#mentions of religion

[springtimebat]

The Baby Dream (A Poem)

If I had kids

I think

I would have to drown them

Bury myself in swampy waters

Hold my babies in a vice-like grip

A cuddle, transferred from mother to mother

An ageless tradition which sprouts from melancholy

It ends with the kid that I gave 

To old waters, to a sea burial

Deep in snowy Japan

My own Pandora’s box

Blood, guts, and all

God’s many mouths say nothing

As they meet me at the height 

Of the mountain 

As we meet at the peak 

Of the mountain

God and baby

Slip away

Turn to blood, pus, sweat

Just bloody cells, masses of flesh

Writhing, slimy beneath my palms

Such experiences are bus stop experiences

Sporadic in nature 

They take place when the snow turns red 

[cage-cat-yt]

Some random anon said I was a bad person because I was Christian :( no context, I think all I did was say on a random post

"lol I'm a queer neurodivergent Christian"

But like guys can we not say people are bad people that deserve to die strictly because of their religion? Like if you're gonna be mean to someone be mean to them about their character or actions lol

Anyway tea of the day I'm gonna go write fluffy fluff fanfic (shirtless men edition)

Also also if anyone knows songs similar to I can't decide by Scissor Sisters please recommend, I'm making a playlist for my oc Saro Margossian and his whole thing is happy melody and disturbing lyrics (one song I added was Choke by I DON'T KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME)

[melmac78]

So the weekend update:

Old place packed and ready for bug treatment. I’m moving what I can today and Tuesday before treatment and hopefully the heck out of here by next Monday. (No issue in new place in regardless and treating as precaution).

Have been giving stink eye to old bed: can’t risk taking but am sick of sleeping on cot.

Supposed to get new furniture Wednesday which will help me in regard to unpacking items there. I will know where to put what. What couple of items I can still take there furniture wise from old place will come over after treatment.

Please keep good thoughts Tuesday and Thursday as I have events at the crack of dawn and evening. (July 4 events both, though one is fun and in old town so I’ll be getting stuff to take to new place.)

Went to farmers market and got one of more unique religious tract ls I’ve ever seen (note verse is listed for content clarity):

Whether or not you believe I will say this wins for creativity. Plus if one doesn’t want to listen, they can take the stones out, clip top part off and display elsewhere.

Missed barbecue pan it by 10 mins., but my backup order was available. So good and a good way to wrap up weekend.

••••••

Finally…

Ash doing great.

She needs to stop trying to do her “Garfield the window figure” parody.

Fortunately the new blinds are rubbery so they don’t break as easy.

[shadesofnavy]

Please do me a little favor. Can you confirm that Keith and Cherry would not get down to funky times in a holy place? If they will then please spray them with the no horni bottle /lh

Believe it or not, they have the decency not to get funky in any holy place, so fear not

[thegalacticjustice]

ask that guy where he lives

[ily-no-romo]

Hey so I know “trauma” has become a really common term, and people somewhat recognize boundaries/respect in terms of not telling people whether or not you agree that their trauma counts as trauma. But a lot of people need to learn that that applies to what someone doesn’t label as trauma.

If I describe an experience and never once refer to it as traumatic or trauma or anything like that, it makes me very uncomfortable for people to label my experience as trauma when they respond to what I’m saying.

For example, I think a lot of my religious upbringing had negative effects, but I don’t consider myself to have religious trauma. But when I talk about certain beliefs I was taught or discussions at my school, people will call it religious trauma or say I can joke about it or justify certain fears because everyone handles trauma differently. But I don’t consider it trauma. And I don’t think I should have to label something as trauma to be allowed to cope with negative experiences on my own terms.

And it’s totally fine if someone relates to things and thinks of it as trauma in their own life. But trauma is incredibly personal, and you shouldn’t invalidate people’s trauma, but you also shouldn’t elevate someone’s experiences to trauma when they don’t call it trauma. That’s a loaded assumption.

[prokopetz]

Bryan Lee O'Malley remarking that he had Scott explicitly spell out that his relationship with Knives was inappropriate in Scott Pilgrim Takes Off because he feels like a lot of the comic's readers maybe didn't pick up on that is very funny not only because how do you not, but also because the original Scott Pilgrim comics are some of the most didactic media I've ever read outside of, like, medieval Christian allegories about the wages of sin. It's just constantly explaining to the reader exactly why Scott is a bad person, sometimes with little annotated diagrams. Genuinely, what's it gonna take for the twentysomething male audience not to idolise a loser?

[writinator]

We just started creative nonfiction in my creative writing class so here's a warm up we did today. Prompt was morning routine

Morning. I open my eyes, dread immediately filling my stomach as a greeting to the day. It’s still dark out and I feel pleasantly warm under my sheets, a feeling I know I will need to say goodbye to soon. My alarm hasn’t gone off yet, I think, but it must be near time. It always is. As this thought flutters through my still groggy mind, the devil hears me speaking of him and my alarm clock decides now is the best time to screech the most god-awful noise known to man. In reality it’s a rather cheerful chirping, but no one can convince my sleep-deprived brain that it isn’t the call of Satan pulling me into the depths of Hell at 5:30 AM.

