I’ve heard that all those children went to Heaven . . . despite the claim that their slaughter was justified because God knew they would grow up and be child sacrificers.
Of course they were all children of the Nephilim so…
Also, of course, why God made it possible for fallen angels to impregnate humans and create the Nephilim is a question that will not be entertained.
The Varieties of Religious Experience is a good read if you are interested in that sort of thing (direct religious experience, as opposed to religious institutions).
I have had someone describe such a mystical experience to me, though in that case the person did not connect it with religion. Still, it may not be so uncommon.
So are lots of other cultures; including all the early Christian ones.
Oh yes, and the Mayans, Aztecs, and Incas are still around; including quite significant chunks of their cultures.
Both Judaism and Christianity have stories about growing out of a child-sacrifice stage – I think Islam keeps at least one of those stories.
By William James, approximately 1902?
That’s in my library system, though not in either of the libraries I generally get to. I could order it in, though; although winter might be a better time to do that. Thanks for the recommendation.
I think it may be quite common. I’ve had some myself. Still an atheist at least about what most people seem to mean by God, though. And I suspect what I may be doing is making connections within my own head; though that’s not what it feels like.
– the rest of this post deleted before posting, as it turned into a scrambled attempt to sort out into words something that doesn’t want to go into words right. I’ll just say that how that experience turns into the sort of thing that human religions often seem to turn into seems to me to be quite a mystery on its own.
You might appreciate this: Mr Deity and the Skeptic (with Michael Schirmer). https://youtu.be/6gnQz32c5EA
I suppose it depends on if you are willing to put your faith in God to make sure your parachute opens safely or are you asking him to prevent you from falling to your death?
I thought I was certainly going to hell, but then realized I wasn’t. 
Yeah, not really. As not-a-believer, my interest in the genesis religion is primarily sociological. The social structures that are built from/around it. The mystical experience is entirely another matter, though how we cope with things that seem to violate the current order is kind of interesting and maybe useful.
I well and truly believe that no gods exist, but I certainly cannot prove it. It must therefore remain a matter of faith.
Except a) I can’t just make myself believe it b) you’re not supposed to just believe it, you’re supposed to change your life so as to follow the laws that particular deity is supposed to have set up c) there are still hundreds if not thousands of different specific beliefs that one person or another will tell you that you’ll go to hell if you do take up, so whichever one you picked, and even if you somehow made yourself believe, and even if you then followed that version’s laws precisely (quite possibly screwing your actual life up seriously in the process): if some one of those gods is real, you’ve still got by hundreds of times a better chance of winding up in hell for picking the wrong one than you do of escaping hell by guessing right.
They’re connected, though, I think; although, as I said or tried to say above, how the mystical experience turns into, or is connected with, the social structures is itself mysterious; and I’m also interested in that.
– maybe the mystical experience doesn’t turn into the social structures. Maybe the social structures co-opt it – the experience itself seems to be at least sometimes disruptive of such structures. But they do seem to get tangled up together.
I would say that the social structures represent an attempt to institutionalize the mystical experience by creating settings where people may have such experiences, and/or by acting in accord with the mystical insights of their spiritual leaders.
I suppose many Christians say that, but then many Christians say Catholics aren’t Christian. From my perspective, Mormons believe in the Hebrew god and the divinity of Christ, so they’re Christians.
I’m guessing that religious worship almost always started (likely more than once) as worship of powerful elements of the natural world, like the sun. Once your lore has attributed deific characteristics to the sun, or rain or what have you, you’re going to want to try a song or a dance or some other demonstration to try to convince them to help you out. Once you start doing that, someone is going to say they know the right way to sing/dance/what have you, and it goes from there.
What someone you care about suffers a terrible tragedy, the most comforting thing you can come up with is “That sucks, bro.”
I wonder whether that may be because Mormons have claimed that they are the only true Christian faith. (I can’t claim to know what the current doctrine is, but I remember reading in the newspaper that Gordon Hinkley said this at a press conference).
Agreed.
If this is supposed to be a joke, it isn’t funny at all.
As opposed to, “Let me make a call to my ISF to see if he can help you out (because I sure fuck don’t have the time or inclination).”
*Invisible Sky Fairy
Yeah, that one stumps me too. “You’ll be in my heart.” “I’m holding space for you.” Sometimes just, “I love you.” I don’t know.
Me too. I just struggle to come up with words that have the emotional impact I’d like.
What’s the worst thing about being an atheist?
No disadvantages, as far as I know. I guess you have to keep your ideas to yourself, just to avoid offending others, but I think the world would be a better place if everyone kept their ideas of religion to/among themselves.
Oh. Well that sucks, bro.