Weird Conjunction About Religion/Kindness

Preface:

My understanding of Christianity is rooted in the basic idea that you should love everyone else as much as you love yourself.

There's a *lot* of implications in there.

Let's just start with that.

Laura's poly dream

She had a dream where I was planning to marry her, plus someone else. And she decided she wasn't cool with the whole idea.

Until the second time I had a poly relationship go down into a crash and burn, I would not have been interested in monogamy at all. It works for us, but I still think we're probably the weird outliers.

Pence: creepy rise to power

On the way in to my day-job this morning, NPR did a little coverage about Mike Pence's religion, and his rise to power.

I remember growing up in a very "Evangelical" Christian ethos where all his professed beliefs would have made complete and total sense.

I get it if you're in a space where he makes sense. I've been there myself.

I'm not a clinical psychologist. I cannot diagnose others.

But his entire "Holier than thou" persona just screams sexual predator.

In a way, I cannot blame him for refusing to be alone with members of the "opposite" gender.

On the other hand...why does he believe that women might be so tempted by his masculinity that they'd accuse him of being a sleazebag?

Let's Destroy Your Christianity

And then another friend at my day job shared a story about this militant atheist who crushed her religious beliefs.

He sounds like an abusive slime-ball in general.

Honestly, the story sounds like one of those horror scenarios that I grew up with where some dirt-bag finally pounds the Belief right out of you.

I completely and totally understand not Believing yourself. Let's be honest: the entire point of Belief is that it's a little irrational.

What kind of jackass crushes someone else's Belief?

Now, I feel obliged to provide disclaimers that I probably *will* challenge the details of your Belief if we ever wind up in a religious conversation. I really enjoy trying to understand why other people believe what they do so I can make adjustments to what I believe.

Trump "almost" ruined Republican party (America?) by [almost] losing to Hillary

I called out political parties in general.

It called out as a Trump vs. Hillary thing.

The other person in this conversation fell back here.

I reframed it in terms of 2 parties, and his eyes glazed over. The "2" parties have framed politics in such a way that it's always an obvious either/or.

And that's where the system is completely broken and absolutely must be fixed.

It is not Democrat vs. Republican.

They are aiding and abetting each other.

Trump might have done the US a favor by crushing the Republican party.

Old Atheist Friend:

Why can't we just be kind to each other because it's the right thing to do?

It's a weird idea. Even though it *is* what Jesus commanded. But...why is it so difficult to love one another as though we were each God's chosen children?

Why is it easier for people who do not believe in God to just be kind to each other?