Religious Culture
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- Опубліковано 17 тра 2015
- My first tour of Europe had me engaging in a number of infidel activities, including 'Skeptics in the Pub'. These meetings are literally in pubs. Some groups wanted an interactive discussion, or to speak on a topic of their choice. In most cases, their concerns were different than what we typically see in the US. So in England, Iceland, the Netherlands, and Norway, I talked about the topic that seems to concern them the most; religion protectively portrayed as as a cultural ethnicity.
As an atheist born in a Mormon family, I'm really glad a public speaker spoke wholefully on its insane belief structure, without shying away from the wierdest parts as many do
*Religion: a costume you wear to enhance your identity like creating a character for a role playing game.*
@24:15 ***** nails it again!
I like how all we have to do to make fun of religion is state what they believe verbatim...
really?
@@davidhatcher7016 most of the time yes
Yep, because the whole thing is hinged on you not reading the * whole * bible calmly and rationally, because, as i've been told "the bible is a very special book, that you dont quite read like a book"
Living in Texas is strange everyone lies while smiling at you or just hate on you for various reasons while your just like leave me the f alone already .
You are absolutely brilliant sir. Keep spreading the truth and keep up the good work.
Aron, I appreciate all the videos that you publish. I devour them... I know that is a wierd thing to say, but someone coming out of a pentecostal brand of christianity and having spent my entire life being fed the kinds of things I have been fed, Its good to "clean out ones system" with the truth. I thank you for putting forth the things that you do. They are an abundant source of information and gives me the desire to go foward and perpetuate critical thinking. Thank you.
Well said!
I used to be pentecostal too. Luckily, there's a ton of testable doctrine :)
Michele Former Pentie, too!!
Me too. I can't deny Christ. But the whole Pentecostal thing is sadly lacking & sinks under even the slightest weight of criticism.
What do you men with 'I can't deny Christ'? When was he anointed? What sources do you have that he performed miracles? Do you think he was the son of a god? If so, how? What are your sources for that information? Do you think a god exists? If so, how do you come to that conclusion? What are your sources?
Just so you know, if your sources are 'the bible', then that is probably an indicator that you're very gullible. Written text is not evidence that the words written are true. You have to have independent sources that prove that the specific words are true. Meaning that even if you find the body of the Jesus that is talked about in the bible, perfectly preserved with an ID with a photo of him with his name and title, that doesn't mean he said or did any of the things that are claimed in the bible. The same goes for him allegedly being a son of a god. We could of course believe it, if we knew for sure that every other word in the bible is 100% correct, but the opposite is the case. There is so much factually incorrect about every story in the bible that the odds of any story even coming close to what actually happened is 0. Flood? Never happened. Original sin? Never happened. Oh, sorry, that also means that christianity is bullshit, but we knew that already. Tower of Babel? Different nations already spoke and wrote in different languages for thousands of years. Virgin birth? Never confirmed. Disease is caused by demons instead of lack of hygiene like Jesus allegedly tells us. Untrue.
There isn't _one_ story in the bible that is or can be confirmed. So please, tell me how you did confirm it, if you have, or stop talking horse shit.
the thing I find wrong with Christianity, is that they will let mass murderers into heaven if they say sorry, but youll be tortured in hell fire forever, for being honest, and going where the truth takes you...atheism.
Ticket to heaven = Belief
Ticket to hell = Disbelief
thats not it at all this is why atheist are confused because of people like you
Cpt Jeff not true smh
Having grown up in a Mormon area from a mixed faith family, I was always surprised by how nice and fun California Mormons were compared to Idaho. And you're right, religion is more polite when they don't dominate.
Can relate. I'm from Los Angeles and I've met Mormons here who drink and are generally mellow. The ones I've met from Utah are much more fundamentalist
Since the death of Christopher Hitchens this man in the vid I consider to be the world's best atheist public speaker. Matt D also is up there and a few others. It's always an education to listen to this man here on UA-cam.
