#criticism of religion

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

#respect my beliefs #religious respect #respect #religion #criticism of religion #religion is a mental illness

[idolomantises]

I’ve said this before, but I always found stories that frame heaven as “evil” and hell as “good” (or less bad) to be genuinely boring. I like more nuanced approaches to each realm.

I understand that for a lot of people, Christianity is a religion they like to criticize and mock, but I feel like if you don’t even understand the fundamentals of the religion, why even attempt to critique it?

#txt #an Angel wouldn’t be happy with mass genocide or abuse unless they convinced themselves there was a righteous reason for it #and more importantly. forgiveness and redemption is a huge part of Christianity #like as a queer person myself I get annoyed when queer writers pull the ‘well Christian’s oppressed us so we can do what we want’ card like #alright man. if you want to criticize the religion I am completely behind you #but if you’re going to heavily mischaracterized christianity to make it a black and white ‘evil’ religion. you look dumb

[mikasasrippedtoenail]

Profanity and Misogyny

"Motherfucker", "cunt" , "bitch", "Whore" etc. are words that are so commonly used in colloquial language that one almost forgets the nuance attached to them. In almost every language there exist a myriad of swear words that refer to the degradation of the female vagina. A woman's sex is seen as her badge of shame and if she has control over her it then she has become astray from the path of the virtue.

"To insult a man, you insult his woman". I remember awkwardly shuffling in my seat, getting very uncomfortable when male peers would call each other "motherfucker" or "cunts" so casually. A woman much older than them was reduced to her sex, a tool to insult their friends. My sex- the organ that I was born with- was a sign of weakness. If you are meek or a coward you are a "pussy". In my language, I could never find the word equivalent of vagina, for it was too sexualised to use in society. Before I was even old enough to understand the workings of my body, a organ that I had been born with was left redundant to its function to please a man-villified by porn.

"Fuck" is seen as an insult because men consider sex a defiling act that takes away the dignity of the woman. Another misogynistic implication is the term "deflowering"; having sex takes away her innocence. After sex, the woman is not a human to them but a "cunt". The sexual paraphernalia of a woman is associated with purity. There is such a huge emphasis that is put on the concept of virginity, because it brings control to the patriarchal society over a woman's autonomy.

The sexual liberation of 70s was brought as a rebellion to these norms- young women were groomed into thinking that sex is empowering. Hookup culture also emerged as an aftereffect of the sexual liberation. The politics of a woman's sex is argued all day while the male penis remains as a neutral organ despite having been a tool to oppress women.

Sex is a completely neutral act of pleasure that is neither degrading nor empowering. However, this statement would only exist in a vacuum. Men use sex as a form of violence upon women-rape is a political tool. For women to take back control of their sexual autonomy, they must acknowledge the politics of sex-or lack thereof. Selectively choosing whom you are having sex with is the first step.

I implore everyone to stop using degrading profanities that have misogynistic connotations. When others around me --especially men-- use these swear words, I ask them why their insults always involve a woman to be degraded and humiliated. Not acting as an accompalice to patriarchy, not keeping quiet against the patriarchal violence and spreading word against misogyny is the best silent mutiny.

#radical feminist safe #radblr #radical feminists do touch #female seperatism #radical feminism #terfsafe #radical feminists do interact #trans exclusionary radical feminist #terfblr #gender abolition #gender critical #sex based oppression #women are the superior sex #love women #swear words #profanity #misogny #anti religion

[ariadne-mouse]

I imagine Essek had one or two record scratch moments in his youth

Such as, alternately,

#I'm on my meme bullshit again #it's shitpost o'clock #note as with my previous Barbie Essek content this is not to say Essek is Barbie unilaterally as there are significant divergences #Barbie wears pink for instance #(jk Essek has a pink umbrella) #but anyway do not flatten the analysis #this is about Essek feeling like the odd man out in his society due to not following the religion #op #essek thelyss #critical role

[vouam]

(I believe this happened a few months ago, absolutely heartbreaking. Rest in peace.)

