Good morning Brandon. I grew up being taught to “worship”. Face toward heaven..hands held high…the works. Never really felt like I was actually worshiping. 😮 This worship happened between 10:30-11:00 Sunday morning when the Holy Spirit showed up. 😅
Maybe many don't really realize what the Bible means by worship which you described with scripture and so they view their middle of the road adherence to some rituals, uttering prayers, going to church and paying tithe AS worship and as all that is needed to be considered worshiping. So if someone else spends as much time and effort as they do...then this other person is 'worshiping' that other thing. So the false equivalency isn't them inaccurately describing what others do as worship so much as them not actually worshiping as the Bible instructs. Their religion is just a hobby like going to football games or going fishing.
@@Brian-Ahavah "However, we all rejected him and chose Cesar instead" Oh do you mean like how Christians are choosing Trump instead? You should talk to other Christians about that!
Reminds me of a joke... Man from Missouri dies and lands in hell, Satan sets the man to work breaking rocks under a hellish hot sun. When he comes back to check on him he finds the man whistling a tune while contentedly just smashing the rocks and asks him why he isn't suffering. The man answers that it reminds him of when he was a young man doing construction back in Missouri. Satan takes this as a challenge and goes to the weather control console and changes the weather to a great thunderstorm. When he again checks on the man he once again finds him grinning from ear to ear and asks him why he is happy about it. The man replies that it reminds him of spring back in Missouri when the storms would blow across the plains while he worked his farm, knowing that the rain would bring him a bountiful harvest. Undeterred, Satan again goes to weather control and this time he sets it to create a freezing blizzard. When he goes to check on the Missouri man this time he finds the man cheering in a near ecstatic fervor and is completely perplexed. He again asks why the man is so happy. The man cheerfully replies: "Don't you see? Hell has frozen over, which means the Chiefs have finally won the Superbowl!" Ba-Dum-Chaa... And yeah, it's an old joke from the days when the Chiefs couldn't win against a high school junior varsity team.
When I was 6 or 7 years old, my mom was a huge Trekkie. She had books, games, and even Star Trek themed work uniforms for casual Friday. Most nights after dinner, the family would sit together and watch Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, or Voyager. It was a really comforting constant at the time and a bonding experience I took for granted. And then one day she came home and got rid of it all. She had gone to church with a family member and came home convinced that Star Trek had become her god. Her pins, her uniforms, our family's nightly bonding... All gone in an instant. We were even banned from mentioning it. It wasn't until I was in my twenties that she finally relaxed. A commercial for the then upcoming show Enterprise came on TV and she welled up with tears. That image of her smiling and being genuinely happy to see something Star Trek related is burned in my brain.
Why is it that *enjoyment* is such an anethema to the Christian religion? Or at least many versions of it. I've thought about that a lot, because I've seen it a lot, in subtle or really gross forms. Could it be that we would realize enjoyment is actually one of our direct connections to the essence of life, no scriptures or preachers needed?
That your mom was made to feel guilty for something totally harmless she enjoyed makes me so sad. That hurt her! How cruel! And it hurt those (you) who love her. Yet another way religion hurts people. I’m glad I never quit loving my 1930s movies, music, art and architecture. Nothing wrong with having a hobby, passion or special interest.
Went through something similar when I was a kid. I loved music so much and my dad got rid of all of the records that I listened to one day. It wasn't even death metal or anything. Just pop music by Prince and Michael Jackson. Stuff like that. I was only about ten years old at the time. It was during the Satanic Panic of the 80's. He said that secular music was bad because it didn't glorify God. He eventually stopped being so uptight about God years later and allowed me to listen to music again but the damage was done. I went years without being allowed to listen to the music that I loved. I'm 45 years old now and I still hate religion.
The apologist's favorite mind trick. Trying to drag everybody down to their level, so that rational positions seem just as ridiculous as their position. Oh, you enjoy something? That's worship. Being a fan of a TV show is totally the same thing as worshipping an invisible, silent god.
"Isn't it ironic? One of the favorite themes of the Christian Conversion Corps is that, if we don't worship a deity, we must be worshiping ourselves. Yet it seems that this is precisely what, in fact, the theists themselves are doing. They worship a god with the same views, ideals, even personality traits as themselves - the god in the mirror." (Rosa Williams) "What the mind doesn't understand, it worships or fears." (Alice Walker) "Ignorance worships mystery; reason explains it; the one grovels, the other soars." (Robert G. Ingersoll) "Imagine encouraging a child to participate in such 'twisted' rituals and worshiping of tortuous crucifixes and such like this from birth. No wonder we have so many hateful and sadistic people in our society." (Brent Allsop) "Phew, I'm glad we came to our senses and worship a 2000 year old carpenter." (Bart Simpson) If there's a catastrophe and modern civilization gets erased, I bet in a few thousand years some prat will find a copy of Lord of the Rings and everyone will start worshipping Gandalf. "There can be but little liberty on earth while men worship a tyrant in heaven." (Robert Ingersoll)
I loved that you threw Bart Simpson in there... It speaks to the times when comedians speak truth through sarcasm and wit, as Shakespeare would in his time. Sometimes I feel Comedy and Philosophy create a venn diagram.
So, basically atheists are smart, introspective and reasonable while theists are ignorant, foolish and small-minded. It's more complex than that (and in my experience I've met both smart, reasonable atheists and theists and small-minded atheists and theists). Religion doesn't have a monopoly on morality and atheism doesn't have a monopoly on logic/reason I don't need to be an atheist to have critical thinking skills.
@@phi4721you're right there are both on both sides. However Christians claim religion has a monopoly on morals by claiming morals come from god. This isn't correct. Even some animals have morals and many Atheists have better morals than many Christians. In fact the bible proves god has horrible morals over and over. But anyway, using critical thinking skills is imperative to analysing the bible's claims. Using them shows donkeys don't talk, nor do bushes or serpents. Axe heads don't float. Logic tells us they sink. And it goes on. I agree, we must use critical thinking skills.
I used to believe this fallacy when I was a believer. As an atheist, I now realize that everything I used to think about atheists were strawman arguments that Christians falsely made up about atheists.
Same here. I was raised as a fundamentalist Christian. I met an atheist for the first time in my life when I was in high school. She told me that she didn't believe in God but in my mind all I heard was I HATE GOD. I was so indoctrinated back then. Ugh. Glad I'm free now.
Christoids don't have the rocks to box with Atheists so they just try their best to knockdown a strawman(The scarescrow has KO'd them but they keep coming back up for more).
@@roderickcortez138 well, I'm still a Christian, just not in an echo chamber where everyone who has different belief systems than me is evil. I guess it's because I was raised more secularly and not fundamentalist.
