Happy Halloween!

Isn't it nice to allow yourself happiness on Halloween? My thoughts..

The church was not the light. It was where I experienced confusing darkness, and the people who called themselves the light are some of the darkest people I know.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. A simple holiday without complex memories. Allll mine. I love it. I love doing family costumes with my husband and kids. It's come to symbolize freedom from false warnings from false people.

The spooky things, the creepy crawlers, things that go bump in the night aren't floating around a child's 1st grade classroom as they color pumpkin crafts. But they are often found lurking in pews and altars. Some even reach out their hands to greet you at the door on a Sunday morning...

I've never been hurt by a ghost or a witch but I have been harmed quite considerably by hearts supposedly softened by Christ.

Dark is light to me.

The light so very very dark.

i’m sitting out in the sun (likely the last sunny day before the “forever rain” starts here). i’m just daydreaming, contemplating, pondering, you know the vibe. wandering the hallways of my own mind. it’s something i’ve always loved to do, just sit and think about life and my personal experience of it. anyways, as i’ve started to deconstruct my extremely rigid, cult-like church experience, i’ve just started to really accept that god isn’t listening to every thought that crosses my mind. that’s how i was raised to think, that if i thought a sinful thought i could be sent to eternal torment. but what if i didn’t know it was a sinful thought and didn’t repent? what about dreams? can those send me to hell? all those thoughts swirling around my head lead me to basically shut down parts of my mind. there were so many hallways i refused to go down.

there were times when i was strong in my faith and i was so comforted by the fact that god heard me. that i could silently pray through the hard times; if i couldn’t get the words out, he heard them in my heart. but when i had doubts or wanted to think about anything even remotely “ungodly”, there was so much shame and fear. i intentionally avoided thinking about things that god wouldn’t like and it has had such lasting effects. i felt monitored, like i could never be alone. it’s comforting when you are alone and don’t want to be, but wanting to be alone and feeling like you KNOW god is listening; so awful! as ive deconstructed and no longer believe in god, it’s still taken a long time to actually truly accept that i’m not being listened to by god. i’ve had a lot of mental health issues including some episodes of psychosis and i swear so much of that was because i couldn’t seem to dislodge that belief from my core. it was ingrained in me from birth, it’s taken ages to scrub the residue from my mind and soul.

but as i sit here, enjoying the final rays of sun, my mind is free to roam. i can think about things from my own point of view, it doesn’t have to run across god’s desk first. and guess what? i’m not thinking evil thoughts! just asking genuine questions without avoiding answers that don’t align with the bible. and there is so much freedom in it!

so anyways, i hope that’s encouraging to those who are in the trenches.. sunny days on the other end!

First of all, I hold a deep reverence for Jesus still, likely more than most people here. But the phrase “Jesus is King” feels strange to me. Why should the reward of faith be to view Jesus as some worldly and heavenly monarch? It seems like the opposite of what He would have wanted, given His ministry, His suffering, and, for believers, His resurrection.

Jesus went through all that teaching, sacrifice, pain, and humiliation, and yet people seem to reduce His gift to a reason for ritualistic worship. I’m not saying Christians shouldn’t revere Jesus, but sometimes it feels like a genuine, freeing relationship with Him is replaced by a ritual that borders on cultish. Why would anyone devote their life just to say, “Jesus is great because He sacrificed for me”? Okay, He sacrificed for you—now, how are you living that out? Or is the goal simply to chant a title like “Christ is King” and feel righteous, without truly living His teachings?

I’ve met very few people who embody the teachings of Jesus in a meaningful way. It’s a shame. What if these self-proclaimed “elect” aren’t the elect at all? How would they react if Jesus were to say, “I never knew you”? So many people spend time judging others and performing outward signs that they seem to forget about self-reflection and humility. I think the modern American political climate, on both sides, is a perfect glimpse at this unfolding.

