#religious crap

[shiftythrifting]

My most recent expedition to Value Village tukwila:

1. Not sure if its a real team but I kind of regret not getting it.

2. Some fine commentary

3. Phone jail

4. 10/10 chess competition name

5. Perfect for joints

6. Horse girl dreams

7. Sausage man box

8. Pop Art Han Solo

9. Basketball man

10. Just two dads

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

[constanzel]

So, I'm in my garage, trying to clean a mouse skeleton for a possible taxidermy piece and this van pulls up.

"Can I talk to you about the bible?"

"UH no."

Usually, the Church of Satan sticker keeps them away, but they caught me uncharacteristically outside.

He's getting minty fresh:

[pipopak]

RELIGION IS CANCER!!

[awnowimsad]

So there is this post, claiming that a Japanese hotel is being review bombed, because they refused a man service for being an IDF soldier.

People ate this up of course. At the time of the writing, it has over 12,000 reblogs. Lots of people praising the hotel staff for ~taking a brave stand~ and such.

But, you know, I thought it was a little weird, that the only source the post includes is... Nothing! OP just claims it was from "an israeli group".

So, of course, I decided to do some checking.

Turns out the hotel manager had no fucking idea whether the tourist had ties to the Israeli army or not.

[...] since the hotel did not inquire about the guest's military background at the time of booking, it appeared the reservation was canceled solely based on the guest's Jewish or Israeli name. [...]

So the OP of the above post is already intentionally misrepresenting the situation by claiming the hotel was only refusing to serve Israeli soldiers. (and we don't even know if the guy was a soldier...) But twelve thousand people thought that this was legit.

Great to know twelve thousand people on this website feel that xenophobia and racial profiling are justifiable and even praiseworthy!

Ok cool cool cool cool. Yep. Just another normal day.

YnetNews is rated High Credibility by Media Bias/Fact Check.

[pizzpizzapizzo]

world pillar

[y-rhywbeth2]

*Sarevok Anchev. A Bhaalspawn who failed to become Chosen, long ago. A spilled stain of Father's Divine Essence left out to dry. Is he your cousin? Great-uncle? Brother, even? Bhaal's bilious waters are always a little murky.*

"Even by Bhaal's standards, you're truly vile, uncle." - Durge to Sarevok about his abuse of Helena and Orin after her death, giving Bhaal far too much credit.

"And when you do, remember grandfather Sarevok. Remember how he helped you. Return to visit him, and tell the blood-drenched tale of your victory."

What do you mean "brother, even"? if you're directly spawned of Bhaal surely that would be the first choice?? Or he'd be your son too because of the clone thing, which is even stranger, but "great-uncle"?? Or is this a Mystra -> Midnight thing? Bhaal was reborn from one of his children so kind-of-sort-of this is a new Bhaal who is also technically of the same generation as Sarevok while still technically preceding... my head hurts. Oh, for the good old days when we just called each other "siblings" and Bhaal was only your father and had no additional kinship titles that could be applied on top of that...

Durge gets the opportunity to describe the family tree as "a bit of a circle", but honestly I think the tree, soaking in that "bilious water," has forsaken 2D shapes in favour of trans-dimensional non-Euclidean nightmares at this stage.

(I tried to find a way to fix some inconsistencies and got a bigger headache.)

"Grandfather" I can explain away as Sarevok (presumably) being much older than Durge in non-headcanon. I can charitably put "uncle" there too, but the fact that Durge doesn't even know what title to use because Bhaal is a nightmare says it all.

The Thorms having a vague and unexplained confusing family tree was not a competition, Bhaal!

[apostate-in-an-alcove]

The audacity of straight people to demand that LGBTQ people respect and accept homophobic/transphobic religious beliefs and family members, as if those beliefs are merely harmless opinions and not the deeply bigoted and harmful ideas that they are.

[simple-persica]

Have been stuck in a drawing rut for weeks now and then I remembered my favorite Catholic.

[tatsumi-rin]

Moral Orel doesn't seem 100% like a show I'd feel seen in if you don't know me but then I remember the episode with the special ed kids and underneath the usual satire on extremist bible belt religion it reminds me WAY too much of how actual special ed departments treated me and other kids growing up.

Like the writers must HAVE BEEN THERE IN LIFE, man. I'd kill to sit down with Dino Stamatopoulos and find out what the fuck inspired him and the other writing staff that day.

[holdoncallfailed]

very sincerely i can remember when i was a kid whenever american pie came on the radio i would be just totally captivated by the whole thing watching a movie behind my eyes in the backseat of my dad's truck hanging on every lyric...i would have to listen to the whole thing even if we arrived at our destination before it was over it was a whole epic. genuinely transportive storytelling. i can't remember if i cried when i read about his widowed bride but something touched me deep inside the day the music died...like that's exactly it. THAT'S IT!!!!!!!!!!

[thesobsister]

This "restored" cherub looks like Desi Arnaz as Albino Hulk

"Aarrggh! You got some 'splain' to do!"

[grandaddy-of-all-liars]

mr. bitterness

[fabioquartararhoe]

.

[timeisacephalopod]

The pushback to the term "cultural Christianity" from atheists is real odd to me because, as someone who has been an atheist since 13, only ever went to church a handful of times never with my own family (made a note never to sleep over at that friends house on a Saturday again bc I HATED church it smelled like shit, was boring, pews are uncomfortable as fuck, and the religious people I knew were all wildly misogynistic and I've never been here for being told I was less of a person for being Born Like This), and generally had no actual connection to Christianity in a meaningful way but still only knows Christian mythology, has been steeped in Christian values I had to untangle, and my religious understandings are still deeply Christian.

Like Ive never paid attention to the bible, church, Jesus, Christian teachings, or whatever but if you asked me about any religion the one I'll reliably know the most about is Christianity. I don't know why atheists are offended by being called culturally Christian because they have bad blood with the religion because like sorry bruh that doesn't mean you're less indoctrinated by Christian values if the culture you grew up in is predominantly Christian. In fact I'd say that religion being this ubiquitous in the culture regardless of anyone's consent to exactly ONE religion being shoved down our throats is reason to team up with other religious folks who ALSO don't like being constantly evangelized to by the culture at large, not a reason to throw a fit because you don't like being tied to a religion that is so ingrained into the culture that shit like "oh my god" and "Jesus Christ" are common expressions of surprise regardless of how atheist you are. Like surely I'm not the only atheist to notice the shocking amount of cultural religious shit that works it's way into my life and speech despite having not set foot in a church since I was like 10, and I can't remember the last time I was in one before that.

Idk man cultural Christianity seems like a pretty damn useful term to describe my relationship with a religion I never fully bought into and then actively rejected as a child yet still hold weird connections to and knowledge of just because Christianity is so baked into the culture I grew up in like it or not. If you want to be mad, be mad at the Christians who stole your freedom from religion from you, not usually religious minorities who discuss cultural Christianity and how it damages them too.

[viaphni]

a few photos from the eclipse's path of totality. this was absolutely fascinating