You believe in a lot of things that are invisible but yet true and exist, your sight isn't the proof of an existence of something, it's not what you see it's what exist you have to make a logical deduction
When I was told that everyone worshiped something as a God in college, of course, I had to ask for clarification as to what they meant. The response I got was "Anything that has value to you, you worship as a god." To which I said, "So you mean dirt? Dirt has value to me because I don't want to tumble endlessly through space. I value having soil to stand on. " To which he replied "yes" without missing a beat. So, then I asked about fecal matter since it fertilizes plants and I value having food. Again, "Yes, that's a God also." And that's how I learned that dirt and poop were gods and that I worship them. 🤦🏿♂️
Well, in the shamanic world, everything is recognized as alive, as part of the great cosmic life. And dirt and poop certainly, qualify, along with everything else!
As a Christian, my friends would sometimes warn me about worshiping my job or new favorite hobby. I love that I'm free of the inner turmoil I would experience when enjoying something immensely or buying something. Because I was taught that you would recognize what you were worshiping by how much time or money you spent on it. I am free to enjoy my life now without guilt for something completely normal.
Believers want that assertion to be true because it makes them feel better about what they believe, in the face of increasing knowledge and criticism. It is, of course, utter nonsense.
Muslims in particular love to argue that we have an innate tendency to believe in gods, and therefore their claim that everyone is born a Muslim is correct, but no, we only have a tendency to assume agency even where there is none, not to believe in a single creator deity, and it's for evolutionary reasons and doesn't mean that any gods or spirits actually exist.
Here is a cut-and-paste of my response to Brandon about this video. Do you think that I have a valid point? If not, why not? Thanks! Q: Who do you trust, more than anyone else, to lead you through life? Brandon: Me! Dear Brandon, you spent most of your life 'lost', thinking you had the truth, but did not. Now, you have made this sudden (or not so sudden) about face where you are not only in the truth, but have a million likes! People look to you to lead them and guide. How did you go from being totally lost to being a beacon of light, a preacher of the good news (that there is no good news?), of being a captain among men? Of course, I believe that you worshipped yourself even during your so-called 'Christian' days. You say that your are growing in certainty that the Bible is false. Yet, what about your atheism? Is that eroding or is your faith in your own opinion growing by leaps and bounds? My point is, if you are growing in your confidence in your atheism, that means that you are growing in the worship of yourself to lead; you have become your own ultimate authority on the ultimate truths and mysteries of life. If I am wrong, then tell me: who do you trust, more than yourself, to lead and guide you? I hope you make things right with God! I think you were badly hurt in your "Christian faith," but, as we both know, you were never a Christian (unless you were born again, filled with the Holy Spirit). I have just one question: Do you believe the words of Christ, "Ask and you shall receive," that a person can be filled with the Holy Spirit just by asking? If so, did you ever ask? That is, did you beg or did you ask - and don't you think that there is a huge difference between the two? I hope and pray that you do not wind up in hell forever. Christ really did die upon a Cross so that we may know Him. Jesus Christ is the light of the world.
@@TonyLambregtsIf it’s a thing people are convinced is essential to their well-being for long enough, does it become a genetic psychological trait? I’m convinced that people have a predisposition toward belief. I’d say it’s “hard wired”.
@scottgodlewski306 The desire to remain alive is a strong instinct. Faced with the reality and finality of death, a human can become irrational and seek a way out. I believe that irrationally is the cause of believing in some form of afterlife. It has very little to do with worship in this context. As an atheist I am not immune to the existential crisis presented by my mortality, but I haven't seen any evidence to convince me that any part of me survives my death other than in memories of other people. Memories will be the only thing left, and I can affect what those will be, and that influences my behavior.
@scottgodlewski306 I absolutely believe people are hard wired to do things for survival like hunt for food or protect their young. But I don't believe people were hard wired for worshipping deities, relationships, sex, or being social. People are programmed to live a certain way. If people were naturally hard wired to live according to the "life script" we would not constantly have all these messages in our face condemning us for deviating.
Melchizedek is a name for the Sun during Spring (bread) and Summer (wine). This is the Hebrew Yahveh (Latin Jupiter Olympus). Melchizedek = King and Zedek = Jupiter. Winter is represented by Jupiter Stygius. The three baptisms are Winter (Water), Spring (Air), and Summer (Fire).
I imagine that people compared their gods to each other like Pokémon, being like “well my god controls both heaven AND earth, so you should definitely worship him instead” and that just went on and on until eventually someone pulled out the infinity card, but then they kept going with “infinity plus 1” and “infinity times infinity”, which is probably how we got the Trinity.
I think it started way waaaay before that. With pattern recognition and paradolia. F.e. a black wolf was seen, the hunt was extra good that day, Booom: the wolf with the rare colour became a good omen / the deity of the hunt.
I remember how, when I was a christian, I would "worship" in church....it was an emotional, deeply personal expression of utter catharsis. When the service was over, I felt a lasting glow that I was convinced was the Jesus in me that was rewarding my devotion. It was this feeling that I missed the most when I finally realized I had been hypnotizing myself, and that the evidence I had been discovering didn't support the conclusion that god existed. It took awhile to sort out what life meant without a god being at the center of it. I remember I began to follow a certain rock band, and was completely smitten with one of the members. He was so perfect! So funny, so charming! So talented!!!!I wondered even then if I was mentally moving the furniture in my brain, trying to replace that sense of awe and supernatural worship with a human experience. But of course the devotion faded and I moved on. I think it's part of the human condition that we crave occasional mental highs. I'm happy to report that I never replaced that worship thing with drugs or alcohol. To this day, I don't know how I managed to avoid that easy fix. I understand why some people choose to do that, though. Life is painful in many ways, and sometimes you just want a pill to make it stop hurting. But for the most part, life is still a joy without having to play pretend.
“Portrait Of The Actress Jeanne Samary, By Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1877” I immediately recognized the picture in your thumbnail because I painted a life size copy of it years ago. I still have to frame it though. 😅 Sorry if the comment is unrelated to the video, the image brought back happy memories. Cheers!
Hey man no one hypnotizes themselves you were led into it Obviously not everyone is aware of what is going on But there is a brain 🧠 science at play in churches From a former Christian of 30 years myself
It’s literally one of the things recovering drug and alcohol abusers do they substitute one addiction for the religious addiction believing they’ve kicked addiction. Not saying one is better or worse than the other I’m just saying it’s a continuance of behavior.
1.) Makes you without asking 2.) Makes you unable to not do the thing that will send you to the place he "didnt intend" for you 3.) Offers a bribe of debt 4.) Or else you go to the place he couldnt have foreseen, which was totally necessary, and he cannot think or create any other way around for you. Because reasons
I was on a channel yesterday and the person said "even Atheist have faith" It shows some of these people do not have conversations outside of people in their "group "
@@chromographia106Yeah, it really is a swapping out of definitions as it suits them. I don’t doubt that they believe faith and confidence are different things, but if you can’t demonstrate the difference, maybe then maybe that’s something to be reflected upon.
