#NOT even putting this in any tags i DON'T want to be the progenitor of the name “necrocrow”

[invinciblerodent]

if you guys start actually shipping Lucanis and Emmrich and calling it some fuckshit like necrocrow, i am going to strategically consume handfuls of colorful glow-in-the-dark aquarium gravel, and regurgitate it violently to pelt all of you with it like they're melon seeds in a loony tunes cartoon

[seithr]

Randomly remembered the half-reason i call my oc-verse by the name it has while laying in bed. One-half of the reason i still knew, but I had forgotten what had truly, really cemented it jointly until now

(it was a song from my favourite band I haven't listened to in a while.)

(the song fit so well at the time, still does, that i needed to hold onto it for the main protagonists forever, by partially naming their story in reference.)

Does this explanation make any sense? Does anyone know why I'm tearing up remembering this. Aahh

[ani-shachaf]

Are jews considered christian?

As @vaspider said, Judaism is an ethnoreligion. This means a Jew can belong to any religion (or none) and still be Jewish. In that sense, a Jew can be Christian. That said, Judaism and Christianity are incompatible - Jews have famously been persecuted and slaughtered for not being Christian so frankly I'm really curious as to how you think they could be.

There is Messianic Judaism, which believes that Jesus was the messiah (but not necessarily divine). They typically identify themselves as Jewish, but are recognized as a Christian group by all major Jewish (and Christian, afaik) groups. They attempt to follow the practices of the early church, though what exactly that means varies from group to group. You will also see them referred to as "Jews for Jesus", but that is actually the name of a Messianic non-profit organization that attempts to convert Jews, not a denomination or anything.

And in the same vein, would that include islam?

No. While Islam recognizes Jesus as a prophet, he is not considered to be the Son of G-d. Generally speaking, Islam believes that all the prophets before Muhammad were Muslim and that their teachings were corrupted, so they would certainly not see themselves as Christian either.

christians are separate from islam and judaism despite them all being abrahamic religions

Yes. Saying that they are "Abrahamic" only means that they all consider Abraham to be the progenitor of their faith and ostensibly worship the same deity. Generally speaking though, Jews and Muslims consider Christians to be polytheists. (see the comments and tags on this post for more takes)

I also want to point out that although the term has historically only referred to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, there are quite a few other Abrahamic religions such as Samaritanism, Druze, Baha'i, Babism, Rastafari etc.

It kind of depends on where you draw the line between a variation of a religion and a different one altogether - I know that there are Protestants and Christians that consider the other to not "really" be Christians, and Mormonism is still generally considered a form of Christianity despite the vast theological differences.

This wasn't mentioned here but another thing I see a lot is the idea that Judaism is one of "the big three" religions. While you might could argue that that's true in terms of influence, seeing as how Christianity and Islam originated from it, it is certainly not the largest in term of number of adherents worldwide. For example, there's almost twice as many Sikhs in the world as there are Jews.

I'm an atheist who strives to be respectful of all people's religions despite my lack of belief. One thing I've struggled with [...] is how to express these beliefs (or lack thereof) in a way that doesn't invalidate the beliefs of the people I talk to about religion. I haven't quite figured out how to express what i think without implying that i think all religion is bullshit, to put it crudely.

The main thing I want to point out is that religion and culture are highly intertwined, and it can be hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.

To this day we still see "secular" things like one's attire or hairstyle is considered professional are influenced by religious ideals.

It sounds like you don't try to convince other people to become atheists, which is great! Unfortunately there are a lot of culturally Christian atheists that try to convince others that religion is all nonsense and that they're stupid for believing in it - even if belief doesn't really factor into their religion at all.

I think trying to change your understanding of what religion is and means to people might help. Some atheists are stuck on the idea that religion is people talking to their "Sky Daddy" and doing rituals that don't mean anything because they don't actually affect anything.

There's this idea in Judaism that people don't pray to G-d - rather, they pray in order to change themselves. We are told that G-d wraps tefillin and prays that his mercy will overcome his anger.

The placebo effect isn't restricted to just medicines - even if crossing yourself or making bowls to trap demons doesn't provide any tangible benefit, just the idea that there is something you can do can be a tremendous mental relief. Do I legitimately believe that by saying something out loud I am tempting fate to prevent that thing from happening? No. Do I either avoid doing so or knock on wood regardless? Yes.

Many, many religions are or have some aspect of ancestor veneration - by doing the same rituals for generations, we remind ourselves of where we're from, what we've been through, and reaffirm that we are part of a community with shared history and experiences.