This tweet is currently going viral with (of course) a lot of men claiming ‘this is because of culture, not religion!’

They clearly lack critical thinking skills because while yes, the religion does not state women should be killed for showing their hair, she is still ordered to wear it by the Quran and threatened with Jahannam (hellfire). A woman revealing her hair is seen as a dishonour to the family - the exact motive for this case. Misogynistic culture obviously is a factor too. The entitlement to women’s bodies, control over their life or death, normalised violence. This case is clearly a result of both religion and culture.

Religion and misogynistic culture thrive because of one another. They use religion to justify their misogynistic cultural views and then claim ‘it’s culture!’ when something bad happens as a result.

In response to these comments from men, maybe do something about the mistreatment of women rather than play mental gymnastics because its culture not religion. Have some accountability. It’s still your culture and your religion, women are dying and you don’t care.

#radblr #radical feminism #radical feminist safe #radical feminists do interact #gender critical #radical feminist community #atheism #islam #feminism #religion #misogyny #honor killing #violence against women

[liberatingreality]

People will always prefer black-and-white over shades of grey, and so there will always be the temptation to hold overly-simplified beliefs and to hold them with excessive confidence.

Thomas Gilovich, How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life

#Psychology #Philosophy #Politics #Religion #Critical Thinking

[lovegrowsart]

it's pretty wild to me that people don't see that aang running off to save katara in CoD is his luke in empire strikes back moment, where he runs headlong into his want and attachment and he's narratively punished for doing so and not learning his lesson - aang runs after katara despite guru pathik's warning, like luke runs after leia and han from yoda on dagobah despite yoda's warning; similarly, as a result, things go to hell in ba sing se like they do on bespin - aang enters the avatar state before he's ready and gets killed, and ba sing se falls to the fire nation, luke fights vader before he's ready, loses a hand, and symbolically commits suicide after vader tells him he's luke's father.

the difference between their character arcs is that george lucas and co. actually went thru with luke's hero's journey and understood the fundamental difference between attachment and love, whereas I don't think bryke understood this difference and then dropped this from aang's arc pretty much completely and replaced it with aang digging in his heels into his want and attachment and he gets rewarded with energy bending from a lion turtle, the avatar state from a random pointy rock, and his forever girl from the self-indulgent white men that couldn't bring themselves to give their hero a compelling character arc that meant he might not have gotten everything he wanted at the end.

#the wasted potential of aang's arc gets to me so bad #the narrative and thematic set up is entirely there and they just shove it in the bin lmao #it especially irks as someone raised buddhist and dealing with writers that invoke these themes out of a fascination #with the religion and philosophy but then a complete unwillingess to actually commit to what those themes require of the character arcs #anyway sorry to say it #but zuko's arc does a better job embodying buddhist themes than aang's does in the end #despite all misappropriated aesthetics to the contrary #aang critical #but its really the writing like i LIKE aang i love his potential i hate how self indulgently he's written by the end of the show #atla critical #meta* #holly talks bs #also yes it would've been better narratively for aang katara zuko to the go the way of luke leia han #even if katara couldn't have been revealed as aang's surprise secret twin lmao #the thematic conceit of the triangle is the same in that luke and aang get over their infatuation with the first pretty girl he sees #and becomes the hero he needs to be #meanwhile hanleia and zutara are saving each other and being cool and kissing #anyway

[athenawasamerf]

Saudi Arabia never fails to send me into a rage. What the fuck do you MEAN sharia compliant scrubs??????? Do you know what the fuck the point of scrubs is??????? Can she run during a code?????? She’s a walking tripping hazard. That skirt will get caught on all sorts of shit, and will be sweeping the hospital floors all day long. It’s inconvenient, uncomfortable, and ridiculously restrictive.

And of fucking course they took off all the pockets.

