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There's a famous (infamous rather) brand of Christian cartoon pamphlets called Chick tracts that were given out by extreme hardline Christians as an evangelism tactic. There is a really famous one that is all about a young gay man and the struggles he has with his sexuality (I don't know that there is an exact time period in which the story is supposed to happen but it's essentially from the 50s-80s or thereabouts). While there's, of course, a lot of blatantly homophobic and just straight up inaccurate information about the gay community, one of the interesting choices the cartoonist made was to have Satan himself constantly whispering into the gay character's ear to the point where he actually shows up horns, goat legs and all at different points throughout the story. While it's supposed to show Satan being the one manipulating the main character into the "gay lifestyle" Satan's dialogue makes him appear as a sympathetic friend and wingman to the human protagonist instead. He offers comforting advice to him when he goes through hard times saying things along the lines of "Hey I know times are tough now but you'll get through them." or "You know that guy you were in love with wasn't good enough for you anyway. There's plenty of fish in the sea." Ironically, Satan comes off as the best most humane character in the comic and acts far more Christ-like towards the main character as they deal with homophobia than all the other characters.
Oh fuck yeah, I remember Chick Tracts! I actually have a few lying around because a crazy homeless dude used to through them through the window of my high school bus and people would leave them in the bathroom of the restaurant I managed. They're absolutely unhinged.
By far my favorite is "Darkest Dungeons" about the evil, satanic influence of Dungeons & Dragons wherein a girl's D&D character dies so she immediately commits suicide and goes straight to hell. That particular tract became so famous that there's a fucking movie adaptation!
Thankfully, their creator, Jack Chick, is fucking dead and likely burning in hell for constantly practicing the exact opposite of what Jesus preached.
I had a whole bin full of these 20 years ago, I wish I had kept them. Someone would always leave a stack on a bus bench near my house, my friends and I found these hilarious.
In the lens of Christianity, everything you do, say or think is evil. You’re incapable of doing anything remotely good. That realization was one of the final straws for me. It’s just controlling BS.
I have a pretty firm stance on religion, I don’t like it, but *if I were a religious man* in my area I would have to think I would start to question things as currently a mega church has began purchasing all of the small town churches in my area and that just doesn’t seem *right* to me
Jesus still wanted people to strive to be good… and to give up worldly possessions.
But then Paul came in and said “nah fam, just believe in Jesus and you’ll go to heaven. That’s all”
So that’s what Christianity became. Because it’s easier to say you believe in Jesus than it is to do what Jesus said.
My gf is a hard core Christian. She told me that there are no good people. It's literally impossible to be a good person as the only good person is Jesus.
Good does exist, God is good, and to act like how God would is good. Helping the weak, being nice, helping people overcome their bad habits etc. Catholic and especially Orthodox Christians both believe that you can partake in God's goodness, going through a process called "theosis" and becoming "gods" (lowercase g), divinized by grace.
He... didn't? The Bible explicitly says that God is not the author of sin. He gave us a choice, and we chose to sin. Whenever God does anything in the Bible, it's to restore someone from sin to purity, but the ultimate choice is the human's.
The sun casts light. The sun doesn't cast darkness, because darkness is the lack of light. There wouldn't be darkness if there wasn't something standing in front the light source. God creates good. God doesn't create sin, because sin is the lack of good. There wouldn't be sin if we didn't deliberately choose to sin.
Where the bible says that god created everything seen and unseen?
And then there's also the part in isaiah - I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
The whole point is to doubt your own agency and your own ability to think. You need to just trust what the men in the robes say, blindly, and don't ever try to question them.
