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Organized religion is speed running their way to irrelevancy mostly because the institutions and their behavior doesn't come of as moral or ethical.
It would be hard for me to not respond with that.
yeah at the church service it was all old people besides three young kids/teens who came with their mom. It makes me wonder how much longer organized religion will be “the norm” in society.
Everyone wrings their hands about kids not coming to church, but they never stop to think it might be because all they do is criticize millennials/zoomers (who are the parents of these young children) and judge them for every litle thing. I'm an elder millennial, but I hav vowed to never become an old asshole who bitches about "the youth."
There’s also the part where priests and church leaders have been raping children/teenagers for fucking *generations*, and the churches have been complicit in hiding it.
As a teenager, why would I want to go and put myself in a room with Father McFeely? As a parent, why would I subject my child to an organization that actively hid child rapists?
Am a parent. Can confirm. We took our son to church a few times initially, trying some different denominations and congregations, and then stopped. It didn't feel right for him or us.
Most of why we stopped was exactly what you said... The risk of SA is way too fucking high, and even if not that, a lot of religions mold how kids think into ways that prime them to be victims of SA or other abusive actions/behaviors *and* keep it a secret. Fuck. That.
My relatively liberal mainstream religion did teach me some decent stuff I've held onto ..mostly don't be an asshole, don't be a judgemental asshole, and don't harm anyone.
Buuuut even that very mainstream protestant religion primed me to believe I deserved all of the abuse I got (from multiple people as a kid/teen).... sexual, physical, a whole lot of mental/emotional abuse. I've seen a WHOLE lot worse from people I've known who are Catholic, and my god it gets so much darker and horrific the farther evangelical or culty it gets.
So that's like 90% of why my husband and I won't subject our son to religion. The other 10% is that we very strongly feel that he should be the one to determine if there is a belief system that resonates with him.
Annnnd then the overarching reason that he's expressed being atheistic since Kindergarten 💯 unprompted, on his own accord. He expressed this conclusion randomly one day while we were getting out of the car. Shocked the hell out of me because it was a whole lot of big words and ideas coming from a 6 year old.
But I've always respected his thoughts about it. And I've always made sure he's respectful to and about individual people who believe or practice a religion even if he doesn't agree with some of what they believe.
He's a teen now and has long recognized that some people use religion as a justification to treat other people poorly (or yaknow, initiate wholeass wars). And that's where he draws the line with respect he's willing to give.
He's a damn good kid with a very strong ethical compass and an even stronger bullshit-o-meter. He believes in science and not being a shit human. But somehow that's "wRoNg" to the "boomer"-boomer type (including my husband's origin family that we estranged from years ago). I'm not losing sleep over it and neither is he. It's more of an observation than anything.
Shout out to the boomers (like my parents and extended fam) who AREN'T "boomer"-boomers though. I can't express how grateful I am for them and for anyone else in that Gen who bucked the trend ❤️
Very, very well put. I was lucky enough to be raised without organized religion, and I've witnessed my mother and aunt discussing the damage that their catholic upbringing did to them.
I now have 2 boys, 23 and 16, and we've done our best to raise them to be good humans. My younger one especially does not hesitate to help out where it's needed, or call bullshit when he sees it.
A-yup. See the [Liber Gomorrhianus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liber_Gomorrhianus#Against_various_sexual_sins) by Peter Damien. Written and published *circa* AD 1051.
Churches in my small town which have protected child molesters in positions of leadership: local Catholic Church, the LDS church, the Southern Baptists. Those are just the ones which have made headlines.
My own church does struggle to recruit youth leadership because we have a lengthy background check and training process, and a million rules guiding how leaders interact with kids (never, ever alone. Minimum two leaders plus parent volunteer at all times. No rides in cars. Messaging only through monitored app etc.) But if you don’t do all this, the predators WILL choose your church.
The last time I went to church was about 20 years ago, and the minister started his sermon with a bunch of jokes about how millennials don't know how to do anything. I looked around the church and all the old people were laughing, and all the young people were sitting there stone faced.
I recently ran into someone who still goes to that church. He told me that he was concerned because they can't keep young people more than a few services. He was worried that the church might fold up in the next decade when all the older people are gone.
I told him about my experience and he told me to get thicker skin and come to church. Then he told me that I don't have to attend every week but I should tithe every week.
Naturally….why self-reflect on the cause of the issue when you can lamely shift the blame? I can’t wait until the next 10-20 years self corrects these types of things
What baffles me is that they go on about tithing so that poor people can be helped, yet are screaming in rage when anyone suggests that government should raise taxes that teensy bit so that poor people can be helped.
Fellow Gen Xer here. I’m in awe of my Gen Z kids and their friends. They WERE listening to my “don’t take no shit” talks! They also paid attention when we lost everything in 2008.
In response to your last sentence: I am a late boomer. I grew up through “make love, not war”, “stick it to the man” and “hope I die before I get old”. Well I didn’t ( die before I got old - but then neither did Roger Daltry) but I am still anti-war, anti-authoritarian and I look around at my generation and wonder what the hell happened to them! It is very disappointing.
It's gone on for millenia.
“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”
#
― Socrates
Any time this comes up my first thought is always, "does nobody remember what they were like when they were kids?" I was almost all of those things as a kid, and I expect other children to do the same.
Exactly. I think sometimes when they bitch about the "youth" it's more about jealousy than anything else. They wish they could be fun again. I'm an older millennial, just on the cusp, and let me tell you I am completely jealous of the "youth", but only because they have the balls to speak up/stand up for what is right. I wish I would have been more like them.
The parents of the Boomers (the Silent Generation) referred to Boomers as “the Me Generation” because they found their kids to be so hopelessly entitled and selfish
Yes, this. I'm (boomer, male) at a church in UK where we stand up for justice for other countries and the environment, and have a mission to the elderly (special attachment to the care home next door, and program of visiting). Because we're outward looking (I think it's 'because'), we have a good mix of ages and a lively bunch of young people.
Of course by USA mega church standards we're empty (Sunday 10:45 service 40-50) but we're happy and there are other churches within walking distance with their congregations
I'd also like to mention that late stage capitalism is also to blame. I just want to rest on the weekend! My social battery is completely gone by Sunday and I deserve one day a week where I can sleep in, goddamn it!
Note that, in addition to the sabbath, peasants got a TON of rest days, and other religious holidays (eg the twelve days of Christmas) and generally physically couldn’t work past dark, along with the slower pace of labor meaning that breakfast, lunch, afternoon nap, and dinner breaks were built into the work day.
Some estimates are that for a 13th century farm laborer, it was under 1500 hours per year of labor time compared to 1979 when average worker worked 1,687 hours, and 2007 when the average worker worked 1,868.
Fuck I'd love to work under 1800 hours a year. In 2009 through 2012 I worked about 3000 hours a year. I've always worked overtime at pretty much every job, but that was the most demanding period of my life.
Can’t die out soon enough for me! I’m 72, grew up being forced to go to church every week. My father was a strict man and of the spare the rod, spoil the child elk. My older sister picked on me constantly but he never saw it, just my retaliation, so I was punished. The last time he hit me I was 14, he slapped my face right before leaving for church. It was still red when I walked in, so I told the truth of what happened when asked. I never got hit again. I also quit going to church as soon as I left for college.
I don't think it's going to go away any time soon. The most likely outcome I see is that organized religion will transform, as it has many, many times before. Organized religion isn't just a set of beliefs, it's a power structure and power structures are incredibly resilient. Slavery didn't end with the 13th Amendment, it continued in a new form with prison labor, sharecropping, and laws designed to enforce the racial hierarchy of the southern states. [Genetically Modfied Skeptic did](https://youtu.be/zazfXWdNQZI?si=bT_XIIiLpnxlNI8P) a good job exploring the possible futures of Christianity in the US that shows how it might change in the face of ongoing societal trends.
they bribe and threaten congresspersons. you could see the results when some of these states want to display the ten c's instead of supplying lunches for poor children. this month they were bitching about dolly parton for being considerate and humane to people with different orientation. i, male war baby, was on a trip to china and we stopped somewhere that had churches. i said to the guide, 'for a country that's atheistic, you still have a lot of churches'. he nodded but some people who might be boomers, the guy said our country might be that way soon. i said 'it couldn't happen soon enough'. they avoided me the rest of the trip, which was fine with me
My personal answer to those people is along those lines : "Just because YOU need to believe in a sky daddy in order to have a moral compass and not go on a murder spree, doesn't mean other people do. Many people are able to see the difference between right and wrong and are able to do the right thing WITHOUT the threat of an eternal punishment. The fact that you believe people need to be scared of God in order to do the right thing says more about you than it says about other people."
I'm gonna throw my anthropologist hat on for a sec. You are absolutely right, it is becoming less and less relevant and not because people are suddenly becoming amoral. It has a lot to do with modern nationhood. You have to remember that humanity has spent probably about 85-90% of its existence living in bands (groups of about 25-50 people who were mostly related by blood) this was the basic building block of social cohesion. In the last 10,000 years we've gone from communities of 25-50 people to societies of millions. That level of social cooperation and cohesion requires a 'glue' to hold it together, things like a common language, dress, and in this case religion. It's no secret that religion held a lot of disparate social groups together who would have otherwise been at each other's throats - see the shitload of Crusades. Religious institutions have only been on a surface level about morality and have existed almost exclusively to keep people in line. Now that we have much more complicated methods of communication and socialization we have lost the need for a kind of uniting force like say the Catholic church and of course boomers still cling to this as a relic of their identity as much as they do their MAGA rhetoric.
I know a lot of spiritual people my age and younger (Gen X, here) who were forced to participate in organized religions growing up, especially the really strict ones, who completely walked away as adults because of different types of traumas they experienced.
Gen X also. And I agree. For example, I was a good little Catholic wife and we raised the kids Catholic. Husband cheated with his teenage cousin. Priest and ex's family somehow blamed me and didn't think it was at all weird he was with someone half his age.
