Churches That Believe They are the Only Way

[Jayson]

Jehovah's Witnesses believe they are the only way.   How do you feel about such churches?   Is believing you're the only way arrogant and/or closed minded?  Is it simply the result of a feeling among some that truth is narrow?

[Crazycrab]

There are a number of YouTubers I watch who talk about religious extremism including Jehovah's witnesses such as Telltale (channel vid down below).  I'll leave it to you if you want to check out some of it.

 

 

To sum up my own feelings about these kind of people especially after watching some channels like this, their EVIL IDIOTS!  Genuinely some of the worst humanity has to offer.  Their idea and practices are not fucking ridiculous but genuinely harmful.

Edited March 8, 2022 by Crazycrab

[The Blackangel]

The last time a JW came to my house, when I saw who was at the door, I stripped naked, smeared some ketchup on the blade of one of my swords, then answered the door and asked them if they were my 11:30. We never saw them again.

[Crazycrab]

I just found this article that is seems particularly relevant here.  It was written by someone who was inspired by a video game character to leave the life of religious extremism behind.  After playing Horizon Zero Dawn this person left the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (aka, The Mormans).  It's an interesting read.

 

https://www.androidcentral.com/gaming/horizon-zero-dawn-aloy-religion-mormonism

[m76]

On 3/8/2022 at 10:26 AM, Jayson said:

Jehovah's Witnesses believe they are the only way.   How do you feel about such churches?   Is believing you're the only way arrogant and/or closed minded?  Is it simply the result of a feeling among some that truth is narrow?

Generally every church believes they are  the only way, maybe Buddhism doesn't make that claim, but I'm not sure. For thousands of years religion was the main cause of wars. And nationalism is akin to religion too, think on that.

This maybe off topic, but being an anti globalist is essentially the same as being pro-war.

[Jayson]

5 hours ago, m76 said:

Generally every church believes they are  the only way, maybe Buddhism doesn't make that claim, but I'm not sure. For thousands of years religion was the main cause of wars. And nationalism is akin to religion too, think on that.

This maybe off topic, but being an anti globalist is essentially the same as being pro-war.

Not so sure of that.   Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians don't believe you have to attend their denomination specifically to go to heaven.

Religious wars might have been more about overreaching government power and how people were resisting.

I don't get what you mean by anti-globalist.   Anti-globalist ranges from white supremacists to the anti-abortion crowd to anti-neo-con Republicans.

Edited March 24, 2022 by Jayson

[The Blackangel]

"Organized Religion is like Organized Crime; it preys on peoples' weakness, generates huge profits for its operators, and is almost impossible to eradicate."

-Mike Hermann

[The Blackangel]

19 hours ago, m76 said:

Generally every church believes they are  the only way, maybe Buddhism doesn't make that claim, but I'm not sure. For thousands of years religion was the main cause of wars. And nationalism is akin to religion too, think on that.

This maybe off topic, but being an anti globalist is essentially the same as being pro-war.

There has been more bloodshed in the name of religion than for anything else in all human history.

Edited March 24, 2022 by The Blackangel

[Jayson]

Religion is not the only thing which demands mindless devotion.

4 hours ago, The Blackangel said:

There has been more bloodshed in the name of religion than for anything else in all human history.

Are you sure?   What about political ideology?  For instance, the Soviet Union and 30s/40s era Germany took a huge toll.

[The Blackangel]

Yes I'm sure. I've done the research, I've taken religion history classes, and I've studied several religions and their individual histories. It's a fact that religion has been responsible for more murders and bloodshed than anything else in human history. A few quick examples are the Salem Witch Trials, Spanish Inquisition, Holocaust, and the Crusades (of which there were nine from 1096-1492). You also have your random murders that are due to religious bigotry. But there's still a hell of a lot more than that.

Edited March 25, 2022 by The Blackangel

[Justin11]

Any religion that   claims   to    be better than others aren't   better, in fact    such    religion is practicing    hypocrisy and trying to be    righteous when their is    none available at the    moment.   For   me I am my own    church, I don't    listen to what most of the    religions talk    about,  provided I am keeping    things cool,   and    worshipping my own God    the best    way   I can, their is no    problem   at all. 

