You should join my new religion, Nonazilism. The word itself is a play on 'non-asshole-ism'. Basically, you get to believe whatever you want to believe, be it Christian, Buddhist, Pagan, whatever, but you place first what is best about all the religions, and that is, boiled down to its essence, "DON'T BE AN ASSHOLE."
Take Christianity: the 10 Commandments? All of them can be rewritten as "DON'T BE AN ASSHOLE." Honor your parents? Well, yeah, as long as they give you what you need. But if they are being as asshole to you--judgemental, neglectful, abusive---then KARMA will get them, but you DON'T BE AN ASSHOLE! Be better than that.
Thou shalt not commit murder? Well, murder takes away someone that no doubt someone else loves and that causes them pain, and causing pain makes you an asshole, so DON'T BE AN ASSHOLE!
You get the idea.
This society loves to debate the semantics of religion. I think 'DON'T BE AN ASSHOLE" is a pretty airtight model.
In another, similar vein, here, if you are agnostic but still clinging to tenets of Judeo-Christian ideology, you should check out two books: What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality by Daniel K. Helminiak and Steps To Recovery From Bible Abuse by Dr. Rembert Truluck. These have been a GREAT help to me.
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timeasmymeasure
Nonazilism
Date: 2003-01-16 11:04 am (UTC)Take Christianity: the 10 Commandments? All of them can be rewritten as "DON'T BE AN ASSHOLE." Honor your parents? Well, yeah, as long as they give you what you need. But if they are being as asshole to you--judgemental, neglectful, abusive---then KARMA will get them, but you DON'T BE AN ASSHOLE! Be better than that.
Thou shalt not commit murder? Well, murder takes away someone that no doubt someone else loves and that causes them pain, and causing pain makes you an asshole, so DON'T BE AN ASSHOLE!
You get the idea.
This society loves to debate the semantics of religion. I think 'DON'T BE AN ASSHOLE" is a pretty airtight model.
In another, similar vein, here, if you are agnostic but still clinging to tenets of Judeo-Christian ideology, you should check out two books: What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality by Daniel K. Helminiak and Steps To Recovery From Bible Abuse by Dr. Rembert Truluck. These have been a GREAT help to me.