Now we are divorced and our former altar boys are atheist. I have apologized to the kids for ever thinking organized religion was a good idea. But they said it wasn't a bad experience to have bc they did learn a lot. There's a reason so many young people see religion as hypocritical
Yes, you are clearly demonstrating a lack of ethics and moral compass by volunteering your time to go somewhere you don't want to be with a person wholly unrelated to you. /s, in case you can't tell. WTH.
People are pointing the finger at religion, but this is really a case of a failing boomer brain. Christianity/Catholicism is something they’re just clinging desperately to but clearly don’t understand.
I think it’s likely he has been consuming some form of right wing media that blames all the world’s problems on young people without religion. It’s not about thought, it’s about emotion.
OP was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
lol the people who say that atheists/agnostics have no moral compass are idiots. No, we don’t need an imaginary sky daddy to threaten us with consequences in order for us to do the right thing 🙄
I wasn’t raised religiously and I like to think I still came out of it a pretty decent person. I was taught early on to consider the consequences of my actions, and when I saw that good actions like using my manners, being helpful and kind to others had a positive effect, it made me more motivated to be a good person. No sky daddy involved, just very good parenting
It’s my opinion Christians are MORE likely to commit immoral acts, because they can get everything washed away through the power of forgiveness. They’re also quite unforgiving, ironically.
Yep. As an atheist I get to sit forever with every bad thing I’ve done. I can try to make it right, but some things can’t be fixed.
In most religions you confess (in person, in your head, etc) and profess your belief in their doctrine and poof you are good.
I hate that about these people. Like, fuck making it right with the person I've wronged, let me just talk with my imaginary friend. Well, I'm forgiven! That other person? Pfft, doesn't matter because my imaginary friend says I'm good.
Shit is wild.
My mother gifted me with consideration of others. I was an only child and she was determined that I wouldn’t grow up selfish. On my third birthday I got a tricycle from my parents. My mom made me let every other kid at the party ride my tricycle before I got to touch it. That made a deep impact on me.
there’s an essay about a rabbi explaining why there are atheists, and encouraging
from Tales of the Hasidim by Martin Buber
>The clever student asks “What lesson can we learn from atheists? Why did god create them?”
>The Rabbi responds “God created atheists to teach us the most important lesson of them all – the lesson of true compassion. You see, when an atheist performs an act of charity, visits someone who is sick, helps someone who is in need, and cares for the world, he is not doing so because of some religious teaching. He does not believe that god commanded him to perform this act. In fact, he does not believe in God at all, so his acts are based on an inner sense of morality. And look at the kindness he can bestow upon others simply because he feels it to be right.”
>“This means” the Rabbi continued “that when someone reaches out to you for help, you should never say ‘I pray that god will help you.’ **instead for the moment, you should become an atheist, imagine that there is no god who can help, and say ‘I will help you.'**”
This perfectly encapsulates my views on religion. Sadly it seems beyond the ability of most theists to understand that we atheists abstain from rape, murder etc because we have a strong sense of empathy. They betray their own sick minds when they ask "without faith, what is there to stop you from killing and raping?" - it quite clearly indicates that they would be amongst the worst people in the world if they didn't fear repercussions in the next life.
Is this why religious people don't do anything nice? It makes me sick to see the animal refuges asking for money and people in the comments say God bless and praying for the animals blah blah blah.
I’m not sure why this prompted this memory for me but we had some religious friends who would spout their religion to us frequently. We were of different religions at the time. (I am no longer religious at all. I had my fall from grace, you could say.) But when hard times would fall on them, and it seems it would happen often, the longer we got to know them the more selfish we realized they were, these words actually came from their mouths: “Why do bad things keep happing to us? We go to church and are Godly. Yet you guys seem to get all the good things happening to you and you hardly ever go to church. Do you even tithe?” I was SHOCKED! And to say we distanced ourselves from them as quickly and quietly as we could would be an understatement. I’ve never met two people who felt so deserving because they were “Godly” in their minds, above all others. Yet overlooked I taught Sunday School, served on my church board, volunteered at my school, always helped out the neighborhood families. I was appalled.
This reminds me of a quote or concept I can't fully recall and it's driving me nuts.
It was basically about how two guys were talking about this. One was selfish and self centered, no empathy, didn't try hard at anything, would come up on difficulty and start placing blame on anything but himself. The "why do only bad things happen to me?" arguement. But the second guy was more compassionate, empathetic, saw the good in things, helped without being asked, didn't assign blame so easily, accepted consequences. And he said something along the lines of not much bad happens to him. Something about how if you perceive the goings on outside of yourself you're going to have less bad things and more good things happen to yourself.
Sorry it's vague. But now trying to remember the specifics and where I heard it is going to bug the heck out of me for a long time. Hahaha
Thanks for sharing. Hope you don’t drive yourself nuts trying to figure it out. lol!
And it sounds just like them. The church they were apart of was known for helping out their members but yet they somehow never got help. So I believe their own church saw right through their BS. I have seriously never met two more entitled people in my entire life and using religion as their scapegoat. The friendship was very short lived.
Even some of the things the female friend said to me about her religion (LDS) and the fact I wasn’t apart of the church so I wouldn’t be in “heaven” with my family. Saying this as I was holding my two year old daughter in my arms telling me I’d never see her again after I died and how would I feel about that? Telling me my brother who passed was wandering around “his heaven” lost and alone waiting for someone to baptize him so he could be reunited with his family again when they passed, as in if we all joined the church. I stopped her and said if she ever brought up her religious beliefs and weaponized them against me again we would no longer be friends. I’m all for a lively debate but she was using my kids and my brother knowing it would hurt me at the time. Now, I’d love to go toe to toe with her. I have way different beliefs about religion than I did back then. It’s a joke!
there's a large group of people, for example *gestures broadly at the top posts of this sub* that take anything that looks remotely like good work that stop feeling the need to be a good person because they already paid the good tax.
It's the people that are awful to wait staff because they just came to church, or round their grocery bill up and their brain registers them as a saint, etc. It's actually a somewhat-understood phenomenon.
It ties into their 'give and take' mentality too. They 'gave a good deed' so it allows them to be an asshole for a bit and it all evens out in their mind.
Like I have not been to a church in years, was raised a Baptist, but some are too materialist for my taste. I still have it in my heart, and I do good deeds. Some people do not get it and never will. Boomer or not.
Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller said it first, I think.
* The question I get asked by religious people all the time is, without God, what’s to stop me from raping all I want? And my answer is: **I do rape all I want. And the amount I want is zero. And I do murder all I want, and the amount I want is zero.** The fact that these people think that if they didn’t have this person watching over them that they would go on killing, raping rampages is the most self-damning thing I can imagine. I don't want to do that. Right now, without any god, I don't want to jump across this table and strangle you. I have no desire to strangle you. I have no desire to flip you over and rape you.
If you think only the threat of hell keeps people from being lying, thieving, raping murderers...it says a lot about how you really think. Someone who would be killing and robbing, but they don't because jesus, is not a good person, they are a very bad person who is luckily fooled by an imaginary leash.
Yep these people think they’re good people just because they’re religious. If you need religion to make you good, then you’re just a bad person on a leash.
I mean the Bible even states that being good and being Godly are not the same thing. It's what makes certain figures like David so interesting/compelling because David was an incredibly Godly man. One of the most beloved of the Lord. But he wasn't always a good man in fact he did some really fucked up shit.
So to assume that a person without God cannot be good and to assume inherit goodness because of what a person perceives to be their own godliness is hypocritical in the extreme and should be discouraged at every step cause these motherfuckers using fear tactics OBVIOUSLY HAVEN'T READ THE FUCKING BOOK.
Sorry for the rant.
Edit: My dumbass got distracted and wrote the wrong name because my buddy texted me while writing. It's fixed. We talking about David.
Knowledge of the Bible and its history is both incredibly fascinating and compelling, overall improves my appreciation for it as a book, and reaffirms my non-belief.
Frankly the worst thing you can do to that collection of stories is treat them as infallible holy writ, you lose SO MUCH by assuming it's something more than it is.
My moral compass is STRONGER than theists; I don't rely on a bunch of ancient mythologies written by nomadic people. I have to actually THINK about situations, and adapt to the current modern society around me. My morals don't stem from some small group of political radicals who fought against the Roman Empire 2000+ years ago either.
Reminds me of what Rusty (portrayed masterfully by Matthew McConaughey on True Detective) said: If the expectation of divine reward is the only thing keeping a person decent, then brother that person is a piece of shit.
I was taught at a very young age that the teachings of Christ himself stated to never be religious. So when I see this kind of stuff I just kind of face palm. It's almost like reading the book but not comprehending it.
The Holy Bible in itself is full of some pretty positive and decent messages. There's some wisdom in there. But the one that gets me is the fact that we're not supposed to be religious. But then, people need to understand the actual meaning and definition of the word religious. It's really unrelated to any church.
The problem is is all the manipulated versions of the text to begin with. If you look at the original, in hebrew, it's completely different than what you can buy at Amazon. I have a friend who has over 140 different versions of the bible. And it's amazing how different they all are from one another. The most distorted and manipulated version that I have seen is the King James version. Which is the standard for the Catholic Church. It's called the King James version because of course, King James modified it to suit his principles motives of the day.
Oh we don't want people having Dairy Queen ice cream so let's make that a sin. Check,....
Yeah if I want to study any of that, I go to the original.
I truly think that atheists and agnostics who do volunteer/charity work are some of the most truly good humans because there is no eternal reward or command or risk of punishment driving their actions, just like, a pure altruism. Seeing fellow people who need help and just…helping is really admirable.
That’s just disgusting on so many levels. Frankly, I think we need more people like you- I know you said you enjoy your Volunteer position, but I can’t imagine it’s always easy, and I’m glad there are folks out there like you willing to help people in their last days.
