A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.
Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.
I felt this way coming from the Midwest to down south. There are plenty of biggots west of the missippi too but folks like the west borrow morons are rare. Down south id hear biggots on the goddamn radio.
At least for the most part, as an outsider, Midwest churches were mostly just seen doing charities (like that's all Jesus asked them do for others...).
I will choose the path that's clear.
Such a lovely poem to that one, and it is perhaps more important now than ever before.
You might be interested in Dr. Ammon Hillman, his doctorate is in classical philology and he has a masters in immunology as well, he's been reading and translating Ancient Greek for 35 years, including a lot of neglected medical texts. He asserts that both the Old and New testaments of the Bible were originally written in Greek, within a couple hundred years of each other. He has a lot of praise for Satan and the figure's apparent origins in Greek culture (Diana Lucifera and other mentions), and talks about Satan predating both Judaism and Christianity.
Hes also got plenty of scorn for Jesus, who according to his seemingly rigorous translation of the Greek bible was on a lot of drugs throughout his life and during his death, and was sexually exploiting and trafficking minors (the Apostles apparently ranged in age from 10-19)
He did some decent interviews on the Danny Jones show and on Hamilton Morris's podcast, and Ammon hosts a live stream a couple times a week at Lady Babylon on youtube. The name of his channel comes from Medea, a "sorceress" from Scythia who became queen of Babylon at one point. She was Hecate's daughter and sister to Circe from the Odyssey, and apparently was the first named person in history referred to as a "Christ", a term that he has showed at length refers to the use of drugs in antiquity. We get the word "medicine" from Medea.
Pretty outlandish if you're not familiar with him but despite his sometimes abrasive and eccentric presentation style I feel like the picture he paints of the ancient Greek world during the few centuries around the time of Jesus makes a lot of sense, and I appreciate that his channel is non-monetized and he doesnt accept donations for what he does sharing what he's found in half a lifetime of studying Greek source texts.
Isn't this the theme of WICKED? The "good" people are wicked and the "wicked" people are good. Of course, anyone who has done DMT knows that the insectoid creatures, machine elves, aliens, angels, clowns, snakes and green lady are all good which does make you wonder if we have it all backward.
I think if a being like lucifer exist and is truly evil then it has tricked these 'christians' in to worshiping it instead of the god.
I like the approach of - there is no tue good or evil, but acts of nature. Life feeds on life.
A head monk asks his disciples to describe a pitcher of water without calling it a pitcher of water. Some monks say what it isn't. Some monks describe what it can do at length. One monk says nothing, instead, he simply kicks the pitcher over with his foot; he is declared the winner.
What a koanvoluted way of gatekeeping, don't you think? ;)
What's a teacher to do when the lock to the gate is in the student's mind?
Good question. What kind of gate are we talking about though? How umm.. how gateful are we talking here?
Why, however gateful do you need to be? Tis a tease, a tease! Be as gateful as you please! Meander round it 'nd walk about, or walk right through it, in and out!
I like you.
I like you, too. Cheers, mate! 🍻
🍻
Being Christian or going to church doesn't make you a good person any more than a speed limit sign prevents people from speeding.
Good chance what we call the Satan at some point we're originally a god from a pagan religion, like Beelzebub for example. If they were good that depends, if they were replaced in the first place perhaps that old religion was worst compared to what predates Christianity, another thing also is perhaps replaced because were forced to by the invaders.
The concept of good and evil is actually very limiting and tends to raise people with twisted worldviews. Most intelligent people learn that morality is complex, reality is not black and white, and to wish harm upon others to ensure personal bliss is rather sociopathic and fucked up.
Christianity faces a major foundational dissonance. Early tribalist (in group, out group thinking) values that have to coexist with radical empathic universalism. They usually ignore the development of Jewish traditions, and it took priests centuries of dissertation to mesh both views together. But they are incompatible. To believe in clearcut good and evil, and also things like a reward heaven (an idea also eradicated in most Jewish tradition). One must learn to suspend empathy for the fellow human being. To be happy while knowing others are harshly suffering (aka "they deserve it"). To think that one's own cruelty will be forgiven just by saying a magical incantation is also fucked up.
Now, the solution given to it is not widely accepted, and is the source of schisms in different Christian cults. Jesus's message is that of universal forgiveness with radical empathy. The abolition of heaven and hell. But many intermediate concepts had to be inserted to make it make sense with organized religion. Like sin forgivenes through repentance, second coming prophecies to delay the forgivines, apocalyptic prophecies to delay the abolition of hell and other exceptionalist interpretations.
Anyways, I started rambling, but Christianity is incapable to be internally consistent as it is. And some dogmatic views require people to be actively assholes by definition.
Dat Demiurge be at it again
Have you ever read Paradise Lost?