Oh snap! She’s even losing at losing!

How dare people decide to hold onto their current cars instead of paying 9% on a 60K car!

Won’t somebody please think of the shareholders?!?

What kind of dystopian bull is this???

Despite it being the weakest of its generation

Ackshually…………

The PS2 was still being produced until PS4 was introduced, and its last game was released even after the production ended in 2013 (Nov 2013, but still…)

PS1 and PS2 were both masters of their generations. The OG Xbox was just really “Halo box” back then, and GameCube was awesome, but not as strong as PS2.

I literally just set a box of half this stuff in front of Goodwill and ran away. Next time, though…

It’s completely asinine for a game to cost this much, especially since it is going to be chock full of equally asinine microtransactions and costly DLC.

The “patient games” methodology is the best way to approach all gaming these days because, odds are, the game won’t be worth the $20-30 later price point anyway.

Why won’t you ever consider the shareholders?! Won’t somebody please think of the shareholders!

“More recently, you have described our DMA compliance as ‘hot garbage,’ a ‘horror show,’ and a ‘devious new instance of Malicious Compliance.’ And you have complained about what you called ‘Junk Fees’ and ‘Apple taxes.”

I’m sorry, but this exchange is just plain hilarious to me. 🤣 It reads like a recording between a couple going through an acrimonious divorce.

For the sake of brevity, I summarized my experience in joining the church, but to answer your question, yes, I would have still joined regardless.

When I said I have “no one”, I was at a place where I felt alone despite being in a “room full of people”. I wasn’t a loner with no friends, but I was spiritually empty and something was missing; I just wasn’t fulfilled.

No one converted me to Christianity, though. No one even asked me to join the church. I felt a “pull”, for lack of a better word and I made the decision to join.

I will say this, however: the black American church is far different from Catholic, Protestant, Southern Baptist, and especially the Mormon church. There’s a completely different style of teaching and worship that is inherently different due to its original purpose and its history. The difference is so drastic that it doesn’t surprise me that people become agnostic or atheist after coming up in those environments because - at least from my own observations - the worship is so structured that it loses value and the teachings don’t appear to be as applicable to a modern age. Again, just my observation.

So, to reiterate, I turned from my deep agnosticism to Christianity on my own. I’m fully aware of the concept of “You are not immune to propaganda”. I’m also not ignorant of the deficiencies in the church. I happen to be relatively fortunate in my church. There are still some black churches who will make a girl who gets pregnant stand up in front of the congregation and apologize for what she’s done. There are many black churches that will outwardly admonish gays, while the pastor is having an affair with the choir director. The best I can do there is not affiliate and remain vocal about why I won’t.

My old pastor once laid out an edict that his lady ushers all had to wear skirts or dresses when they ushered. I ushered at the time and wore a nice pant suit, and so when he said that, I sat down. He eventually asked my why I stopped ushering and I told him, that he’s free to run his church how he sees fit, but I don’t have to participate where he’s laying down sexist rules that don’t align with the Word. Shortly afterward, he lifted the rule.

I provide the above story to highlight my experience with my faith. The way I see it, just because some people want to distort and misuse the Bible and Christianity, doesn’t mean that there isn’t any good within it. I’ve read the Bible; I’ve taught it, I’ve questioned it. I find the ironies fascinating, like the idea that God thought of David as a man after His own heart, when this is the same David who had an affair with his best friend and top general’s wife, and then had his friend killed when it became apparent that he wouldn’t be able to conceal the affair. This act doesn’t negate all of David’s writings, however.

Faith is complicated, and it should be adaptable, but let me reassure you that I wasn’t “taken in” by proselytizing Christians. I felt a need for more and I made the willful step to learn, to understand, and thoroughly appreciate what I accepted as my faith.

There’s nothing that forces you to take anything spiritual “seriously”. It’s up to you to make that decision for yourself.

Whoo boy…

There is a benefit in considering that all beings have more to us than dust and electricity. There is nothing wrong with teaching spirituality. It can provide comfort, camaraderie, strength, or just peace.

Whether you find peace in the chanting and meditation that can help you possibly achieve nirvana, or you find strength praying in a specific direction several times a day to show your worthiness, there is value in faith and spirituality.

There is absolutely nothing that prevents any spiritual person from learning, understanding, or advocating the sciences.