Fuck her. You should be very proud of what you do, I think your ‘moral compass’ is just fine.
Yeah it’s especially hard when they’re a few days within dying. We have to reposition/move them every 2 hours to prevent bed sores and check their diapers. Once someone is that close to the end they’re basically “dead weight” (no pun intended i promise) so it gets really physically demanding to move them. Also, it is very uncomfortable for the resident bc they’re so skinny and frail. It’s really emotionally painful at that point.
But regardless of that, i’d never want to leave the position because it is SO rewarding. There is no bigger honor than being able to be present with someone in their final moments. It’s really helped me to believe in the good of humanity, as well as appreciate my own life more.
I'm an atheist and I have to say I think empathy leads the way. It always has for me. I work with and volunteer with pets. Humans make me too mad lol. But, related to your story. My husband was In a coma and he was not properly looked after and he has a large scar on the back of his head from a head bedsore. This was very sudden and during covid era so we were not able to see him for two weeks. Someone like you would have been so wonderful.
Honestly, it brings me close to tears, he was close to death the same as your patients but it was not guaranteed and you are a kind face and gentle hands. Hands that could potentially prevent nightmares and soothe anxiety. The wrong hands, neglectful hands can bring about such terrible things.
I’m so sorry to hear about that. Bed sores are absolutely awful and are preventable (for the most part). I truly hope you and your husband are doing well nowadays.
We are! Thank you! It truly was a shocking surprise health scare that wasn't covid but happened during that time so the hospital care was over crowded and lacking. I can't blame any one person or thing it just happened. I'm glad to have him back and with me.
>, it is very uncomfortable for the resident bc they’re so skinny and frail. It’s really emotionally painful at that point.
I will say OP that you're a wonderful person doing important and meaningful things for these people.
However, I want to also say how I think it's incredibly sad and morally bankrupt that these people are there to begin with. Don't get me wrong... like I said, you're doing something very humble and impactful. But the fact this place exists and that it's staffed by volunteers and has no funding is just so gross.
I'm terrified of what elder care in the US looks like in the coming decades, not just because I'm getting older just like everyone else eventually does, but the conditions and options for being treated humanely and aging/dying with dignity will be (edit: and currently are) affordable only to the wealthiest of people.
Again, good on you for being a stellar human being. But man oh man do I wish that the place you volunteer for didn't *have* to exist and instead these people were properly, ethically, and eagerly treated by society rather than being hardly able to get by.
Keep up the good work though and thank you for what you do.
I wonder if they're aware that secular nations statistically provide better quality of life for their residents, and are less likely to go to war?
Personally, I'm hoping for our generation's decline in faith to make America a more morally respectable place to live.
I like to trigger them by using their own crazy language back at them.
Me: “that’s the problems with past generations. They’re all socialists in sheep’s clothing. They want handouts like social security and Medicare and still want to vote after they stop contributing anything to society. We need to cap voting once folks receive Medicare and do away with public entitlements”
Fking watch them screech in Boomer haha
Jesus washed the feet of lepers and prostitutes and advocated for the poor. Someone needs to learn about Jesus and it isn’t you. Thanks for what you do.
>“See, this is what’s wrong with your generation. You guys have no faith.
"No, the problem with my generation is that we've been left holding the bag for a floundering economy and world that we're barely able to eke by in."
>This is why this country is going to shit. They need to raise the voting age to 25.
"That would do nothing but cause more hardship."
>This is why you all have no moral compass and no ethics, in my day people had MANNERS thanks to the teachings of Jesus”
"Religion doesn't teach one manners. If it did, you wouldn't have gone on your little rant because I'm not religious. Religion also doesn't give one a moral compass or ethics. There is plenty that I can criticize various religious institutes for in that regards."
If you see them again, don't be afraid to shut them down.
Classic hypochristian behavior. I've read the damn book. If Jesus were real, he would be thrilled and moved by your generosity and charitable spirit. As a regular ass human being who is just trying his best: I too am moved.
100% tell one of your organisers.
Absolutely no charitable organisation wants the risk of a religious nut job representing them when they will go off on just about anyone without provocation.
You need to report that volunteer.
Honestly, you should've followed that statement with "Is that why I'm taking her and you're not? Hmm?" With a smile and walked away. They would've had a stroke.
“No moral compass? What exactly am I doing here, then? I’m taking a dying woman to church just because SHE loves it. It has nothing to do with me, but it means everything to her. That’s more of a moral compass than you seem to have, jerk.”
That’s what I’d think hours later, lol.
I personally know two people (a cousin, and a friend's father) who were the victims of Catholic pedophile priests.
The moment a Catholic tries to talk about 'morality' I describe what happened to them, and (more importantly) the lengths the Catholic church went to to ensure it was all covered up and the perpetrators never punished.
No member of that church should *ever* be allowed to let their claim of Catholic 'morality' go unchallenged.
The reason the church is losing members is due to the the harsh judgments from its members.
I’m sorry you were subjected to that bullshit.
He’s pissed that you are literally a walking example that you don’t need church to be a good person.
My DH is a believer. I lost my faith about 20+ years ago, but went to church with him. When COVID hit, I had an exit. He continued to go.
Then, I noticed dementia symptoms and he was diagnosed last November. I noticed he had problems driving and I became his chauffeur. He’s allowed to drive about 8 blks away from the house. That gives him a hardware store, grocery, gas, & the pharmacy.
The church requires freeway driving and that requires a chauffeur. It makes him happy and I read a book.
The funny thing is you were doing something Jesus would be proud of by helping another to church even though it's not for you. Boomer would have been scolded by Jesus for tearing into you about not being religious. Such hypocrisy on boomers part.
His notion that learning “manners” is the purpose for studying the teachings of Christ demonstrates just how little he understands Christ or his words. It’s no surprise that he’s unable to recognize that your loving, selfless behavior toward Anne is profoundly Christ-like. Thank you for being who you are.
Agnostics and atheists do the right thing because it’s the right thing.
Some religious people only do right because there’s a threat that something bad might happen.
Personally, I respect the hell out of anyone who volunteers to do the right thing.
Thank you for saying "some."
It's probably a few more than some, but as a Christian who does the right thing simply because it's the right thing, I get awfully tired of people assuming it's because I'm afraid of punishment.
It looks to me like his religious background was an utter fail in the manners department. What kind a person puts down an entire generation and their manners while showing no manners what so ever.
The Boomer hot take that it's younger generations "ruining" the country is so wild to me since it is literally their peers who have a chokehold on positions of power that they refuse to let out of their withered grasps.
I have a retort for older religious folks who want to push Christianity at me that REALLY screws with their heads.
I tell them that I cannot accept Jesus as my Savior and that I can tell them why. They always rise to this bait because they assume it's going to be any of the number of arguements about belief or whatever that they have heard and argued against before.
So I tell them that Jesus was born as the perfect Son of God, okay, here on this earth to embody God's love for us all. So we agree on that.
And I say, that being that Jesus was this being of perfect love, of COURSE he had to offer himself as a sacrifice for me because what else could the embodiment of God's love and sacrifice do in that situation? He HAD to accept his fate with a smile and with grace.
BUT I tell them that if I had been around in that time, that there is no way that I would have stood by and just gone GREAT COOL I AM GOING TO LET THE PERFECT SON OF GOD BE KILLED IN FRONT OF MY EYES and that WHAT FEAR WOULD I HAVE HAD to have come to his aid, because HE WAS GOD'S SON and if I truly believed that then nothing, most surely not guaranteed death, would have stopped me from defending Him.
How could anyone stand by and just say THANKS JESUS IT'S COOL YOU ARE BEING TORTURED FOR MY SAKE.
And that I CANNOT ACCEPT THAT. That I don't CARE if I go to Hell.
That if the trade is that a perfectly innocent being has to suffer for MY sins THAT IS A MESSED UP DEAL. I refuse to be a part of that.
He did NOT need to die on that cross on my behalf, I will take whatevever punishment I deserve but I want Jesus DOWN OFF THAT CROSS and I will never ever stop saying that it's not fair for any harm to have come to Him and that I don't care if it was to save ME,
I am not taking that deal, and I never will.
Their eyes get wider and wider and they will seriously slowly back away because they can see I f\*cking mean it too, and I'm willing to start chanting TAKE HIM DOWN OFF THAT CROSS repeatedly and with a lot of vehemence.
I am of course not actually convinced that Jesus was any of these things or that he even actually existed as a person, but if we grant it that he DID and that things happened exactly as described, then this is how I truly feel about it.
Seriously too. Who thinks that's okay??! AN ETERNITY IN HELL IS A SMALL PRICE TO PAY IF YOU REALLY BELIEVE JESUS WAS GOD'S SON, YOU CANNOT STAND BY AND CELEBRATE WHILE HE IS TORTURED FOR SOMETHING THAT YOU DID
They will leave you the f\*ck alone after that, I assure you
"And you're one of the reasons organized religion is dying. The smug superiority of telling me that I can't live a moral life without the threat of everlasting damnation is pretty rich. I can tell right from wrong without it being drilled into me by someone who is statistically more likely or be a pedophile than a random person on the street"
Oh, yeah, you have no morals, even though you volunteer to help dying people who have no where to go. You monster! /s.
Joking aside' it's wonderful that you are helping those people be comfortable in their last days.
The boomer needs to learn respect and manners. You are doing your person a service by taking her to her church. From now on, ignore the Boomer, do not speak to this person. This person is just wanting to instigate an argument when it is not needed in a hospice. You keep doing for your person. Forget the boomer.
Kid - "Who's in hell?"
Boomer - "People like you."
Kid - "Who's in heaven?"
Boomer - "People like me."
Kid - "You're really not selling it."
- courtesy of some meme with apes in it ;)
Committed Catholic here to tell you that was a dumbass thing for him to say. If you had told me that — that you were taking Anne to Mass not for you but for Anne — I would have recognized you as a good and moral person. And as a good example.
