
| Pegasi #356784 11 months ago |
My folder just tricked me. I meant to upload a different picture! |
| Lance #356789 11 months ago |
Whatever, I find it kinda humorous at a bunch of bronies discussing religion |
| Anonymous #356791 11 months ago |
ooh pegasi's dirty secrets revealed >:D quick everyone! save it for posterity!!! |
| GreyAcumane #356840 11 months ago |
I'm just going to toss this in here:
Church is a place where you can BEGIN helping people. I volunteer as a tenor in the choir, and also with various projects that the church runs, which help bring outside attention to the church and possibly bring in more members or money that can help fund the church's external activities. Also the church is where people can bring up who they know that needs help. I've helped several people with moving furniture or moving to a new place. Not every charitable act has to be traveling out into the wilderness or ghettos, even people not in those situations need the occasional helping hand. |
| Pegasi #356927 11 months ago |
^Nah Religion is still retarded, even if people actually benefit from it. |
| Anonymous #357058 11 months ago |
^Religion is morally neutral, people can do great good and great evil in the name of religion. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Christian and drew a lot of strength from his faith, but so were many of his enemies, and so were the people who originally enslaved his ancestors. |
| Anonymous #357078 11 months ago |
^Agreed. Religion is neither good nor bad. Religion is powerful. |
| Anonymous #357126 11 months ago |
Religion itself is neutral, but I believe it has more negative effects than positive. |
| dudemang #357381 11 months ago |
oh yeah let's post a relatively positive picture about christianity on the internet
that always ends well |
| Xuncu #357583 11 months ago |
The actions of the few members of a concept do not accuratley reflect the nature of that concept, as there may have been nazi party memebers who weren't douchebags and didn't know what was really going on- and later, like Oskar Schindler, helped Jews escape; the actions of a few good christians does not mean Christianity itself is good--- nor, more importantly, does it mean "Therefore, it is the one true religion," or at all an accurate way to look upon the mechanics of the universe.
Furthermore, religion- especially the abrahamic ones, are based on faith--> non objective reasoning. TO assume anything about christianity is objective is the arrogance of religion, let alone 'the best system.' Any casual look at any part of the bible shows the oft-quoted platitiudes of agreeable things; like this list But, it's far outweighed by the atrocities not also within the bible itself - Cruelty and Violence[/ur], [url=http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/int/long.html]Intolerance, Homphobia, Sexism--- all obvious glaring contradictions to the theme of Love and Tolerance that both MLP and religion promote, but, as history shows in the crusades, witch hunts, the hatred of gays and science, jihads, and the religiously-motivated violence in the middle east ("OUR God is the ONE TRUE GOD and promised it ot US, not YOU!") that has been going on since pre-history, religion only plays lipservice to, riding on the back of the actions of a few members to seem "good", while the vast majority are content to assume that "being christian" equates to "being good" - a very subjective opinion, one that easly falls apart with any objective, rational review of christianity--- something Christians are loathe to do, as doing so is equating to questioning the God itself, and thus, even the action of thought is heretical ("He who looks at a woman in lust commits adultery in his heart"), and the suspicion of such questioning of the power and richeousness of the church is a death sentence, as was the case of countless innocents who were tortured and slaughtered in the various Inquisitions. Lasty, it is this complacancy that "I must be in the right religion because I BELEIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!" that allows the true controllers of the religions- the popes and preists and pundits-- the loudmouth media whores who gain the most fiscal, social, and political power from religion--- to use the money and the votes of the complacent "I'm saved, so everything is super forever, and thinking otherwise will send me TO PONY HELL!!"masses that is the grand majority of the religious-- that is, not evil, and not assholes, but not, say, calling bullshit on pedophile preists or homophobic loudmouths (so not that good either- "All it takes for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing"). |
| Xuncu #357589 11 months ago |
Also/again, even if religion was morally neutral, it does not prove that it is intelelctually superior, or factually accurate.
