Mike Dulak grew up Catholic in Southern California, but by his teen years, he began skipping Mass and driving straight to the shore to play guitar, watch the waves and enjoy the beauty of the morning. “And it felt more spiritual than any time I set foot in a church,” he recalled.
Nothing has changed that view in the ensuing decades.
“Most religions are there to control people and get money from them,” said Dulak, now 76, of Rocheport, Missouri. He also cited sex abuse scandals in Catholic and Southern Baptist churches. “I can’t buy into that,” he said.
I’m curious what the overlap between the growing number of atheists and regular users of Lemmy, because I’m not sure if the comments on this article being so one sided towards atheism is a product of Lemmy users being primarily atheists or if religious people don’t feel comfortable sharing an opposing view. I’d love to hear a counter perspective, but as an atheist myself I’m not the person to start that conversation. I will say that society functions most properly when the majority of people hold similar views about most issues, when the Overton window is smaller, and religion historically has been a reliable tool for aligning people in that sense. It seems more challenging to me to be a kid these days, in the sense that kids are presented with so many choices for “good” that it seems harder to choose values. I’m not a fan of religion, but it’s worth calling out that moving away from organized religion en masse does come with some societal costs.
I’m Christian and usually stay out of these discussions because it’s a waste of time to try to change anybody’s mind here, and anything I say sounds like “not all Christians” anyway. I can do without the hate and contempt in my inbox.
Hey, if it makes you happy and you don’t swing it around in front of my face: you have my blessing.