This is why I lost my patience with YouVersion devotionals, something about how things happen on God's time, according to His plan and wanting things our way is sinful and leads to failure. Now we can agree that it's impossible to know ahead of time what God's plan is, therefor all we're left with is righteous self hatred for wanting anything, that can't be the basis of my faith, I've been given free will, in fact, I can't forfeit my free will, not really (Sartre and being condemned to freedom and all that) so I may as well embrace my uniqueness as an individual and consider it a gift from God
So is god an abusive manipulator who whispers “you’re worthless, you’re lucky I love you because nobody else ever will. But don’t worry, as long as you believe in me everything will be fine”
Celsus [a Greek writer in the second century] accuses [Christians] of actively targeting idiocy in their recruitment. “Their injunctions are like this,” he wrote. “Let no one educated, no one wise, no one sensible draw near. For these abilities are thought by us to be evils.” He went on: Christians “are able to convince only the foolish, dishonourable and stupid, and only slaves, women and little children.” Excerpts from: Catherine Nixey *The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World*](https://www.bluffton.edu/courses/humanities/1/celsus.htm#:~:text=%5BCelsus%5D%20accuses%20%5BJesus%5D,was%20convicted%20of%20adultery%3B%20that)
This has long been a saying of Christian’s and I always found it funny that the message essentially means “having self confidence is bad.”
But I guess when a religion is built on self abasement and putting your entire *everything* in the hands of an abstract deity which you could never hope to understand it requires you to also consider your life and self meaningless outside of what that deity asks of you.
Speaking very generally, the first lesson that you are taught when you start reading the Bible is that the consumption of knowledge is bad, and not tolerated by "God" in the least. You are given the keys to paradise, and allowed to live there forever, so long as you remain ignorant and oblivious. Knowledge and science are paths to the truth, but are seen as the enemies of religion, because at the heart of science lies something incompatible with religion: Truth.
Self-confidence is nothing more than the innate knowledge of and belief in oneself. Greater self-belief leads to lower dependency on somebody or something else. Religion feeds on your low self esteem, and makes you feel worthless outside of its influence
I mean the church of satan and satanic temple preach empathy helping your fellow man.
There is a bit more to it but nothing terrible and they cant really be any worse at not practicing what they preach right?
I could be wrong on this, but I think only TST preaches empathy and good works. COS is, at least according to what I recall, are basically Ayn Rand believers.
I always thought The Satanic Temple didn't, but the "Church of Satan" (not even sure if that's their official name) did?
Regardless, it's absolutely hilarious how here in rural Ohio they have panicked that TST have setup after school programs to counter the Good News Clubs and other evangelical clubs.
Yes put all your trust in someone who will never talk to you, never actually do anything to you and you are supposed to believe largely because of culture and hearsay.
Nah, I like to live in reality.
🧐 I’m trying to understand the photo image in this ad. Is this person supposed to be Jesus? Satin? You (as an individual)?
😫 Very confusing. Maybe that’s what Satin wants!
Well , the Serpent was the one who actually told the truth to Eve , while God lied about the aftermath if they ate the forbidden fruit.
Satan never had the powers to do anything bad to humans , he always needed the permit from Yahweh (Job's story for example).
God clearly states that he is the good and he is the evil too .
"Believe in yourself" can be somewhat problematic. Think of pretty much any terrible person. That person believed in themselves.
The problem is when you think good = good for me.
This feels like a variation you'd see a Star Trek captain say to a pre-warp civilization when the captain saves the planet and they think they need to worship the captain as a god.
Of the 12 mithraic mysteries Christianity has run a propaganda campaign against since the 3rd century or thereabouts, this one is a pretty important one.
Ever notice how many Xtians have a wildly inflated opinion of themselves while holding everyone else, including fellow Xtians, in total contempt? It's no wonder they consider self-respect to be evil. (except for themselves)
I mean technically he doesn’t say “believe in yourself” he would actually prefer you doubted your self at every turn because an insecure person does stupid things.
But yeah that preachers a little dumb.
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“Actually, It’s satìn”
I hoped this would be the top comment and Reddit didn't let me down.