Yes but he seems to blindly defend ALL mainstream non communist left leaning views and well some of them are kind of indefensible
@@DTheCritical care to elaborate?
@@poozer1986 I was probably drunk my comment may not have even been for this section to be honest
@@DTheCritical lol
AronRa for Minister of Education!
May the Science be with You Aron Ra for President!
It's great to know more and more people are becoming Atheists than before. We need this.
This is why I'm thankful that I was raised in an atheist family. I did go to a Christian primary school, but that just enforced my atheism.
I once bought a big science book in to show my friends all the cool things in it and got sent to detention. They also tried to confiscate it. When my mum heard this, she stormed in and told the staff they were idiots. She ripped the book out of their hands before leaving the school with me in tow.
EVERYONE needs to see this! Aron is spot on!
These videos are amazing. Thanks for all you do, Aron!
As a fellow atheist Mormon apostate, I've admired Aron's work. I wish I were as articulate! The only other thing we share is very long man hair.
@Golden Age Creation
Are you giving a list of ridiculously stupid books?
I respect you so much, Aron
I love listen to Aron.
I applied for a job at a lab years back. Their whole hiring system was bogus to begin with, but I found it weird when I came to orientation and they told me that every Monday we are expected to come early and bring a breakfast dish for group bible study. I literally had to lie and say that was okay to try and keep the job. When they found out I was still working on my degree, they told me that they couldn’t allow me to work the entry level minimum wage job; that was literally answering phones and typing the written data into a computer, without a bs in chemical engineering. Bible study every week, and 7.25 an hour and you need a bachelors in chemical engineering to qualify. Lol
I'm amazed there's no Christian bigots in here.
I assume you were talking about the lectures
I'm an atheist living in TX and went to get married in India to have a traditional hindu wedding ceremony. My wife isn't hindu either, but I must admit I actually liked it. It was fun, colorful and interesting from a "wanting to learn other cultures" perspective. We even made the local tv news lol.
@Golden Age Creation god is not great, is the only book you need to read on the subject
I love the way there's chatter at the start and it ends with total silence as the audience properly listens to this extraordinary man!!!
This presentation has given me doubts about my atheism. I mean, why would I be an atheist if it doesn't allow me to wear a bindi and flowing sari? I feel so limited!
deenman23 ALLAHU AKBAR!!!
deenman23 Just to be clear, we never specified what kind of virgins they were. The gender OR the species.
Lynne the Trendy Tetraodontiforme don´t forget age.
Wear it anyway!
Afro Samurai wear what you want. Make no apologies.
What do you know... pfft, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is the only one true deity!
Ramen.
Ramen
You damn fool! Open your eyes and realize that the truth is within the bible! Satan is who you owe your life to, and rejecting him will be rejecting hell for all of eternity and have to spend forever in heaven kissing God's ass
@@josephcioe4697 *snrk* That's funny. 😄 Well done.
Ramen
😂😂😂
Nay. Frisbeetarianism is the one true true. You know deep down that when you die your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck. Rest Carlin's soul.
Why did the people, that were born into slavery, choose to be born into slavery? Why did the people to were born in poverty choose to be born in poverty? Why did the people born in war zones choose to be born in war zones?
I can ask these questions all day long.
Apparently trials are good for you? That's the answer I always got
I also grew up in a Mormon family. I was forced to go to seminary for an hour before school all throughout high school, for example.
Wow! So this is what you were up to when I wrote to ask your advice. Cool. I particularly enjoyed the scene-switching as the same talk progressed. I also got a slightly different flavor of your presentations with this one. Rather than hearing some overall speech, it was nice to catch the anecdotes to support or exemplify the idea of culture and its relationship to religion. Thanks for this!
AronRa, regarding "Hindu" children, I had a somewhat similar experience. I was born to Hindu parents, but I was never asked if I wanted to be a Hindu. One day my parents hosted a religious gathering at their home, and I noticed some young folks in attendance. (I'd long since come out as an Atheist, but I didn't attend to cause trouble, just to observe) After I asked my mom, the self-appointed religious authority of the household, if anyone asked the younglings if they wanted to be Hindus. She blustered "they want to because they were christened". I asked her if she even knew them personally, but she kept blustering. It was sad and infuriating to see my college-educated mom reduced to spewing such dishonest hot air. I regret that I didn't ask the younglings the question myself.
