this post was submitted on 03 Jan 2026
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Oh wow, I can't believe the people who worship this guy suck
When you start looking into it it's incredible how evil the bible is. Christians who aren't literalists and think that the bible is an imperfect collection of documents gathered by imperfect humans can be perfectly decent people, of course. There's some really good (if not particularly groundbreaking, it is after all a literally ancient text) moral philosophy in it.
But literalists? To be fair even literalists discard most of the bible at various times to avoid the bits they dislike, but the commitment to taking it literally, however insincere/incomplete, really does push them into some deeply evil beliefs. My mother is and grandmother was a proclaimed literalist and both manage to be mostly decent people... But good god can you not ask questions because when you point out the contradictions they quickly get angry then uncomfortable.
As an added bonus I live with my mother ... And have a biology degree. Wheeeeeeeee. She has been listening to the fucking Americans about evolution and it's both infuriating and deeply stupid.
It's very frustrating. I went to a Church of Christ when I was young, a literalist sect. They believed that instrumental music in the church, and dancing anywhere was sinful. Even the name, Church of Christ, must be exact because Jesus said make the church in my name. Of course they also held the more harmful beliefs.
I was forced to go from the ages of 9-13. By the time I was 11 I was pretty sure it was bullshit, and I'm thankful I didn't go younger or I may have been indoctrinated. 11-12 years old I read the King James Bible (they explain away translation etc as being guided by god) just about cover to cover and I was convinced it was bullshit. But there was one moment in particular that sealed the deal.
I asked in bible class before church one Sunday if people who had never heard the word would go to hell. I was told that god makes sure that everyone on earth learns about Jesus and the resurrection at some point, and if they chose not to believe they were damned. I followed up- what about people in an uncontacted tribe in the Amazon? I was told that if they were truly good people, god would have sent someone to teach them, so since that didn't happen, they deserved hell.
It's some sick fucking stuff.
I mean, by the letter of the bible, infants go to hell. "No one comes to the father except through me" is an absolute statement. I had a very good friend for years (we lost touch over the last fifteen years or so but she was very important to me for a long time) who is a Christian and iirc a priest's daughter. She is also bisexual and has many close gay friends. I asked her how she reconciled that with her Christianity, and she said basically that it was easy, because she worshipped a Jesus and a god that wasn't homophobic etc - if she's wrong and biblical homophobia actually reflected God's will, well, she wouldn't worship that being anyway. Always struck me as an interesting take, if not spectacularly theologically sound. And of course I will take someone being a decent human being over bigotry justified by good theology (not that accepting the supposed proscription of homosexuality in the bible is good theology of course) a thousand times over. I sometimes need to remind myself that people like her exist and are just as Christian as the assholes.