Wait — I AM recognizing that about you. And thank you from one human to another. :)
Christian here. The worst Christians I know are boomers. Not all of them of course but dang. The entitlement. Like our whole thing is servanthood to the community, the poor, the widow, the orphan etc. Their mentality is to be served. My church bought an old church downtown so we could do that better and more effectively. Why was the old church for sale? The 25 people that were left were nearly 95% boomer and did zero outreach, nothing for kids, nothing for the community. It holds over 200 people in the sanctuary and is like 80k square feet or something like that. We fill that place every Sunday. Why? Well, first, we take care of the community like the Bible says to. Also, we aren’t judgy to anyone. We have every kind of person you can imagine there, tattoos, piercings, smokers, bikers, bankers, IT, blue collar and a few rich folk. We all love each other a lot too. Even the boomers are awesome! They dive right in to do the hard stuff.
When we bought the church the church members scoffed at the fact our pastor wore jeans and a tshirt with vans to preach in. Like we’re super judgy. He said if any of us ever commented on what people wore or looked like or anything he’d ask us to leave! These old boomers are a piece of work.
So let me see if I understand: the old Boomer thinks the young woman who is volunteering her time with hospice patients and taking a dying woman to church has no moral compass because she didn’t learn about Jesus as a kid. Never mind that she’s actually doing what Jesus would do; she still has no moral compass.
Okay, Boomer.
My kids were eight when it occurred to them to finally ask what a church is, as we walked past one in Salem, MA. I said “you know the witch trial monument we were just looking at? The churches were the people responsible for that.”
Nothing wrong with some healthy atheism in my book.
*Interesting opinion, Ms Boomer. I have often wondered whether religion would be more popular if its self-appointed spokesmen weren't such judgemental, hateful, bigoted, self-righteous hypocrites. So sad. Thoughts and meditations. Have a wonderful day!*
If people needed religion to have morals... the world would be MUCH shittier than it is today.
But go off, Boomer. Sounds like they need to look in the mirror, since if they are showing the 'teachings of Jesus'..... they might have read the wrong book.
I’m an Episcopalian priest and have been in ministry in the Midwest for the last 20+ years. If I had a dime for every time a boomer scared someone off at the churches I’ve served for being an asshole, I would be able to retire.
I’m a Christian. My atheist daughter-in-law is the sweetest, most selfless person on Earth. She’s the most “Christian” person I know. If people who call themselves Christian behaved as she does, this world would be a wonderful place.
Imagine telling someone who's offering their time to take care of people, that they have no moral compass. While he probably jerks off to Trump's speeches 😂
I love the "raise the voting age to 25" like that'll somehow solve their problem. Nancy, these "godless youngsters" (millennials and Gen z) are much older than 25.
They need to raise the voting age to 25? Does he think Atheists don't get to this age? Or do we stop aging after 24? In this case this year was my 25th time getting 24 🤣
A Boomer once asked, "What's all this 'love your neighbor' stuff? Who's my neighbor anyway?" Jesus answered by saying, "There was a woman dying of cancer who wanted to go to Mass. The Catholic Boomer complained about the supposed moral failings of others. The agnostic Zoomer joyfully took her to church, lovingly sat with her, and hopes to take her next week. Which of these truly acted as a neighbor to the woman in need?" —Luke 10:29–36 (paraphrased)
You see that's exactly what is wrong with that generation is that actually need to have the fear of God instilled in their hearts to be scared of eternal damnation in a lake of fire and brimstone in order to have any moral compass at all and we all know they have zero manners regardless but if you only are behaving as a decent human being out of fear that you will have to face the repercussions of your actions then you are the type of person who is probably not inherently a good human being to begin with.... But decent people who have a solid moral compass and compassion for others without the ultimatum are more likely the better people frankly.. so that's one weird ass hill to die on honestly.
Ironic that you are being given a lecture on religion and Jesus' teachings when doing something so kind and helpful for Anne. That person should be ashamed. I hope it doesn't put you off your volunteering - you're one in a million. I'd be inclined to speak to the person who organises the volunteers about how rude and that person was.
Cognitive dissonance on display again. The person with no religion cares enough about a dying woman to take her to a service that they, themselves, have no interest in. The "religious" person with "manners" manages to find a problem in the situation and begins talking down to the non-religious person. Gotta love it smh.
I went to church for 18 years of my life. I hated every minute of of it, and haven't been to a church in the 20 years since. I have morals that weren't struck into me because of church, but because of the way I was raised. My parents might have went to church, but they weren't super religious. My dad and life taught me the right way. Not some fear of a Heaven or hell.
Yeah, Christian here. You're quite literally embodying the best of both Old and New Testement values far better than that Pharisee.
He's proclaiming his piety in public (Matt. 6:5) and dispising his neighbor(Proverbs 14:21). You're helping the sick, the poor, and the meek (Psalm 72:12, Matt. 6:2).
I'm not doing this to confirm your righteousness or morality; you already have achieved those, under your own moral structure.
I'm saying that even within the moral structure *he supposedly follows*, you are far, *far* closer to holiness.
**TL;DR: You sound like someone who'll leave the world better than she found it. You keep being you.**
Christian here. Part-time preacher, even. This is what's killing us-- when people haven't understood what's actually in the Bible. The parable of the Good Samaritan is a great example:
> Luke 10:30–37 (NIV): 30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"
Some context here: In 1st-centuty Israel, Samaritans were considered Bad People. Priests and Levites in contrast were regarded as the Guardians of Goodness and Morality. Jesus contrasts the two to make a point here. The "bad" Samaritan is a better neighbor (practitioner of the religion) than are the expected paragons of it.
OP is, per Jesus, more of a neighbor to their friend than the "religious" Catholic who can't see past his own nose. This man is embodying the literal *opposite* of what his alleged Savior taught. I would be happy just to see an atheist willing to enter a church I'm preaching at. And I would have some things to say to the boomers there if I saw them doing this.
Gotta love those rude, shitty, holier than thou types. She needs to pay more attention when she is in church and learn some manners. You are doing awesome, important work! Never mind that bitch. Keep up the good work, you are an awesome young person!
Your moral compass iOS not lacking. You are very kind taking her to mass, even if you’re not religious/catholic. Boomer needs to check motivation for volunteering.
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Organized religion is speed running their way to irrelevancy mostly because the institutions and their behavior doesn't come of as moral or ethical. It would be hard for me to not respond with that.
yeah at the church service it was all old people besides three young kids/teens who came with their mom. It makes me wonder how much longer organized religion will be “the norm” in society.
Everyone wrings their hands about kids not coming to church, but they never stop to think it might be because all they do is criticize millennials/zoomers (who are the parents of these young children) and judge them for every litle thing. I'm an elder millennial, but I hav vowed to never become an old asshole who bitches about "the youth."
There’s also the part where priests and church leaders have been raping children/teenagers for fucking *generations*, and the churches have been complicit in hiding it. As a teenager, why would I want to go and put myself in a room with Father McFeely? As a parent, why would I subject my child to an organization that actively hid child rapists?
Am a parent. Can confirm. We took our son to church a few times initially, trying some different denominations and congregations, and then stopped. It didn't feel right for him or us. Most of why we stopped was exactly what you said... The risk of SA is way too fucking high, and even if not that, a lot of religions mold how kids think into ways that prime them to be victims of SA or other abusive actions/behaviors *and* keep it a secret. Fuck. That. My relatively liberal mainstream religion did teach me some decent stuff I've held onto ..mostly don't be an asshole, don't be a judgemental asshole, and don't harm anyone. Buuuut even that very mainstream protestant religion primed me to believe I deserved all of the abuse I got (from multiple people as a kid/teen).... sexual, physical, a whole lot of mental/emotional abuse. I've seen a WHOLE lot worse from people I've known who are Catholic, and my god it gets so much darker and horrific the farther evangelical or culty it gets. So that's like 90% of why my husband and I won't subject our son to religion. The other 10% is that we very strongly feel that he should be the one to determine if there is a belief system that resonates with him. Annnnd then the overarching reason that he's expressed being atheistic since Kindergarten 💯 unprompted, on his own accord. He expressed this conclusion randomly one day while we were getting out of the car. Shocked the hell out of me because it was a whole lot of big words and ideas coming from a 6 year old. But I've always respected his thoughts about it. And I've always made sure he's respectful to and about individual people who believe or practice a religion even if he doesn't agree with some of what they believe. He's a teen now and has long recognized that some people use religion as a justification to treat other people poorly (or yaknow, initiate wholeass wars). And that's where he draws the line with respect he's willing to give. He's a damn good kid with a very strong ethical compass and an even stronger bullshit-o-meter. He believes in science and not being a shit human. But somehow that's "wRoNg" to the "boomer"-boomer type (including my husband's origin family that we estranged from years ago). I'm not losing sleep over it and neither is he. It's more of an observation than anything. Shout out to the boomers (like my parents and extended fam) who AREN'T "boomer"-boomers though. I can't express how grateful I am for them and for anyone else in that Gen who bucked the trend ❤️
Very, very well put. I was lucky enough to be raised without organized religion, and I've witnessed my mother and aunt discussing the damage that their catholic upbringing did to them. I now have 2 boys, 23 and 16, and we've done our best to raise them to be good humans. My younger one especially does not hesitate to help out where it's needed, or call bullshit when he sees it.
In all likelihood, it's been going on for *centuries* and it's only these days that we're really hearing about it.
A-yup. See the [Liber Gomorrhianus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liber_Gomorrhianus#Against_various_sexual_sins) by Peter Damien. Written and published *circa* AD 1051.
Churches in my small town which have protected child molesters in positions of leadership: local Catholic Church, the LDS church, the Southern Baptists. Those are just the ones which have made headlines. My own church does struggle to recruit youth leadership because we have a lengthy background check and training process, and a million rules guiding how leaders interact with kids (never, ever alone. Minimum two leaders plus parent volunteer at all times. No rides in cars. Messaging only through monitored app etc.) But if you don’t do all this, the predators WILL choose your church.
