#Rambling about religion

[nothererightnow369]

So a conversation tonight got me really introspective and I sort of just want to throw some thoughts out there while they are floating around...

I grew up in a mixed religion household. Grandma was Christian, mom is a Helenistic pagan (with a lot of stuff borrowed from other branches of paganism and Christian psychics), and dad practices Norse paganism. It is safe to say that, should I encounter any problems, I had a variety of deities to pick from and pray to for help/guidance/etc, and, oh boy, I did encounter problems.

I was in late elementary school when my mom tried to get me to be more religious, so I studied as much as I could about different religions, and tried taking my problems to these deities, and shaping my behavior to be a good adherent to whatever I was trying at the time. I tried just about every god or goddess from every pantheon/religion I had an understanding of, and I got no help whatsoever. I was disillusioned at this point. Not only was I convinced none of these deities were real/could help, but I also started seeing a lot of issues with the common beliefs held in many of these neo-pagan groups, and running head first into the issues in many different Christian denominations. I gave up on it (save for a few times of pure desperation because I was in a really shitty state mentally and truly felt that the only way I would be able to make it through was divine intervention, and I didn't care what direction it came from). I gave up trying to find something to believe in, and I gave up trying to figure out what I believe or if I believed in anything at all (it doesn't help that I was overwhelmed with homeschooling myself and taking care of my two younger siblings, which left me with no time to sit down and think about these things). What's the point of finding a deity to believe in if that deity won't answer a prayer or even send a sign?

The problem is, I want to believe in something, but finding where to start is overwhelming. I've kindof just landed on "be as good (aka no harming anyone, and actively try to help people. If an action doesn't harm anyone it is neutral.) as you can, and, if there is a just judge of what to do with your soul when you die, you will be rewarded, if the judge of the afterlife is willing to make eternity miserable for you unless joined this group/worshiped a certain way/etc than they were an asshole undeserving of worship, and if there is nothing, at least you weren't an asshole." Unfortunately, I just feel like that is such a cop out answer, but it's all I have. I would love to find a religion that matches my understanding of the world, but that takes time and, given my experiences, it would just be a waste.

If someone could make a quiz that takes stock of all of your beliefs of things like moral issues, the afterlife, the cause of human suffering, and divine intervention in human lives and rank which religions are most likely to fit your understanding of the world, that would be great, and I would certainly use it to figure things out, but that's just because it feels like I would have to put in so much work just to get started in understanding what I believe/if I believe in anything, and don't want to be disappointed because I put in a lot of work just to have no answer.

[wings22sky77]

there is something to be said about the sheer plurality of god... if you were to attempt to believe in all theology you would have to reconcile monotheism with polytheism with pantheism, something which is immensely doable through the lens of plurality. which is to say, it's obvious that eventually some fragment of god/the universe/whatever would take the form of a human, or even many of them. all things are sacred, i think, and there is nothing through this view that says one cannot be/have been the god of machines or birds or clouds or whatever else. i'm wording it badly, but fundamentally a capital g God would be both one and a million, infinite in number, each deeply specialized and specific, and simultaneously one whole being, the source of all things divine...

[machineofreality]

Why does Wirrin hate the Church?

I’ve got some kind of flu or something, so I totally forgot to post this last night. I’ll post another one tonight anyway because I want to get through this backlog. 240224 I feel like I should say that I don’t care about plot holes, not exactly. But the setting exists to serve the story, right? And at the moment I’m struggling to get the story out of a more detailed version of the…

[doing-something-unholy]

I was looking up what happens to laicized priests for potential ✨️character drama✨️ but i found this instead 😳

[itty-bitty-sunshine]

Happy holidays <3

They are fine. Probably

[secondbeatsongs]

thinking about how many turns of phrase are christianity-based, and was trying to think of how I'd explain "jesus wept" to someone who hadn't heard it used, and the closest thing I could come up with was "alexa, play despacito"

[velichorus-k]

Click for better quality <3

Based on The Light of the World by William Holman Hunt; Absolutely adore all the designs of the brotherhood AU by @0ketlyn-s @tea0w0stache and @elijah-doodle :)

[bitchliteraria1906]

Trying to write about how Kyoko and Homura being religious affects their characters but I'm not smart enough to make it coherent.

[burningcheese-merchant]

Wake up, BurningCheese/GoldenSpice babes, new poorly drawn blorbos just dropped

They look cooler in my head, I swear.

the images didn't show up the first time wtf lol

The kids are finally here, yay. I promised I'd show you them, and I finally stopped being an asshole and followed through. Almost got 200 followers and I'm very grateful for it - really, I'm nobody. I'm just some clown who says dumb stuff and makes dumb memes and writes cringey stories, and yet I convinced almost 200 people to tune in. Thank you all so much, users on here and anons in my inbox alike. As a token of appreciation, you can all endure my rambling about my OCs and witness a person in their early 20s draw like a 12 year old.