When I was a kid my parents became "born again" when I was pretty young, probably around age 7. Prior to that we went trick-or-treating and had a great time. Once they joined the church, they decided when I was around age 8 or 9, that it was a Satanic holiday and that I was no longer allowed to partake. When there were Halloween parties at school my parents would show up and take me out of class. It was humiliating. They would take me to do some other activity like bowling, so at least they tried to make up for it but it wasn't the same.

Now, I am in my 30s and have a kid of my own. I talked to my parents recently and they mentioned they were out getting stuff for Halloween. One of their grandkids live in the same house as him, so I imagine they want to connect with them. I was a bit surprised to hear this, but didn't say anything. It's not worth the conflict, but it just feels so unfair. I know it's petty to still be bitter about something that happened over 20 years ago, but it made me feel so excluded from my peers and felt so baseless.

There's a lot of aspects of growing up in the church that sucked and this is relatively minor in comparison to other issues, but going through the festivities now with my own kid has made my reflect on this. Oh well, do better for your own kids, I suppose!

I had an interesting conversation with my therapist about this.

I was telling them about an interaction I recently had with a lady that is married with kids. For context, I’m a single dude.

This person helped me accomplish a big goal. They walked over and congratulated me on my success. As I was talking, I wasn’t sure if I should initiate a fist bump to thank them for their help.

Some of this awkwardness is partially due to being on the higher side of the spectrum.

The other part of it comes from shit I learned from church. Think of the “Billy Graham”/Mike Pence rule type of thinking. Not being alone with a married woman or having a plutonic friendship with a married woman.

I have tried to get as much Christianity out of my head. However, some of it still pops up from time to time.

One thing I find so interesting are Christians’ obsession with sex and masturbation. It reminds me a lot about people with eating disorders. When I was younger, I was insecure in my weight so I began to count calories on an app. The more I thought about my food intake the more obsessed I became with food. I would think about it day and night and how much I wanted to eat as much as I could, but because I was forcing myself to not eat, I became sick with anxiety about food and would never stop thinking about it. Eventually I couldn’t take it anymore and began binge eating like crazy. Luckily my food problems ended over 10 years ago, but now that I don’t limit my food intake, I rarely ever obsess over food or binge eat. My point is that I think the same applies to Christians when they deny themselves the natural urge to jack off or have sex. I see so many Christians limit themselves from their natural biology and in return consequences ensue (Josh Duggar comes to mind). I remember seeing so many people my age when I was 18-21 get married after dating their partner for just a couple of months. Guess what they all had in common? They were Christians saving themselves for marriage… I saw a saying on Twitter one time that said, “you don’t buy the restaurant to eat food, so why get married to have sex?” Obviously I know more goes into it, but I just find it interesting how obsessed with sex Christians are. Curious to hear you guys’ thoughts on this…

TL;DR: on the day I finally voted, Mom tried to blame me for her rude behavior when I told her not to stick her nose in my business like she usually does, and she yelled at me all the way home. I'm sick of her treating me like shit, and tonight I'm getting revenge on her by eating and destroying all her Halloween candy once she leaves her house to give her the reputation she deserves.

This is going to be a long one so please bear with me. This is an update on the previous post I made on this sub, so please read that one first before reading this one. Thank you.

I was prepared on the day of voting (which is Halloween night) and I didn't hesitate to vote for Kamala Harris. But before we went to vote, I begged my mom to not see my vote, she got all mad and replied that she just wanted to help. I told her I didn't need any help. She yelled at me to shut my mouth. I started tearing up but she told me to suck it up.

While I was at the voting booth, I asked for help to the booth lady about printing the ballot, then mom threw a hissy fit. When we got in the car, she yelled at me over how "bullheaded" I was and how I "think I know everything". I told she was the one who started this whole mess. Mom denied it and complained over how every time she takes me somewhere I apparently start this shit with her.