There are times i say i'm christian to avoid a hassle or prejudice. American culture peer pressure. I don't think i'm the only one.
+mark morrison - Where I work its tempting to say I'm an atheist due to American peer pressure. I am not so I wont! Peace to all!
It's up to you to hold your own beliefs and choose your own path. That much is true.
I avoid the topic of religion altogether at work as do all employees. When we get one that tries making it a topic, they are told to leave it at home or church. Even the Christians on the crew don’t want to hear preaching at work, they are there to work.
@@ianalan4367 I understand that but also you have to be true to yourself. If you can't believe, you can't and why should you? For me it's the religious people who need to show evidence in their 'gods' not the other way around. Maybe that is where the pressure comes from. They can't show evidence apart from old books, which could be corrupted. Atheist has negative connotations and I don't understand why
@@kathleen5237 I agree completely with you that we must be true to ourselves and pertaining to faith it does not work any other way IMHO. I would not tell anyone what they 'should' believe, not have I always believed as I now do. I can only witness the peace, clarity, forgiveness, regeneration and love that I have found. The only burden of proof any of us have is to ourselves, I think. Let those with ears hear and those with eyes see. Seek and we shall find. Knock and the doors will be opened.
Peace to you and yours!
You were in the Netherlands and I didn't know?!
*Commits seppuku*
Afro Samurai I knew but couldn't be there :(
Afro Samurai I mean he did tell us a month ago. ua-cam.com/video/qkDE1SaWZb0/v-deo.htmlm2s
Afro Samurai lol, I didn't know he was in Oslo either, probably just some few minutes walk away from where I live. xD
Alex Ortiz He should've told us ABOUT A WEEK AGO!
*Starts dancing*
I had the exact same thought when I saw he had been to Utrecht. I was just going to make a comment about it. Oh well, my christian parents wouldn't have allowed me to go anyway :'(
Another enjoyable and enlightening lecture on the idiocy of religion by AronRa; thank you!
Fascinating talk, Aron, and wonderfully observant. Thank you!
"In lieu of evidence we should consider possibilities, but reserve judgement -- and *not* believe" If you take nothing else from this excellent talk, this one quote will stand you in good stead for life.
Oh wow...
I chose my parents?
BS!
Nobody would have chosen my family!
Adam
Great video liked all you had to say about it but you seem to forgotten the good ol boy club 1 the best reasons to hang on to your religion . Opportunities given in business and socially just because you are in that group nobody wants to be an outcast so we hang on to the label of Christian and United States you are still in the good ole boys club I have had some thought in joining more religions and expanding the good ol boy club but I think my weekend will be all filled up
The honesty and in 'yer face'-ness of this man is inspiring!
Aron you had about 92% of my respect. When I found out you were a feminist it became 100ŕ
Kyle white yay for labels
Very good speech Aron,l hope you'll visit Stockholm sometime in the future.
on a side note, whats with all the anitfeminists posting? I don't think he even mentioned feminism in the speech.
Awesome vid Aron!
During my time as a Wiccan, I heard that some Wiccans and other neo - Pagans viewed the Pagan deities and spirits more as psychological archetypes than actual entities.
Perhaps in the upcoming debates for presidential candidates, the religious candidates should be asked specific questions about their faith, i.e.. "are Catholics true Christians?" These questions are valid if a person keeps bringing up their faith to get votes. Perhaps they actually should be held accountable to the beliefs of that faith. Like reading the bible turns people away from christianity, knowing what the politicians actually believe would turn voters away.
brilliant idea! use their stupidity against them. Aron has a great story about the x-tains outside fighting each other while they were suposed to be protesting the Satanists inside. Get them to state what they believe which will turn every other x-tain group agaist them. Classic "divide and conquer"
I think this is one of Aron's best talks.