There are a lot of these word games with terms like "worship", "faith", "sacrifice" Like one argument I heard is that sacrifice is necessary for life because animals are sacrificed for food, therefore Jesus. Or what about "you have faith that the sun will come up in the morning."
Words can't describe how happy I am to have come across your channel. For the longest time I've felt the most unhappy with being a believer in god and it wasn't until I noticed a lot of the messed up morals in the bible as I grew older,being gaslighted by a cult for three years at one point in my life and especially your videos that I gave up in being a believer and I couldn't have been happier doing so and I wanted to say thanks. Admittedly it can be hard for me to have a proper heart-to-heart with my family due to them being devoted believers whereas I have thrown away my faith but this is the path I've chosen even if I won't be able to have a proper communication with my family I'm luck I have friends that I can be fully honest with who I am.
Its like saying "atheists spend time talking about their knowledge on the bible and their past traumatic experience. It automatically means they are worshipping it because they spend time on it"
I always find it ironic when the non-believer just... doesn't do the thing they claim is REQUIRED. Like: "Everyone worships. - I don't. - *You're persecuting me!*" It's the classic "Every accusation is a confession." Like the most classic "You just want to sin!" when those people joined *exclusively* to be allowed to sin."
Yeah. When Christians "sin," all they have to do is tell god they're sorry, and they're all good. Many don't even do that much. They're covered by the blood of Jesus, so they've got a free ticket to Heaven, no matter what they do. So, umm... Why would we pretend not to believe in God, knowing we would go to Hell? The logic there doesn't add up. Considering how awful many Christians are, it would be more logical to say they're only Christians because they want to sin. It's not that simple, of course, but it makes a lot more sense than what they're saying.
When I was a new believer, I was confused about all the verses in the Bible that say we should fear god, especially when I read in 1st John about how "perfect love casts out all fear." I can't remember who I asked(probably the pastor) about that, but I was told that the word "fear," when applied to God, really meant an awesome reverence for God.I accepted that answer at the time, but later, I ran across verses that spoke of serving god, no only with fear, but with "trembling." I pictured serving god while "shaking in my boots" so to speak.That was one of the first contradictions I came across in the Bible.There would be many more.
I’m reminded of the scene in Kill Bill:Volume 2 when the head of the yakuza, O-Ren-Ishii, comes to a restaurant inn with her gang. The proprietors constantly bow and scrape before her; they are absolutely terrified (well, O-Ren did move in full kimono all the way down a table at a gathering of crime bosses and cut one of the bosses’ head off when he insulted her mixed ancestry) O-Ren’s posse derives their power from their connection with her - because she is feared, they are feared - and they give her their loyalty When The Bride, Uma Thurman, appears to exact her revenge upon O-Ren-Ishii, her gang attacks her; Uma is threatening their boss, the source of their power and prosperity Non-belief is a threat to the Ultimate Boss; and his loyal followers, apologists and clergy, leap to his defense - however, it would seem to me that an Eternal, N-Dimensional, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent Being shouldn’t need to be defended by humans
You know what I found once I left the “faith”? Peace! True Peace, I have never known this kind of peace. I do know I’ve always had questions since I was a child and no one has ever been able to answer them! None. And now I am 56 and no longer believe, but I hear the believer and there’s absolutely nothing new there and still no answers. I’m am done looking. They say god wants a relationship with me, well that can’t happen until god shows up!! A one sided relationship is no relationship!
@@Obligate.Carnivore Bingo. A one sided relationship is not a relationship, and all the explanations that excusigists give for why it's a relationship just twist the knot even more. I was in my mid 40s when I realized I no longer believed. It's been and four years since, and I agree, it's been more relaxing, peaceful and mentally healthy for me since I stopped believing.
Thank you for choosing to explore "worship" in this episode. You truly shine a beautiful light into all the dark corners that black-and-white thinking tends to disregard. I get so tired of the lack of appreciation and respect for nuance and the folds of thought and pondering. The scolding and judgment is often especially heavy-handed. I would expect the opposite - instead conversations more thoughtful and well-considered in service of that which is supposedly adored and worthy of devotion.
Needed this today. Just came out as Deconstructed on RUclips and TikTok. The comments keep coming ... The amount of comments trying to disprove my journey is laughable. I knew they were coming, but honestly I'm not in mental frustration because of them. For me that’s a huge growth. I realized today I have grown and healed so much, that those comments are just comments and they don’t hurt my feelings like they would’ve before. I have done the work. I have unlearned and learned. I’m proud of myself, regardless what these believers think of me. I want to thank you, your videos have helped me feel a sense of community and understanding-- Like I am not alone. So seriously, thank you. Your videos helped me feel comfortable enough to get to the point of creating again (slowly but surely). Thank you.
Yeah, the word games are endless, because most of their major ideologies revolve around intellectual gerrymandering to make ancient, utterly disconnected texts relevant to the ideals and social mores they hold today. To manage that, it's necessary to use words one way in normal circumstances (because you still need to be able to use a word like "forgive" in everyday situations where you have to let someone off the hook for their offense without having to deal with the consequences, or we couldn't maintain social cohesion and amicable relationships), but then utterly redefine it when you start talking religion/god(s). One of my friends who is a believer about had an aneurysm when I brought up her disconnect between how she used the word "forgiveness" in a number of contexts, but when she _spoke of it,_ she described it as not being all the things she actually used it to describe and how she acted in the real world. She would _act_ as if "forgive" means what we all generally mean: to stop blaming or being angry at someone or a perceived wrong, to not hold someone accountable for their offense. But when we would _talk_ about it, she'd say it's "not about blame" and "doesn't let someone off the hook for their behavior." I'd note that it explicitly does exactly that, that it literally always is about blame and accountability, and what she was describing was just "acceptance." The mental gymnastics she'd use to try and argue that "forgiveness" isn't actually about the thing we'd call "forgiving" normally, while still struggling to explain the ways she'd used it without the context of a theological discussion or how she'd behaved when doing it, it made me a little sad for her. To expend so much energy to deny the plain things you know and do, just so you can maintain a fictional "definition" handed to you from some deluded jerk at a pulpit. Heartbreaking.
Honestly, God creating us with this hole in us that needs to be filled, putting us into a world of wonder and amazement, and then intentionally hiding and blaming us when we don’t worship him instead of literally anything else has got to be the definition of manipulation.
Ha, I was just explaining this concept to my coworker about how we were told constantly that we had a, "god sized hole in our hearts" that needed to be filled. He went to a more liberal church and had never heard this. I have a glazed doughnut sized hole in my stomach I'm going to have to fix.