Every counterargument I make against her always leads to her either projecting everything on me or screaming at me to shut up. I had had enough. I finally screamed at her that she needs to get her shit together because I'm fucking sick of her. She replied "well I'm sick of you too!". I replied "good! Because of all the shit you've done to me, you can go fuck yourself and go to hell for all I care!". Mom screamed at me to watch my language and not raise my voice at her. I told her not to tell me what I should do or say. She then screamed at me to put my hand down and zip my lips because everyone is looking.

I told her I don't give a shit what she thinks, and I'd be willing to tell the world what she did to me all my life. She blew up on me and screamed "I AM TAKING YOU STRAIGHT HOME!!!! YOU ARE NEVER EVER COMING WITH ME TO VOTE EVER AGAIN!!!!!". I screamed back "GOOD!!!! THAT MEANS I DON'T HAVE TO DEAL WITH YOUR SHIT ANYMORE!!!!".

We yelled at each other all the way home. She tried to distract me and I tried to test her by swinging my side of the car door open in front of the mailboxes. She screamed "you hit those boxes girl, and you're really going to get it!". I screamed back "give it to me then! Cause I dare you!". Silence. We glared at each other for a long time. Finally mom said "we're done here, just get out of my car right now, cause I'm so sick to death of you!".

I got out and slammed the car door right in her face, and I replied "good! And I hope you die from it!". I stormed back into my house and burst in tears. I cried for hours, recalling all the times she emotionally and verbally abused me, and all the times she thrratened to beat me into submission and even did so. And all the many, many, MANY times she would project and gaslight and shift the blame all onto me (or anyone else but herself).

Then I decided what had to be done. Tonight is Halloween and I'm going to turn the tables on her. The moment she left with my dad to pick up a lounge chair, I snuck into my mom's house, grabbed my dad's hammer, and smashed as much candy from her bags as much as possible, the rest I would take and either eat them myself or put them in my bags.

Now I'm laying back in satisfaction, knowing this would be the perfect revenge. The very moment she sees what happened, she'll be furious and immediately suspect it was me, and I'd just tell her that I don't know what she's talking about and she must've done something to the bags to let them ruin.

Of all the times she's blamed me for everything she caused and all of her betrayals, she would finally see what it feels like when it's done to her. The trick or treaters would get mad at her for what happened when she gives out the ruined candy. She'll think twice about being all smug now when she gets a taste of her own medicine.

I know what you're thinking, how horrible of a person I am for doing such a thing. But you need to acknowledge that I was raised in an abusive household all my life and I've recently learned to fend for myself and this is the last straw.

Like many evangelicals, Halloween was taboo in my family. We didn't do it, didn't engage, shifted awkwardly when others brought it up (though never going as far as to picket and scream at others for engaging in it), and that just became the norm. As an adult, I can do what I want, but whilst I've got to Halloween themed events with friends and so on, I don't think I could ever have that same childlike enthusiasm for celebration events that come along each year the same way I do for Christmas, for example. I never trick-or-treated as a child, never went to a Halloween party. I had, and still have, my own idiosyncratic idea of fun, so who knows if I would have enjoyed it. But it's an experience I never had, and never will have, and so can't share in others' childhood memories. Acknowledging makes me a little sad.

But on the other hand, as Halloween approaches, I often feel nothing - I even forget that other people might have plans for such an event, and today, my brain being distracted by everything and nothing, I even briefly forgot it was Halloween, and realised that I'm going to spend a lot of the evening on my own. Par the course maybe, but it's a little lonely.

I'm not going to act like I never had a childhood - that would be an insult to those who were genuinely robbed by abuse, including religious abuse, but I still feel it's an unfortunate gulf, on top of my own social difficulties, that keeps me away from others, and a completely unnecessary one born of stupid religious hang-ups.

Does anyone else relate? And does anyone have any suggestions for celebratory activities one can do alone?

Edit: Was just reminded of something else - on top of not being able to experience childish excitement for Halloween, whenever resentment for this reared its head, it morphed into self-righteousness. I became flabbergasted when other people my age who called themselves Christian were totally fine with Halloween, and my internal reaction went from, 'wait, that's illegal' to 'well, they can't be very sincere Christians, then.' Ugh, I used to be so insufferable.