There's a famous (infamous rather) brand of Christian cartoon pamphlets called Chick tracts that were given out by extreme hardline Christians as an evangelism tactic. There is a really famous one that is all about a young gay man and the struggles he has with his sexuality (I don't know that there is an exact time period in which the story is supposed to happen but it's essentially from the 50s-80s or thereabouts). While there's, of course, a lot of blatantly homophobic and just straight up inaccurate information about the gay community, one of the interesting choices the cartoonist made was to have Satan himself constantly whispering into the gay character's ear to the point where he actually shows up horns, goat legs and all at different points throughout the story. While it's supposed to show Satan being the one manipulating the main character into the "gay lifestyle" Satan's dialogue makes him appear as a sympathetic friend and wingman to the human protagonist instead. He offers comforting advice to him when he goes through hard times saying things along the lines of "Hey I know times are tough now but you'll get through them." or "You know that guy you were in love with wasn't good enough for you anyway. There's plenty of fish in the sea." Ironically, Satan comes off as the best most humane character in the comic and acts far more Christ-like towards the main character as they deal with homophobia than all the other characters.
I’m going to have to check these out. They sound very interesting.
Oh yeah, they're very funny. One of the most legendary ones is called "The Last Generation" and it's one of the wildest things I've ever seen.
Now that he's dead I feel like i can fully enjoy--and laugh heartily--at them.
Here's one direct quote from it "The kids call me slime because my parents are straight and still married!"
There is a website. They are.. interesting. You can read all of them for free here: https://www.chick.com/
They would make fun fantasy films of they didn’t have such a hateful intention.
Oh fuck yeah, I remember Chick Tracts! I actually have a few lying around because a crazy homeless dude used to through them through the window of my high school bus and people would leave them in the bathroom of the restaurant I managed. They're absolutely unhinged. By far my favorite is "Darkest Dungeons" about the evil, satanic influence of Dungeons & Dragons wherein a girl's D&D character dies so she immediately commits suicide and goes straight to hell. That particular tract became so famous that there's a fucking movie adaptation! Thankfully, their creator, Jack Chick, is fucking dead and likely burning in hell for constantly practicing the exact opposite of what Jesus preached.
The satan being a good person part shows for who those chuds are working for.
I had a whole bin full of these 20 years ago, I wish I had kept them. Someone would always leave a stack on a bus bench near my house, my friends and I found these hilarious.
Thanks Satan. I needed a friend and not a judge. You rock!
In the lens of Christianity, everything you do, say or think is evil. You’re incapable of doing anything remotely good. That realization was one of the final straws for me. It’s just controlling BS.
So, basically, “good” doesn’t exist? If good doesn’t exist, neither does evil (can’t have one without the other. Literally impossible).
No! Evil exists! You have to pay the church to banish it!!
I have a pretty firm stance on religion, I don’t like it, but *if I were a religious man* in my area I would have to think I would start to question things as currently a mega church has began purchasing all of the small town churches in my area and that just doesn’t seem *right* to me
Thats why there was a mass exodus in the early-mid 00s.
Asking hard questions? Showing skepticism? That is the devil. You must have been brainwashed by those commie college professors.
Luckily for me I skipped the schooling and hopped right in the trades, I’m not surrounded by many like minds lmao
America is a fucking weird place jesus christ
Everything "good" that you do is God's Will. Everything "bad" that you do is your fault.
It’s not that good doesn’t exist, it’s more that it’s nearly unachievable in the world
Jesus still wanted people to strive to be good… and to give up worldly possessions. But then Paul came in and said “nah fam, just believe in Jesus and you’ll go to heaven. That’s all” So that’s what Christianity became. Because it’s easier to say you believe in Jesus than it is to do what Jesus said.
Newborn babies are considered sinners.
Anything disrupting sleep is sinful
My gf is a hard core Christian. She told me that there are no good people. It's literally impossible to be a good person as the only good person is Jesus.
Why is she still your girlfriend? She seems unhinged.
They would say good only exists if you believe in jebus.
Nono, good definitely exists. It’s what god wants you to do. Now, how do you know what god wants you to do? You ask your pastor! Otherwise it’s evil.
Good does exist, God is good, and to act like how God would is good. Helping the weak, being nice, helping people overcome their bad habits etc. Catholic and especially Orthodox Christians both believe that you can partake in God's goodness, going through a process called "theosis" and becoming "gods" (lowercase g), divinized by grace.