#medical misogyny #radfem #radical feminism #radical feminist #religion critical #anti islam #islam critical

[turbomnstr]

#youtube #mnstrclique #soundcloud #turbomnstr #underground hip hop #trap muzik #hip hop music #rapper #hip hop #trap #jesus #god #religion #soulja boy #sodmg #meme #nature core #critical role #nerdy prudes must die #naturecore #nature

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

I'm an equal opportunity blasphemer.

#religion #criticism of religion #ridicule of religion #ridicule #ridiculous #blasphemy #religion is a mental illness

[rklover13]

Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel are inconsistent in their origins, not just the world building

I want to post something I've been thinking about for a while, and I haven't seen it mentioned too much in the critical community.

The world of HB/HH is a mess, and I don't mean the worldbuilding of the shows.

Disclaimer/Info: I grew up in the Protestant church, specifically: Methodist, Southern Baptist, and Charismatic. I am very familiar with Protestant Christianity in the US, including the Evangelical church thanks to a family member. I am no longer religious, but not quite atheist, and I wanted to shout into the void.I will say that I do not particularly care about the inaccuracies. I grew up with so much media misconstruing mainstream beliefs, and now, I just don't care about what Vivziepop does in regards to whether something is accurate or not. This is more of a ramble about why the elements are clashing. Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel pull from a long list of sources when it comes to world building and they all contribute to criticisms of the execution.

TLDR : Vivziepop pulls from varied, disparate sources, and does not integrate them in a logical way, making the world of Helluva Boss/Hazbin Hotel an even larger mess.

The main inspirations:

Dante's Inferno: This one is pretty obvious. The idea of rings of Hell come from Dante's Inferno specifically. Except, she isn't depicting the rings Dante described: Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Wrath, Heresy, Violence, Fraud, and Treachery. (Source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_(Dante))

Seven Deadly Sins: The concept of the deadly sins originated in the fourth century, and was revised in the sixth. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins)

Hell: This one is obvious. Vivziepop is depicting Christian Hell as a place where sinners are tormented for all eternity. Hell does not exist in the canon Bible, and not in the way churches preach about it. (Source: https://www.paulmclellan.com/blog/2019/4/9/hell-as-a-lake-of-fire-for-eternal-punishment-does-not-exist-in-the-bible). Lots of misconstrued verses lead to this idea, and I suggest looking more into it. Okay, so Christian Hell, as taught by churches in let's say in mainstream Western Christianity (US caveat aside). That's perfectly fine!

But then we get Alastor. Before I say anything else, I am white, and I fully acknowledge, appreciate, and defer to the criticisms of depicting a long-demonized religion.

Vivziepop declared Alastor mixed after she was criticized for using Vodou symbols in the pilot when it first aired. The problem with this? It's not canon. If it isn't depicted within the work, it shouldn't be considered gospel. It's like JK Rowling declaring Dumbledore gay. It does not matter if it isn't depicted. Either way, we have a sinner associated with another religion in Hell... which means, to be consistent in this world, there would be sinners of EVERY SINGLE OTHER RELIGION. Because that is the Hell that churches teach! Anyone who does not believe in Christianity is sentenced to eternal suffering. So there should be a helluva (couldn't resist) lot of sinners that follow Hinduism, Islam, Judaism (yep, God's chosen people, but they would be sent to Hell in mainstream Christian doctrine), etc. But, Viv wouldn't dare to depict that (I am not saying she should). If one religion is depicted in Hell, then ALL religions must be depicted in Hell. Onto the next big thing:

Demon Origins: So, we have mainstream depictions of Hell, and also Dante's inferno, and now we are adding in...

Demons from the Lesser Key of Solomon including Paimon and Stolas (Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Weyer; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_demons_in_the_Ars_Goetia).

Asmodeus from the Book of Tobit. This book is canon in the Eastern Orthodox, but not in the Jewish Orthodox, or the Protestant.. conglomeration (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Tobit).

The Seven Deadly Princes from Peter Binsfield (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_demons#Binsfeld's_classification_of_demons)

And then a few canon (as in Biblical canon), demons like Leviathan, Satan and Lucifer.