So yesterday when I got home from volunteering my mom has these tracts and tells me to hand them out to people at this kids museum I volunteer at. I told her im there to volunteer NOT to hand out tracts.

Anyone else had to hand out tracts on Halloween when they were younger?

Like imagine Adam and God as female and eve as male.But the stories play the same. How differently do you interpret all the Bible characters?

Just want to wish everyone a safe and fun Halloween.

Remember, the ghosts and goblins are not real and cannot hurt you. They will not invite evil spirits to curse you.

There is no evidence to support evil spirits at all. We live in a natural world with observable cause and effect. Be yourself. Embrace who you are, your feelings, your thoughts and your ambitions.

You cannot help how you feel or what resonates with you. Your emotions, your lifestyle, your dreams... none of it will bring calamity to you from above.

The only thing that matters is how you interact with others and how you take care of yourself. Do not intentionally hurt yourself or others. Being a good person is its own reward.

Thou shalt remember your beliefs are your beliefs and my belief are my beliefs, and when they converge, we shall celebrate, and when they diverge, we shall bow respectfully.

Thou shalt assemble your beliefs from your knowledge of the immediate world for the human brain begins life with no knowledge and no beliefs, only the instinctive desire to learn, to consume reams and reams of sensory data that then becomes your knowledge of the immediate world, knowledge that your brain then uses to decide what you are willing to believe and what you absolutely will not believe.

Thou shalt use your incredible intellect to help the homeless, the hungry and the unfortunate because even vultures have the cognitive sophistication to prey upon those sitting on death's threshold.

Thou shalt learn to appreciate others, to see the world through their eyes, to walk a kilometre in their shoes, to experience life through their skin, for understanding requires greater intelligence than indifference or contempt; and if you doubt this, ask a Komodo dragon what they know of their peers.

There are so many men (multiple of whom are public figures) who have been found out to be creepers and sex pests and then disappear for a while, but then reemerge as Jesus-y as fuck. And they also reemerge as MAGA. Because of fucking course they do!

A perfect example of this in the more traditional use of the word "cancelled" is in the more literal sense in that they were completely unable to find work is Kevin Sorbo. A mediocre (at best) actor on a popular network show that got outshined by its vastly superior spinoff starring an actress with actual talent. After that show ended, he was unable to get work. Then, he got offered a job with Pure Flix and he started to get work again, but now that's pretty much the only kind of acting work he can get. His guest spot on Supergirl notwithstanding. And he's started falling down the MAGA rabbit hole and cries "persecution" on Fox News all the time claiming he is unable to get acting work because of his conservative Christian beliefs. Buddy.......you chose to accept the job they gave you and fell down the right wing rabbit hole like so many people do who convert as adults. I feel like that's also low key an admission that he kinda hates his career path. To use a well-known quote, "well, well, well, if it isn't the consequences of my own actions."

Russell Brand, who was popular in the 2000's and appeared in good movies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, fell off after a certain point. I personally never found him funny; his voice grated on me. But he started to reemerge during COVID and started to ally himself with the right, and has since gone full blown MAGA Christian. He also had sexual assault allegations against him a couple years ago. I maintain that he got the heads up that the allegations were coming and allied himself with the right so he had an income source. Because he knew that Christianity and MAGA gives safe harbor to rapists.

But this happens with regular everyday people as well. I know that we have men in our lives who have been just outright degenerates and then they become super Christian and very right wing. I definitely do. I have an uncle who, years ago, got fired from his work for sexual harassment. He got a new job and everything, but he followed this arc and he's now full-blown MAGA. I say that because, while he is Christian, I maintain that MAGA is his religion. And it's because the MAGA religion does give safe harbor to creeps and sex pests. I'm not gonna be the least bit surprised if the Date Right Stuff guy (who Tik Tok keeps pushing on me despite the amount of times I have pushed 'not interested' now being in the double digits) has allegations against him within the next couple years. Although, that dude is such a fucking incel that I'd 100% believe he has never talked to a woman.