Reminds me of when a therapist told me that admiring women’s curves (like a normal heterosexual guy) was “beholding” women who were not my wife, implying I was worshipping them. The idea is absolutely ridiculous.
what a video, this one was a real treat. the churches teachings on idolatry is one of the things that made me leave the religion, if something was becoming an "idol" in my life I was told to abandon it. this caused me a lot of anxiety and I stopped doing things I loved, it ultimately made me very depressed and it made me look deeper for the truth. in some ways, that was my "mindshift" so to speak.
Idolatry is the worship of the evil winter signs. This is well covered in Isaiah 31, 45, and 48. Oh! How the swindling preachers have lied to you. Worship of these same signs, during the summer, is not evil.
It's so they can act like spending a significant amount of their time literally singing praises to some dude they not only have never met, but can't even know actually exists, is a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
@@Bossman21DNo one has. Speaking of tongues is called glossolalia, and the nice warm feeling you get is designed to happen due to the worship music. The feeling you get from the holy spirit is the same feeling you can get at any concert, or from any other religion, or meditating. You can make excuses all you want, but that’s true, because it is not real, God isn’t real, grow up.
@@Bossman21DEver feeling described by people that they say they know for a fact is the holy spirit, can be felt exactly the same from other religions, concerts, and meditation and drugs. So please enlighten us as to how it’s any different? Oh because you “know” for a fact you were filled with the holy spirit. Just like a muslim knows allah has blessed him and made him whole, or a hippie knows that lsd has transformed his life, blah blah blah.
One can only imagine how much damage could have been done by a competent logician such as yourself had you remained in the faith… So glad you’re on our side, the side of critical thinking and reasoning. Great output, as always. Thank you!
How much damage he could have done by remaining a Christian? Whatever do you even think you are saying? Who runs around as a TRUE Christian bringing damage to anyone else? I don’t and have believed for over 40 years in God and still believe. If you find yourself amongst people that think they are better than you because they are Christians and you are not , get away from them. No one is above another because even a born again Christian is one who is saved only because of the blood shed at the cross for everyone. They are not saved because they are more special than someone else but because they used their Faith that God gives all of us to understand God with. You not knowing God now could change tomorrow if you found God the very way I found God which is through Faith. We are all given the same measure of Faith to understand God with so that I cannot boast only I can find God and you cannot. Romans12v3. You not wanting to believe with your own measure of Faith falls on you to contemplate as well as myself. No one came to me and had to force me to believe in God and I chose to believe in God with the Faith we ARE ALL GIVEN!!
I was not born hardwired to worship ANYTHING. Even as a small child NOTHING about Christianity fealt right to me. It was only until getting a phone and learning of different points of view like yours that i made the decision to leave the faith for good and turn away a second and final time when i was reminded why i left in the first place. Being told I'm worthless without something and that I'm to stupid to understand why is a good way to drive me away not closer towards something. The fact that I'm not that desprate for a sense of purpose to believe everything force fed down my throat is a breath of fresh air to me.
"What do you mean by...?" was probably one of the most wonderful questions/lessons to ask, that my dad left me. As I watched this video I was reminded of how important it is to define our terms. So many arguments and misunderstandings arise because of differing definitions of words/terms. Seek clarification and understanding by asking, "What do you mean by...(insert word/term)?"
I’m 21 years old and Catholic. Thank you thank you so much. While I still believe in God and think that the Bible is trustworthy sometimes it feels so cathartic to listen to you. I paused at 12:54 to type this after you mention the false equivalency. I feel like sometimes these concepts are thrown around without being well thought through. I don’t think the people who say this stuff think about it from the perspective of an average layperson such as myself. They don’t think of the natural conclusion and where this way of thinking naturally leads. I know where it leads and the answer is misery. 15:56-16:02 no this is a conversation worth having and yes I can speak from experience when I say that I’ve experienced harm from this way of thinking.
Man, this one hits home! I remember being a young teenager and having anxiety over whether or not I was “worshipping” TV shows or comic books because everyone would warn me of that. I’d always panic that something was wrong with me for even hyper fixating on hobbies or interests for too long, fearing that god would be upset with me because he was “jealous.” I even remember SACRIFICING things I loved because god wouldn’t “approve” of them! Turns out, the hyper-fixating was linked to my ADD and possibly my anxiety. After deconverting, I’ve been freed from that constant worry of “am I worshipping X?” and guess what? I’ve been learning about moderation and balance, rather than completely removing something out of my life. P. S. I’d like to elaborate on just how damaging this is psychologically. Christianity (the main example, but other religions do it too) promotes the belief of god before EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING ELSE, to the point it turns anything else one might enjoy into a sort of “forbidden fruit” thus, you want it MORE and it promotes MORE guilt. BUT, if you actually look into our psychology as humans, you’ll find that we function the opposite. If we remind ourselves that it’s just something we enjoy and not place such heavy emphasis on it, we’re MORE likely to be moderate or even QUIT! Christianity has it backward for MOST things. That’s something I’ve noticed since I’ve started studying psychology in college…which also partially led to my deconversion.
Once again.... and at the risk of speaking redundantly... I SO appreciate your clarity here! I never understood "worship" and the why's and how's and when.... I am truly grateful, Brandon.
From the Oxford English Dictionary: Worship (verb) - show reverence and adoration for (a deity); honor with religious rites. Worship (noun) - the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity. If there's no deity involved, it isn't worship. It's the tired old ploy of redefining a word to make their god-fixation seem more rational. It only serves to show atheists that deists don't have anything concrete to serve as a foundation for their behavior.
As a teen and still a Catholic, I always felt the need to add a caveat before I said I really loved a rock band or a comic book series or any creative person or artistic creation. “Oh, I don’t WORSHIP them, I just ADMIRE them.” On the other side, I chafed, and thought, “Why do I have to spell this out? Don’t they know the difference between liking, loving, admiring, and adoring?” On the THIRD hand, I’m put off by the mass media referring to celebrities as “idols.” It’s hyperbolic, but it still rubs me the wrong way. It took a while for me to balance the scales between the terms, and to finally remove the words “worship” and “adoration” out of the equation. As an adult, I am content with love, which is actually a greater, more satisfying experience than trying to appease an invisible man you have never met nor ever will!
Absolutely beautiful. You're right when you say that having a naturalistic approach doesn't make the world any less wonder-full, because man that story of "worshipping" the seeds had emotional weight behind it. But then, I'm a sucker for a good story, which this most certainly was. And at the same time, nonfictional and educational. You really don't script your videos? I'm envious of that wit.
You touch on a great mystery. Why do we think life is worth living at all? I think before we were able to live as we do now, without immediate danger to our survival in every living second, we are able to create meaning. And since we are not threatened as we were in the past, we no longer have to create a God to protect us at every moment from all of the seemingly infinite ways that life can end. I think that is why modern western thought is getting more secular as time goes by.