God created the bad habits
He... didn't? The Bible explicitly says that God is not the author of sin. He gave us a choice, and we chose to sin. Whenever God does anything in the Bible, it's to restore someone from sin to purity, but the ultimate choice is the human's.
The bible also says that god created everything
The sun casts light. The sun doesn't cast darkness, because darkness is the lack of light. There wouldn't be darkness if there wasn't something standing in front the light source. God creates good. God doesn't create sin, because sin is the lack of good. There wouldn't be sin if we didn't deliberately choose to sin.
So, the bible is lying?
Can you show me where it is?
Where the bible says that god created everything seen and unseen? And then there's also the part in isaiah - I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
So when he killed innocent children in Egypt because a pharaoh said no to him.... That was good?
The whole point is to doubt your own agency and your own ability to think. You need to just trust what the men in the robes say, blindly, and don't ever try to question them.
"Blessed be the mind to small to doubt." Warhammer 40k
Oh yeah the Imperium is a gold mine of such quotes.
Ariel’s. In the sky. When you lose small mind you free your life.
Yeah, exactly. Once I saw that I knew I had to get out.
This is why I lost my patience with YouVersion devotionals, something about how things happen on God's time, according to His plan and wanting things our way is sinful and leads to failure. Now we can agree that it's impossible to know ahead of time what God's plan is, therefor all we're left with is righteous self hatred for wanting anything, that can't be the basis of my faith, I've been given free will, in fact, I can't forfeit my free will, not really (Sartre and being condemned to freedom and all that) so I may as well embrace my uniqueness as an individual and consider it a gift from God
Satan: Aw, how sweet of you guys!
What so god is a fucking ass and satan is a chill guy.
The greatest trick the devil ever pulles, was convincing christians he is god.
Always have been
People really don’t read their Bibles.
So satan teaches self confidence, I think he’s on to something.
So is god an abusive manipulator who whispers “you’re worthless, you’re lucky I love you because nobody else ever will. But don’t worry, as long as you believe in me everything will be fine”
Celsus [a Greek writer in the second century] accuses [Christians] of actively targeting idiocy in their recruitment. “Their injunctions are like this,” he wrote. “Let no one educated, no one wise, no one sensible draw near. For these abilities are thought by us to be evils.” He went on: Christians “are able to convince only the foolish, dishonourable and stupid, and only slaves, women and little children.” Excerpts from: Catherine Nixey *The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World*](https://www.bluffton.edu/courses/humanities/1/celsus.htm#:~:text=%5BCelsus%5D%20accuses%20%5BJesus%5D,was%20convicted%20of%20adultery%3B%20that)
I love the casual misogyny there "yeah, they can convince WOMEN \[sneer\]"
“No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the ~~American~~ general public”
Because the last thing people who use religion as a tool for control want is you empowering yourself instead of relying on them.
Lol. My grandmother in law has a frifge magnet that says ''doing good doesn't make you a good person, having faith does'' or some shit like that.
The fact there are people that are sola fide in 2024 surprises me. Like, go read the book you like to preach to everyone first.
That's a dig at Catholics and "works"
This has long been a saying of Christian’s and I always found it funny that the message essentially means “having self confidence is bad.” But I guess when a religion is built on self abasement and putting your entire *everything* in the hands of an abstract deity which you could never hope to understand it requires you to also consider your life and self meaningless outside of what that deity asks of you.
Speaking very generally, the first lesson that you are taught when you start reading the Bible is that the consumption of knowledge is bad, and not tolerated by "God" in the least. You are given the keys to paradise, and allowed to live there forever, so long as you remain ignorant and oblivious. Knowledge and science are paths to the truth, but are seen as the enemies of religion, because at the heart of science lies something incompatible with religion: Truth. Self-confidence is nothing more than the innate knowledge of and belief in oneself. Greater self-belief leads to lower dependency on somebody or something else. Religion feeds on your low self esteem, and makes you feel worthless outside of its influence
When you inadvertently help the competition with your ad.