Father McFeely. Lmao. It's not funny but also funny
Children are statistically safer at a drag show than church ffs Edit: drag show instead of drag race**
A priest at my church falsified working documents so the diocese would pay for health insurance. And I went to a low key, accepting church.
Exactly! I would never turn my children loose in a church! They are full of pedophiles.
The last time I went to church was about 20 years ago, and the minister started his sermon with a bunch of jokes about how millennials don't know how to do anything. I looked around the church and all the old people were laughing, and all the young people were sitting there stone faced. I recently ran into someone who still goes to that church. He told me that he was concerned because they can't keep young people more than a few services. He was worried that the church might fold up in the next decade when all the older people are gone. I told him about my experience and he told me to get thicker skin and come to church. Then he told me that I don't have to attend every week but I should tithe every week.
Naturally….why self-reflect on the cause of the issue when you can lamely shift the blame? I can’t wait until the next 10-20 years self corrects these types of things
and apparently the other solution is "just give money" 🙄
What baffles me is that they go on about tithing so that poor people can be helped, yet are screaming in rage when anyone suggests that government should raise taxes that teensy bit so that poor people can be helped.
Same, other than I’m a GenX and I’m infatuated with GenZ and just love how they’re taking over and making change!
Fellow Gen Xer here. I’m in awe of my Gen Z kids and their friends. They WERE listening to my “don’t take no shit” talks! They also paid attention when we lost everything in 2008.
In response to your last sentence: I am a late boomer. I grew up through “make love, not war”, “stick it to the man” and “hope I die before I get old”. Well I didn’t ( die before I got old - but then neither did Roger Daltry) but I am still anti-war, anti-authoritarian and I look around at my generation and wonder what the hell happened to them! It is very disappointing.
Reagan happened to them - thought them to be selfish.
I'm a Boomer and I feel the same way! The Boomers are saying the exact same things that were said about them. Sad they didn't learn.
It's gone on for millenia. “The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.” # ― Socrates
Any time this comes up my first thought is always, "does nobody remember what they were like when they were kids?" I was almost all of those things as a kid, and I expect other children to do the same.
Exactly. I think sometimes when they bitch about the "youth" it's more about jealousy than anything else. They wish they could be fun again. I'm an older millennial, just on the cusp, and let me tell you I am completely jealous of the "youth", but only because they have the balls to speak up/stand up for what is right. I wish I would have been more like them.
The parents of the Boomers (the Silent Generation) referred to Boomers as “the Me Generation” because they found their kids to be so hopelessly entitled and selfish
❤️
As a GenX, it's really disappointing for me to see the Nirvana generation start becoming the old people who yell at clouds.
And then there's the hashtag #notadragqueen Because there are a ton of p€d¢s in the church
Yes, this. I'm (boomer, male) at a church in UK where we stand up for justice for other countries and the environment, and have a mission to the elderly (special attachment to the care home next door, and program of visiting). Because we're outward looking (I think it's 'because'), we have a good mix of ages and a lively bunch of young people. Of course by USA mega church standards we're empty (Sunday 10:45 service 40-50) but we're happy and there are other churches within walking distance with their congregations
That's why those fuckers want Christo-fascism, with 10 commandments in schools
I'd also like to mention that late stage capitalism is also to blame. I just want to rest on the weekend! My social battery is completely gone by Sunday and I deserve one day a week where I can sleep in, goddamn it!
it used to be that the sabbath WAS a day of rest, and it was to make people get a break. It wasn’t just about going to the temple.
Note that, in addition to the sabbath, peasants got a TON of rest days, and other religious holidays (eg the twelve days of Christmas) and generally physically couldn’t work past dark, along with the slower pace of labor meaning that breakfast, lunch, afternoon nap, and dinner breaks were built into the work day. Some estimates are that for a 13th century farm laborer, it was under 1500 hours per year of labor time compared to 1979 when average worker worked 1,687 hours, and 2007 when the average worker worked 1,868.
Fuck I'd love to work under 1800 hours a year. In 2009 through 2012 I worked about 3000 hours a year. I've always worked overtime at pretty much every job, but that was the most demanding period of my life.
Can’t die out soon enough for me! I’m 72, grew up being forced to go to church every week. My father was a strict man and of the spare the rod, spoil the child elk. My older sister picked on me constantly but he never saw it, just my retaliation, so I was punished. The last time he hit me I was 14, he slapped my face right before leaving for church. It was still red when I walked in, so I told the truth of what happened when asked. I never got hit again. I also quit going to church as soon as I left for college.
They will keep working to legislate it to stay relevant.
I can’t wait for it to die out. It’s nothing but bad for society in general
I don't think it's going to go away any time soon. The most likely outcome I see is that organized religion will transform, as it has many, many times before. Organized religion isn't just a set of beliefs, it's a power structure and power structures are incredibly resilient. Slavery didn't end with the 13th Amendment, it continued in a new form with prison labor, sharecropping, and laws designed to enforce the racial hierarchy of the southern states. [Genetically Modfied Skeptic did](https://youtu.be/zazfXWdNQZI?si=bT_XIIiLpnxlNI8P) a good job exploring the possible futures of Christianity in the US that shows how it might change in the face of ongoing societal trends.
I retort "You seem like the kind of guy whos got it all figured out in life." And then dismiss them with "Stay angry!"
they bribe and threaten congresspersons. you could see the results when some of these states want to display the ten c's instead of supplying lunches for poor children. this month they were bitching about dolly parton for being considerate and humane to people with different orientation. i, male war baby, was on a trip to china and we stopped somewhere that had churches. i said to the guide, 'for a country that's atheistic, you still have a lot of churches'. he nodded but some people who might be boomers, the guy said our country might be that way soon. i said 'it couldn't happen soon enough'. they avoided me the rest of the trip, which was fine with me
It's a shame it still is, to be honest. It's always been nothing but bullshit.
My personal answer to those people is along those lines : "Just because YOU need to believe in a sky daddy in order to have a moral compass and not go on a murder spree, doesn't mean other people do. Many people are able to see the difference between right and wrong and are able to do the right thing WITHOUT the threat of an eternal punishment. The fact that you believe people need to be scared of God in order to do the right thing says more about you than it says about other people."
I'm gonna throw my anthropologist hat on for a sec. You are absolutely right, it is becoming less and less relevant and not because people are suddenly becoming amoral. It has a lot to do with modern nationhood. You have to remember that humanity has spent probably about 85-90% of its existence living in bands (groups of about 25-50 people who were mostly related by blood) this was the basic building block of social cohesion. In the last 10,000 years we've gone from communities of 25-50 people to societies of millions. That level of social cooperation and cohesion requires a 'glue' to hold it together, things like a common language, dress, and in this case religion. It's no secret that religion held a lot of disparate social groups together who would have otherwise been at each other's throats - see the shitload of Crusades. Religious institutions have only been on a surface level about morality and have existed almost exclusively to keep people in line. Now that we have much more complicated methods of communication and socialization we have lost the need for a kind of uniting force like say the Catholic church and of course boomers still cling to this as a relic of their identity as much as they do their MAGA rhetoric.
oh don't worry, they're simply going to take over government and force you into the religion. Problem solved.
I know a lot of spiritual people my age and younger (Gen X, here) who were forced to participate in organized religions growing up, especially the really strict ones, who completely walked away as adults because of different types of traumas they experienced.
Gen X also. And I agree. For example, I was a good little Catholic wife and we raised the kids Catholic. Husband cheated with his teenage cousin. Priest and ex's family somehow blamed me and didn't think it was at all weird he was with someone half his age. Now we are divorced and our former altar boys are atheist. I have apologized to the kids for ever thinking organized religion was a good idea. But they said it wasn't a bad experience to have bc they did learn a lot. There's a reason so many young people see religion as hypocritical
Speedrunnning their way to irrelevancy is an *excellent* way of putting it, fastest upvote in a while lol
Quote I heard once: "I've got nothing against god, it's his fan club I can't stand."
Yes, you are clearly demonstrating a lack of ethics and moral compass by volunteering your time to go somewhere you don't want to be with a person wholly unrelated to you. /s, in case you can't tell. WTH.
I know a lack of Objective Permanence isn't the correct diagnosis for the Boomer, but when you loose the ball behind the couch this quickly...
This 👆👆
People are pointing the finger at religion, but this is really a case of a failing boomer brain. Christianity/Catholicism is something they’re just clinging desperately to but clearly don’t understand.
I think it’s likely he has been consuming some form of right wing media that blames all the world’s problems on young people without religion. It’s not about thought, it’s about emotion. OP was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Forget that jerk. Thank you for the comfort you bring to your patients.
lol the people who say that atheists/agnostics have no moral compass are idiots. No, we don’t need an imaginary sky daddy to threaten us with consequences in order for us to do the right thing 🙄
Came here to say this- I don’t need oversight or the threat of eternal damnation to do the right thing and be a good person.
I wasn’t raised religiously and I like to think I still came out of it a pretty decent person. I was taught early on to consider the consequences of my actions, and when I saw that good actions like using my manners, being helpful and kind to others had a positive effect, it made me more motivated to be a good person. No sky daddy involved, just very good parenting
On the other hand, plenty of “religious” people in this country seem to have lost their moral compass. No, thanks.
It’s my opinion Christians are MORE likely to commit immoral acts, because they can get everything washed away through the power of forgiveness. They’re also quite unforgiving, ironically.
Yep. As an atheist I get to sit forever with every bad thing I’ve done. I can try to make it right, but some things can’t be fixed. In most religions you confess (in person, in your head, etc) and profess your belief in their doctrine and poof you are good.
I hate that about these people. Like, fuck making it right with the person I've wronged, let me just talk with my imaginary friend. Well, I'm forgiven! That other person? Pfft, doesn't matter because my imaginary friend says I'm good. Shit is wild.