[awakefor48hours]

I saw a post about this so now I'm curious

New poll with more options if you want there

please consider reblogging for a larger sample size unless you're planning to say something that's anti-theistic

[throesofincreasingwonder]

You know what? I want a whole post for this:

Sex Repulsion is not the same thing as, or an excuse for, Sex Negativity

non-negotiable!

I am a sex-repulsed asexual. This means that I am uncomfortable and repulsed by the idea of engaging in sexual acts. This does not mean that I have an excuse to be repulsed by other people's sexual attraction or the right to police how other people engage in or express sexual acts or attraction.

Young queer people need to learn the difference between sex repulsion and sex negativity, and actively work to unlearn sex-negative attitudes. Asexuality, even sex-repulsed asexuality, is and should be fully compatible with sex positivity.

If you are uncomfortable with the idea of other people feeling sexual attraction or engaging in sexual acts that do not involve you in any way, that is not sex repulsion it is the cultural Christianity and you need to seriously work on that.

[what-even-is-thiss]

I’m a Christian and pretty religious but I’m not like. Bothered about it if that makes sense? I don’t generally care what other people are doing spiritually as long as they’re not causing harm to others. So I get whiplash when I say I’m thinking about checking out the local Islamic center just to see what it looks like in there and other Christians are all like “Oh guard your heart while you’re in there!”

Guard my heart against what? The exact same guy we worship but slightly to the left?

[0-book-talk-0]

Genesis pt. 2 (4-6)

Im back :) daily shit baby 

CW: Man whores (well one but...), God having weird ass rules, mentions of sex

This is part two and I'm writing it the same day as part one so I have no clue if people like this or not. 

Chapter 4 

This chapter was very confusing. 

I drew out Adam and Eve’s family line up to Lamech, his two wives Zillah and Adah, and their four kids. I think you should go look at that. Im gonna try to write it out here but its gonna suck. JK I wrote it out, it sucked, I went to a website https://www.familyecho.com/ and made it!

1. Five women were left unnamed which sucks, only the men (usually) have their names said in this book (their might be some sons your not told about but I doubt it)

2. Lamech is a man whore but apparently that's apparently ok. 

- Cain just killed his brother Able? Just because God didn't choose him?

- God the forgiving guy says if you kill Cain vengeance will be taken on him tenfold. The murderer Cain or the person who kills Cain?

- Why was the family line necessary?

- IS GOD SAYING YOU CAN'T KILL CAIN OR YOU SHOULD KILL CAIN?

Chapter 5

Another family tree made with https://www.familyecho.com/ <3

I didn't think it could get more confusing. It did. Lots more missing women. Of course. I'm assuming this Noah guy is of Noah’s Arc. So how’s this gonna go (sarcasm)

- Why was this chapter necessary?

Chapter 6 

Yup all about Noah, his wife, his kids, and their wives. We have no clue who the wives are... of course. We have no clue if they consented to the mariages. 

- WHY DON'T WE GET A NAME FOR THE WOMEN?

- Why is Noah so important?

Line 4

“when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men”

Def some knowledge I didn't need to know ^

ALSO- WAIT while typing this out I just noticed the wording more. Are daughters not of God? ALSO it should be sons of women BECAUSE THEY COME FROM WOMEN NOT GOD. Fucking hell. 

Apparently Gods creation wasn't very good so like all tyrants Gods gonna kill them.

Arc Measurements 

Height - 30 cubits

Length - 300 cubits

Width - 50 cubits

cuz that's important and totally possible to fit two of all the animal species’ back then on this one boat. 

[outofcontextdiscord]

[midnightsslut]

religion is one of the most prominent recurring themes on the album, and it has been present in some capacity for quite a few records now. taylor previously compared love to religion: her saving grace, her belief system, and a fated divine intervention (false god, cornelia street, and cruel summer are the best examples of this). ‘sacred new beginnings that became my religion’ and ‘we’d still worship this love even if it’s a false god’ are two of the defining statements about her philosophy on the lover album.

taylor doesn’t want to leave all of that behind on ttpd, at least not at the beginning. the first supernatural force she mentions is the spaceship on down bad, which she compares to a skylight of freedom in the epilogue. *something* has finally come to save her from her life of suffering. she doesn’t care if it’s a force of good at first; if anything, she’s just fine being taken away by aliens. she views this man as her destiny. it isn’t until guilty as sin? that taylor starts to ponder the moral implications of what she’s doing. is she guilty as sin for wanting to leave her previous religion and relationship behind? she comes to the conclusion that, even if she rolls the stone away and gets resurrected/redeemed, she cannot avoid the fallout. she is okay with the thought of having to wait, as long as both lovers vow to be together forever, just as she once did with someone else in false god. ‘I choose you and me religiously’ finishes the bridge of the song in a direct callback to cornelia street.

