I am an atheist (albeit I support our national churches/religious entities and believe they should be state financed) and it is fascinating that I agree with Leo XIV on an ethical, moral and even theological/spiritual level.
P.S. While I don’t believe in a meta-physical, abrahamic tradition-style god, I do think there is a lot of wonder, beauty and even sacredness (divinity) to the cosmos. Something along the lines of this quote from a book by Alan Watts:
The universe is the Big Bang, the beginning of the universe. And you’re not something that is a result of it. You’re not something that is a sort of byproduct of it. You are it. It’s like when you take a bottle of ink and you throw it at a white wall. Smash! And all the ink spreads out. In the middle, it’s dense, isn’t it? And as it gets out on the edge, the little droplets get finer and finer and make more complicated patterns.
So in the same way, there was a big bang at the beginning of things and it spread. And you and I, sitting here in this room, as complicated human beings, are the little fringes on the edge of that bang. We are the way it’s going now.
Another poster mentioned “That’s a very European mindset.” It’s not exclusively a European mindset, I’ve lived for several years in Asia and have visited multiple regions. This “mindset” is arguably common even among those who are not particularly religious.
National religious institutions provide a sense of belonging to the populace, help maintain our national identity and culture and help our national liberation struggle. Even as an atheist, these are clearly good things.
And there is no discrimination in terms of religious identity. I support our Orthodox Church, Catholic Church (which is actually much more diverse than in many countries) and the Crimean Muslim leadership.
One can argue this is not a mindset, but common sense and that American attitudes are a mindset.
From my time living in the US (several years, with extensive travels), I got the impression that America nominally has “separation of church and state”, but it in reality this separation does not exist. A significant portion of American Christianity (perhaps not the majority, but it is a huge portion, far more than most Americans would admit) is de facto an arm of the oligarch regime, focused on enabling tax fraud, spreading crime and corruption and running political bribery systems. And you can’t even shut them down because of the alleged “separation of church and state”. It’s funny how that works. :)
There is one anecdote that perfectly demonstrates what I am talking about:
And the cherry on top was a comment that I found when doing a web search to find the link above:
If churches opened their doors, they’d be subject to the same criminal and legal risk that any other private business would be responsible for. The world is not a perfect utopia, and churches have to protect themselves as much as anyone else. Why don’t you open your doors?
What a weird world we live in.
I am an atheist (albeit I support our national churches/religious entities and believe they should be state financed) and it is fascinating that I agree with Leo XIV on an ethical, moral and even theological/spiritual level.
P.S. While I don’t believe in a meta-physical, abrahamic tradition-style god, I do think there is a lot of wonder, beauty and even sacredness (divinity) to the cosmos. Something along the lines of this quote from a book by Alan Watts:
What the actual fuck?
Another poster mentioned “That’s a very European mindset.” It’s not exclusively a European mindset, I’ve lived for several years in Asia and have visited multiple regions. This “mindset” is arguably common even among those who are not particularly religious.
National religious institutions provide a sense of belonging to the populace, help maintain our national identity and culture and help our national liberation struggle. Even as an atheist, these are clearly good things.
And there is no discrimination in terms of religious identity. I support our Orthodox Church, Catholic Church (which is actually much more diverse than in many countries) and the Crimean Muslim leadership.
One can argue this is not a mindset, but common sense and that American attitudes are a mindset.
From my time living in the US (several years, with extensive travels), I got the impression that America nominally has “separation of church and state”, but it in reality this separation does not exist. A significant portion of American Christianity (perhaps not the majority, but it is a huge portion, far more than most Americans would admit) is de facto an arm of the oligarch regime, focused on enabling tax fraud, spreading crime and corruption and running political bribery systems. And you can’t even shut them down because of the alleged “separation of church and state”. It’s funny how that works. :)
There is one anecdote that perfectly demonstrates what I am talking about:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/joel-osteen-megachurch-houston-beryl-response-b2576711.html
And the cherry on top was a comment that I found when doing a web search to find the link above:
This is extremely funny. 🤣
There’s no such thing as common sense. Its just a way for people to claim their ideals as the standard because “I said so.”
That’s a very European mindset.
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