SeeeVeee
3mo ago
Does anyone know of any smart, young(ish) Christian thinkers with interesting perspectives? Been listening the This Cultural Moment, about being Christian in a post-Christian world. It's excellent, but I'm having trouble finding more.
How do the few motte Christians manage their faith? It's something I really struggle with. I had a religious experience where everything clicked, but my brain is not good at this sort of faith and I inevitably end up in doubt again. I hate it.
SeeeVeee
4mo ago
It would be difficult to relate to, but I think I'd like to pick the brain of someone that did this sort of thing regularly.
SeeeVeee
4mo ago
It won't make you less interesting, and it's cool to subject yourself to things like this. That having been said, I'm not sure you want to create a narrative where something like this is just going to change everything you don't like about yourself. It can, however, be the start of that, if that's what you want.
Edit: All that said, I think we'd be better off if more people did crazy stuff like this. Go for it, have fun, learn something about yourself, and try not to die like the dumb kid who poisoned himself in Alaska
SeeeVeee
4mo ago
"Obviously I'm smarter than this guy, therefore there's zero danger when I play his game, on his turf"
SeeeVeee
5mo ago
Children are more likely to stay in the religion if their father practices than if the mother practices. It isn't obvious to me why
SeeeVeee
5mo ago
You have to do your due diligence, but I've met people who got started like that. What you said is more or less true of buying any business
SeeeVeee
5mo ago
If you have money, become an entrepreneur. Buy a laundromat, or buy housing and rent it. Get multiple, independent streams of income. Landlording or laundromat (or whatever) stuff doesn't have to be full time; you can work while getting your footing.
SeeeVeee
6mo ago
Is our society actually less religious? Or has religious energy been shunted toward more destructive political religions?
I think that conservation of religiosity is a thing, and I'd rather have people believe in something with a track record of success than.. what we have now.
SeeeVeee
7mo ago
I go to AA. For a lot of people there, I get the sense that religion is a LARP. But it's one they cling to desperately, and they are strongly supported by others in the group. I've seen people flat out become something entirely different. A guy who would lie, steal, cheat on his wife, and then suddenly, BAM, different person. I think that the AA structure is more effective than the church structure, you are compelled to interact and share deeply personal things, I think that's probably only the tip of the iceberg.
But for this reason I think it can work
SeeeVeee
7mo ago
I somewhat agree with this, something important is lost if you don't take it (at least aspects) literally. But, I go to AA. For many, religion in AA is a larp, but one that they adhere to, er, religiously. Not just in terms of alcohol, or admitting yourself powerless and in need of God, but in every aspect of their lives. And the transformation this enables can be remarkable to witness, and goes far beyond not having a sip of alcohol.
SeeeVeee
7mo ago
I took my wife to a rationalist meetup and she made me promise not to do that to her again
I did, but I was in the third richest public school district in the country, locally recognized as a stealth private school.
By the time I graduated, I could see that bad times were ahead, even there.
When they teach kids that pulling out doesn't work, it's 99 percent a lie. They just don't trust people to not fuck up
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