The closing statement nailed it!!
Glad to see you still on tour and talking. Keep up the good work. I would do what you do if it wasn't for the fact that I see you do it better than I would.... well, maybe you do it just about as good.
Hello
I love what you are doing. I wish I had your spunk and articulation skills. I would like to devise a Tome that lists as many of the Ideologue's claims with the Answers of reason countering their seemingly insane platform. You are an inspiration for this effort. Wish me success.
Thank you
I wish you much success!
So glad to be a fanboy of Aron’s while he’s around, became a Hitchens fan late in his life
Would have enjoyed going to a Hitch speech in person, may happen with Aron sometime.
What a hard start up. Good job.
Man, it's a good thing you aren't a minster. I think your amazing delivery could convert me.
On a more topical note, I used to wear Celtics and Red Sox merch despite not even following the sports they were in (I believe soccer and polo respectively). They were the "home teams," given my proximity and ties to Boston. I also did a perfunctory following of the Patriots. Because that's what you do.
Never followed the Bruins, though. Probably because almost nobody around me did. My interest in them was that utterly arbitrary. Which is pretty much my religious experience, too.
I thought he was trolling us by talking about a parody of Executive Order 66, but it seems that Executive Order 44 really happened.
Great speech!
Too bad that you didn´t come to Sweden.
Obsc3n3 He would be called a racist for talking about muslims. Probably.
FreeHomeBrew Why do you think that?
Obsc3n3 Because it's illegal in Sweden to discuss immigration, muslim immigration specifically. Due to that, a lot of talk about muslims is very quickly seen as xenophobic, islamophobic and thus racist.
Don't ask me to make sense of it though, cuz it doesn't in the slightest :p
***** Apparently Sweden got in trouble with Saudi Arabia for critiquing the death penalty by beheading that is law over there. I wonder how they got back into their good graces. Probably installed beheadings into law. lol.
***** An islamic rover. LOL so much for the west being haram. Well I fully support an islamic space project. Better have them waste the money on that over funding terrorism and backwards cultures.
Great video.
Great talk!
Fantastic job sir.
Thanks for putting this up. I was really looking forward to seeing you in Edinburgh , but a family emergency had to take precedence. I hope you'll consider coming back in a couple of years - maybe put Glasgow on the list?
Mad Elf x I'm already committed to come back to Glasgow next year. :-)
Outstanding! I'll keep an eye out for your dates.
He was in Utrecht!? That's a 15-minute bicycle trip away. Too bad I completely missed it. Would've loved to see him speak in person.
Too bad I wasn't following all these discussion back then, next time you are in the Netherlands, i will probably come along for these talks. :)
Hold on, your definition of gods wouldn't apply to the Norse or the Ancient Greek Gods, as they are not immortal.
***** sssssh, don't tell them that Thor isn't immortal! That might make them try and find him and kill him to stop all the lightning strikes :(
halsoy They can try, but we both know they can't kill him, that's Jörmungandr's job :P
***** ssssh, stop spoiling sikrits! :D
+MicroBlogganism Has any god ever claimed to be immortal?
Tarfiel Archelone There are plenty of religions with immortal gods, Christianity being one of them.
I agree with you about people pretending, and really not 'believing', just so they can be included.
In my experience, no quicker way to shut up a raging religiohead than to say "You don't actually believe in god or jesus," because they don't want to argue that point.
Online, you can stop a 300 comment rage of a "Christian" with that simple accusation of truth. Same for jews, only, they'll admit you're right, they don't believe.
Wow it always freaks me out to see comments I made 3 years ago.
I still think the same about the pretenders, call them out and you see they are fake
."How does your religion manifest itself in you?" Never gets an answer. lol
Man, I wish I knew you'd be in The Netherlands - I would've loved to attend! Then again, I'm pretty bad at keeping up with current events and Utrecht isn't exactly near me, so I'm not sure I would've been able to get there.
Really wish that i could have been there (Oslo) Golden words as always!
Such strong arguments.