For example, Elky and Starlight there would agree that there are good muslims, good hindus, good jews, good wiccans, good pagans, ect--- but do they hold them to be 'as right' as themselves? Doubtful. In fact, we know that's not the case with Elky; "Objectively the best". Case in point; that sounds like something Trixie or Blueblood would say about themselves. |
| Xuncu #357660 11 months ago |
Now, presenting my Atheistic standpoint;
Knowing the antrhpology of religion, like how Islam came from Christianity came from Judism which came from a mish-mash of other religions, like the Egyptian Religion (the enslavement prior to the 'exodus', for example, would be when the proto-israelites would be most immersed in the religion of Egypt, having built most of their temples themselves), and Zoroasterism, to various polytheistic religions and back to whatever vague spiritualist 'thing' was the first 'religion' in pre-history-- and of how the various natural occurances that used to be attributed to -and thus, were 'proof' of divine power (like disease, eclipses, or storms), and how all those prior gods are no longer worshiped (despite in their time, they were worshiped with the same faith, fevor, and 'proof' as Yaweh/Elohim/God/Jesus/Allah today), and having studied sociology, biology, chemistry, physics, cosmology, and a touch of quantum mechanics, I can say with confidence that (despite the difficulty in proving a negative), that there probably aren't any gods (as they are cut away by occam's razor--- as random as Pinkie Pie is, she could have atatched a bathtub to her Pinkiecopter, that would be an unnececcary addition that would have made the nececcites to have a functioning helicopter to be far more complicated than it would need to be), but also the evidence is conclusive that, given the contradictions, innacuracies, and faulty logic of the Abrahamic Religions, that their god neither exists, nor should one want it to. With that in mind; what is it they're actually worshipping? Administratively, with there being no god, the ones in true power are the ones that were mentioned before; the polticians and preists--- whoever was loudest to get the most attention to be put into power. COnsider; you get the most votes when you appeal to the most people (not because you're the best). On top of the indoctornization of "Because he's christian, you should vote for him", votes are won by reflecting best the opinions of the voters. On the one-on-one basis, it's simply knowing the one. On the grand scale of the campaign trail, when, for example, even in just Catholicsm/Christianity there are countless debated details and central tennants, who, like a venn diagram, don't overlap entirely, So, the bible not being written by god, something interesting happens: the poltician only has to agree with one small set of humans again; the writers of the origional myths, and the various councils who edited/re-wrote the bible, like at the Council of Nicea. Basically; people who would now just be other politicians. And, having read the bible, it's easy to see that the human writers of the bible were also kinda assholes, what with the hypocracy and all. That the bible should be 'studied in context': well, what possible context would make an atrocity "OK"? For example, in "The Sun Is Tired" fanfic, Celestia mentions that, she could order the extermination of Earth Ponies, and that it's the fundamentalist fanaticism of Celestiaism that she knows she would be uncontested by it, but be assisted in comitting genocide as complete as the slaughter of the Amalekites in the Old Testament/Torah. So, administratively, assholes are in charge of religion. On the personal level; since there is no god, what are they worshipping? In short; their personally constructed idea of what god should be-- someone who, conveniently, knows not also exactly what you're doing, but always shares your opinions-- ie, the writes of the bible hated gays, how convenient that God approves of killing coltcuddlers right in Leviticus. Hell, our beloved ponies are an abomination, according to the bible: Leviticus 19:19 "Keep my decrees: Do not mate different kinds of animals. Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed. Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material." So, there goes pegasai/earth/unicorn shipping, pegasai themselves, Rarity's outfits, Celestia and Luna, crop rotation at Sweet Apple Acres, ect-- and what are all of the ponies besides-- as a christian would see them: creations of God given, by (wo)man (Lauren Faust, Peace Be Upon Her) the gifts of "being made in OUR image" ("since the fact that people look different strikes this down, what God OBVIOUSLY meant was our having souls and sentience!") |
| Xuncu #357722 11 months ago |
Some would argue that "morality comes from God" or "if there's no god, then there's no reason to be good".