Does anyone have someone in their family who got "cancelled" and then went full blown MAGA Christian?

this feels so crazy but I'm really happy! happy Halloween everyone! 🥰👻🥳🖤

I've never thought I'd celebrate it but.. here I am! and this sounds so much more fun than judging other people for celebration and praying. I've always liked scary things and horror and I'm glad I can celebrate such fun amazing holiday now!! I hope you all can too and no christians will ruin it for you!

Because I can’t shake the feeling that I have.

Though not involved in the USA creepy fundamentalism I read about here, my wife and I did meet in a very Christian environment. Our assumption was that our marriage would be one of encouraging each other to grow in the Christian faith, etc.. I was very deep in Christian spirituality; she still is.

And with us about to have our first child, our commitment has been to raise him “in the fear of God,” with daily devotions, church, blah blah.

I’ve only been without faith for two weeks. Processing my crap growing up, my faith also vanished. It was parental manipulation.

But now my wife and I have no shared common ground for marriage, and especially for raising our child.

Did I not betray her? I am the one who is abandoning our shared assumptions and commitments at marriage.

I do not want to leave. I don’t want the child to be raised the same way I was.

I feel I have moral guilt for this. My journey to authenticity feels like a good thing, yet this feels also like a betrayal. Not sure I can reconcile those two.

I officially left the church in 2002 and I still have my Bible. It's a gorgeous book (personalized burgundy Thompson Chain KJV) that I actually paid quite a bit for, which, even at the time, felt super weird to have to spend so much money on a book that tells us to give to the poor. With viewpoints like these, I was always destined to leave religion and the politics of my parents lol

Anyway, every time I pick it up, I feel super weird for still having it. It has my name on it, it has my notes and highlights and even a photo or two from my youth group days tucked in between the pages. It has been packed and unpacked over a series of moves because I just don't know what to do with it.

Full transparency: I'm caught between 1) feeling disgust/shame for still having it in my home, and 2) feeling like it would be really wrong to throw out with the trash. Mama said never get rid of anything that I'm not ready to part with. I've long since parted with xtianity and religion, so what is my hang up with a book? I'd love to hear your stories and thoughts on the matter.

We can all agree that Jesus taught good things, at least according to the Bible such as love your neighbor. However, I don’t think all of Jesus’s teachings are good I think some can be harmful. One teaching from Jesus that I think is harmful is if you don’t forgive what someone has done to you then god won’t forgive you either. Forgiveness shouldn’t be forced because if you only forgive someone because god won’t forgive you if you don’t then it isn’t genuine and I would say it’s fake forgiveness. Does a victim really deserve to be punished just because they won’t forgive their abuser.

Many of us weren’t allowed to believe in them growing up. How about now?

Idk how true it is but I don’t think they’ve considered that people from other religions have seen their God or Gods…

My parents are actually the most tolerant Christians I know. They aren't bigoted, they believe in science, are very liberal. My mom spent her career teaching immigrant and refugee children of all religions (and lack thereof) ESL while heading the diversity program in her school district. She was even honored with a national diversity leader award. Having said all this, I worried being forced out of the atheist closet by my Bible-humping evangelical piece of shit brother (with whom I have since gone no contact) would affect my relationship with my mom as she's the more religious one of my parents. My dad mostly keeps his faith to himself.

Well, once again, my estranging my brother came up. A great deal of kicking him out of my life has to do with his severe and hate-filled religious beliefs. I told her I'm sick of hearing about a book I think is fictional bullshit written by flawed men and weaponized by evil ones; that I hate having to listen to fairytales that have led to the murder of millions, but if I say anything slightly atheistic, it's a big fucking problem.

I asked her if Christians are so thin skinned that they can't handle being the overwhelming majority in this shitty country, but then I got angry and said, "Actually I know the answer. They can't handle an atheist because deep down they know it's all made up! They're scared of me and the truth! At least they die like the rest of us, alone and forever! Fuck them!" She then did something that surprised me, she apologized that Christians have hurt me so much and said she understands my church experience is nothing like hers, which has always been positive.