The boy is Pepper Jack (or Pepper Jack Cookie). He's the firstborn and older than his sister by a few years. He takes after his mother in a lot of ways, primarily in her appearance (save for nabbing his father's red eyes). He's incredibly bright (and a smartass lol), preferring to think his way out of conflict rather than fight his way out... not that he's above violence at all, if that glaive doesn't give it away lol. He harbors a deep sense of love and loyalty towards his family and his peoples, and carries the weight of his responsibilities and heritage with as much confidence and poise as he can muster. (There are/will be times where he stumbles, of course. He's not perfect. He struggles a lot more than he lets on, really. But he tries his best, for everyone's sake.)

The girl is Matar Paneer (or Matar Paneer Cookie). Again, she's the younger one by a few years. She was all but made in her father's image, save for inheriting her mother's eyes. She's a little firecracker: lively and fun-loving and stubborn as a mule. She doesn't ask "can I have/do this thing", she tells you "I'm going to have/do this thing". Golden is proud as anything to see her daughter be so greedy... until that greed comes into conflict with her and Spice's authority lol. But she's a good kid, despite being such a handful. She has an enormous heart and is not afraid to stand up for others/what's right, and she loves her parents and brother more than anything in the world. She might doubt her own capabilities, she might secretly fear that she's not strong enough to do what she needs to... but she keeps pushing anyway, because she'd honestly choose death over quitting.

Your eyes are not deceiving you, Pepper Jack's wings are blue lol. There's an actual reason for that. And that USO (Unidentified Sitting Object) in Matar Paneer's hair is a lotus (the cheese one in the GCK decor set lol). There's a reason for that, too. I thought it would be cool to give Jack a glaive and swap out the normal blade for that of a khopesh sword (glaives are not Egyptian, they only saw use in Asia and Europe, but I just HAD to give him a glaive), to add that Egyptian touch. Paneer's supposed to be wearing a pattu pavadai, it's a traditional Indian dress for young girls. It's a blouse plus a skirt. She's holding katar, Indian knives (Cilantro Cobra has them, too). And her hair's supposed to be in a low ponytail.

Merchant thinks that if they explain what their terrible drawings are supposed to convey, people will understand their intended vision and the pain will stop

I sat down and did research into both Egyptian and Hindu mythology for the sake of drawing inspiration for them both. I'll explain in detail in another post, but basically: both of them take after one Egyptian god and one Hindu god each. Golden takes after Ra and Spice takes after Shiva, so I figured I'd follow along that line.

Please flood my inbox with questions about them now. I've really been dying to talk about them for ages now. I've drafted extensive character sheets for them both, I even made up in-game descriptions for them lol. They're my little fankid blorbos and I love them :') I hope you all come to love them, too

(Also, I'm sorry they're on lined paper. I'm visiting family rn and that's the only paper my grandmother has in her house. I'd have to drive to a stationery to get printer paper and I'd really rather not drive in this particular country lol (shit roads, even shittier drivers). I'll doodle them on printer paper whenever somebody remembers to bring me some)

[zephsomething]

“I don’t want to get better That Fast” top ten things a character has ever said

[steelthroat]

I think Cybertronian atheism should work differently than ours like:

"It's not that primus doesn't exist, I just don't think of him as a god just because he's a creator and created me"

Like yk. He's there, he's a giant robot, he's the planet the Cybertronians inhabit... this doesn't have to mean something on a spiritual level for everyone.

Like i imagine the discourse in theology boards being like "when people say "oh look Primus created us all" okay but maybe we could do it too... WE ACTUALLY DO IT TOO DOES IT MAKE mechs in cold constructed factories GODS?"

Idk. Like i think that the fact that primus exists as a planet and giant Cybertronian/Cybertron is a hard one to miss, maybe there may be some skeptics sure, but few of them.

I think it would actually be interesting arguing about whether his will is something to keep in mind or not when talking about politics or society and that also bleeds into "primacy/no primacy" discourse.

And also i imagine there may be some Unicronian cults out there etcetera? Peopel arguing about his figure as a mythological or historical one? Hrrrrrrnnnn

[machineofreality]

Not deciding what the Gods look like

240209 I think I’m going to document, or ruminate, some of the worldbuilding for the second draft of Wirrin and the Fiends as I go. Seems like an easy enough way to still have stuff to post on the blog that’s not, like, ‘spoilers’. The first thing that has cropped up is the Gods. Specifically that since I didn’t really flesh them out at all, they require a bit of work to actually appear to be…

[curi0uscreature]

* (steam coming out of my head) I’m fucking thinking dude

[silencingspellsongs]

so with a hush audio coming out friday/saturday and the chance of him and doc resurrecting vega like he mentioned in his last audio and with sunday being easter.......... do you see where im going with this

[dearansur]

on another saw iii rewatch was kinda fascinated by the props. like they really went off with the 'thoughts and prayers will save peepaw' vibe here

(number 3 is in the second screenshot if it wasn't clear)

[spookierz]

part of me never left that exile