this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2026
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At best, organized religion or faith is a psychological tool that aids individuals through their lives. Meditation, real meditation, can be excellent, as one example. What is reciting a rosary on repeat? Buddhist prayer beads? Meditation. Confession is another excellent idea. We use therapists for this all the time.
I’m not ranking these tools. I’m simply saying they exist as an option. Maybe you can’t afford a therapist but need to confess something. Maybe you were raised around toxic ideals regarding therapy but church is acceptable, so you dump in the privacy of a confession booth, for free. It’s a psychological tool.
If you really want to dig in, read Acts. That is some seriously hippy shit in there. Love, forgiveness, feed the poor, take money out of churches. It’s all there. Including a mandate to dump the old stuff (Old Testament) for the new reworking brought about by the hippy prophet guy. That and death freaks people out. (Not you? Really? Do you even have a PoA set up in the event you’re hit by a car and can’t make decisions?) People generally avoid thoughts of death like the plague. Religion gives non-“worm meat only” options.
It gets hopelessly twisted in two ways. When it’s used as a means of populations control. It gets more complicated but that’s the gist. Back in the day, this is what rulers of towns and cities, in far lower populations than we exist in now, used. It’s why lists of secular laws exist in these books. Our populations are far too big for this crap to be stable, now, but people try any way. The second twist occurs when assholes looking for a reason for personal hate, money, or both.
All of that said, when it’s being used as a personal tool to get you through, it is just that: personal. Praying in public, to me, is like stripping down naked in the grocery store. Most folks don’t want that interruption in their daily. Talking about it would, at best, be like suddenly dumping your most cathartic therapy session into someone’s lap, at random, uninvited.
TLDR If you’re helping, not hurting with it, then great. Either way, keep that personal shit to yourself.
FWIW My mom isn’t as into it as to create a Discord server, but she’s also a lefty who is into it. Hippy Christ isn’t a bad way to go, but yes, it’s still deeply personal info being shared. Age though, as she gets closer to death good odds it’s going to weigh heavier on her and you’ll hear more. Ask her to stop, it’s the best you can do here.