@@CatDaddyGuitar that first cup in the morning. Divine! I'm not even fully human until I have had it. Such an important part of modern culture. Thank God for coffee .😁
This accusation absolutely kept me from enjoying normal and healthy ways of spending my time, when I was a Christian, for fear of that thing being an”idol”. So much guilt!
When a believer says something like this to me, it give the impression that they know what is going on im my head. But they dont, and they are just trying to justify their actions or beliefs.
It's projection, nothing more...just like that old saw "you're really a believer, you just don't want to admit it" and "I don't have enough faith to be an atheist."
Hi Brandon, I don’t usually comment but I just needed to let you know that this video was well thought out and sensible. Thank you for this amazing message on this beautiful Sunday.
It's in the world I become Content in the hum Between voice and drum It's in change The poetic justice of cause and effect Respect, love, compassion This is my church This is where I heal my hurts For tonight God is a DJ - Faithless
I look forward to these videos every Sunday now. 100x more thought provoking than any sermon I’ve ever heard in a church. I’ve noticed over my 20 years of church going (and attending many many different churches) that it’s the same sh”t preached from the pulpits every Sunday and it got to be so tiresome I couldn’t take it anymore. Nothing new under the sun in these places. And I was surprised how in every sermon, I always saw people’s jaws drop like 😮 as if it was some major revelation that the pastor dropped. How many times does a person have to hear about tithing or forgiveness or the grace of God, it’s not rocket science. 😂 But…. Repetition is the mother of indoctrination. 🙌🏼
It never made sense for me to put a whole lot of faith or effort into something that I couldn't confirm that even existed. I mean, even at one point when I did believe in God, I found it very hard to imagine putting God for say my family, or somebody that I actually loved. When I first opened up to my mother last year about being an atheist, I told her that it was difficult for me to have faith in anything. But if there was one thing that I had absolute faith in, it was the fact that my mother would love me no matter what. That is the One singular truth that I know. Quite honestly, the concept of being forced to worship or made to worship or loving to worship just sounds like a massive case of Stockholm syndrome.
Your videos have brought me a lot of peace in my transition from christian to agnostic. Could you please make videos about all the different denominations? Maybe even a deep dive into catholicism.
“Everyone worships something” is also offered as a tu quoque (argument from hypocrisy) fallacy. It isn’t real criticism, it is just a way of dismissing legitimate objections without having to address them. It’s a defense mechanism.
@@MindShift-Brandon it’s the same as when people imply that noticing a woman’s attractive features is the same as lusting after her. I used to struggle with that as well thinking I was constantly committing a mortal sin because I thought attraction=lust. It’s the same with this dedication doesn’t equal worship.
Excellent breakdown of this topic and I'm happy to have learned something new in my deconstruction journey! People exaggerate and equate humans simply doing what humans do as "worship" when it is nowhere near the same level or intent of what god demands!
This is my favorite video you’ve ever done. It explicates a very self-explanatory sociology of religion in a way that keeps the profundity of the world present minus the need for a god. Showing the difference in reverence and submission of religious ritual and practice versus the modern, secular lifestyle is something very important that got me started on my atheist journey many years ago: that people can live normal lives not too dissimilar from my Christian one without the need for a god. Thank you for this poetic and captivating presentation!
My favorite videos by you are the ones like these where you connect human nature to religious attachments. Pondering the WHY is not only interesting, but helpful. Thanks again for your work!
When ask the question ‘who is God ,the answer is always my mother ,without her caring love and devotion from birth I would not be alive today so if anyone or anything is worthy of my worship it is undoubtedly my mother
I genuinely have no idea what they mean by 'worship' when they claim everyone worships something. Just like I have no idea what some believers mean by 'god' when they claim by being atheist, we become our own gods.
The concept that “we become our own gods” is somewhat similar to both Gnostic Christian tradition and Buddhist tradition. While Buddhism suggests to not rely on external supernatural entity but on yourself, the Gnostic Christianity outright says “look within yourself, that’s where god is” (I’m paraphrasing), that’s in the Gospel of Thomas, non-canonical text that was used as a reference for the movie Stigmata (recommend watching)
REMARKABLE video, Mr. B. This, too, has always bothered me. Your subject matter evoked a past memory that's never left me. Back in the late 70's, (or early 80's?), Bob Dylan released "Gotta Serve Somebody." Though I'm a Dylan fan and enjoyed the groove of the song, the message repulsed me. Your channel is outstanding, thank you.
Brandon I'd love to see you respond to Mike Winger's "it's hard to think of my loved ones in hell" video that just came out. It's a big issue that pushed me toward deconstruction and I found his response dismissive, reductive, and somewhat insulting. Love your stuff, dude
It's the same as the statement theists like to spam "Atheism = Nihilism". But most importantly, it's the justification theists use to bridge the concept of [Original Sin/Romans 3:23-24] onto non-believers; while avoiding the need to solve Schrödinger's cat upon making said claim.
It always annoys me when Christians try to convince me how I "actually" feel or tell me that I believe something that I know I don't. It doesn't help that the way they all phrase it is nearly the exact same way, which makes them sound fake [lack of a better word] P.S. I don't have a problem with people who simply believe in a God, y'all are good. Only the ones that try to convince me that I also believe in him, but am just denying his existence
I love Tobias Sammet's work on both Edguy and Avantasia, I think he's a great singer and songwriter. What I do not do is have a shrine, or pray to him, both of which people do for gods. That said, I do remember the conditioning that led me to think this way, and the subsequent stress when I entered high school and stopped feeling God's presence. It was the start of my deconstruction.
From the same view that patriarchal hierarchy is inevitable, like the Divine Right of kings. But is it? As Ursula Le Guin says, we once believed that the divine right of kings was an inevitable truth. Now we don't. Power structures may seem indomitable, but they don't last forever.
What you said there at the end about how being human and how we still yearn for these feelings and rituals even though they are just natural is powerful. Its enough for me to consider ourselves almost divine-like in essence when I look at it that way. Considering that the hard problem of consciousness is such a mind-bending part of reality for myself, I'd say, that if there was to be anything truly worthy of worship, it would be ourselves. Putting ourselves first, loving ourselves and others, easing our own sufferings as well as others if we can. I think that's how I choose to define my reality. Being the divine, we worshipped all along. Great video bro!
I have had this argument more than once with a family member on Facebook. I have come to believe that a lot of people need to worship something. They need to believe that there is a hierarchy with one thing at the very top, pulling all the strings and righting all the wrongs. If they are also arrogant, they project this need onto the rest of us and convince themselves that any other way of thinking is erroneous or evil. I'm not sure if this kind of arrogance is part of their psyche or if they get it from their preachers. The preachers certainly encourage this mindset.