It's an interesting pull, a lot of demonology books popped up in the 16th century. But, it makes it cluttered. The Lesser Key of Solomon has 72 demons alone! It's plenty good for an afterlife depiction. So Vivziepop has mixed in many sources to depict many demons that don't actually go with the demons in Inferno (for further reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malebranche_(Divine_Comedy)). Instead, she mixes the Seven Princes, with the Seven Deadly Sins, and makes those the rings. And finally:

LILITH

Lilith is a fascinating figure that I really only learned more about recently. Lilith is not canonical in any orthodoxy that I am aware of. She appeared in the Alphabet of Sirach, a work from around 700-1000 CE. I haven't been able to find sources on if she was a part of Jewish culture prior to that time, but I will admit I'm not going SUPER in depth, and here is some further reading: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/alphabet-of-ben-sira https://www.learnreligions.com/legend-of-lilith-origins-2076660

Lilith is not in Biblical canon, or in the books I previously mentioned. She was mentioned in a few works in the 1800s, as well as in one of Aleister Crowley's books. A quick overview of her figure is that she is thought to be Adam's first wife, who refused to be submissive (and in some teachings, refused to have sex in the Missionary position), and left the Garden of Eden. Some teachings say that she became the mother of demons. Personal gripe, Lilith could have been incorporated more into Hazbin Hotel because like, give me a dominant woman, who is also a mother, and can fuck up all the demons. So to tally, we have: Rings of Hell, but not Dante's. Seven deadly princes from one author in the 16th century, tied to the seven deadly sins from the fifth. Ars Goetia, from another author in the 16th century. Lucifer AND Satan (traditionally, these are considered the same beings, which would make sense for the Hell she is depicting) Traditional church teachings of sinners being tormented for all eternity Demons from the Bible, but also Lilith, who is not a canon part of any of the Abrahamic religions (as best as I can tell). I could also go into how there are only cherubs (weak little guys in the show), and angels. When she could go hard with depicting the hierarchy of angels, after all, she's doing complex nonsense with the demons. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierarchy_of_angels) All of this leads to a very confused and messy world. Sure, something like this could work! But it definitely doesn't in Vivziepop's world. End of ramble, and for the amazing creative people that are doing rewrites, maybe some things mentioned here can help!

#helluva boss critical #hazbin hotel critical #helluvaboss critism #hazbin hotel criticism #vivziepop critical #vivziepop criticism #long post #tw: religion

[unfortunatelyevent]

have we ever thought about how essek "religious trauma™" thelyss could have been very sucetible to ruby vanguard propaganda if he hadn't been neined* in c2 and in another life could very likely be the one flawless manipulating the beacon in their ritual there

*the act of being hit in the face with love from the mighty nein

#it just struck be very hard that essek whose entire life was ruled made difficult by religion #and with the already existent connection with ludnus for the beacon could have fallen for that so fast and now I'm emo #oh essek the nein really saved you in more ways you could ever imagine didn't they #cr2 #cr3 #essek thelyss #mighty nein #critical role #edit: uhhh this could make a very angsty fanfic couldn't it #ludinus* why I was writing his name wrong for so long what happened here

[hezuart]

Something I was curious about is that you say Hazbin and Helluva don’t follow religious or biblical accuracy, but you seem to forget that it’s not supposed too. It’s Viv’s own spin on biblical things so of course it won’t be biblically accurate.

I’m not trying to be mean or degrade you in anyway I just don’t get why you think it needs to be accurate to religion.)

