Understanding Religion's Relationship To Human Social Systems

 In reply,  [first draft]  Let's clear this up, right from the start. When Gavin says we "have to lower our pride" in order for Christianity to start feeling true,  what he means is: We have to stop having self-respect. And for that, we have to get rid of ALL the things we respect about ourselves; including how good we feel about being  autonomous, equitable, and rational.  Once someone like Gavin can 'hollow you out', and thus cause you to drop to your knees begging for someone to give you a NEW foundation and framework of identity, ... Gavin's cult can then (and ONLY then) "get to work" re-designing you, so that "the new you" will be a "you" who is incapable of ever-again questioning the authority of that cult. Through that process, Gavin wants everyone to end up being proud to be Gavin's version of a "Christian". He just doesn't want anyone to be proud to be ... anything else. He also doesn't want anyone t

 Responding to: [First draft] This is similar to what happened to me; when my kids were little. It is part of what led to my de-conversion. [Part 1 of 18] We were homeless; staying at a hotel next to the KH. How we ended up homeless is a long story. The short version is that we were illegally evicted by abusive landlords who wanted to have their friends move in. [Part 2 of 18] Please note, I was a very clean-cut and professional young man. Neither myself nor the kids' mom drank, or did drugs, nor did anything else shady or "ghetto". At the time, I'd been working as a security guard full-time. [Part 3 of 18] I had recently finished earning a Masters Degree in Human Studies. However, finding work in a related field was going to be an uphill battle. I realized we'd need to move to a big city; but we'd need to finish planning that out first. Immediately after we were illegally evicted, we rented a hotel room in a small rural town. [Part 4 o

1:22 "Teacher and administrators are RADICALS for taking these things out of the curriculum". -- [First Draft] Fact Check: It was our nation's "Founding Fathers" who took those things out, when they drafted the secular Constitution. -keeping in mind that "secular" doesn't mean "anti-God". It just means "not about God". So then getting our car's oil changed is a "secular" activity. It's not a religious activity. Meanwhile, it violates NOT ONLY the essential "Separation of Church and State", to require tax-payer-funded, government institutions (such as public schools) to PROMOTE one religion over all others, ... it creates a hostile/disrespectful social environment, and is really a disavowing/disenfranchising gesture towards all other religions, and to the non-religious citizens of our nation. It is really sending the message that "if you, your friends, or your parents don't follow

Someone responded to that meme by saying:  "The actual proverb is, “The love of money is the root of all evil,” which comes from the Bible (1 Timothy 6:10). Mark Twain is often misquoted or has sayings wrongly attributed to him, and this appears to be one of those cases." -- In reply, I offer this:  1. No Bible-version I can find words it exactly that way. https://biblehub.com/1_timothy/6-10.htm Reading across a vast range of renderings, I see that it just means: People who place too much value on money end up creating problems for themselves; where "evil" just means any situations that are intensely (but subjectively) regrettable. 2. The quoted meme *is* the actual proverb being cited. Saying "That's not the actual proverb" (about the OP quote) is like: If someone said "Don't be afraid of God; because God is love and we should not fear love", ... someone then replying with "The actual quote is "Fear God". No. The actual

  I listened to this entire stream; on 2x speed. It's really the last 2 minutes or so that I felt like I got something out of it. I mean, you know, it's nice that people are talking about ways to be socially progressive. But to me it's all just pretty basic 1. you can more flies with honey than with vinegar, 2. we should try not to make assumptions about the people we disagree with, and 3. holding ourselves accountable will yield better social fruits than trying to hold others accountable. As for your guest, she seems really nice. I am on the fence about getting her book. I mean, if it's mostly just a book about the benefits of being nice, and a few related points about social/conversational strategies, then it's probably going to be things I already know and (try to) practice. But I do worry it could be (also) something else; something un-wholesome hiding under a layer of icing. I remember when I read the first four chapters of Rebekah Da

  ​  @ThomasBelieves  Originally, I responded with " come over to atheism; where it's ok to be gay :)". In reply, Thomas wrote: "Athiests: "you just wanna believe in god because you find it comforting" Also Athiests: "Be athiest so you can be gay" Since when does wether or not God's existence depend on what I or anyone else wants? kind of irrelevent. " -- Continuing this new conversation, I offer this: Hi Thomas Thanks for responding; and for doing so in a civil and productive way. To further elaborate on what I meant, ... How about "Be Deist"? or "Be Pantheist". or "Be Native American Spiritualist", etc? I realize you don't know me. I realize you've never been to my channel. So you wouldn't know this about me, but, ... I don't identify as an "atheist", in the broad sense of the term. I am certain that "The God of Abraham" is mythical. All qualified

 ​ Our journey today begins here: In reply, one asshole wrote:  "No one "doesn't know it when they see it". They see the evidence and aren't convinced by it, and that isn't God's fault. Someone could see the best evidence for God in the world and choose not to be convinced by it because of pride—something God doesn't want us to have."   - Stringer77    --   [My reply]: Nonsense.  Here's the evidence Christians have seen that demonstrates that a Being exists who has the following traits: 1. Knows literally everything: Zero evidence. 2. Has always existed: Zero evidence. 3. Will always exist: Zero evidence. 4. Is eternally necessitated by an immutable nature to always and maximally love (anyone):  Zero evidence.  5. Can literally never fail at anything "he" ever attempts:  Zero evidence. -- Evidence CAN (and actually does) exist that those propositions are NOT true about any Christian's "God".  But we can ignore that for