Then she said, "You can be an atheist ..." I cut her off and said, "Understand, this is nothing new, I have always been an atheist. I FAKED IT. I faked it because I didn't want to be hit or ostracized at church but I WAS ANYWAY. I WAS ANYWAY! They HIT me, they SHUNNED me, they MOCKED me, they ASSAULTED ME. I was a child! Do you understand I don't just think it's bullshit, I think it's dangerous and harmful? THEY HURT ME. NO ONE NEVER HURT ME IN THE NAME OF ATHEISM." That's when she got really serious looking for a second and said, "Everything you experienced is valid. It's ok, I accept you as an atheist, I can't control your beliefs. It is what it is and you get to think what you think. I'm sorry they hurt you, if I had known ..."

I don't remember exactly how I responded, but this was so starkly different than my brother nastily hissing at me the last time I saw him, "I will never accept you as an atheist" that I almost started crying. She hugged me and I don't remember what was said next, but this lifts so much off my shoulders. I am the black sheep of my family and being told I'm accepted anyway felt really good.

I am living my truth after 40 years of hiding and silencing myself, and it's turning out to be a lot better than I expected.

My old job deposited a pretty decent sized check into my account and my dad’s started to bug me about giving tithe. It’s not a lot but I’m not going to give any and I haven’t given tithe in over a year. The issue is he’s not getting the hint and he’ll try to gaslight me by saying he puts gas in my car because he has faith that “he’ll be blessed”, even though we share the vehicle for our part time jobs.

If you ever dealt with being bugged about tithe, how did you verbally put your foot down? I’m not always good with words so I want to response with something next time that will help him get the hint. He pressed me on if I believed in being blessed so I’m walking a tight rope with ripping the band aid off. Right now I’m applying for union and government jobs in my state but even if I get hired, I’ll need some time to get everything together since I’m probably going to relocate the second I have an opening to move, most of them pay decently and I have to make sure that they don’t get suspicious.

I grew up in a pentecostal church but left in my early teen years after getting into politics and becoming very disillusioned with the church and religion as a whole, but I'm still very close friends with a couple of people that I met through the church

I found out recently that an old friend of mine from the church was stuck working as a personal assistant for a member of the church (who's in a highly respected position in the church) in her lawyers office for a year... without any pay whatsoever. Her justification was that "god told her that if she (my old friend) kept working for her for free, they would be blessed financially" and that she just had to have faith and trust that this is god's will

Since then, that old friend has stopped working for her once she realised the blessings weren't coming, stopped going to church, and has started spilling the church's dirty secrets that I only knew the start of... the corruption runs deep. It's a very small church so that probably doesn't help, but I'm so grateful that I didn't stick around for long!! I can't say the same for my parents, but I'm sure that I pray for them to find their way out of the church just as much as they pray for me to come back.

Not sure why I'm posting this, I feel a bit weird venting about the business of a tiny church in Aotearoa New Zealand on reddit, but I don't really have anyone in my life that can relate to me about this stuff who isn't still in the church

Hope everyone is doing well in their spiritual journey and deconstruction, whatever that looks like for you <3

I'm a little bit sappy when it comes to this verse. Sorry if this is not coherent enough.

This verse is what made me leave christianity because I don't see god reflecting these traits, and I'd just like to share my personal intepretation of the verse. This might come off as preaching, but I want to share about how this verse reflects humanity.

People keep using it as a standard of what love is and we should do, but honestly I just see it as things I naturally do when I love, whether I like it or not.

When I love, I become patient with the person. I become kind. It doesn't mean I cannot be angry at them, but naturally, I am more patient towards the people I love.

When I love, I don't think of myself higher than my loved ones. I see them just as worthy and capable as me, I respect them. It doesn't mean I have a low self-esteem, but I don't feel the urge to prove myself that I am better than them.

