Post:"Doing some deep reading into Cherokee history for the project that I'm working on and I am continually amazed how fucking funny old Cherokee leaders were" Book excerpt:"Drowning Bear's principal influence. however, was in holding his people to the mountains and to the old religion of the mountains. He did not succumb to Christian missionaries, but after listening to one or two chapters of the Bible, remarked, 'It seems to be a good book—strange that the white people are not better, after having had it so long.' And"
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[–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

I think religions could be cool as a system of "basic education" in terms of morality and philosophy, in the same way that schools teach you some basic scientific knowledge with the full intention that it is a simplified model that will be replaced if you decide to further study those topics in college.

Problem is, the current way religions work doesn't allow for anyone to grow out of those simplified beliefs 🤷

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  • That's not necessarily true for all religions. In Hinduism and Buddhism, for instance, it's fully understood that a lay understanding of the faith is not the same as what a monk would have. Seeking enlightenment is a different path from the life of a householder. In the same vein, Christian mysticism, kaballah, Sufism all have that same tendency towards further spiritual study and the path of an aesthetic.

    The problem is with people listening to fucked up preachers and then deciding they have all the information they'll ever need. The problem is with Christians, not Christianity. The religious, not the religion. The religion itself is a neutral thing, just about regardless of the religion we're talking about. It's the people that make it what it is, and those people are varied. Religions are internally diverse, by their nature.

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