Because Viv's spin on the religion and its figures is like this

#the entire show's plot is based around religion #Hell- angels- devils- sinning- god #and yet viv says its also ....not based on religion? what? #Adam.. the first human? His design and his entire character plot... absolutely wacky. he talks like a 14 yr old incel and he loves guitar.. #7 layers of hell but humans can only be stuck to the top pride layer? That's missing the point of the rings in the first place #Lucifer king of hell is just a wacky goof who wants to entertain people who is super into rubber duckies? i dont even know what to say #charlie wants to try and get Angel redeemed and into heaven #without acknowledging Heaven's homophobia and sexism that could prevent him from doing so #regardless of changed behavior #if viv wants to establish heaven is corrupted theres plenty of material to use... #but imagine if i said jesus christ was a bi saxophone player who wore a suit and tie and was super into collecting teddy bears #a lot of people would find it offensive #but truly its just so detached from the original material and i cant take it seriously #helluva boss critical

[luckthebard]

Genuinely confused as to how so much of the fandom watched the first 2 CR campaigns and Calamity and yet still ended up in a “Ludinus is right let’s kill all the gods” position. Like it’s baffling to me how much content/context people have just decided to completely forget? We had 2 full campaigns of very positive interactions with the gods and the moment there’s some hypothetical and interesting musing and speculation about their roles in the world from a more disconnected place we’re just throwing that out the window?*

Tbh the number of people who watched episode 4 of Calamity and still saw Asmodeus as sympathetic or having a legitimate point is unsettling to me, but while that’s a related issue it’s not quite the same conversation.

But like legitimately how did we so quickly make a hard turn from “The Stormlord teaches his barbarians to use the power of friendship, he’s a funny kindergarten teacher” memes to…this.

*(This is not, btw a comment on the characters having philosophical debates in-world because I think those are interesting and on-theme for the campaign and are also nearly always concluding with “our personal relationship to individual gods and feelings about them are irrelevant actually, the people trying to destroy them are doing wider harm and are in the wrong and must be stopped.” I’m actually loving the engagement with this by the characters in-universe but the fandom is exhausting me.)

#people stop engaging with all fantasy religion like it’s the same as bigoted evangelical American Christianity challenge #oh also the ‘the gods are colonial invaders’ take is also super weird to me because that’s applying recent human history to what is #basically standard like Greek or Roman creation myth? #like a ton of European pagan lore has a ‘the gods we worship came from afar and tamed the wilds of nature’ narrative #it is a metaphor #cr discourse #legit saw someone this morning confidently posting ‘well Ludinus just is right though!’ and I wanted to close down the whole internet #critical role

[liberatingreality]

In a world where critical thinking skills are almost wholly absent, repetition effectively leapfrogs the cognitive portion of the brain. It helps something get processed as truth. We used to call it unsubstantiated buy-in: belief without evidence. It only works in a society where thinking for one's self is discouraged.

Laura Bynum, Veracity

#Psychology #Philosophy #Politics #Religion #Critical Thinking

[burr-ell]

"the tendency of this fandom to only engage with what THEY want these characters to be#as opposed to what their creators are trying to do and the stories they want to tell" slap this on a bumper sticker, you just summed all cr discourse (about PCs at least) in 2 sentences

It truly is maddening (and it's not by any means exclusive to the CR fandom). The reason why the discourse always goes the way it does is that at the end of the day, the loud fanwanky people only see what they would do, if they were self-inserted into the story, as a valid choice; and they are, more broadly, fundamentally disinterested in what others think or feel. There are several examples of this, and the variety of spaces within the fandom that produce these ideas is an indicator that this isn't endemic to one specific group of people.

-Keyleth is an important character whose feelings and choices are validated by the other PCs and cast even if they still disagree with them, in spite of how she and her preachiness get in the way of the Murderhobo Jubilee? It's not because the cast are all friends and they genuinely believe Keyleth is valid and are interested in how these discussions and choices can guide the story. It's because Marisha is the DM's girlfriend, and also here's my totally unbiased theory that my pet favorite players Sam and Travis secretly hate Marisha and Keyleth.

-Vax's presence is still felt and nodded to in the post-canon VM oneshots? It's not because he was an important character who mattered. It's because Liam wants to make everyone talk about his tragedy because he has Main Character Syndrome. Scanlan Wishes for Vax to appear at the wedding? It's not because he cares about Vex or because Sam and Liam wanted a sweet tribute to Vex and Vax's relationship and by extension Liam and Laura's friendship. It's because Liam thinks Vex's life should always revolve around Vax, and Sam wants to enable him and jerk himself off as the one who facilitated it.

