this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2025
54 points (82.9% liked)
Showerthoughts
31160 readers
322 users here now
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: 1
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- No politics
- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- If you feel strongly that you want politics back, please volunteer as a mod.
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS
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.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I'm pretty anti-theist. However, if religions were just a bunch of ideas on how to live your best life (like this parable) it would be generally fine. The problem is a lesson as simple as "love thy neighbour" fails to make it through because it would undermine the organisation. Without "them" there is no "us", and without "us" there is no organisation.
I don't think people consciously take on this "us" / "them" thinking, but they fall into it and it feels safe and comfortable. In this case Jesus was literally telling his followers to do what felt uncomfortable — to help people outside of their own faith. To not let labels get in the way.
Be spiritual. Hold a faith. Just forgoe the organisations that corrupt that faith.
One of lessons of the Bible (from what I gather anyway) is that all humans are corrupt-able and will err. Therefore, all organizations that wield any power at all are subject to human corruption. Indeed, this is how we think of organizations in a secular light.
If you're looking for the religious teachings or church organizations that are free from the sins they denounce, you won't find them, because human beings cannot keep themselves from temptation indefinitely.