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Cake day: July 27th, 2023

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  • Because if you wear your religion on your sleeve and are highly observant then that means you are conservative and rules focused by nature. People who belong to liberal Christian denominations, like Unitarianism, are rarely heard from because they aren’t vocal by nature.

    People who are very religious also want to believe that what they follow is the truth but the very existence of nonbelievers casts doubt on this either consciously or subconsciously. “If my beliefs are self evident then how can so many nonbelievers exist?” So they rationalize this as either thinking of you as a sinner who deliberately refuses to accept the “truth” or a poor lost soul in need of saving. Christianity, and some other faiths, is also missionary minded in nature. They are called upon in the New Testament to “spread the word”. If you want to grow your numbers and/or your income (i.e. Mormon church) then you are aggressive with missionaries and hunting for converts.

    People are also very good at rationalizing their views and cherry picking data to force things to fit their emotionally driven beliefs. Look at conspiracy theorists who dismiss anything that contradicts them as “lies” and “propaganda” but their sources are never questioned.








  • Religion isn’t just about evolution and how old the earth is, those are distractions from the big issues. All of the knowledge in the world won’t help you deal with the questions, “Why am I here?”, “What is my purpose? What is the point of it all?”, “Do we just die and disappear?” Knowing all the science in the world won’t make you feel at peace with these questions.

    We are emotional creatures who are sadly aware of our mortality. Many need a parental figure to keep us in line, “God is watching”, and a companion for loneliness and hopelessness, “Jesus loves you” when no one else will or can help. It can feel like you have some protection against things overwise out of your control (disasters, wars, sudden deaths, accidents, illness, etc). Many people like the structure it brings their life and the comradery from being part of a like-minded group. Some join the military for this, some go into orthodox religions thick with rules and traditions, like Hassidic Jews. It can lead to a strong tribalism too, same with politics, where you instinctively distrust those who believe differently but feel you can trust those who do because you feel you understand what they feel and think.