Christian religions are toxic.

[Robertcw]

Religion is a birdcage that traps individuals into being hamstrung by older individuals with more life experience who think they know what’s better for you without giving you the opportunity to discover it for yourself — often times these are the very same people who were the biggest sluts around, usually male, in their teens and early 20’s who converted in their mid to late 20’s and became pastors and pioneers of the church after having their fill.

To which I say, fuck off.

Being raised Catholic I cringe at childhood photos of my baptism before I could speak, I cringe at my circumcised penis to which I did not consent, and shots of me as an alter boy in elementary school. Only now have I realized how brainwashed I had become, and how insane my Christian family members can be — especially in their willingness to sabotage their children’s social lives in the name of ‘protecting them’ from building social relationships, physical intimacy and sex before marriage.

The ‘golden rule’ of Christianity is to ‘treat others the way you would want to be treated.’ Which would be great if it weren’t the case that we should treat people the way they want to be treated instead. But it isn’t. And we should.

And this is were Christianity, and Christians, begin to reveal their inner machiavellian tendencies. Similar to how a narcissist maintains control over the ones they target, machiavellians manipulate those around them. I recognize these traits in the doctrines of many monotheistic religions, but it is perhaps most pronounced in the family relations within believers of these religions.

Grown people in their 40’s will knowingly hamstring their children’s development and happily watch as they miss out on opportunities exclusive to that particular time in a person’s life — a developmental window, if you will — with feelings of relief.

With each passing year, two things happen.

1. Social skills exponentially become worse due to compounding opportunity cost.

2. Eventually the child grows up and realizes what has taken place, at which point they become aware and likely livid. They may feel cheated or stolen from. But mostly they feel left behind.

In contrast to the guy who sleeps around in college, cheats a few times and then graduates and suddenly has an epiphany, the one indoctrinated from birth travels the opposite path. They are sheltered and absent of experience up until around the same age as the guy starting to convert, but they realize they’ve lived inside a bird cage up until that point and suddenly desire all the things the convert has already experienced. Of course, this other person is showered with praise and compliments by a Church community. While the latter is vilified.

Most convert programs highlight these sorts of stories. For example, the ‘Alpha Series/Course’ for new Christians (which is a cringeworthy and dubious name for such a course) features interviews from many such people who have ‘seen the light’ after years of promiscuity and crime.

I find the whole thing disgusting.

It’s toxic in every possible way. I do not believe that religions are doing people favors, and in particular I believe they are detrimental to the mental health of practitioners.

Those that escape these dilemas are forced to be hypocritical in order to experience both sides of a contradictory coin. They are the smart ones, I say. And yet, being a hypocrite is not something I would say many people aspire to. If that’s the best way out of this situation that should indicate there is a problem here.

[TheFlak38]

Christianity is the religion of self-hate and self-destruction.