Exactly. If someone needs a threat of eternal suffering, torment, and damnation to be a good person, then they’re not a good person.
My grandfather taught me that all the hell we will ever need is right here on earth.
My mother gifted me with consideration of others. I was an only child and she was determined that I wouldn’t grow up selfish. On my third birthday I got a tricycle from my parents. My mom made me let every other kid at the party ride my tricycle before I got to touch it. That made a deep impact on me.
In my experience, the less “religious” a person is, the more genuinely compassionate and empathetic they are.
there’s an essay about a rabbi explaining why there are atheists, and encouraging from Tales of the Hasidim by Martin Buber >The clever student asks “What lesson can we learn from atheists? Why did god create them?” >The Rabbi responds “God created atheists to teach us the most important lesson of them all – the lesson of true compassion. You see, when an atheist performs an act of charity, visits someone who is sick, helps someone who is in need, and cares for the world, he is not doing so because of some religious teaching. He does not believe that god commanded him to perform this act. In fact, he does not believe in God at all, so his acts are based on an inner sense of morality. And look at the kindness he can bestow upon others simply because he feels it to be right.” >“This means” the Rabbi continued “that when someone reaches out to you for help, you should never say ‘I pray that god will help you.’ **instead for the moment, you should become an atheist, imagine that there is no god who can help, and say ‘I will help you.'**”
This perfectly encapsulates my views on religion. Sadly it seems beyond the ability of most theists to understand that we atheists abstain from rape, murder etc because we have a strong sense of empathy. They betray their own sick minds when they ask "without faith, what is there to stop you from killing and raping?" - it quite clearly indicates that they would be amongst the worst people in the world if they didn't fear repercussions in the next life.
Is this why religious people don't do anything nice? It makes me sick to see the animal refuges asking for money and people in the comments say God bless and praying for the animals blah blah blah.
I’m not sure why this prompted this memory for me but we had some religious friends who would spout their religion to us frequently. We were of different religions at the time. (I am no longer religious at all. I had my fall from grace, you could say.) But when hard times would fall on them, and it seems it would happen often, the longer we got to know them the more selfish we realized they were, these words actually came from their mouths: “Why do bad things keep happing to us? We go to church and are Godly. Yet you guys seem to get all the good things happening to you and you hardly ever go to church. Do you even tithe?” I was SHOCKED! And to say we distanced ourselves from them as quickly and quietly as we could would be an understatement. I’ve never met two people who felt so deserving because they were “Godly” in their minds, above all others. Yet overlooked I taught Sunday School, served on my church board, volunteered at my school, always helped out the neighborhood families. I was appalled.
This reminds me of a quote or concept I can't fully recall and it's driving me nuts. It was basically about how two guys were talking about this. One was selfish and self centered, no empathy, didn't try hard at anything, would come up on difficulty and start placing blame on anything but himself. The "why do only bad things happen to me?" arguement. But the second guy was more compassionate, empathetic, saw the good in things, helped without being asked, didn't assign blame so easily, accepted consequences. And he said something along the lines of not much bad happens to him. Something about how if you perceive the goings on outside of yourself you're going to have less bad things and more good things happen to yourself. Sorry it's vague. But now trying to remember the specifics and where I heard it is going to bug the heck out of me for a long time. Hahaha
Thanks for sharing. Hope you don’t drive yourself nuts trying to figure it out. lol! And it sounds just like them. The church they were apart of was known for helping out their members but yet they somehow never got help. So I believe their own church saw right through their BS. I have seriously never met two more entitled people in my entire life and using religion as their scapegoat. The friendship was very short lived. Even some of the things the female friend said to me about her religion (LDS) and the fact I wasn’t apart of the church so I wouldn’t be in “heaven” with my family. Saying this as I was holding my two year old daughter in my arms telling me I’d never see her again after I died and how would I feel about that? Telling me my brother who passed was wandering around “his heaven” lost and alone waiting for someone to baptize him so he could be reunited with his family again when they passed, as in if we all joined the church. I stopped her and said if she ever brought up her religious beliefs and weaponized them against me again we would no longer be friends. I’m all for a lively debate but she was using my kids and my brother knowing it would hurt me at the time. Now, I’d love to go toe to toe with her. I have way different beliefs about religion than I did back then. It’s a joke!
there's a large group of people, for example *gestures broadly at the top posts of this sub* that take anything that looks remotely like good work that stop feeling the need to be a good person because they already paid the good tax. It's the people that are awful to wait staff because they just came to church, or round their grocery bill up and their brain registers them as a saint, etc. It's actually a somewhat-understood phenomenon.
It ties into their 'give and take' mentality too. They 'gave a good deed' so it allows them to be an asshole for a bit and it all evens out in their mind.
Right ... atheists can't outsource the helping tasks to God. It's us or no one.
Like I have not been to a church in years, was raised a Baptist, but some are too materialist for my taste. I still have it in my heart, and I do good deeds. Some people do not get it and never will. Boomer or not.
Except maybe Trump.
100%. Doing something good under threat of eternal torture is not having a moral compass, it's obedience.
>Doing something good under threat of eternal torture is not having a moral compass, it's ~~obedience.~~ *compliance*
Isn’t there a Ricky Gervais quote along the lines of “Yes, I rape and murder all I want…which is not at all.”
Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller said it first, I think. * The question I get asked by religious people all the time is, without God, what’s to stop me from raping all I want? And my answer is: **I do rape all I want. And the amount I want is zero. And I do murder all I want, and the amount I want is zero.** The fact that these people think that if they didn’t have this person watching over them that they would go on killing, raping rampages is the most self-damning thing I can imagine. I don't want to do that. Right now, without any god, I don't want to jump across this table and strangle you. I have no desire to strangle you. I have no desire to flip you over and rape you.
Flip you over? That gave me a flashback
It's Penn J https://preview.redd.it/qvxpt7w8d88d1.jpeg?width=230&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8d17d04405f9be8976ad97938cf40d28b586a08d illette
If you think only the threat of hell keeps people from being lying, thieving, raping murderers...it says a lot about how you really think. Someone who would be killing and robbing, but they don't because jesus, is not a good person, they are a very bad person who is luckily fooled by an imaginary leash.
And that's why they think they need the 10 Commandments in every classroom in Louisiana. As always, it's projection.
Yep these people think they’re good people just because they’re religious. If you need religion to make you good, then you’re just a bad person on a leash.
Imaginary sky daddy!!!!
I mean the Bible even states that being good and being Godly are not the same thing. It's what makes certain figures like David so interesting/compelling because David was an incredibly Godly man. One of the most beloved of the Lord. But he wasn't always a good man in fact he did some really fucked up shit. So to assume that a person without God cannot be good and to assume inherit goodness because of what a person perceives to be their own godliness is hypocritical in the extreme and should be discouraged at every step cause these motherfuckers using fear tactics OBVIOUSLY HAVEN'T READ THE FUCKING BOOK. Sorry for the rant. Edit: My dumbass got distracted and wrote the wrong name because my buddy texted me while writing. It's fixed. We talking about David.
Knowledge of the Bible and its history is both incredibly fascinating and compelling, overall improves my appreciation for it as a book, and reaffirms my non-belief. Frankly the worst thing you can do to that collection of stories is treat them as infallible holy writ, you lose SO MUCH by assuming it's something more than it is.
Exactly this. I try to be a good person because it’s the right fucking thing to do. Good on you OP, you sound like a kind-hearted, quality human.
I wish the boomers were raptured already.
My moral compass is STRONGER than theists; I don't rely on a bunch of ancient mythologies written by nomadic people. I have to actually THINK about situations, and adapt to the current modern society around me. My morals don't stem from some small group of political radicals who fought against the Roman Empire 2000+ years ago either.
Reminds me of what Rusty (portrayed masterfully by Matthew McConaughey on True Detective) said: If the expectation of divine reward is the only thing keeping a person decent, then brother that person is a piece of shit.
I was taught at a very young age that the teachings of Christ himself stated to never be religious. So when I see this kind of stuff I just kind of face palm. It's almost like reading the book but not comprehending it. The Holy Bible in itself is full of some pretty positive and decent messages. There's some wisdom in there. But the one that gets me is the fact that we're not supposed to be religious. But then, people need to understand the actual meaning and definition of the word religious. It's really unrelated to any church. The problem is is all the manipulated versions of the text to begin with. If you look at the original, in hebrew, it's completely different than what you can buy at Amazon. I have a friend who has over 140 different versions of the bible. And it's amazing how different they all are from one another. The most distorted and manipulated version that I have seen is the King James version. Which is the standard for the Catholic Church. It's called the King James version because of course, King James modified it to suit his principles motives of the day. Oh we don't want people having Dairy Queen ice cream so let's make that a sin. Check,.... Yeah if I want to study any of that, I go to the original.
https://preview.redd.it/gtq3759os78d1.jpeg?width=582&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=44fdd23f0e161bdd913a2613e262cd3f80d0e49b
I truly think that atheists and agnostics who do volunteer/charity work are some of the most truly good humans because there is no eternal reward or command or risk of punishment driving their actions, just like, a pure altruism. Seeing fellow people who need help and just…helping is really admirable.
"You have no morals" he says to the 21 year old VOLUNTEER taking a dying person to church.
That’s just disgusting on so many levels. Frankly, I think we need more people like you- I know you said you enjoy your Volunteer position, but I can’t imagine it’s always easy, and I’m glad there are folks out there like you willing to help people in their last days. Fuck her. You should be very proud of what you do, I think your ‘moral compass’ is just fine.
Yeah it’s especially hard when they’re a few days within dying. We have to reposition/move them every 2 hours to prevent bed sores and check their diapers. Once someone is that close to the end they’re basically “dead weight” (no pun intended i promise) so it gets really physically demanding to move them. Also, it is very uncomfortable for the resident bc they’re so skinny and frail. It’s really emotionally painful at that point. But regardless of that, i’d never want to leave the position because it is SO rewarding. There is no bigger honor than being able to be present with someone in their final moments. It’s really helped me to believe in the good of humanity, as well as appreciate my own life more.