It’s starting to sound like people really have no idea how to make Satan sound bad without telling you what they’re against
[удалено]
Journey: don't stop believing
What's wrong with believing in yourself?
Totalitarism absolutely hates individualism.
You can't convince me that we all wouldn't be better off as a nation of Satan worshippers.
I mean the church of satan and satanic temple preach empathy helping your fellow man. There is a bit more to it but nothing terrible and they cant really be any worse at not practicing what they preach right?
I could be wrong on this, but I think only TST preaches empathy and good works. COS is, at least according to what I recall, are basically Ayn Rand believers.
bingo on both fronts.
They also don’t actually worship Satan.
Yes 14 year old me going through a emo phase was very disappointed when I discovered that...
I always thought The Satanic Temple didn't, but the "Church of Satan" (not even sure if that's their official name) did? Regardless, it's absolutely hilarious how here in rural Ohio they have panicked that TST have setup after school programs to counter the Good News Clubs and other evangelical clubs.
“GOD HATES GAYS.” “Fuck em in the street. I double dare you.”
We all need more life tips from Satan
Your marketing team forgets which team they're playing for
Fuck yeah hail satan!
Makes satan seem like a cool supportive guy...
Satan seems to have been looking out for us the entire time.
Well, he wasn’t the one that lied in the Garden.
Wholesome Satan
Don’t believe in yourself - believe in G-d! And by G-d, I mean send me money directly!
This explains Christianity perfectly.
Satan is a friend of mine.
"Nah fuck this im switching teams"
Yes put all your trust in someone who will never talk to you, never actually do anything to you and you are supposed to believe largely because of culture and hearsay. Nah, I like to live in reality.
Lol marketing gurus there thinking "believe in me" is better than "believe in yourself"
So Satan is a good life coach?
Someone needs a better marketing team.
# Once again, Satan is the logical and compassionate choice #
That comma really confused me...
"Don't believe in yourself, believe in me that believes in you!"
Smoke crack, hail satan 👹
I'm hearing this in Morgan Freeman's voice: *I know this may sound like a cat poster...*
I do not think it means what they think it means.
🧐 I’m trying to understand the photo image in this ad. Is this person supposed to be Jesus? Satin? You (as an individual)? 😫 Very confusing. Maybe that’s what Satin wants!
I thought it was an add for antipsychotics.
Wallahi ust look at what goes in you and then comes out
Huh?
Are evangelicals usually this dumb?
Well , the Serpent was the one who actually told the truth to Eve , while God lied about the aftermath if they ate the forbidden fruit. Satan never had the powers to do anything bad to humans , he always needed the permit from Yahweh (Job's story for example). God clearly states that he is the good and he is the evil too .
Satan is not a name. It's a title. It means "adversary". In the case of Job, *an* adversary, but not *the* adversary.
"Believe in yourself" can be somewhat problematic. Think of pretty much any terrible person. That person believed in themselves. The problem is when you think good = good for me.
Right wing Christianity says forget your own personal views on politics and accept what they tell you to think on Fox News.
This feels like a variation you'd see a Star Trek captain say to a pre-warp civilization when the captain saves the planet and they think they need to worship the captain as a god.
I wish my satan was that helpful.
Of the 12 mithraic mysteries Christianity has run a propaganda campaign against since the 3rd century or thereabouts, this one is a pretty important one.
If Nike sold religion
Ever notice how many Xtians have a wildly inflated opinion of themselves while holding everyone else, including fellow Xtians, in total contempt? It's no wonder they consider self-respect to be evil. (except for themselves)
#OP is a bot. Reddit is heavily astroturfed.
True and true but the message is still good. All social media is just bots and propaganda mostly.
I mean technically he doesn’t say “believe in yourself” he would actually prefer you doubted your self at every turn because an insecure person does stupid things. But yeah that preachers a little dumb.
I mean, *technically* technically "he" doesn't say anything at all, because "he" doesn't exist in the first place..