Looking at the Genesis of the Abrahamic religions, no rational person will say that the “world” and everything in it was created in a 7-day period of time when that which we currently use to measure time wasn’t even part of the structure used to describe the creation of the world. The “day” and “night” were separated before the sun and moon were “created”, so clearly the world wasn’t created in 167 hours. And yet, we can still appreciate what is intended by the scripture without running around and insisting on an impractical interpretation of a text.

You don’t like the Bible? You do you. The Bible says a lot of things. It describes the histories of the things people did, the good, the bad, and the ugly; it also teaches hope and love. It’s a complex set of texts and there’s a reason it’s been analyzed for so many centuries.

It’s great that you don’t need anything other than yourself to drag you out of times of despair. It’s great that you’ve naturally learned to be nice to everyone and treat animals and the earth well. Not everyone is like you, however. Some of us need a little help, and some of us get that help from our spirituality.

My grandmother wasn’t a Christian, and when she was dying, she said she was going to the Ancestors, and she would live on in the winds of the universe. I love this, and I love just thinking about this and thinking that Nana is still within me always in this way. Spirituality has a place. If it’s not for you, it’s not for you, but for some of us, it’s about moving forward with the good that can come out of it.

It’s not the Bible that’s the issue, but our current understanding of it.

The Bible is generally broken into the laws, the histories, the lamentations, and words of promise all in the Old Testament and then the words and actions of Jesus and His followers in the New Testament.

For Christians, the laws aren’t so much hard laws as much as they are “Tips for a Better Life, featuring the Prequel Stories”. The New Testament is what makes Christianity, and those texts primarily focus on the Grace of God, which is - hastily summarizing here - “All ‘sin’ requires the shedding blood, but I’ve already done that and forgiven everything, so just do your best”.

Different gospels say different things about the same events. Different letters are written to different ancient churches by different people about many different issues. Different texts and histories are included or discarded dependent upon how any particular sect of Christianity worships. The Bible is a collection of the words of people who are driven by God for their purpose at their time, and so it is always going to be subject to adaptable understandings.

All this is because mortal, imperfect people are in charge of interpreting, translating, and communicating the words of an entity that “exists” outside the confines of matter, energy, space, or time. As time continues, our understanding of the word adapts and changes.

That’s less a Christian issue and more a people issue.

“Most people” aren’t the type to speak up. Most people don’t want a lot of attention brought onto them. Most people just want to live their lives, and so you won’t see “most people” doing anything in particular.

No matter what it is, there will be a small populace who are vocal and “most people” will quietly nod or shake their heads. Take even Lemmy. Most people on Lemmy don’t post or even comment. Most users lurk and then some of them might upvote or downvote.

I am willing to speak up and take the brunt of whatever comes to me. Most people, however, are not. A vocal minority are out there screaming hatred, but most people, from all walks of life, are just trying to live and be good to each other.

Again, I’m sorry that this has been your experience. This hasn’t been mine.

I came to Christianity at an age when most people leave religion. I went from having nothing and no one to having a steady family who love and support me and give me others to love and support in kind. My church family is open and welcoming. We just removed a minister who began an opening prayer admonishing gays because when he was told “we don’t do that here” he got mad about it.

I wholly recognize that there is a set of people who scream about un-Christian things in the name of Christianity, but I reject the notion that these people are representative of the majority of Christians.

I argue that you are making an asinine general assumption.

The American evangelicals that are screaming about gays and abortions do not represent all Christians. Just as I wouldn’t want everyone outside of the US to judge me by the actions of one American like Donald Trump, it is not right to assume Christian = hateful.

This post serves no purpose. There are better ways to get your fake internet points.

It also says that mixing meat and dairy is a sin.

The Old Testament says a lot of things; there’s also a New Testament that focuses on Grace and that the most important thing of all is love.

Those who focus on one “sin” over the actual purpose and teachings are those who are focused on hate.

The vast majority rarely speak on anything.

I’m sorry you’ve never met one of these “open and accepting” Christians. I haven’t met someone who’s been to the IST, but I know people have been there. I think it would be nice if you open your mind to the idea that there are people that exist that you’ve not met.

This is an asinine take on Christianity. What’s the point here?

The vast majority of Christians in the world don’t do this and don’t think like this. Hateful people are going to hate what is different no matter its form.

If you labeled this “Muslims openly behead gays because they believe gays would do the same” the post would be just as inane as it is in its current state.

Hate is hate.

Dang man! What other good ideas have you got??

Same. I feel like I’ve been waiting for this Sword of Damocles to fall for the last decade. Until they actually break up, however, I’m still curious to see the ramifications.