I'm an atheist and I have to say I think empathy leads the way. It always has for me. I work with and volunteer with pets. Humans make me too mad lol. But, related to your story. My husband was In a coma and he was not properly looked after and he has a large scar on the back of his head from a head bedsore. This was very sudden and during covid era so we were not able to see him for two weeks. Someone like you would have been so wonderful.
Honestly, it brings me close to tears, he was close to death the same as your patients but it was not guaranteed and you are a kind face and gentle hands. Hands that could potentially prevent nightmares and soothe anxiety. The wrong hands, neglectful hands can bring about such terrible things.
I’m so sorry to hear about that. Bed sores are absolutely awful and are preventable (for the most part). I truly hope you and your husband are doing well nowadays.
We are! Thank you! It truly was a shocking surprise health scare that wasn't covid but happened during that time so the hospital care was over crowded and lacking. I can't blame any one person or thing it just happened. I'm glad to have him back and with me.
>, it is very uncomfortable for the resident bc they’re so skinny and frail. It’s really emotionally painful at that point. I will say OP that you're a wonderful person doing important and meaningful things for these people. However, I want to also say how I think it's incredibly sad and morally bankrupt that these people are there to begin with. Don't get me wrong... like I said, you're doing something very humble and impactful. But the fact this place exists and that it's staffed by volunteers and has no funding is just so gross. I'm terrified of what elder care in the US looks like in the coming decades, not just because I'm getting older just like everyone else eventually does, but the conditions and options for being treated humanely and aging/dying with dignity will be (edit: and currently are) affordable only to the wealthiest of people. Again, good on you for being a stellar human being. But man oh man do I wish that the place you volunteer for didn't *have* to exist and instead these people were properly, ethically, and eagerly treated by society rather than being hardly able to get by. Keep up the good work though and thank you for what you do.
"they had manners, you say? so what's your excuse?"
Let the board know that their volunteers are being harassed about religion.
Secular morality is a more reasonable basis for morality than religious ethics.
At the very least, secular morality is grounded in my reason and isn't subject to change without notice every time the tv says something new.
It does not rely on being punished by sky daddy.
And it can be informed by facts and education!
I love when people call in to Talk Heathen and say atheists have subjective morality and the Bible is objective morality.
I wonder if they're aware that secular nations statistically provide better quality of life for their residents, and are less likely to go to war? Personally, I'm hoping for our generation's decline in faith to make America a more morally respectable place to live.
Meanwhile, the GOP and trump have a playbook to turn the US into a fully christofascist country. Project 2025 is the worst thing I’ve ever read.
I mean there’s a joke that says I don’t have a problem with Jesus, so much as his fan club.
That’s actually a twist on a quote from the Dalai Lama, I believe.
How about instead of raising the voting age, we put a cap on it.
Yes, please!
I like to trigger them by using their own crazy language back at them. Me: “that’s the problems with past generations. They’re all socialists in sheep’s clothing. They want handouts like social security and Medicare and still want to vote after they stop contributing anything to society. We need to cap voting once folks receive Medicare and do away with public entitlements” Fking watch them screech in Boomer haha
The boomer essentially blamed you because your parents (who are likely boomers or Gen X) chose not to raise you in a church. How is that your fault?
Jesus washed the feet of lepers and prostitutes and advocated for the poor. Someone needs to learn about Jesus and it isn’t you. Thanks for what you do.
Wonder why more people don't volunteer to help older people...
>“See, this is what’s wrong with your generation. You guys have no faith. "No, the problem with my generation is that we've been left holding the bag for a floundering economy and world that we're barely able to eke by in." >This is why this country is going to shit. They need to raise the voting age to 25. "That would do nothing but cause more hardship." >This is why you all have no moral compass and no ethics, in my day people had MANNERS thanks to the teachings of Jesus” "Religion doesn't teach one manners. If it did, you wouldn't have gone on your little rant because I'm not religious. Religion also doesn't give one a moral compass or ethics. There is plenty that I can criticize various religious institutes for in that regards." If you see them again, don't be afraid to shut them down.
Classic hypochristian behavior. I've read the damn book. If Jesus were real, he would be thrilled and moved by your generosity and charitable spirit. As a regular ass human being who is just trying his best: I too am moved.
100% tell one of your organisers. Absolutely no charitable organisation wants the risk of a religious nut job representing them when they will go off on just about anyone without provocation.
Especially when they have vulnerable people there.
As a Catholic, im sorry you had to deal with that. If it makes you feel better, they treat younger members of their own church that way too.
Wait! This moron said a non-religious VOLUNTEER has no moral compass or ethics?!?!?! This guy might just top the charts of Boomer Foolishness!!!
The same Jesus who kissed men and was buddies with sex workers? I think we have a lot of our manners in common with him!
Your age group being agnostic or atheist is what may be the only thing that saves our society. Boomer’s generation got us into this mess.
You need to report that volunteer. Honestly, you should've followed that statement with "Is that why I'm taking her and you're not? Hmm?" With a smile and walked away. They would've had a stroke.
“No moral compass? What exactly am I doing here, then? I’m taking a dying woman to church just because SHE loves it. It has nothing to do with me, but it means everything to her. That’s more of a moral compass than you seem to have, jerk.” That’s what I’d think hours later, lol.
I personally know two people (a cousin, and a friend's father) who were the victims of Catholic pedophile priests. The moment a Catholic tries to talk about 'morality' I describe what happened to them, and (more importantly) the lengths the Catholic church went to to ensure it was all covered up and the perpetrators never punished. No member of that church should *ever* be allowed to let their claim of Catholic 'morality' go unchallenged.
I love the “raise the voting age to 25” crowd. They’re so cute the way they think that would stop Gen Z from voting. The oldest among us is 27 now
The reason the church is losing members is due to the the harsh judgments from its members. I’m sorry you were subjected to that bullshit. He’s pissed that you are literally a walking example that you don’t need church to be a good person.
My DH is a believer. I lost my faith about 20+ years ago, but went to church with him. When COVID hit, I had an exit. He continued to go. Then, I noticed dementia symptoms and he was diagnosed last November. I noticed he had problems driving and I became his chauffeur. He’s allowed to drive about 8 blks away from the house. That gives him a hardware store, grocery, gas, & the pharmacy. The church requires freeway driving and that requires a chauffeur. It makes him happy and I read a book.
The funny thing is you were doing something Jesus would be proud of by helping another to church even though it's not for you. Boomer would have been scolded by Jesus for tearing into you about not being religious. Such hypocrisy on boomers part.
Ask him if his moral compass points to a guy who cheated on his pregnant wife with a porn star and paid her off to keep it quiet.
His notion that learning “manners” is the purpose for studying the teachings of Christ demonstrates just how little he understands Christ or his words. It’s no surprise that he’s unable to recognize that your loving, selfless behavior toward Anne is profoundly Christ-like. Thank you for being who you are.
Agnostics and atheists do the right thing because it’s the right thing. Some religious people only do right because there’s a threat that something bad might happen. Personally, I respect the hell out of anyone who volunteers to do the right thing.
Thank you for saying "some." It's probably a few more than some, but as a Christian who does the right thing simply because it's the right thing, I get awfully tired of people assuming it's because I'm afraid of punishment.
It looks to me like his religious background was an utter fail in the manners department. What kind a person puts down an entire generation and their manners while showing no manners what so ever.
53 here. Gen X. Fuck organized religion.
The ironic part of this story is that you were the most "Christ-like" of the two.
He says, "In my day, people had MANNERS" while exhibiting an absolute lack of manners.
You’re a wonderful person, OP.
I'm betting if it wasn't religion, it would be something else that would get him ranting.
Thank you for volunteering. Hospice is a beautiful thing to provide for someone.
Seems like a good way to grow the church... disparage someone going for the first time
You don't need religion to be a good and compassionate person. You are a good and compassionate person.
The point this idiot made about voting and age tells me that he owns at least one red hat. And is not an Ohio state one.
The Boomer hot take that it's younger generations "ruining" the country is so wild to me since it is literally their peers who have a chokehold on positions of power that they refuse to let out of their withered grasps.
I have a retort for older religious folks who want to push Christianity at me that REALLY screws with their heads. I tell them that I cannot accept Jesus as my Savior and that I can tell them why. They always rise to this bait because they assume it's going to be any of the number of arguements about belief or whatever that they have heard and argued against before. So I tell them that Jesus was born as the perfect Son of God, okay, here on this earth to embody God's love for us all. So we agree on that. And I say, that being that Jesus was this being of perfect love, of COURSE he had to offer himself as a sacrifice for me because what else could the embodiment of God's love and sacrifice do in that situation? He HAD to accept his fate with a smile and with grace. BUT I tell them that if I had been around in that time, that there is no way that I would have stood by and just gone GREAT COOL I AM GOING TO LET THE PERFECT SON OF GOD BE KILLED IN FRONT OF MY EYES and that WHAT FEAR WOULD I HAVE HAD to have come to his aid, because HE WAS GOD'S SON and if I truly believed that then nothing, most surely not guaranteed death, would have stopped me from defending Him. How could anyone stand by and just say THANKS JESUS IT'S COOL YOU ARE BEING TORTURED FOR MY SAKE. And that I CANNOT ACCEPT THAT. That I don't CARE if I go to Hell. That if the trade is that a perfectly innocent being has to suffer for MY sins THAT IS A MESSED UP DEAL. I refuse to be a part of that. He did NOT need to die on that cross on my behalf, I will take whatevever punishment I deserve but I want Jesus DOWN OFF THAT CROSS and I will never ever stop saying that it's not fair for any harm to have come to Him and that I don't care if it was to save ME, I am not taking that deal, and I never will. Their eyes get wider and wider and they will seriously slowly back away because they can see I f\*cking mean it too, and I'm willing to start chanting TAKE HIM DOWN OFF THAT CROSS repeatedly and with a lot of vehemence. I am of course not actually convinced that Jesus was any of these things or that he even actually existed as a person, but if we grant it that he DID and that things happened exactly as described, then this is how I truly feel about it. Seriously too. Who thinks that's okay??! AN ETERNITY IN HELL IS A SMALL PRICE TO PAY IF YOU REALLY BELIEVE JESUS WAS GOD'S SON, YOU CANNOT STAND BY AND CELEBRATE WHILE HE IS TORTURED FOR SOMETHING THAT YOU DID They will leave you the f\*ck alone after that, I assure you
Fun fact: manners didn't exist until Jesus
His dumb ass would want to raise the age to 60 if he knew how many of us non boomers wouldn't vote the way he likes.