-Beauyasha and Fjorester become canon? It's not because the players wanted it and it happened naturally. It's because there was a secret behind-the-scenes push to "force" those ships to become canon instead, and like, Dani Carr is some sort of shipping puppetmaster who made the players do it, and "they" (whomever "they" is) decided to sink Beaujester or Widojest because it was "obviously" going to become canon before the pandemic hiatus gave them time to "make the corporate-approved ships happen".

-Beau and Caleb try to reform the Empire and dismantle the Cerberus Assembly from within? It's not because it makes sense for their stories or that people who would take this position regarding a corrupt government might have a valid perspective that differs from your own. It's because the people at Critical Role Productions LLC are all spineless neoliberal cowards who won't commit to real activism. The best activism, after all, is violent, and violent revolutions have always resulted in stable aftermaths, and the real world has never demonstrated that this mindset is foolish.

-Relatedly: Caleb doesn't kill Trent personally? It's not because the most poetic justice would be to deny Trent the thing he wants most from Caleb. It's because "Limo Brain" is too obsessed with tragedy to have the stones to do "what needs to be done".

-Asmodeus, DnD Satan, turns out to also be CR Satan? It's not because it fits with the cosmology and the lore; it's because Matt Mercer is too attached to the "establishment", and the Prime Deities should have actually turned out to be the bad guys because of my personal baggage about Western religion and Christianity they're a little mean to my blorbo sometimes.

There's a pattern here: fans had expectations that they'd built up for themselves after projecting and building up fanon and deciding what players meant before they explained themselves fully, and when the players strayed from that, they were derided for all manner of reasons. I think we're seeing that same pattern play out in C3 as the story progresses in a way that fans dislike, and in fact we have seen fanwank spread whenever someone does anything that interferes with personally catering to a) the favored ship and/or b) the favored philosophy. (Orym, Ashton, FCG, Percy, Pelor...all valid when they affirm the Fandom Opinions and all disdained when they don't.)

Don't get me wrong, I think there's a place for comfort stories that deliver a personal catharsis. And I'm not going to dismissively say "well if you want it so bad make your own" because, as an artist, I am very familiar with the fact that creating is hard and draining and sometimes you just need to consume instead. But when you become so wrapped up in yourself and your feelings to the point where your perspective is the only valid one, someone else's feels like a betrayal when it isn't. It's always "They aren't doing what we wanted and here's why they're terrible people because of it" and never "Hmm, why is this what the cast wants? Let's examine that."

This isn't a new phenomenon, but I think it ultimately stems from not assuming that other people can differ from you in major ways in good faith. There are a lot of reasons for that (some more understandable than others), but I think you rob yourself of the potential to enjoy something new when all you do is demand what you already want. No matter what you're doing or where you are in life, you tend to become a better and wiser person when you open your mind to what other people have to say, no matter how mundane the subject matter. Sometimes the stories people have to tell are challenging—and the only healthy way to deal with that is to engage with them on their own terms.

#critical role #cr discourse #asks #long post #for the record i think VLD fandom became such a shitshow partially for this reason #but also. and admittedly i'm biased. VLD was basically a show for no one #this by the way is part of why a faction of fe3h fandom capes so hard for crimson flower (which is basically a glorified bonus route) #and absolutely abhors the idea of byleth being religious and enjoying her job as a teacher #and why some cr fans are so vehemently opposed to the prime deities being good and characters being connected to them #religious trauma that leads a character to reject religion and that being framed as a valid choice is okay to want to see #but it is also just as valid for a character to find religion to be a healing and positive experience #seriously 'gods bad' stories are not that difficult to come by. they're just not doing that in THIS story and you're mad about it #instead of doing the work of finding a story that WILL do that meaningfully