The Religion Thread Social

General chat and discussion about religion. Kind of surprised this didn't exist yet.

 

I wouldn't say embarrassed. There might just not be a demand for it on this website. Ain't nothing but a thing.

 

mewithoutYou • forum.chorus.fm

 

If people aren't interested in talking about it on this site, it might not he as important to them, or it might simply be more of a private thing to them as it is for me. (Although I am willing to discuss it with anyone who is interested.)

 

The religion or god thread, whatever it was called, on ap was booming for a while. I said a lot of dumb things there and also learned a lot and read a lot of books and articles referenced. It started out pretty antagonistic but it ended up being fun and fruitful.

 

I think there used to be one on here.

 

I've recently rediscovered spirituality after a really difficult year and I've been keeping it to myself because it doesn't really concern anyone else and I don't want my friends to think I'm insane, but it's been very helpful in managing my anxiety.

 

We're expecting in a month and a half. Had to have the challenging conversation with my parents that we don't want to push our child into any sort of Christian/explicitly religious box and instead encourage them to explore different belief systems as they get older and discover what best matches their values and feels right to them. My mom is not loving our policy on buying Jesus things for the baby.

 

Religion. Ah, religion. Christianity used to be such a source of comfort for me...until it became a major source of anxiety. It is infinitely frustrating, this whole Christianity thing. Perhaps more specifically the western style. Certainly not unique to Christianity, but whether or not one accepts the divinity of the deity (in this case, Jesus) or not, the moral teachings are pretty great. If one were to simply model their life after Jesus (again, other religious figures can work as well), then, well, an argument could be made that it is beneficial for humanity in general.

So much of my anxieties revolve around health and dying. So, yeah, the whole eternal life angle was (and, honestly, still is) highly appealing when I was really practicing the faith. Haha.

I don't even really know where I stand these days. It's pretty private. I take a bit of a Pascal's wager approach. I perhaps want to believe more than I actually do believe. I really, really try to believe. I was never super evangelistic when I was young but, all the same, I am super embarrassed by some of the things that I said to friends and peers. And I am horrified by mainstream Christianity in this country. The David Bazan documentary, Strange Negotiations, gets to the heart of a lot of my struggles.

I am fortunate in that I grew up with parents whose faith was a very woven in part of who they were. And, really, they were the type who would error on the side of love and acceptance. Their faith was very pure and not militant or harmful to others. Sure, they weren't perfect, but there was never the "do as I say, not as I do" stuff happening. My mother (now dead) and father were/are horrified by Trump and Christian nationalism. And, watching my mother dying in the hospital bed a year ago still clinging to her faith (not in a delusional way; more in a way of being so thankful for the life she had and the unearned things she was given) and staring death in the eyes with a strength I'll perhaps never understand was easily one of the most powerful things I've ever witnessed.

I do know that for me, personally, if I were to be able to regain a stronger faith, it would be tremendously beneficial to my mental health. I need to go at it from more of an intellectual level, even though I know the very idea of "intellectually based faith" can be a bit of an oxymoron.

My wife and I have been largely hands off about religion with my 5 year old. I want to keep it as pure as possible for her.

 

For the most part of my adult life until this point i've been agnostic borderline atheist but I feel i'm coming around to having faith. I've had some very strange experiences that I cannot logically explain. I love the teachings of jesus even if it feels like a lot of modern day christians go against his message about love

 

Watched First Reformed again last weekend. Banger.

"Will God forgive us for what we've done to his creation?"

 

I absolutely love First Reformed. Have you seen some of its influences, like Diary of a Country Priest or Winter Light?

Apart from Winter Light, I think my favorite movie regarding/depicting faith is The Tree of Life. I loved it before becoming a parent, but it hits twice as hard after.

 

Things changed for me at my wife's first ultrasound, seeing what would become my son for the first time. Up until then I could logically explain everything and thus I could attribute credit appropriately. Seeing him I was like...how. I'm not saying I don't get the science, yes you can swish egg and sperm in a dish and get the same result I accept all of that... but it just felt different. Closest thing I've ever felt as "miraculous". Him being born has challenged my life of not having faith.

That said, I'm being pious for the wrong reasons - I'm not loving and devoted to God/Allah for Him but rather to make sure I'm doing everything I can for my son's sake.

Got into a mild tiff with my wife about it, so many parents will say they'd do anything for their kids but the idea of a little prayer and devotion for their kids seems too much to ask. Just seems odd to me but to each their own.

 

I haven't, but I was just reading about them, and The Tree of Life has been on my radar for a while now. Considering I become a parent in a month, I should probably give it a watch :)

 

How do you guys delineate between religiously inspired media versus propaganda? I just remember a nurse of mine talking about a movie where angels stopped a human trafficking network and I was like...this is garbage.

 

Idk, I feel like I can just usually tell between a God's Not Dead and a First Reformed. I found Heretic to be a pro-"faith" (but not religion) movie despite the villain's thesis. Kind of surprised me for a horror film, although I guess in some ways, you could say a the same about a lot of possession films

 

On that question, I don't differentiate between art of faith or non-faith, but delineate it the same way: to what extent it's imbued with truth. Bad art, the stuff more easily labelled 'propaganda' — although that term is drastically overused imo — tends to be the stuff that, competency of execution aside, rings untrue; life is flattened to fit within the maker's petty, one-dimensional thought. It's dead and deadening, and you don't have to be extraordinarily perceptive to spot it.

Good art has a foundation of truth and life and human experience, so that it feels multidimensional and alive. And it doesn't actually matter if its messaging is subtle or lucid because the aforementioned qualities are so present and foundational to it, and give it a force of persuasion that, if not irresistible, is at least obviously felt, so that it's often quite easy to distinguish from bad art. I think that's why there are predictable movies with, at least in part, easily digestible morals that are nevertheless fantastic, if almost undeniable.

 

Silence by Martin Scorsese was an impactful film regarding faith, and it felt like it was handled by a man who had not given up faith but was constantly challenging himself by asking questions to better understand what his faith was.

The fine line between being “simple” in thought towards faith and questioning the limits of faith is something I’ve always been interested in it. Mostly in part because it’s a line I have tried to define for myself many times.