News

Yeah a lot to unpack there. For one, if an article says "Science says that this new diet will...", that doesn't mean that actual SCIENCE itself is bad, it just means that some predatory source (reporter, politician, etc.) is using it improperly.

On the other hand, religion is fundamentally different: it actually is kinda bad - as Jesus Himself said: "Be ye not a Karen, fucking over everyone else without lifting a finger to help". Compared to tribalism, it offers a leg up b/c billions of people can be considered part of the "in-group", not just people whose faces you have already seen since birth.

And the part I was kinda focusing on: if someone who actually is - or rather, claims to be - part of that "in-crowd" sets themselves up as an authority figure, and e.g. declares themselves a non-denominational pastor and starts preaching the EXACT OPPOSITE MESSAGE than the Bible itself (Bible says: love one another, especially those who disagree with you; while christofascists say: kill the other side!), in that case is it "religion" itself that is bad, or is it instead the former example of a predatory source talking shit about it? The answer seems to me to be: "yes".:-P

That said, there are MANY stupid people, and moreover there are MANY different ways to be incorrect (i.e. many many many fallacies), and religion is only one of them. Personally I think that in a hundred years or so, there will be fundamentalist atheists - not first-generation ones as you are talking about, but people who inherited their beliefs from their parents (or whoever), and who likewise shit onto every foundational principe that underlies that entire belief structure/system. The atheist mindset - which as I pointed out already, literally has a bible verse supporting it - is one thing, but since when do authentic beliefs matter to a "fundamentalist"? And yet even that term is unfair, b/c a TRUE fundamentalist would actually care about whatever it is that their belief systems require.

George Carlin: "It's called the American Dream, b/c you have to be asleep to believe it.":-P

To be real, to be true, to ACTUALLY believe the thing that you say that you believe, whatever that is, seems to be the hardest thing in the world to do. :-| Especially these days when virtually every word has been twisted into somehow meaning its precise opposite - e.g. the party that freed the slaves were the Republicans! Can you imagine Republicans giving a crap about black people these days, or Democrats legit caring about the poors!? (case in point: doing something to stop school shootings, these days) To identify a falsehood (of whatever type - chemistry, biology, physics, sociology, governance, etc.), you must know The Truth SO WELL that a falsehood cannot pass muster. And with all the knowledge, mixed in with misinformation/anti-knowledge, available to us these days, who can keep up with even a fraction of it all? But conversely, how can we justify not doing that?