the next mention of religion has murkier imagery. she claims that she does not need the Lord’s help to save this man. she sees the halo that he has, and she can fix him herself. now that she feels free of her prior cage, she isn’t looking for divine intervention anymore. she wants control. she is their route to salvation.

when the relationship falls apart, she retreats back into the position of a believer rather than a divine figure. she compares him to a Holy Ghost who promised to save her and take her to heaven. instead, she is in hell in every sense of the word: she’s down bad and feels guilty for digging up the grave. he was a jehovah’s witness who promised that she could break free of the cage imposed by love without changing her religion altogether; she would’ve just had to switch denominations. she could still have a marriage and kids! she could still have a blue tortured poet! the man was different, but not the dreams they had together. the story of the first part of the album ends here. her faith has been broken, and she has only found any semblance of sanity by refusing to mention these belief systems altogether.

side b/the anthology blends the christian imagery of side a with goddesses, sorcerers, and prophecies. she bargains with these powers to let her have the future she wants (the prophecy). she doesn’t sound like someone believing in salvation. if anything, she feels cursed. she decides that the concept of divinely ordained timing will never work in certain relationships (‘the goddess of timing once found us beguiling / she said she was trying / peter, was she lying?’). this disdain extends onto her perception of other people’s faith (‘bet they never spared a prayer for my soul’). she does position herself as a prophet in cassandra, but even then, she admits that the role has hurt her. perhaps the pain in thank you aimee was meant to be, or perhaps she was just strong enough to build a legacy in spite of it, boulder by boulder. is she a martyr? does she want to be? or did she save herself?

the only real love song on this half of the album makes no mention of fate or any divine forces. it wasn’t meant to be. it’s not a supernatural invisible string or lightning in a bottle. she is just in love.

the album ends with the manuscript, which revisits an old story of a defining, formative heartbreak. as she sings ‘at last, she knew what the agony had been for’ while describing the legacy of her writing, she seems to revert to thinking about the purpose of trauma. the only exception is that, in this case, she is the one who found meaning in her pain by turning it into a manuscript. writing is her belief system now, and she proselytizes by telling her stories and thus giving up the manuscript.

ultimately, her belief in destiny has chewed her up and spat her out. she so desperately clung to her existing belief systems that she was fooled by a conman, which left her feeling cursed. religion is supposed to be with someone even in their darkest moments, but the album explains that taylor often felt abandoned. the only constant in her life was, well, herself. she’ll be okay, but her pen will be her saving grace.

[ily-no-romo]

Sometimes I miss the prayers I would say as a kid. It’s not that I miss what I believed in, it’s just that when you’re a kid and you pray about being grateful for things, I don’t think it matters whether any god hears it or not, and adults don’t think anything you’re thankful for is too insignificant to be meaningful. But then you grow up and wanting to “say grace” in some way comes with more serious religious or anti-religion significance, and it feels like what you’re grateful for has to be worth that gratitude.

But I think that’s stupid because right now I’m grateful for stuffed animals and the creators of Bluey and ice packs and my pajamas and the knowledge that other people get their wisdom teeth out and it hurts and then stops hurting but while it hurts I can watch Bluey. And I’m sure there are bigger things to care about but right now I don’t care about those things as much as these small things

[prokopetz]

Do you happen to know the origin of the fantasy trope in which a deity's power directly corresponds to the number of their believers / the strength of their believers' faith?

I only know it from places like Discworld and DnD that I'm fairly confident are referencing some earlier source, but outside of Tinkerbell in Peter Pan, I can't think of of any specific work it might've come from, 20th-c fantasy really not being my wheelhouse.

Thank you!

That's an interesting question. In terms of immediate sources, I suspect, but cannot prove, that the trope's early appearances in both Dungeons & Dragons and Discworld are most immediately influenced by the oeuvre of Harlan Ellison – his best-known work on the topic, the short story collection Deathbird Stories, was published in 1975, which places it very slightly into the post-D&D era, though most of the stories it contains were published individually earlier – but Ellison certainly isn't the trope's originator. L Sprague de Camp and Fritz Leiber also play with the idea in various forms, as does Roger Zelazny, though only Zelazny's earliest work is properly pre-D&D.

Hm. Off the top of my head, the earliest piece of fantasy fiction I can think of that makes substantial use of the trope in its recognisably modern form is A E van Vogt's The Book of Ptath; it was first serialised in 1943, though no collected edition was published until 1947. I'm confident that someone who's more versed in early 20th Century speculative fiction than I am could push it back even earlier, though. Maybe one of this blog's better-read followers will chime in!

(Non-experts are welcome to offer examples as well, of course, but please double-check the publication date and make sure the work you have in mind was actually published prior to 1974.)