When I love, I don't dishonor them and I am not self seeking. I immediately think of them as myself and think of their needs as mine. It doesn't mean I am a doormat, but I get the urge to do everything I can to help my loved ones. I celebrate with their wins and I mourn with their losses.

When I love, I don't get easily angry with them. Maybe I do get angry, but if it's forgivable, it washes away quickly. I don't keep records of their wrongs because it's just what I do when I love someone. It can be harmful, but it is what I do most of the time.

And we know the rest: "Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."

It describes traits I get when I genuinely love someone, and I see that being reflected on so many people. When people wrong me, I will not trust them or have hopes in them, but a deep part of me still feels like I want to trust them. That's the emotion of love talking inside me.

Love is not everything, but I think it's genuinely beautiful that humans are capable of loving each other.

I see it in my mom who doesn't get mad at me for graduating 1 year late, and instead get excited when I told her about my days in university through a phone call at 5 am. I see it in my best friend who consoled me for days then reached out to her professor so her professor can help me with my passion. I see it in my boyfriend who travelled for 12 hours just to spend time with me for 2 days. I see it in my cousin who still give me gifts even when we have never held a proper conversaation together. I saw it in my late grandmother who took care of my deaf, mute, schizophrenic uncle for 40 years. I saw it in my late uncle who got mad at me for not cleaning my room because he knew my late grandmother deserved to have a clean house even after she passed away.

My family and friends are not perfect and kind, but I like seeing small acts of love shining through them sometimes. My uncle was mean to many people, but he was so kind to my grandmother. My mom still asks me to go to church, but I know it's just because she doesn't want me to go to hell. Doesn't excuse her behaviors, but it lessens my bitterness when I see the pure emotions of love behind her actions.

And the last part hits me. "But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. [...] And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

Because I've been studying history of mankind and civilization and it just hits how mankind has been surviving because of the love we feel to this day. Do you guys know about how historians found a healed broken bone from 15,000 years ago? There was at least someone who took care of the person who got hurt. That someone experienced the same type of love that we feel now.

There is many evil in the world and there are way too many selfish people so we might only have some years left before climate change hits us and change the world drastically, but it's bittersweet to know that even if every knowledge and advancement are wiped away, mankind can still survive because most of us know how to love each other.

Anyways, this is just random, thanks for reading if you have gotten this far. This is a reminder that it's good that we are capable of loving each other. Say hi to your neighbors if you can, hold that door open for the people behind you, give generous tips to service workers if possible, spare 5 minutes to talk to people who want to talk to you.

Life sucks but it feels a little bit better when we are nice to each other.

Even when I was small, I questioned why the Bible said creation only took 7 days, instead of describing the millions and billions of years it actually took to form the universe and everything in it. Personally, I see that as far more impressive! I also questioned why there were so many repetitive numbers, like 7 and 40, appearing in multiple places in Bible stories.

I was always taught that this was because ancient people were uneducated and most were unable to count past 7, so it was the highest number most regular people of that time could comprehend. 40 was a huge number, and "seventy times seven" was viewed as basically infinity to their brains.

Is this actually true? Could most ancient people not really count or conceptualize more than the number 7? I find that difficult to believe, based on the amount of advanced math that the ancient Greeks and Egyptians obviously did.

So this acquaintance from my former church reached out for the first time in about 2 years to hit me up for money.

I have had several religious friends do similar ministry work "full-time," which always only amounts to them grabbing coffee with college kids 3x a week to try to convert them, and calling it "college ministry." To reiterate, they are not "serving the city" by doing any tangible volunteer work, their whole ministry is solely based on evangelism. They also never specify what donations go towards, either... probably because it's just covering their rent so they don't have to get a real paying job.

The absolute delusion and nerve to ask someone you have not talked to in years to just give you free money so you can vibe is just something else!

I haven't responded yet because I don't know what to say. I will not be giving her any money, and I'm not a religious person anymore so prayers aren't really my thing either. I hate to completely burn a bridge, but also wtf.