[Jayson]

On 3/25/2022 at 12:02 PM, The Blackangel said:

Yes I'm sure. I've done the research, I've taken religion history classes, and I've studied several religions and their individual histories. It's a fact that religion has been responsible for more murders and bloodshed than anything else in human history. A few quick examples are the Salem Witch Trials, Spanish Inquisition, Holocaust, and the Crusades (of which there were nine from 1096-1492). You also have your random murders that are due to religious bigotry. But there's still a hell of a lot more than that.

The Holocaust was less about religion and more about economic envy and scapegoating.   Anyway, the whole Nazi thing was mostly about opposing Jews as a race, not religion.  The Nazi movement cared less about religion.

Basically, the Great Depression and Weimar Germany made life hard for Germans, so they turned to extremists with easy answers.

Edited March 28, 2022 by Jayson

[The Blackangel]

6 hours ago, Jayson said:

The Holocaust was less about religion and more about economic envy and scapegoating.   Anyway, the whole Nazi thing was mostly about opposing Jews as a race, not religion.  The Nazi movement cared less about religion.

Basically, the Great Depression and Weimar Germany made life hard for Germans, so they turned to extremists with easy answers.

Are you fucking serious? Then why did Hitler on hundreds of occasions say that the superior race was a christian rice? That the Jews were inferior because they denied christ?

THE GREAT DEPRESSION MADE IT HARD FOR EVERY-FUCKING-BODY. NO ONE HAD IT EASY DURING THE DEPRESSION EXCEPT MAYBE ROCKEFELLER. THOSE BORN WITH NOT A SILVER SPOON, BUT A GOLD SPOON IN THEIR MOUTHS WERE THE ONLY ONES THAT MADE IT THROUGH EASILY. THE REST OF THE WORLD WAS FUCKED UNTIL THINGS PICKED UP AGAIN.

[Shagger]

4 hours ago, The Blackangel said:

Are you fucking serious? Then why did Hitler on hundreds of occasions say that the superior race was a christian rice? That the Jews were inferior because they denied christ?

THE GREAT DEPRESSION MADE IT HARD FOR EVERY-FUCKING-BODY. NO ONE HAD IT EASY DURING THE DEPRESSION EXCEPT MAYBE ROCKEFELLER. THOSE BORN WITH NOT A SILVER SPOON, BUT A GOLD SPOON IN THEIR MOUTHS WERE THE ONLY ONES THAT MADE IT THROUGH EASILY. THE REST OF THE WORLD WAS FUCKED UNTIL THINGS PICKED UP AGAIN.

 

Contrery to popular belief, Hitler didn't have much more love for Christians than he did Jew's. He spoke in good favour to and about Christians to with favour with Germany's people and to help his alliense with Italy. That doesn't change the fact that @Jayson's version of the event is a dumbed down, half truth at best. Economic envy and his personal prejudices that propagated to Germany's people were certainly big factors but it was mostly about removing elements of society and genetic legacy that didn't fit his profile for perfection in humanity. Jew's, Muslims, people of colour, homosexuals and the disabled to name a few were all targeted.

 

[Reality vs Adventure]

The way I see it, is that the the Holocaust was both a racist and religious attack. Those two things go hand in hand with the far right groups like the Nazis and fascists. They exploit religion to use against unwanted types of people. German Nazis saw Jews as the people who crucified Jesus, but it was only a front to the underlying racist issue. That became their rallying cry that persuaded people to hate Jews and demonized them by portraying them as anti christain. And today, the far right hides behind religion to demonize minorities in this country and so the essence of exploiting religion goes perfectly with racism. Because that way you can discriminate and incite hatred demonizing those people and claim it has nothing to do with race. That’s why there is the huge push against transgender, gays, and abortions because that way you can pile them all into the same group and use religion as the tool to make the right wingers hate non christians, even if they were christians.  But racism and bigotry is the driving force, while religion is the vehicle to drive the division. That way they can say they aren’t phobic of those things so they don't alienate public opinion. And anti abortion is their backbone to claim they care about life, when in actuality anti abortion is only a recruiting tool to garner favorable support. At the same time as they grow their base, they get worse and worse in their culture war. All of this leads to genocide eventually. And that's part of the reason we see the attack on the subject of history in public schools, so as to decrease awareness of historical racist atrocities which in return decreases self awareness of racial disparity. So not only is the mask of christianity propelling a cultural racist war in this country, but they are also inadvertently stripping christianity from those they demonize. I think evangelicals probably is where christianity is exploited the most and it's where the far right has dug in their heels, in cult like fashion.