#Christian extremism

[artistintherough]

Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Parker written statements on why all women should be forced to give birth based on his religious beliefs. Whether Tom likes it or not America was founded as a secular country to avoid exactly this kind of religious takeover and corruption. This man has no business being on any court, at any level, anywhere in this country.

He really does look like an 1950’s racist villain who’s been to a few secret lynchings in the Alabama woods.

[troythecatfish]

[nando161mando]

Authorities and the media are downplaying a white man’s planned beheading, while demonising Muslim youths over alleged thought crimes.

[superbiblecanon3000]

[soft-cookie-aka-aquadrop]

These are some pretty sucky afterlives (or lack thereof) if you ask me. Is this really the best you can come up with? Go get some better afterlives, sheesh.

[miss-envy]

@coyoteannie

[bekandrew]

As someone who grew up in an actual Christian-based cult (that, like much of its Evangelical roots, thirsted for the literal apocalypse and final battle), this was the wildest fucking jumble of nonsense to hit my eyes this week.

Their savage Asiatic AI-operated drones vs our benevolent Judeo-Christian AI-operated drones

[2creativechaos0]

(@/RepWeinstein on Twitter)

Side Note: They're a State Representative who's ALSO an LGBTQ Alley!? HUGE W btw

[trmpt]

“Tom Parker, a Republican who joined the court in 2005, wrote a concurring opinion that quoted at length from sources such as the Book of Genesis, the Ten Commandments and Christian thinkers of centuries ago, such as Thomas Aquinas. But comments he has made in other media have raised questions about his seeming espousal of "Seven Mountains" theology, a concept that some experts consider to be Christian extremism.”

[troythecatfish]

[soft-cookie-aka-aquadrop]

I don’t know where you got this “souls as decorative video game objects” idea from, but since you said your extended family were fundies, I’m going to assume it came from them. I don’t know what your history with these family members or their extremist version of Christianity was like, but I, myself, was taught absolutely none of this as a kid, and the fact that at least one person in the notes was taught to believe this nonsense as a kid worries me.

When I was a kid, around four or five, and had just learned what death was, my mom told me that heaven was “a nice place” and when I asked what we could do there, she said “whatever you want”. And that was the core idea of what heaven was like that has stuck with me ever since then. The idea that after I finish being alive and leave my body behind I will then be able to do anything I want.

Anything.

And I took that idea as far as my imagination could at the time. Going places I couldn’t go to in life? Sure! Meeting everybody who died before me? Yup! Going into cartoons and video games and being a character in them? Absolutely! Hanging out with characters I’d made up? Why the heck not?! Being something other than a human? But of course! Why would disembodied spirits be confined to one shape? Why would they need to eat or drink or breathe or take bathroom breaks? They don’t have bodies to take care of anymore, so they have no responsibilities and can do anything they want, forever.

These ideas were, of course, all thought of under the assumption that heaven’s existence was already known. When I got older and found out that nobody actually knows for certain what will happen to us after we die,* I was extremely disheartened, because my mother seemed so sure about heaven when she told me about it- why would she tell me what happens after we die if she herself didn’t actually know? That didn’t make sense to me.

*This is because once a dying person loses the ability to move and speak, they cannot share what the rest of their death is like. Thus, their knowledge of the rest of their death dies with them.

That uncertainty of what will happen after death- an unavoidable event that everyone will experience eventually- led to an existential crisis that has continued, on and off, to this day. There are multiple ideas of what might happen after we die- heaven, hell, reincarnation, and such. But the one I fear the most is ceasing to exist entirely. That, in my opinion, would be the worst possible outcome. Even going to hell would be better than that, because even if all I could feel was pain, at least I’d still be feeling something. Never thinking or feeling or experiencing anything ever again is my

deepest,

truest fear of all.

And it’s because of that fear that I have to hold onto hope that once my life is over, I’ll be able to move on to some other form of existence, because without that hope I would not be able to get out of bed each day and function in the world. It would be pointless to put effort into anything I did in life if none of it would affect the eventual ending, since none of the rewards I gain in life are going to last. In 5 billion years when the sun eventually becomes a red giant and consumes the earth, I want all of its history and the history of everything that ever lived on it to be carried by our souls into the realm of eternity.

I apologize for using the word souls I know you don’t like that word ☹️

It is kinda funny how boring the afterlife actually is in most hardcore Christianity to the point that even all those religious painters centuries ago had to jazz it up. They don't think hell has caves and devils and torture devices, they think it's just an infinite space filled with pure fire in all directions and souls just experience one steady unchanging permanent sensation of burning to death, but they also just automatically agree they deserve it and are there "by choice" forever with no other opinion. Meanwhile heaven in literal interpretations is where you just float around God singing praise of him forever and you won't miss loved ones who went to hell or basically ever have any thought or feeling that isn't how much you love floating around singing. It's like they believe souls become decorative video game objects.

[faultfalha]

A hidden force rises, hell-bent on remaking the nation through religion. In the shadows moves a new leader with ties to the powerful far-right.

[cecenyss]

Okay the people who argue that God created the world with dinosaur bones and evidence that it existed before the Bible supposedly took place are obviously incomprehensible but. Like. That’s a hilarious concept. They genuinely believe that God created a world with little puzzles and Easter eggs for us to find and that’s kind of cute?? It doesn’t make any realistic sense but I’m obsessed with the idea of a god who just creates fake remnants of old species as a prank.

[heart2heartroses2u]

This is where America 🇺🇸 is heading if Trump is to win the 2024 election. The signs are all there. Don’t be blind and dismiss it. Once your democracy is lost, it will be hard to get it back. #vote-blue, to preserve our democracy and rights