August 13, 2020.
The comparison of religion to sports is an apt one: the artist Donna Barr has often defined religion as a *fandom*, the same as Star Trek, Harry Potter, Marvel Comics, etc.: people who follow an imaginary world, and associate with others who share that obsession. (btw, check out her great cartoon on "rape culture")
In extreme cases, members of one fandom will go out of their way to vilify other fandoms; but none of them do it as fervently as religions.
*Edit:* after having read the vast thread of comments on feminism, I am strongly reminded of the controversy over the *#blacklivesmatter* movement. There seems to be a strange conflation of the concept of "equality" and "special privilege": those who advocate the just and equal treatment of a disadvantaged group are often misrepresented as subordinating those rights to all others.
The basic problem is that we are *not* actually rational beings: reason is more of a veneer laid over our ancestral nature - our mammalian emotions, our reptilian reflexes - and when those lower levels feel threatened, we often act independently of our reason.
When in doubt, the monkey will out.
AronRa I have to agree with the user calling himself 'Jesus', Feminism has become a tepid cesspool of hatred and misandry. Professional victims, liars, con artists, and downright hypocrites.
They make assertions without providing evidence, something you so rightly and vehemently condemn.
I have a lot of respect for your views on religion and education, you are an extremely intelligent and logical man with what I would deem an appropriate amount of compassion. In other words you understand the feelings of people involved without allowing that to muddle your judgement or convince you of things that are not true.
But your promotion of Feminism, I will simply never understand. The wage gap has been shown, not only to be false, but in a lot of cases skewn in the direction of women. They make up the majority of college students because of affirmative action, they are being hired for jobs they aren't capable of performing in (mostly physically) simply because they have different genitalia.
They seek equality of outcome, not equality of opportunity. And that will not do.
Atheist fansters! I love it!
I found this channel immediately after the tour ended...
Great Education
Usually I get "It's not a religion, it's a relationship!" I think this is proof that they think there's something wrong with religion.
I think it is arrogance to assume "personal relationship" with god. The universe is so huge, beyond our imagination, and we think God is only focus on a very very tiny part we called earth. I also heard that personal relationship from a classmate when I was in high school.
Was a great pleasure to be at the talk and the Q and A and chatting afterwards. For me it was Netherlands. BTW how where the stroopwafels?
Damn good compilation! 👍👏💓☮️🎃
I wish all Christian denominations in the world would do the "whose god is the true god" competition once more, this time on a live television. In the Old Testaments, Yahweh had no problem with that and gave his followers a sign... so, why not now? There so many different versions of Chriatians, sometimes it is annoying to hear, "he is not a true Christian, you are criticising a strawman!"
Jeong-hun Sin like George Carlin said “ my god has a bigger dick than your god!”.
Unfortunately I couldn't come see you in Oslo but I wanted to. I hope you liked your stay (insofar as one can enjoy a stay in Oslo).
Come to Trondheim if you ever want to come back to Norway, I would come to see you talk.
I'm from Northern Ireland. You were correct, Celtic shirt = perceived catholic, Rangers/Linfield shirt for perceived protestant. I'm a football fan but I refuse to support a club for sectarian reasons
I saw a cartoon in an old MAD magazine as a child that went something like this: Kid 1, "I'm a Republican because my dad is a Republican." Kid 2, "That's why I'm a Democrat." Kid 1, "Because your dad is a Democrat?" Kid 2, "No, because my dad is a Republican." I identified with kid 2, though by the Dubya years, my parents looked like Democrats compared to the nutjobs on Fox News and cretins in the White House. If they'd lived to see the Trump presidency, my mom might have even switched parties. (Not sure about dad, he voted for Ross Perot.)
Wow, I didn't know you had a talk in Norway. Shame I don't live in Oslo, else I would've attended.
AronRa, you are one of the wisest among your countrymen..maybe even among the globe-people!😀😀😀
Ah 2015, back when we thought the GoP had reached Peak Crazy already...
I bet Aron gives good hugs.