Both are untrue, as there are easy explinations, neitehr of which requires any gods at all. All you have to do to see it is simple substitution: "Hunger comes from god, so if there's no god, there's no reason to be hungry." "Bronyism comes from god, so if there's no god, so there's no reason to be a Brony." Obviously, hunger is a biological response to a physical need, and Bronyism is a emotional response to awesomeness. Being good follows suit; The origions of morality is evolutionary. To oversimplify it a bit, the two guidelines of evolution are "stay alive" (eat, avoid being eaten), and "pass on your genes" (sex). The pressure to not be a douchebag: Lying; you can fool some people some time, some all the time, all some of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time. A known pathological liar not also has reduced oppertunities to mate; gossip is also an evolutionary pressure against lying; the more you lie, the more likeley you are to get caught, the more people talk. The more you're talked about being caught, the more aware people are you might lie, and thus, more likeley to be caught again-- cuz it's easier to know if someone is lying when you think they might be lying. Most christians, if they dared to ask for proof of god from their pastor, would not assume to think they may lie, and thus, are less likeley to catch it. And, because humans act stupid soemtimes, when a lie is repeated often enough, loudly enough (by, say, a man in funny robes yelling from a pulpit), that lie is belived as truth, and the liar as a truth-teller. Stealing; rather obvious, if you see them unashamedly stealing from anyone (and again, because humans act stupid sometimes, addendum: "besides from 'acceptable' targets"), you eventually think they may steal from you, and you're less inclined to share reasources with them. They get less food, evolutionary pressure is put on their bloodline. Next: The 6 Elements of Harmony; an Evolutionary Treatise |
| PonyRIG #357748 11 months ago |
whoa, this pic comments are serious business... |
| dudemang #357807 11 months ago |
I was wondering when Xuncu would show up. |
| Xuncu #357847 11 months ago |
The evolutionary pressure to be Good:
Again, oversimplyfing; mating, eating/not-eaten. Honesty: Applejack lied to Pinkie Pie about the construction in her barn, for the sake of the party, even though, being the physical embodiment of Honesty, she's a terrible liar. Pinkie accepted her lie because she knows AJ has a reputation for telling the truth. If the case was a matter of either mating (with Pinkie or a colt) or food (like say a famine, or a business contract), a reputation for honesty is a very large advantage for AJ to have to get agreement (or consent). Laughter: we're social creatures. naturally, we want to hang with others who make us feel good; You feed your pets. Pinkie's joviality makes evolutionary sense because it gives her a large, strong social network of support that would be there to support her in times of trouble, even outside the Mane 6. Loyalty: in simple terms, people who know you help them out are more likeley to heed the call when you need help. Ranbow Dash's loyalty gives, again, both a reputation and a social network that would stick by her, even when she may be in trouble, or doing something risky. Kindness: Someone comes at Fluttershy with a knife: How many of you already had your hands around the assailant's neck 13 words ago? Generosity: ties in with Loyalty quite a bit. In simple terms, we give food and foreign aid to our allies (or those we want to be our allies), with the idea of keeping them strong, so that they can help us better if it is nececcary. Rarity's generosity helps her business get it's name out, gives her a reputation, and lets others know it's not about the Bits. Friendship: This is magic we're talkin' here, I ain't oughta haveta explain this shit. Pretty much covered in the others. I should make another note: the evolutionary origins of morality ("how things were"), which was simple give-and-take, are different from the more elaborate, modern examples I gave for each of the elements; as we (and by extention, our little ponies) evolved, the morality became into itself, for it's own sake. As art, for example, was a way of commmunication, and passing lessons and stories down the generations, beyond the lifespan of the artists and writers, what art became is "art for art's sake," as humans, I belive, are naturally dispositioned to be "good for goodnes' sake" (or at least "not evil")-- and eventually, human society, through debate, discourse, and communication, decided to change it from the simple "was" to how it now "is" into how it "ought" to be. The simple evolutionary origion of the Mane 6's elements that I describe above, you all know is not their motivation for them bearing that element. Humans aren't basically good because of God; humans are good because they want to. AJ's honest for the sake of honesty. Pinkie Pie laughs for the sake of making others laugh. RAINBOW DASH DRESSES IN-- er, she's loyal because that's how she rolls. *sunlgasses* Fluttershy is kind because she feels joy in it. Rarity is generous because she belives generosity is fabulous, and everyone has a right to be fabulous, too. ~And Magic Makes It All Complete~ |
| dudemang #358016 11 months ago |
Well done, sir.
Spoken like a true knee-jerk antitheist. |
| nintendofreak768 #358192 11 months ago |
^and screencapping it |
| Anonymous #358473 11 months ago |
I laughed out loud when I reached the kindness line in Xuncu's statement. I myself had my chainsaw reffed up and ready to go. |
| Anonymous #359217 11 months ago |
tl;dr something, something, something religion |
| Isshiki_Kotonashi #364079 11 months ago |
When will everyone learn that all things are relative
In the grand scheme of things nothing matters, not the explosion of a star, or the destruction wreaked by a black hole, not the expansion of the universe, and certainly not the carbon based lifeforms on a chunk of rock Existence won't care if it all winks out. But at the same time, we create and destroy our own universes when we speak, when we think, when we act. Lush forests, desolate ruins, bustling bergs, a stark void filled with code, a dark carnival, magic all up in this bitch. tl;dr ramble rave rant who cares |
| Anonymous #364502 11 months ago |
IT'S ALWAYS SOMETHING SOMETHING RELIGION, AIN'T IT!!?!?!?!? |
| Anonymous #364515 11 months ago |
my number one wish for new ponibooru features: a sage button
so I could respond to this nonsense without bumping it |
| Anonymous #807043 6 months ago |
@Pegasi
"even if people actually benefit from it" Guess it's not so retarded then. |
| ObssN #887864 6 months ago |
^People have benefited from Naziism, Communism, theocracy, and many other terrible things. |