Great video! Especially loved your closing thoughts. Made me think of one of Sam Harris' talking points (that I think maybe you've cited before?), that knowing the technical mechanics, so to speak, of why you like chocolate (or whatever else) doesn't take away from the experience of enjoying it. You can understand the mundane hows and whys of a thing and still enjoy the feelings it produces, admire the spectacular effects, etc.
It IS a false equivocation. Context matters, but there is nothing I can think of that would rise to the level of being worthy of `worship.` Sure, I place value on things. For example music. I love music, but I don't give music the extravagant reverential devotion that the religious give a god. Even my children and family in general. I love my kids at least as much as myself, but I don't worship them. Then again, I don't worship myself either. It's kind of entertaining to see some theists make that argument, because to compare my love of music, for example, with their devotion to a god, diminishes their own understanding of worship.
If the normal activities they call worship in non-believers actual were worship them all Christians, without exception, are guilty of "worshiping false gods" and are thus going to Hell. It's a lose-lose argument
Well, using apologist "logic" and definitions here, there is a bunch of things that I worship. Off the top of my head: eating filling meals regularly, sleeping in, not having to wear my "Sunday best," being able to travel without needing a car, not needing to bankrupt myself because of a medical emergency - I could go on, but you get the idea, right? Okay, so these things are not exactly existent in the US, but there is a little something called "the rest of the frickin' world" where each and every one of these things do actually exist, so that is where I am and thus get to enjoy my "worshipping." You notice what is not included on this list of worship? Some hypothetical hypocritical raging psychotic alcoholic narcissist with the biggest god complex ever (yeah, there's a pretty big reason why that is the name for it) who can and undoubtedly will toss aside me and anyone - and probably everyone, believers included - for eternal burning and likely for no reason at all. See why the apologist definition is never included in any dictionary other than the one they keep in their deluded minds?
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
Good morning! This one has always bothered me, and I am looking forward to explaining it. Thanks for being here!
Good morning Brandon. I grew up being taught to “worship”. Face toward heaven..hands held high…the works. Never really felt like I was actually worshiping. 😮
This worship happened between 10:30-11:00 Sunday morning when the Holy Spirit showed up. 😅
Maybe many don't really realize what the Bible means by worship which you described with scripture and so they view their middle of the road adherence to some rituals, uttering prayers, going to church and paying tithe AS worship and as all that is needed to be considered worshiping. So if someone else spends as much time and effort as they do...then this other person is 'worshiping' that other thing. So the false equivalency isn't them inaccurately describing what others do as worship so much as them not actually worshiping as the Bible instructs. Their religion is just a hobby like going to football games or going fishing.
@@Brian-Ahavah "However, we all rejected him and chose Cesar instead"
Oh do you mean like how Christians are choosing Trump instead? You should talk to other Christians about that!
@@Brian-Ahavah It sounds more like you're a few fries short of a happy meal.
@@Brian-Ahavah What would you say is Jesus' number one idea?
"We all worship something"... maybe... but football doesn't condemn me to hell if I don't worship it.
There’s no football hell??…….damn! I guess Michigan fans are off the hook….
Most on point comment ever.
Reminds me of a joke...
Man from Missouri dies and lands in hell,
Satan sets the man to work breaking rocks under a hellish hot sun.
When he comes back to check on him he finds the man whistling a tune while contentedly just smashing the rocks and asks him why he isn't suffering.
The man answers that it reminds him of when he was a young man doing construction back in Missouri.
Satan takes this as a challenge and goes to the weather control console and changes the weather to a great thunderstorm.
When he again checks on the man he once again finds him grinning from ear to ear and asks him why he is happy about it.
The man replies that it reminds him of spring back in Missouri when the storms would blow across the plains while he worked his farm, knowing that the rain would bring him a bountiful harvest.
Undeterred, Satan again goes to weather control and this time he sets it to create a freezing blizzard.
When he goes to check on the Missouri man this time he finds the man cheering in a near ecstatic fervor and is completely perplexed. He again asks why the man is so happy.
The man cheerfully replies: "Don't you see? Hell has frozen over, which means the Chiefs have finally won the Superbowl!"
Ba-Dum-Chaa...
And yeah, it's an old joke from the days when the Chiefs couldn't win against a high school junior varsity team.
@@rokkitserjuncool
Perfect point!
"Everybody needs to worship something!" These guys don't need a god, they need a dominatrix.
“In the way that god demands to be worshipped, I worship nothing” Perfect summary.
Thanks!
When I was 6 or 7 years old, my mom was a huge Trekkie. She had books, games, and even Star Trek themed work uniforms for casual Friday. Most nights after dinner, the family would sit together and watch Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, or Voyager. It was a really comforting constant at the time and a bonding experience I took for granted.
And then one day she came home and got rid of it all. She had gone to church with a family member and came home convinced that Star Trek had become her god. Her pins, her uniforms, our family's nightly bonding... All gone in an instant. We were even banned from mentioning it.
It wasn't until I was in my twenties that she finally relaxed. A commercial for the then upcoming show Enterprise came on TV and she welled up with tears. That image of her smiling and being genuinely happy to see something Star Trek related is burned in my brain.
Why is it that *enjoyment* is such an anethema to the Christian religion? Or at least many versions of it. I've thought about that a lot, because I've seen it a lot, in subtle or really gross forms. Could it be that we would realize enjoyment is actually one of our direct connections to the essence of life, no scriptures or preachers needed?
I'm so sorry that happened - I'm glad some enjoyment has returned (is I read the post correctly)
Dr Who is fun too 😊
That your mom was made to feel guilty for something totally harmless she enjoyed makes me so sad. That hurt her! How cruel! And it hurt those (you) who love her. Yet another way religion hurts people. I’m glad I never quit loving my 1930s movies, music, art and architecture. Nothing wrong with having a hobby, passion or special interest.
Went through something similar when I was a kid. I loved music so much and my dad got rid of all of the records that I listened to one day. It wasn't even death metal or anything. Just pop music by Prince and Michael Jackson. Stuff like that. I was only about ten years old at the time. It was during the Satanic Panic of the 80's. He said that secular music was bad because it didn't glorify God. He eventually stopped being so uptight about God years later and allowed me to listen to music again but the damage was done. I went years without being allowed to listen to the music that I loved. I'm 45 years old now and I still hate religion.
And I am embarrassed to say that I bought into a lot of this. I never let my kids read Harry Potter. What a doofus I was!
The apologist's favorite mind trick. Trying to drag everybody down to their level, so that rational positions seem just as ridiculous as their position. Oh, you enjoy something? That's worship. Being a fan of a TV show is totally the same thing as worshipping an invisible, silent god.
right!
When I hear them say its the same thing I think they're unintentionally making their beliefs seem less important.
They also do themselves a disservice, because christians also partake in the things they claim atheists worship.
This is way too accuarate
Fear me, love me, worship me, sacrifice yourself to me...
This is when my blind date ended.
