Mike Dulak grew up Catholic in Southern California, but by his teen years, he began skipping Mass and driving straight to the shore to play guitar, watch the waves and enjoy the beauty of the morning. “And it felt more spiritual than any time I set foot in a church,” he recalled.
Nothing has changed that view in the ensuing decades.
“Most religions are there to control people and get money from them,” said Dulak, now 76, of Rocheport, Missouri. He also cited sex abuse scandals in Catholic and Southern Baptist churches. “I can’t buy into that,” he said.
Growing up in a super religious family and watching all the nonsense up close is why I’m an atheist today. SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE MOTHERFUCKERS
Hail Satan and donate to your local Satanic temple
Also grew up in a super religious family (homeschooled pk) and joined TST 4 years ago.
IMO brainwashing children from the time they’re born into a religion that spreads hate is wrong.
And at the same rate, politics and “science” are becoming disorganised religion. I see many similarities in behaviours. It’s just swapping one form of religion for another at this point.
Politics, maybe, but how is science a religion?
Perhaps you’re younger, I can tell you I’ve seen a massive shift in how science is seemingly manipulated and misrepresented to push political or idealogical ideas. In my opinion it’s primarily to do with money and power. It could mostly be the media highlighting the worst and least reputable, however, you’d be surprised how much our perceptions and impressions of things can influence how we behave and feel on some things.
I can tell you I’ve seen a massive shift in how science is seemingly manipulated and misrepresented to push political or idealogical ideas.
Which ideas would those be?
It isn’t.
Some believe in pseudoscience, but that isn’t science (hence the “pseudo” in the name)
I’ll take a stab at this one. A lot of educated people stop thinking the second they see a study that confirms what they believe. It is the anthesis of what science is supposed to be, examined constantly. But people intertwine their ideological framework with science and pick and choose which studies they believe and which they don’t. For some people, their belief in science is indistinguishable from someone else’s belief in religion, and often nearly as harmful to society. There’s tons of common knowledge rooted in science that turns out not to be true, but because of people’s faith in science instead of skepticism, people will believe anything backed by science, irrespective of whether it’s true. Laypeople have a hard time interpreting what they learn from science and remaining intellectually curious.
Even scientists can often be incredibly dogmatic. When Ignaz Semmelweis showed a mountain of evidence that washing your hands prevented passing infections to others he was ostracized by the medical community, despite there being way too much information showing he was right, he was ignored non the less. People tied their ideology and ego into believing he was wrong. Had people listened to Semmelweis sooner it could have saved countless of lives, some speculate millions. Semmelweis died from infection because the doctor treating him didn’t wash their hands…
A lot of educated people stop thinking the second they see a study that confirms what they believe. It is the anthesis of what science is supposed to be, examined constantly.
Sure, that happens. But since it’s science, there’s evidence, with which you can show people like that that they are wrong. That doesn’t exists with religions.
When Ignaz Semmelweis showed a mountain of evidence that washing your hands prevented passing infections to others he was ostracized by the medical community
And since it’s like a religion, his warnings were never heeded as you cannot question religious rules. And so, still today, doctors don’t wash their hands.
Oh wait…
Since it’s science, the rules can be questioned and changed if they are not correct.
I think you’re reading more into my comment than I said. To be clear, I’m not a fan of religion and do believe science is the route to knowledge. But it took an entire generation of scientists dying out to have washing hands normalized. Our society places faith and belief in science in a way that still mirrors religion even if it is more flexible.
I don’t belong to any organized religion, I’m a democrat. Wait, that isn’t how that goes…
When your congregation are loud bigots, racists, and assholes, or when your clergy fuck kids and cover it up, or when the religion as a whole surpresses or hates certain genders or sexualities… This is not a surprising trend at all to anyone reasonable.
I hope that as more of the world gets access to the Internet and information that more and more people will leave religions. When I was able to freely read the history of different religions and critical analysis by atheists it made my mind up fairly quickly.
Not growing fast enough, sadly.
And I say this as one of them.
people identifying as irrelegious has grown from 5% to 30% in the past 50 years, but some skeptics say, like with left-handedness, LGBTQ+, trans folks, the actual number hasn’t changed, just the reporting and the stigma around identifying as such has.