One of the bigger problems with the body which Aron forgot to mention is that bodies decades underground decompose even after being embalmed.
A good percent of those Mormons would literally be just skeletons and that would be their bodies (aside from the zombies).
Yeeei, my face is on a AronRa-video! ) at 0:22 min.
Im famous mom!
With the hair?
with the nasty ponytail, yes =P
😂😂😂
17:25
"God is nature" => Pan
"God is love" => Aphrodite
Whaddayamean, "not *that* kind of love"?
Dominionism should be listed as dangerous and a threat to human rights and freedom. It should be BANNED. But it always finds a way to sneak in. In Europe, for example, it sneaks in under the right of having the freedom of choosing your own religion etc. But the thing is that dominionists' violations are completely ignored.
Greetings from sinking Europe.
Yes, we are going down.
Stay strong, friends.
I plan on letting my (if I am so given the chance to have) kids have the choice of if faith is right for them. I totally support free choice of religion for all. Faith should not be indoctrinated or forced upon anyone.
When it comes to politics, children do usually end up with the politics of their parents and do so without thought.
This is so true. One of my friends calls himself catholic, cause he believes it's just set pattern of behaving nicely, and he doesn't even believe in god.
At least he gained a scholarship from them, which is good I suppose.
I guess the thing that scares me about dominionism is that if they get what they want, we would not only not be a democracy, it’s far worse.
We’d be a lot closer to “The Handmaid’s tale”
22:13 that awkward moment when you pause for a laugh that doesn't come.
You summarized my personal thoughts and experience pretty good. Most religious people have no clue what "their" religion is all aboit and don't know their holy shit book. lol
As for the religious labels and "teams" -- it's so true for my country, Ukraine. Most people would call themselves "orthodox christians" even if they visit a church 1-3 times a year - on the biggest holidays =D And no one really bothers with it! They hardly ever opened the bible, they don't follow any of those obsolete rules, they just wanna be the part of their family tradition. It's a good thing, I suppose. People simply are not ready yet to call themselves apatheists or smth, but they are nonetheless. The religion here is so old it's becoming just a small part of the culture, but not independent anymore. It cannot tell us what to do. It doesn't own the moral or any good thing, and everyone knows this.
Very intriguing though I must point out that by his definition of a god/deity as an immortal anthropomorphous being with magic powers, that angels and demons and all sorts of ghostly ancestors with magic too fall under that definition. It's just a nit-picky thing, I know, but we still don't have the association in our heads or language that those additional things are considered gods. We can't exactly fix this by adding the word authority to the definition as there are many characters we consider as gods that don't have a role of governing and there are also some characters that do have a governing role that we don't consider as gods ie Satan; not traditionally thought of as a god but still has a governing role in hell and still fits AronRa's definition for a god/deity. Just a minor problem, probably due to many different though similar fantasies giving rise to characters that can't all be neatly categorized
If you define religion as "A faithbased believesystem including the notion that some element of self survives the physical death of the body", then shintoism isn't a religion because shintoism doesn't include any beliefs regarding what happens after death. Though most Shintos do some forms of ancestor worship and rites for the dead, those are not part of shintoism. They usually are borrowed from either Buddhism, Daoism or sometimes Christianity. Death in general is more or less a taboo sibjact in shintoism. The closest you can get to "a part of self survives physical death" is a vague idea of "a spiritual bond between the grieving and the dead", but there are no concrete ideas about what this "spiritual bond" or the nature of "the dead" are.
PS: Yours is still the best definition i've heard so far for what a "god" or "religion" is.
I have been going on tic tok and there are a lot of videos with young people (it seems mainly young women) talking about religion, god and how much they believe. Some have had a bad time and went back to religion. I always leave a message to look at some of these videos. I am sure they don't. But I did have two people look at one that I recommended. One person thought that Aron was rude and condescending. The other wanted to talk, but it is really difficult to have any kind of discussion on Tic Tok. It is much like twitter except for the videos
Is the map in the end the numbers of how many people which showed up?