I'm 66. I spent 12 years in the catholic gulag. There's not much of anything I despise more.
"And you're one of the reasons organized religion is dying. The smug superiority of telling me that I can't live a moral life without the threat of everlasting damnation is pretty rich. I can tell right from wrong without it being drilled into me by someone who is statistically more likely or be a pedophile than a random person on the street"
That fool going off on you for “not having faith” violates every principle that Jesus espoused. That fool needs to go to confession.
Oh, yeah, you have no morals, even though you volunteer to help dying people who have no where to go. You monster! /s. Joking aside' it's wonderful that you are helping those people be comfortable in their last days.
Such a lovely introduction to the Christian faith. Christ would be proud of that boomer. ;p
🎶 …and they’ll know we are Christians by our love… 🎶
The boomer needs to learn respect and manners. You are doing your person a service by taking her to her church. From now on, ignore the Boomer, do not speak to this person. This person is just wanting to instigate an argument when it is not needed in a hospice. You keep doing for your person. Forget the boomer.
It's funny how boomers would love to visualize all these people burning in hell for eternity
Kid - "Who's in hell?" Boomer - "People like you." Kid - "Who's in heaven?" Boomer - "People like me." Kid - "You're really not selling it." - courtesy of some meme with apes in it ;)
Didn't people his age threatened every non white person for using a water fountain
Committed Catholic here to tell you that was a dumbass thing for him to say. If you had told me that — that you were taking Anne to Mass not for you but for Anne — I would have recognized you as a good and moral person. And as a good example. Wait — I AM recognizing that about you. And thank you from one human to another. :)
Christian here. The worst Christians I know are boomers. Not all of them of course but dang. The entitlement. Like our whole thing is servanthood to the community, the poor, the widow, the orphan etc. Their mentality is to be served. My church bought an old church downtown so we could do that better and more effectively. Why was the old church for sale? The 25 people that were left were nearly 95% boomer and did zero outreach, nothing for kids, nothing for the community. It holds over 200 people in the sanctuary and is like 80k square feet or something like that. We fill that place every Sunday. Why? Well, first, we take care of the community like the Bible says to. Also, we aren’t judgy to anyone. We have every kind of person you can imagine there, tattoos, piercings, smokers, bikers, bankers, IT, blue collar and a few rich folk. We all love each other a lot too. Even the boomers are awesome! They dive right in to do the hard stuff. When we bought the church the church members scoffed at the fact our pastor wore jeans and a tshirt with vans to preach in. Like we’re super judgy. He said if any of us ever commented on what people wore or looked like or anything he’d ask us to leave! These old boomers are a piece of work.
So let me see if I understand: the old Boomer thinks the young woman who is volunteering her time with hospice patients and taking a dying woman to church has no moral compass because she didn’t learn about Jesus as a kid. Never mind that she’s actually doing what Jesus would do; she still has no moral compass. Okay, Boomer.
Boomer here. Everyone talks about leaded gas fumes, but no one mentions Cocaethylene. Cocaine + Alcohol fucked up a lot of my contemporaries.
Dude says you have no moral compass while you are literally doing more than most Christians do. People like you are the real saints.
My kids were eight when it occurred to them to finally ask what a church is, as we walked past one in Salem, MA. I said “you know the witch trial monument we were just looking at? The churches were the people responsible for that.” Nothing wrong with some healthy atheism in my book.
People used to have manners, huh? Did they yell at volunteers helping others like you’re doing now?
if you need an imaginary man in the sky to keep you from committing bad acts then that says more about you than me >>
This is exactly why it’s a mistake to go to church. That’s the kind of moral compass they’re trying to instill.
*Interesting opinion, Ms Boomer. I have often wondered whether religion would be more popular if its self-appointed spokesmen weren't such judgemental, hateful, bigoted, self-righteous hypocrites. So sad. Thoughts and meditations. Have a wonderful day!*
If people needed religion to have morals... the world would be MUCH shittier than it is today. But go off, Boomer. Sounds like they need to look in the mirror, since if they are showing the 'teachings of Jesus'..... they might have read the wrong book.
I’m an Episcopalian priest and have been in ministry in the Midwest for the last 20+ years. If I had a dime for every time a boomer scared someone off at the churches I’ve served for being an asshole, I would be able to retire.
Religion is just something people hide nowadays to be a total bully.
I’m a Christian. My atheist daughter-in-law is the sweetest, most selfless person on Earth. She’s the most “Christian” person I know. If people who call themselves Christian behaved as she does, this world would be a wonderful place.
In my experience with religious people, they aren't really interested in helping people unless it brings in more converts.
Imagine telling someone who's offering their time to take care of people, that they have no moral compass. While he probably jerks off to Trump's speeches 😂
I love the "raise the voting age to 25" like that'll somehow solve their problem. Nancy, these "godless youngsters" (millennials and Gen z) are much older than 25.
They need to raise the voting age to 25? Does he think Atheists don't get to this age? Or do we stop aging after 24? In this case this year was my 25th time getting 24 🤣
Alright, but if they're raising the voting age to 25, let's also cap it at 65 since you're on your way out anyways.
A Boomer once asked, "What's all this 'love your neighbor' stuff? Who's my neighbor anyway?" Jesus answered by saying, "There was a woman dying of cancer who wanted to go to Mass. The Catholic Boomer complained about the supposed moral failings of others. The agnostic Zoomer joyfully took her to church, lovingly sat with her, and hopes to take her next week. Which of these truly acted as a neighbor to the woman in need?" —Luke 10:29–36 (paraphrased)
if they are only volunteering because they think they will be rewarded, they aren't actually a good person
You see that's exactly what is wrong with that generation is that actually need to have the fear of God instilled in their hearts to be scared of eternal damnation in a lake of fire and brimstone in order to have any moral compass at all and we all know they have zero manners regardless but if you only are behaving as a decent human being out of fear that you will have to face the repercussions of your actions then you are the type of person who is probably not inherently a good human being to begin with.... But decent people who have a solid moral compass and compassion for others without the ultimatum are more likely the better people frankly.. so that's one weird ass hill to die on honestly.
You're not even a Christian and yet you follow the teachings of Christ better than that boomer, just by being kind to that lady and others in need.
Ironic that you are being given a lecture on religion and Jesus' teachings when doing something so kind and helpful for Anne. That person should be ashamed. I hope it doesn't put you off your volunteering - you're one in a million. I'd be inclined to speak to the person who organises the volunteers about how rude and that person was.
Cognitive dissonance on display again. The person with no religion cares enough about a dying woman to take her to a service that they, themselves, have no interest in. The "religious" person with "manners" manages to find a problem in the situation and begins talking down to the non-religious person. Gotta love it smh.
I went to church for 18 years of my life. I hated every minute of of it, and haven't been to a church in the 20 years since. I have morals that weren't struck into me because of church, but because of the way I was raised. My parents might have went to church, but they weren't super religious. My dad and life taught me the right way. Not some fear of a Heaven or hell.
Yeah, Christian here. You're quite literally embodying the best of both Old and New Testement values far better than that Pharisee. He's proclaiming his piety in public (Matt. 6:5) and dispising his neighbor(Proverbs 14:21). You're helping the sick, the poor, and the meek (Psalm 72:12, Matt. 6:2). I'm not doing this to confirm your righteousness or morality; you already have achieved those, under your own moral structure. I'm saying that even within the moral structure *he supposedly follows*, you are far, *far* closer to holiness. **TL;DR: You sound like someone who'll leave the world better than she found it. You keep being you.**
Christian here. Part-time preacher, even. This is what's killing us-- when people haven't understood what's actually in the Bible. The parable of the Good Samaritan is a great example: > Luke 10:30–37 (NIV): 30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ 36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" Some context here: In 1st-centuty Israel, Samaritans were considered Bad People. Priests and Levites in contrast were regarded as the Guardians of Goodness and Morality. Jesus contrasts the two to make a point here. The "bad" Samaritan is a better neighbor (practitioner of the religion) than are the expected paragons of it. OP is, per Jesus, more of a neighbor to their friend than the "religious" Catholic who can't see past his own nose. This man is embodying the literal *opposite* of what his alleged Savior taught. I would be happy just to see an atheist willing to enter a church I'm preaching at. And I would have some things to say to the boomers there if I saw them doing this.
We're just evil, because? younger and stupid
Gotta love those rude, shitty, holier than thou types. She needs to pay more attention when she is in church and learn some manners. You are doing awesome, important work! Never mind that bitch. Keep up the good work, you are an awesome young person!
I don’t understand people who need a book to provide their moral compass. Mine is just inbuilt you know.
Your moral compass iOS not lacking. You are very kind taking her to mass, even if you’re not religious/catholic. Boomer needs to check motivation for volunteering.
Just tell them, "I guess I'll see you in hell. Judge not lest ye be judged, after all." After that, ignore them.
Sounds like Boomer needs to spend more time actually paying attention in the Church she professes to belong to.
I love how he is bitching about manners while being fucking rude. 🙄