There's an old Jewish joke about this:

Goldberg and Schwartz are heading down the road when they run into another man. “Where are you going?” asks the man. “We’re headed to the synagogue,” they both respond. “I see why Goldberg goes to synagogue,” the man says. "Goldberg believes in God. But Schwartz, you don’t believe in God, why are you going?" Schwartz responds "Goldberg goes to talk to God, but I go to talk to Goldberg."

Churches often host social events. Sikh gurudwaras provide free meals to every and anybody ranging from 3 meals a day to maybe once a week depending on the size of the langar (kitchen) and number of volunteers.

I feel like especially the christians have a lot of freedom to not just express their beliefs to me but also to proselityze to me and try to convince me into their beliefs, wheras all i can answer boils down to 'lets agree to disagree'. I know that issues like this have no One Right Answer, but do you possibly have any tips for me?

I can certainly understand being tired of Christians being pushy about converting you.

I'd recommend not trying to debate with them. People who are really pushy aren't going to be interested in good-faith dialogue or debate (if you'll pardon the pun) and not to be rude, but it doesn't sound like you're particularly well-informed about religion.

I have a couple recommendations of things to read/watch:

This post about cultural Christianity

"Of Water and the Spirit" by Malidoma Somé. It's his autobiographical story of how he was kidnapped from his Dagara community in Burkina Faso at the age of four and forced to grow up in a Jesuit boarding school, and how he attempts to reconnect to his family and culture when he returns at the age of 20 after his indoctrination in "a white man's world." Even if you believe his spiritual experiences are "bullshit," it should really drive home how religion and culture are intertwined, and how imposing one's worldview onto someone else can be severely damaging.

I highly recommend ReligionForBreakfast's Youtube channel for informational videos on various religious topics: he's a doctor of religious studies (which is the academic study of religion itself; not training to become a clergy member) and his videos are well-researched in addition to being relatively short and easy for a layman to understand (then again, as someone who has a BA in religious studies myself, I might not be the best person to determine that) He's also got some more "fun" videos like "Is MCU Loki accurate to Norse mythology?" and an exploration of Hylian religion and mythology.

Hi there! Hope you’re having a good day mama spider. Just dropping by to ask for some info on an addition to a post about Judaism you made. I chose to ask you and not op because i’ve sent you an ask before and know that you answer them. So real quick, why did you type out G-d rather than God or god? Does it have something to do with Judaism? Is it just for the faithful to follow and not goyim? As an atheist who was formerly Catholic i just wanna learn more and be respectful of others’ religions whenever i can. I know next to nothing about Judaism, even though they’re a good portion of my county’s population. Hope this ask isn’t insensitive in any way, and thanks for taking the time to read this <3

This isn't insensitive to ask. It's actually a great question, and I'm glad that you asked if you're curious.

Since those articles cover your asks pretty well, I'm gonna give you some free bits of info to help your quest for respectfulness, which is pretty rad, btw: we don't really use phrases like "the faithful" bc Judaism doesn't require faith in G-d. There is no conflict between Judaism and atheism & there are a lot of Jewish atheists and agnostics. Judaism is an ethnoreligion and a people in a way that a lot of religions aren't, and in fact, the symbolism for one of my favorite holidays emphasizes that we are not complete without all kinds of Jews:

The functions of the four species are defined by both their smell and taste, or lack thereof, along with some interesting imagery from the Midrash (Vayikra Rabbah 30:12): The etrog has both taste and smell, representing people who both perform good deeds and have Torah (knowledge). The lulav has taste but no smell, representing those who do not use their knowledge to perform good deeds. The hadass (myrtle) has smell but no taste, representing those who perform good deeds but lack the knowledge to excel at them. The aravah (willow) has no taste and no smell, representing those who lack both.

"Good deeds" here doesn't just mean "being nice to your neighbors" but refers directly to performing mitzvot/mitzvahs, the 613 commandments that observant Jews observe to varying levels of specificity and intensity.

It's not offensive to use a phrase like "the faithful," just isn't ... correct, you know? Instead, you'd just say Jews or Jewish people. If you're trying to refer specifically to Jews who are religious or believe in G-d... there isn't exactly a phrase for that, I guess you'd say "observant," because there are a lot of Jews who are observant but also atheists, since observant Jews may be observing mitzvaot for any number of reasons that have nothing to do with belief in the existence of G-d.

Anyway, there you go, with some bonus info. As always, I don't speak for everybody, 2 Jews 3 Opinions, etc.