meant Christians are disproportionate in prisons. Like 2% of Americans self-identify as atheists but only 0.1% of the prison population does, which is actually the lowest ratio of any religious group save Pentacostals. Almost every other sect of Christianity has a higher percentage of the prison population than the general population.

6851344
Um, polytheism and pantheism have always been linked.

6850953
One big issue here is that paganism isn't a religion and you can't really bundle possibly hundreds of different beliefs together like that.

6851563
False.

Polytheism is a trait of certain religions which feature several gods. As opposed to monotheism, a category of religions that feature one god. Polytheism is not itself a religion. You are misusing the word, hence "word salad."

Pantheism is an atheistic philosophy which uses the language of gods/theism to describe nature. It is a sense of reverence for the majesty and awe-inspiring facets of reality one discovers. It isn't a religion, it has no gods, and it doesn't support supernatural anything.

The two are polar opposites.

6851419

Like Cryosite said, it really does look good to your parole.

I didn't say that.

I agree with it though.

6850960
uhm...both of those are false.
Nobody is killing babies, at least not legally.
I'm sure some sick fuck do for shits n giggles but that's another story.

As for "throwing away your gender", I assume you're talking about transpeople and non-binary people?
Both of those are valid, heck, I'm a transwoman myself. I'm not throwing away my gender, I'm actually embracing it for the first time in my life instead of hiding.

6851593
Okay. New York is the first state to actively make a law where it is legal to kill babies that were just born. You can look that up.

As for the trans thing. That's kinda sad. You've joined an illogical movement that has no validity in any way. I guess the most you could do is at least make it permanent and remove your private parts so that you can truly live as what you have wrought on yourself, but I doubt you'll do that.

After all. You're just forcing a lie on yourself.

6851813

Are you thinking of the late term abortion bill? That doesn't allow you to kill a baby after its born, it allows abortions after 24 weeks if the pregnancy poses a clear threat to the mothers life. People against abortion phrase this in a negative light by saying it's now technically legal to abort the baby one minute before its born (leaving out that the mothers life would somehow have to be at serious risk if she continued for that one minute). Trump, in his infinite IQ misinterpreted this as allowing babies to be killed shortly after birth and tweeted just that, and so his followers accepted this as truth and spread it.

Unless there's some second law I'm not aware of that of.

6851882
Probably referring to a law that conservatives tried to pass that would require a doctor to administer life-saving efforts on a newborn baby even if that birth was the result of a failed abortion. That law was voted down by the left.

I think that implies that it is currently legal to keep trying to end the life of a recently born child in that situation.

6851882
Sorry, I don't follow Trump's twitter. I wouldn't know what he does, but ok. I was wrong there. I heard it around work and then searched around for more info. It sounded like they would keep care of the child until a decision was made to kill it or not. It seemed strange and a bit outrageous.

6852131

It could be either one he heard about, but he mentioned NY specifically so I assumed it was that one.

Even that second one isn't even a change though, just keeping things the way they've been for decades now so hardly a 'these crazy millenials' moment.

6851813
I don't believe in mincing words so I'll just say it plain:

Holy fuck you're an idiot who doesn't know what they're talking about.
If you want a movement that lacks validity, just look at transphobic garbage such as yourself.

6851582
Fair.

6851138
I revere the Celtic Gods as that's the "language" through which my ancestors related to the Divine.

6851583
Look up Hinduism.

6852771
Hinduism isn't pantheism, and it is indeed an example of a polytheistic religion. As is your reverence towards Celtic gods. That is the religion. "Polytheism" is not.