I don’t need God and the Bible to have a reason for trying to be kind to others and be forgiving towards people who try their best, but slip up, as humans tend to.
What makes faith so tempting is the idea of bringing order to the absurd. There are things I can’t control in life, but if I trust someone else to sort them out, I don’t need to worry so much. The promise of love, salvation and protection is a powerful draw in this increasingly hostile world. Easy answers to the uncertainties plaguing me are highly convenient. Far-right supremacist ideologies hit many of those notes too.
I miss my faith. Well, that’s not accurate; I miss the comfort and the relief of asking someone else to take care of things troubling me. I miss the fuzzy feeling when I decide that some arbitrary boon is a divine token of love. I miss the optimism that it’ll all work out. I miss the dream of heaven.
Apostasy is fucking painful. So many times, I wished I could just go back to believing. I can absolutely understand how people would willingly lean into that comfortable lie. I also know the slide into bigotry.
“Love thy neighbour” can be a fulcrum to break out of that delusion, but it won’t be enough on its own.
I knew a lot of ex-atheists becoming far-right christians. They were drawn to religion by the irrationality of it, not the “love thy neighbor” quotes.
I don’t need God and the Bible to have a reason for trying to be kind to others and be forgiving towards people who try their best, but slip up, as humans tend to.
What makes faith so tempting is the idea of bringing order to the absurd. There are things I can’t control in life, but if I trust someone else to sort them out, I don’t need to worry so much. The promise of love, salvation and protection is a powerful draw in this increasingly hostile world. Easy answers to the uncertainties plaguing me are highly convenient. Far-right supremacist ideologies hit many of those notes too.
I miss my faith. Well, that’s not accurate; I miss the comfort and the relief of asking someone else to take care of things troubling me. I miss the fuzzy feeling when I decide that some arbitrary boon is a divine token of love. I miss the optimism that it’ll all work out. I miss the dream of heaven.
Apostasy is fucking painful. So many times, I wished I could just go back to believing. I can absolutely understand how people would willingly lean into that comfortable lie. I also know the slide into bigotry.
“Love thy neighbour” can be a fulcrum to break out of that delusion, but it won’t be enough on its own.
So, they were psychopaths who realised they could go unnoticed even more easily if they just took up the religion?