"Isn't it ironic? One of the favorite themes of the Christian Conversion Corps is that, if we don't worship a deity, we must be worshiping ourselves. Yet it seems that this is precisely what, in fact, the theists themselves are doing. They worship a god with the same views, ideals, even personality traits as themselves - the god in the mirror." (Rosa Williams)
"What the mind doesn't understand, it worships or fears." (Alice Walker)
"Ignorance worships mystery; reason explains it; the one grovels, the other soars." (Robert G. Ingersoll)
"Imagine encouraging a child to participate in such 'twisted' rituals and worshiping of tortuous crucifixes and such like this from birth. No wonder we have so many hateful and sadistic people in our society." (Brent Allsop)
"Phew, I'm glad we came to our senses and worship a 2000 year old carpenter." (Bart Simpson)
If there's a catastrophe and modern civilization gets erased, I bet in a few thousand years some prat will find a copy of Lord of the Rings and everyone will start worshipping Gandalf.
"There can be but little liberty on earth while men worship a tyrant in heaven." (Robert Ingersoll)
I loved that you threw Bart Simpson in there... It speaks to the times when comedians speak truth through sarcasm and wit, as Shakespeare would in his time. Sometimes I feel Comedy and Philosophy create a venn diagram.
@@CatDaddyGuitar "Christians worship a dead Jew on a stick." (George Carlin)
So, basically atheists are smart, introspective and reasonable while theists are ignorant, foolish and small-minded. It's more complex than that (and in my experience I've met both smart, reasonable atheists and theists and small-minded atheists and theists).
Religion doesn't have a monopoly on morality and atheism doesn't have a monopoly on logic/reason
I don't need to be an atheist to have critical thinking skills.
@@phi4721you're right there are both on both sides. However Christians claim religion has a monopoly on morals by claiming morals come from god. This isn't correct. Even some animals have morals and many Atheists have better morals than many Christians. In fact the bible proves god has horrible morals over and over. But anyway, using critical thinking skills is imperative to analysing the bible's claims. Using them shows donkeys don't talk, nor do bushes or serpents. Axe heads don't float. Logic tells us they sink. And it goes on. I agree, we must use critical thinking skills.
@@phi4721 Maybe, but in the mind of an atheist you're compartmentalizing your critical thinking skills if you don't apply them to your religion.
I used to believe this fallacy when I was a believer. As an atheist, I now realize that everything I used to think about atheists were strawman arguments that Christians falsely made up about atheists.
yes, we were positioned from early on what nonbelievers "actually" were
Same here. I was raised as a fundamentalist Christian. I met an atheist for the first time in my life when I was in high school. She told me that she didn't believe in God but in my mind all I heard was I HATE GOD. I was so indoctrinated back then. Ugh. Glad I'm free now.
Christoids don't have the rocks to box with Atheists so they just try their best to knockdown a strawman(The scarescrow has KO'd them but they keep coming back up for more).
@@roderickcortez138 well, I'm still a Christian, just not in an echo chamber where everyone who has different belief systems than me is evil. I guess it's because I was raised more secularly and not fundamentalist.
Substitute "King" for "God" and everything became obvious to me. No kings anymore!!! Especially invisible ones with books😂
Throughout history, kings claimed Devine authority in order to justify their own authority. Who are you to question what God has ordained?
England has a king.
Not a good king or human being, but a king nonetheless.
Put money and power into the equation then it's obvious is a greedy pathetic person hiding behind the curtain of lies
You believe in a lot of things that are invisible but yet true and exist, your sight isn't the proof of an existence of something, it's not what you see it's what exist you have to make a logical deduction
Presidents are Modern-day Moses and Kings.Tho they don't send us to an Eternal Hell if we don't vote for them etc
When I was told that everyone worshiped something as a God in college, of course, I had to ask for clarification as to what they meant. The response I got was "Anything that has value to you, you worship as a god." To which I said, "So you mean dirt? Dirt has value to me because I don't want to tumble endlessly through space. I value having soil to stand on. " To which he replied "yes" without missing a beat. So, then I asked about fecal matter since it fertilizes plants and I value having food. Again, "Yes, that's a God also." And that's how I learned that dirt and poop were gods and that I worship them. 🤦🏿♂️
Well, in the shamanic world, everything is recognized as alive, as part of the great cosmic life. And dirt and poop certainly, qualify, along with everything else!
My Pomeranian pooper could build a temple
Good grief. That person really needs help.
As a Christian, my friends would sometimes warn me about worshiping my job or new favorite hobby. I love that I'm free of the inner turmoil I would experience when enjoying something immensely or buying something. Because I was taught that you would recognize what you were worshiping by how much time or money you spent on it. I am free to enjoy my life now without guilt for something completely normal.
Ohhhh I hated that one.. "Open your checkbook, I'll show you what you worship!"
@@CatDaddyGuitar we might have attended the same services. Lol
@@Critical_Explorer-vw5hy Haha apparently I worshipped the mortgage company...
Yeah, I remember the weird guilt that was always there
@@CatDaddyGuitar I was going to say that. 😀
Believers want that assertion to be true because it makes them feel better about what they believe, in the face of increasing knowledge and criticism. It is, of course, utter nonsense.
I think thats one of the reasons for sure. its assuming so much before it even gets off the ground though
@@MindShift-Brandon True. I should have begun with, "I think that ..."
Yeap
Muslims in particular love to argue that we have an innate tendency to believe in gods, and therefore their claim that everyone is born a Muslim is correct, but no, we only have a tendency to assume agency even where there is none, not to believe in a single creator deity, and it's for evolutionary reasons and doesn't mean that any gods or spirits actually exist.
Here is a cut-and-paste of my response to Brandon about this video. Do you think that I have a valid point? If not, why not? Thanks!
Q: Who do you trust, more than anyone else, to lead you through life?
Brandon: Me!
Dear Brandon, you spent most of your life 'lost', thinking you had the truth, but did not. Now, you have made this sudden (or not so sudden) about face where you are not only in the truth, but have a million likes! People look to you to lead them and guide. How did you go from being totally lost to being a beacon of light, a preacher of the good news (that there is no good news?), of being a captain among men?
Of course, I believe that you worshipped yourself even during your so-called 'Christian' days. You say that your are growing in certainty that the Bible is false. Yet, what about your atheism? Is that eroding or is your faith in your own opinion growing by leaps and bounds? My point is, if you are growing in your confidence in your atheism, that means that you are growing in the worship of yourself to lead; you have become your own ultimate authority on the ultimate truths and mysteries of life. If I am wrong, then tell me: who do you trust, more than yourself, to lead and guide you?
I hope you make things right with God! I think you were badly hurt in your "Christian faith," but, as we both know, you were never a Christian (unless you were born again, filled with the Holy Spirit).
