(Not actually an) edit: which maybe wasn't exactly your concern? You're also allowed to stay an atheist and for that identity to be important to you, and the fact that other people have talked about being a teen atheist as a phase doesn't mean that it is one for you. Basically, I think the "phase" part of this is being an "Asshole Teen Atheist" not just being a teen atheist (asshole or not).
Someone wrote up a really, really nice post about Westerners converting to Buddhism. This is just really lovely. The whole ignoring the history and reality of Buddhism as a religion really bugs me a lot with western converts. It's exceptionally rude and, dare I say, appropriative. Also reminds me that Obeyesekere termed a similar sort of fundamentalist meditation obsessed Buddhism in Sri Lanka "Protestant Buddhism". It's mostly found only in the cities and even then mostly among the middle and upper classes. With the Protestant Buddhism of Sri Lanka though it's definitely aware of the traditions and oddities. It is also violently opposed to and mocking of them. Similar things happen in countries like Thailand as well, with "superstitious" being used as an insult by monks and the like. Anyway...I know of two books that are lovely for learning about this sort of thing. First is Buddhism Transformed: Religious Change in Sri Lanka by the aforementioned Obeyesekere. The second is Holt's The Buddhist Visnu. Sadly these two books only center on Buddhism as it's practiced in Sri Lanka, but still it is an image into the actual reality of Buddhism in Asia. Albeit only one part of it.
No, that's not bad at all. I get that too with different things - for me I often find it's the difference between people enjoying cultural shit and people taking actively religious shit out of context.
Er- my mom puts up a manger cause she is gungho catholic and I'll probably inherit at least one of them someday? And even though I'll probably celebrate the hols secularly, I'd still decorate using that manger? But idk.
Huh. I mean, personally, I don't much care what individuals do so long as they're not attacking me. (I realise that may not mean much, coming from the person who's mostly been chatting about her skepticism on here. But as far as I can tell it's true for pretty much any aspect of my life. This is also why I have difficulty comprehending cultural appropriation: like, non-Jewish person wants to wear a Magen David? I mean, so long as you're cool with people assuming you're Jewish, go right ahead.) Decorating a Jewish Xmas tree with a manger is pretty funny to me. I am possibly a little irreverent.
Things that offend me: people [mis]using stuff that's important to me to advocate doing harm* Things that do not offend me: people [mis]using stuff that's important to me for shits and giggles *I am looking at you, transphobic Catholic chaplain Fr [redacted]
I don't really see the issue with the manger thing if only because of how common the things are here. At this point the manger occupies this bizarre space of secular but also really not. Though I guess part of that is also apathy. I get far more bothered by the secular usage of things related to Buddhism, though a lot of that is my issue with how America doesn't treat Buddhism as a religion as much as it damn well should.
I... don't know if it's bad but it's definitely unusual in my experience. In fact this may be the first time I've seen a Christian take issue with non-Christians doing Christian things. (How many times can I say 'Christian' in a sentence?) It generally seems to be aggressively the other way around. (very aggressively, historically speaking.) Hm, but then again, people do often get very bent out of shape about people from different denominations taking communion at their church, and a family friend expressed shock at my sister doing the church music for an Episcopalian church, even though "she's Lutheran, is that allowed?" But, yeah, in general I don't see a ton of "that's our tradition" coming from the Christians I have known. However! My sample may be biased, as I do spend a lot of time around weird liberal Christians lol. You should ask him if he'd be acting like this if it was literally any other scheduling conflict. I'll do a writeup of my own religious history, um, eventually. It's somewhat odd and complicated. Spoilers, I eventually ended up at "staunch atheist" where I have been happily residing for some years now. Religion always sat on me like itchy, poorly fitted clothing. It's lovely to be free of it.
MAGHA PUJA IS COMING AHHHHHHHH. So Magha Puja is one of the major uposatha days. It commemorates the day where, when in a bamboo grove, the Buddha was met by 1250 of his enlightened disciples without anyone working out a meeting time. On this meeting the Buddha laid down the chief principles of Buddhism. It was also a full moon. As many of our holidays are. At least in Thailand Magha Puja is celebrated by going to temple to do a circle walk. Basically you all get candles, incense, and flowers and walk around the ordination hall three times sunwise. Once for each of the Triple Gem, so the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. It's a sort of honoring of these as well as an effort at purification. Following this the candles are melted down into a larger candle that will be used by the monks during the Rains Retreat during monsoon season. The incense is then lit and placed in a large communal censer. Incense both clears the mind supposedly and also takes prayers to the gods. Flowers are meanwhile offered to the temple. Flowers being picked to remind yourself that you will age and die. Besides the candlelight procession you also make merit by giving things to the monks and helping out at the temple. Another big thing is to take up the Eight Precepts for a few days. Basically a more aesthetic way of living. Additionally it is a big thing to wear white when taking the Eight.
I'm not religious, but a friend of mine is giving up swearing and I don't know how she thinks it'll work
i'm currently deist but i was raised catholic in a very catholic country, and it's a weird culture shock that people don't get praying for saints or Mary. My grandmother lights a candle for saint anthony every day, the first prayer i learned was the Ave Maria. My boyfriend's grandmother gets the passing statue of Mary every thursday. it's weird to think it's not like that everywhere. My boyfriend's family is also kardecist, and i know some of them go to candomblé shrines too. I sorta think it's cool? some of the stuff is part of my belief system and i'm really curious to see which orixá the mães and pais-de-santo would say i'm daughter of, but i'm super shy about it because candomblé is an afro-brazilian religion and i'm austrian-jewish-portuguese-who-knows-what-else and white as fresh snow. though people i know say the people in these shrines are super cool and welcoming i've been in tumblr so long that when i think about it i just hear the CULTURAL APPROPRIATION sirens. I'm not doing anything for Lent and neither is anyone i know, because I don't believe in organized religions and everyone else is just not that religious.
I mean to add five minutes of daily Bible-reading buuuuuuuuuut I forgot until today, haha. I guess I'll start today. Better late than never, right?
GO ANYWAY. BECOME PART OF THE FAITH IF YOU CAN. GO THROUGH THOSE PROPER CHANNELS AND BE LIKE FUCK YOU TUMBLR.
I was confused because I interpreted it as "giving up swearing of oaths", and it's really easy, you just refuse to do the thing.
okay but i accidentally mixed the two up when i was a kid and loudly proclaimed that "I won't ever swear, but if I did I'd swear to never swear again" and everyone laughed at me and i didn't get it
I was raised in a tiny Southern Baptist church that we went to almost every single sunday. I think the biggest service we ever had had about 75 people? Yeah. So I was spoonfed bullshit about other religions, like "Catholics pray to Mary instead of God" and "Muslims want to kill all non-Muslims" (they actually didn't talk trash about Jews very much tbh like they were rarely mentioned outside of being a precursor to Christians) but yeah it was bullshit so even tho my parents make me still go there while I live with them but I mostly just read the Bible independently and try to follow Jesus's teachings.
So apparently it's taken me until this year to realise that the dates for Easter aren't just chosen to be at the same time as Pesach. I thought I had it figured out; how perplexing. In any case, chag Purim sameach and a peaceful Easter to anyone who was/is celebrating those!
