RE: Whom to ask for goodies if you aren't religious?
I understand you! I was in a similar situation. I was born in Yugoslavia, which was also a socialist country. After the break-up of the country, there was a great accent on nationality. People turned to religion. It's been over 20 years since. The passions are calming down. Everything becomes more normal. I think religion is positive if the man is controlled. If he knows where the border is. Religion is up to that limit. After that, the effect becomes negative. Religion and nation are communities.
All of us should belong to these communities regardless of whether we are believers or atheists. When they ask me which religion I belong to, I tell them that I am an Orthodox.
If the question is whether I am a believer or an atheist, I answer that I am an atheist.
Thank you for reading :)
Where did you end up then? I mean, which part of Yugoslavia?
Oh yeah, that's a cycle of a sort that new states go through when they're just formed. Or well, re-formed.
Well, I feel there's literally no good from a religion, especially when organized. They become invasive and start dictating their opinion as the only proper one, and let's face it: they're far from the truth 99.99% of the time. I don't say 100%, because well, I consider presumption of innocence to be a universal right, lol.
Is your association with Orthodox church more of a cultural thing?
During my stay in Russia, I learned that in1930. many monumental Orthodox temples were destroyed. It was a horror!
Cities in Russia would be more nice, that those cultural monuments saved. Museums in Russia would be better, historical data would be more ...
Regardless of the dogmatism of ecclesiastical teaching and the abuse of the church, I think that we should emphasize belonging to this community.
Yeah, the revolution was a big hit, both socially and culturally for Russia and most of the countries that have ended up as part of the USSR. It is not only about destroyed churches, mosques temples and so on, but also of the violent, bloody regime that was set up in the years following 1917. Russia has lost a lot of educated, talented people, lucky of whom were able to flee abroad, and others have perished.
I am a Serb and I live in Serbia. The construction company in which I work was building some objects in Russia. Six years I lived and worked in several Russian cities.
The church insists on morality. Priests tell believers not to lie, not to steal, not to deceive spouses ... (these are some divine commandments) That is positive. Many church leaders abused their positions. That's negative.
My associations with Orthodox church are cultural and historical!
In the past, many of my fellow countrymen have died in the struggle for Orthodox faith! The obligation towards them also creates a national connection with Orthodoxy.
I have a bunch of friends from Serbia back in China. Fun and nice people they are!
Ah, I see
I hope you wouldn't mind me pointing out that this is not the only things the church teaches. For example, it also teaches homophobia or staying in a bad marriage even if you are getting physically and emotionally abused because divorce is supposedly immoral and so on and so on. Priests also tend to advise believers to read the Bible which is full of horrific and immoral stuff sandwiched between the moral teaching you mentioned and blatant scientific inaccuracies.
So in my opinion, it's not fair to say it's all good.
The fact that people have died protecting an idea or an ideal has nothing to do with the ideal or ideal being beneficial, good, moral or correct and those are things that need to be assessed on their own merits.
Additionally, there is nothing wrong or impossible about keeping your culture and even the good parts of religious tradition, but not supporting religion.
I do not mind criticism, but I do not think you understand me. I stressed what I see positively in church teaching. Divorce? The church is against divorce, but not always! It is not negative to read the Bible. If I need to search for negatively in church learning, I would say that this is the position of a woman. In all traditional religions, except for Judeism, a man is favored. Are you saying I support religion? How? I do not know in which country you live? I grew up in a country where religion was banned. Despite the ban she was present! The presence of religion in our lives is a reality! The reality we have to accept. I just think it should be taken positive from it. Against all the negative should be struggling!