#to be honest maybe my gods don't need to be super consistent or systematic i think that fits things in a way

[dante-and-dragons]

I think TMA is bleeding into some of my D&D worldlore. Some of my gods are more like... people who have committed themselves so much to a concept/ideal (eg. luck, ambition, family) that they became the gods of those things. And then some of them are just... the raw, unfiltered/unworshiped ideals themselves.

For instance, there isn't really a god of war, but there is just straight up War, an entity, or the essence of war itself, which... exists.

I guess to some extent, the more concrete/person-shaped gods could be taken as avatars of the more essential forces/ideals.

I'm still not sure exactly how I want to do my pantheon, to be honest. I have a few gods developed, and some have names and take on physical forms, but others are... thereish.

[faith-nerd]

Feel free to ignore/delete this. I need to make a quick little vent and didn't know where else to put it

It bothers me when something branded "a critique of religion" boils down to "I can't do whatever I want without someone telling me it's wrong why do people want other people to have standards?"

Because there are rules in place bigger then what any of us can see and some people can't think of anything outside of themselves.

Hypocrisy is a thing in the church, I'm fully aware. But these "critiques" tend to boil down to "make up your own rules because someone was mean to you" Maybe I'm over simplifying but I feel like there too much disrespect for something that matters a lot to me personally. There's also the underlying issue of "respect other's believes but be hypercritical of Christian ones"

Yes people have been hurt, yes they have the right to express that, but this is an anonymous vent post because I couldn't say this on main without possibly starting a fight. I can't just ask people to respect me because the internet doesn't work that way.

Anyway you can delete this if you don't want to respond. It's just a vent since I woke up still thinking about a really bad take I saw last night that only holds up if you literally did not read the bible

I think a lot of it is there's no clear answers to anything involving religion.

I'll be honest, I was once super defensive against anyone who critiqued Christianity because that was the world I grew up in. Kinda an "How dare you insult something I care so deeply about?" I still get like that sometimes.

What really made me rethink things was back in high school. I was the traditional white Christian kid, and my best friends were two women of color and two gay guys. We were part of an honor group that was expected to do volunteer hours, and so whenever my church youth group was doing a volunteer something, I'd invite them.

After one of these events, I was driving one of these friends home, and she said she was surprised that I was a Christian because I was so nice. She didn't think of me as a church person Because my friends were poc and queer.

I was glad she felt safe enough to tell me, but also, I didn't know what to feel. Offended that her perception of Christians was so mean? Flattered that she considered me one of "the good ones"? Angry with other Christians who made her feel unwelcome because of the color of her skin?

In the decade since, I've gone through a lot of waves with my faith. Sometimes I wear my belief proudly, glad for the good works in the world. Other times, I see how Christianity has been used to hurt people, both on an individual basis and systematically in society, and I don't want to be associated with them.

The only thing that's been consistent is my faith in Jesus, and the belief He was someone who would sacrifice Himself for others, meet and become friends with everyone, and encouraged his followers to live everyone.

I read and study, and instead of answers, I get more questions, but maybe that's what God wants. God wants us to have differences and individuality, to think for ourselves and be unsure. Otherwise, God could just give us all the answers, or take away our free will and have little faith robots.

I don't know how much this relates to the post you were venting about, but I hope you get something from it. Just, there's a lot of translations, a lot of different versions, a lot of analysises, a lot of writings from the time that didn't make it into the Bible, just... a lot.

And I try to do research and learn, I try to listen to those who have been hurt so I can avoid hurting people in the future, but to me, faith comes down to two things, what Jesus said was the two greatest Commandments:

Love God

Love Others

Beyond that, it's up for debate. Most rules that matter fall under one of those two, usually the second (don't murder, don't steal, etc.). The others, dig a little deeper. Is it something that it's just always been this way and it may be time to reconsider? Or is there an actual legitimate reason it is done that way?

And yeah, we might not all agree on if something is worth following or not, but it's part of the whole "Love Others" thing to not judge unless it involves hurt to themselves or someone else (and even then, that can get debateable).

I don't know. I'm honestly terrified that I've not covered some base and what I'm saying may get taken out of context (especially on the 'how dare you say we piss on the poor' site). But you know what, if this resonates with someone, go in peace and love your neighbors.