In that case: I love that Thronheim had more people than the Capitol. (Oslo)
Well, the Romans did have deities that come close to fulfilling the "laughter of Children" part, such as Farinus who enables speech or Camena who enables them to sing.
Super late comment, but some thoughts. RE: the Indian woman who ascribes to an atheistic brand of Buddhism. Aaron described her use of the buddhism label as an attachment, and I tend to agree with the sentiment. That said, isn't one of the core tenets of Buddhism "Attachment is the root of all suffering." That said, isn't her attachment to Buddhism problematic according to Buddhism? An in that regard, wouldn't the goal of Buddhism be to grow past the need for Buddhism? Just some thoughts.
I was a Democrat before my parents were. Now, I switched to Green and an encouraging my mother to do the same since the DNC is corrupt. My dad doesn't care about politics.
💜💜💜
What you said about people feeling they need to act religious to wear religious items etc.
I'm gothic and atheist and every now and then I incorporate religious items into my outfit even though I do not believe any of them, it is simply because I like the way they look, they are decorative only, the only reason they have any meaning to someone is because they infused it with the meaning.
A friend who is an evangelical Christian told me the bit about Mormons not being Christian. His explanation was along the lines of "They may have a Jesus, but he's not *my* Jesus." He allowed that Catholics do count now, though they used to be not counted as Christian. I grew up Catholic (until 10, when I gave up religion), and none of the Mormon crazy stuff seems any crazier than the Catholic crazy stuff. But at least neither group does the whole "speaking in tongues" thing. The first time I saw that, it scared the Christ out of me.
No doubt you've never been to a church in Appalachia where they handle poisonous snakes during their worship services. Now THAT is scary (not taking anything away from the terror of seeing an otherwise seemingly coherent person begin babbling in strange gibberish).
@@eladsinger9215 You're right; I haven't been to one of those. I've seen videos, and it's pretty wild, and quite funny when the idiot gets himself bitten. I didn't even realize that was Appalachia where those churches are, just that it's some bizarre twist on the religion, as if it weren't bizarre enough. Actually, even the "speaking in tongues" bit, I've only seen on video, not in real life, though there were churches like that near places I've lived, and some people I thought I knew went to them.
Emperor Palpatine: Execute order 44.
Lololol.
Oh, if I knew you were going to talk in Oslo I would have seen you.
i grew up mormon because my mom forced it on us...even my dad, who didnt care for religion at all for several years. now that i've grown up and my parents have died of old age, i dont want to have to do with any organized religion.
AronRa, Sun god extraordinaire, old hippie, brother of Amenhotep and Ramses II.
Thanks for this video, AronRa. I hope you won’t mind, but you are my new Jesus. I propose a religion be built around your memory. What you say is so much closer to truth than any religious person I’ve ever listened to. Not perfect. But, right on. Any chance of us gumming up your history and facts, or of you being betrayed and turned into the icon of a new dogma? (I don’t volunteer to be your new Judas.)
So, what did I learn today? I learned that saying “I believe” connects one to what one considers to be some truth. That is, if you didn’t consider a thing to be true, you could not say you believe it. (Okay, people can say they believe in anything.) So, nearly everyone I know fits into this mold. They claim to believe a great many things. But, their knowledge and experience limit them to actually knowing very little. So, for all the things they don’t actually know, wanting to stand with their brothers on some side, they take the mantel of their family and friends.
A while back I came up with a saying: “90% of everything spoken is pure crud.” (I’m so eloquent:) AronRa has explained to me that maybe 95% of what people say they believe they haven’t had so much as a passing thought about during their whole lives. It makes me intensely curious about that few percent that people actually know about. Do evangelical lay people learn organizational and leadership skills whilst manipulating their fellow zealots? Does brainwashing babies in Sunday school bother them at all? The answer is a resounding “No!” Most really don’t give it that much thought. They’re blithe to it all. [Synonyms of blithe: casual, indifferent, unconcerned, unworried, untroubled, uncaring, careless, heedless, thoughtless.]
Thanks again, AronRa!