Honestly, from the people I’ve talked to in the furry community, there have been a few of them who are either A) still christian (though often with unorthodox views on what “sin” is, or what is required for someone to be “saved”) or B) hold christian beliefs and believe that Jesus is a good role model (as he’s portrayed in the “canon” biblical texts).
However, if you asked them point blank if they’re religious they’d probably give you answers ranging from, “hell no” to “eh, kinda” or “it’s complicated”. All of them have expressed some level of distaste for organized religion though, which I agree with.
Imo religion’s fine so long as you’re using your brain and you aren’t hurting others; we live in a fucked up world, if that’s the drug you have to smoke to get through the day, then cool, go for it. However, everything starts going wrong when religion becomes organized.
The older I get the more angry the concept of God makes me. It’s hit the point where I hope I’m wrong, so when I die I can spit in his face and call Him a useless God
I was raised in church, and I would still call myself a ‘spiritual’ person. But church itself… it’s just not it
I don’t mind religion, it’s the crazies that use their religion to push hate that are the problem.
is this the part where twenty somethings on the internet gather to exclaim loudly “I hate hypocrites too”?
then you should love jesus, because he hated religious hypocrites just as much as you do. In fact, it was those hypocrites who killed him.
If jesus returned today, he would be killed at a MAGA rally, probably.
i’m a christian in SPITE of the church, not because of it.
I’m not Christian but there are some good bits in the Christian Bible I’d be happy if more people followed. “pray in the closet” , the good Samaritan, and the sheep and the goats mostly.
Unfortunately a lot of people use religion as an excuse to be a huge asshole.
Your not gonna get a lot of love, but I hear you. Jesus is the enemy of modern Christianity.
this isn’t about you
Religion is cancer.
This is what a depressed society looks like.
I’ve heard about the “rise of the nones” for fucking years now. I’m in my mid 30s. When the fuck will this trend translate into policy reform
Have you looked at the age of the average politician? It’ll change when they all die of old age and someone sensible from the younger generation takes over.
my concern is that they seem to have indoctrinated or allied with enough young people that i’m no longer certain it will matter.
When the all 80+ year olds in congress
retiredie outYep.
Doesn’t matter how religious voters are when the options are both hardcore Christian.
Like, Biden not being actively anti-abortion was enough to get American bishops to start talking if they should try and get every Catholic church in America to refuse to give him communion.
He’s still not really pro-abortion, and we’ll never really know if that’s because his incredibly organized church is against it, or if he just doesn’t care enough to push for codifying abortion rights.
He’s the most high profile because he’s president, but lots of House Reps and Senators are in the same boat.
When the nones outnumber the religious which is still a while away.
The moment we start voting
Around the time the majority of our lawmakers learned about the Vietnam war in a history book.
Organising nones is like herding cats. The evangelicals do not get their power from their number. They vote uniformly and reliably, turning out for every primary, local, and federal election.
We are a diverse bunch with diverse opinions.
I’ve been a none for a bit now, and often find myself disagreeing with the opinions of others. I also tend to be more centrist in my political leanings, whereas a lot (obviously not all) of nones or atheists tend to lean left, or in some cases are extreme leftists. In my opinion, extreme leftists are as harmful to society as the extreme right, but that’s a pretty unpopular opinion online.
Long story short, I agree with you on this.
The problem is that as moderate critical thinkers leave religious organizations the organizations are becoming more polarized by the foolhardy remnants which leads to large organizational efforts to do stupid nonsensical things.
This is a question of attrition. Religiosity is dying out and so, in a sense, is neo-conservativism, and that’s why there is such a huge push to the right in many parts of the world. It’s the last desperate gasp of people who know that their time is up. They are doing everything they can to stop it from happening but it’s inevitable.
“Never do business with a religious son-of-a-bitch. His word ain’t worth a shit – not with the Good Lord telling him how to fuck you on the deal.”
― William S. Burroughs
I’m just here to remind everyone that DISORGANIZED religion is an option! Not that we want you to join us! Fuck that shit! Consult your pineal gland if you’re so god damned determined! Mine is fucking busy!