I have just one question: Do you believe the words of Christ, "Ask and you shall receive," that a person can be filled with the Holy Spirit just by asking? If so, did you ever ask? That is, did you beg or did you ask - and don't you think that there is a huge difference between the two?
I hope and pray that you do not wind up in hell forever. Christ really did die upon a Cross so that we may know Him. Jesus Christ is the light of the world.
Gotta love this we are "hard wired" to do certain things nonsense. That's the perfect excuse for humans not having any discipline or control.
If there is anything we are Hard Wired for, it is based on our survival instinct. Worship is not needed from this perspective.
@@TonyLambregtsIf it’s a thing people are convinced is essential to their well-being for long enough, does it become a genetic psychological trait? I’m convinced that people have a predisposition toward belief. I’d say it’s “hard wired”.
more like "hard wired" to fail.
@scottgodlewski306 The desire to remain alive is a strong instinct. Faced with the reality and finality of death, a human can become irrational and seek a way out. I believe that irrationally is the cause of believing in some form of afterlife. It has very little to do with worship in this context.
As an atheist I am not immune to the existential crisis presented by my mortality, but I haven't seen any evidence to convince me that any part of me survives my death other than in memories of other people. Memories will be the only thing left, and I can affect what those will be, and that influences my behavior.
@scottgodlewski306 I absolutely believe people are hard wired to do things for survival like hunt for food or protect their young. But I don't believe people were hard wired for worshipping deities, relationships, sex, or being social. People are programmed to live a certain way. If people were naturally hard wired to live according to the "life script" we would not constantly have all these messages in our face condemning us for deviating.
Preachers claiming everyone is a slave, so you may as well be THEIR slave, cause they got the best slavery ? No thanks.
I can easily see the prehistoric idea of worshiping of a priest, king or hero turning into worshiping of a deity that was the beginning of religion.
Melchizedek is a name for the Sun during Spring (bread) and Summer (wine). This is the Hebrew Yahveh (Latin Jupiter Olympus). Melchizedek = King and Zedek = Jupiter. Winter is represented by Jupiter Stygius. The three baptisms are Winter (Water), Spring (Air), and Summer (Fire).
I imagine that people compared their gods to each other like Pokémon, being like “well my god controls both heaven AND earth, so you should definitely worship him instead” and that just went on and on until eventually someone pulled out the infinity card, but then they kept going with “infinity plus 1” and “infinity times infinity”, which is probably how we got the Trinity.
@@xavierburval4128
Every god, in the bible, is YOU.
@@xavierburval4128
Heaven = Woman (Eve) and Earth = Man (Adam). Something like Woman aka Womb + Man.
I think it started way waaaay before that. With pattern recognition and paradolia. F.e. a black wolf was seen, the hunt was extra good that day, Booom: the wolf with the rare colour became a good omen / the deity of the hunt.
I remember how, when I was a christian, I would "worship" in church....it was an emotional, deeply personal expression of utter catharsis. When the service was over, I felt a lasting glow that I was convinced was the Jesus in me that was rewarding my devotion. It was this feeling that I missed the most when I finally realized I had been hypnotizing myself, and that the evidence I had been discovering didn't support the conclusion that god existed. It took awhile to sort out what life meant without a god being at the center of it. I remember I began to follow a certain rock band, and was completely smitten with one of the members. He was so perfect! So funny, so charming! So talented!!!!I wondered even then if I was mentally moving the furniture in my brain, trying to replace that sense of awe and supernatural worship with a human experience. But of course the devotion faded and I moved on. I think it's part of the human condition that we crave occasional mental highs. I'm happy to report that I never replaced that worship thing with drugs or alcohol. To this day, I don't know how I managed to avoid that easy fix. I understand why some people choose to do that, though. Life is painful in many ways, and sometimes you just want a pill to make it stop hurting. But for the most part, life is still a joy without having to play pretend.
Thanks for sharing
“Portrait Of The Actress Jeanne Samary, By Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1877”
I immediately recognized the picture in your thumbnail because I painted a life size copy of it years ago. I still have to frame it though. 😅
Sorry if the comment is unrelated to the video, the image brought back happy memories. Cheers!
Hey man no one hypnotizes themselves you were led into it
Obviously not everyone is aware of what is going on
But there is a brain 🧠 science at play in churches
From a former Christian of 30 years myself
It’s literally one of the things recovering drug and alcohol abusers do they substitute one addiction for the religious addiction believing they’ve kicked addiction. Not saying one is better or worse than the other I’m just saying it’s a continuance of behavior.
@@Jcs57 I didn't realize that, but it makes sense.
1.) Makes you without asking
2.) Makes you unable to not do the thing that will send you to the place he "didnt intend" for you
3.) Offers a bribe of debt
4.) Or else you go to the place he couldnt have foreseen, which was totally necessary, and he cannot think or create any other way around for you.
Because reasons
They’re mistaking tribalism for worship, with the football games. Like, some people just work, read books, and watch tv, what are they “worshiping”
I was on a channel yesterday and the person said "even Atheist have faith" It shows some of these people do not have conversations outside of people in their "group "
Just abusing words left and right
The faith/trust equivocation is about the worst. It's awful
Outside of people in their cult you mean.
They think they don’t have to because anyone with a different opinion is wrong and either evil or deceived by evil
@@chromographia106Yeah, it really is a swapping out of definitions as it suits them. I don’t doubt that they believe faith and confidence are different things, but if you can’t demonstrate the difference, maybe then maybe that’s something to be reflected upon.
It feels like Turek saying “I don’t have enough faith to be an atheist”.
Sunday is now official! 🎉
ha, thanks!
AMEN! 😊
There are a lot of these word games with terms like "worship", "faith", "sacrifice"
Like one argument I heard is that sacrifice is necessary for life because animals are sacrificed for food, therefore Jesus. Or what about "you have faith that the sun will come up in the morning."
LOL... Yes, because we have demonstrable, repeating, scientific evidence that the Sun will be in the East at a specific time, each day.
Words can't describe how happy I am to have come across your channel.
For the longest time I've felt the most unhappy with being a believer in god and it wasn't until I noticed a lot of the messed up morals in the bible as I grew older,being gaslighted by a cult for three years at one point in my life and especially your videos that I gave up in being a believer and I couldn't have been happier doing so and I wanted to say thanks.
Admittedly it can be hard for me to have a proper heart-to-heart with my family due to them being devoted believers whereas I have thrown away my faith but this is the path I've chosen even if I won't be able to have a proper communication with my family I'm luck I have friends that I can be fully honest with who I am.
I’m glad you are happier. ❤
So glad to be a helpful place. Thank you!
Its like saying "atheists spend time talking about their knowledge on the bible and their past traumatic experience. It automatically means they are worshipping it because they spend time on it"
my thesis for my history degree was the mind of Hitler. I spent hundreds of hours on that project but never had ANY urge to worship him
Xn projection
I always find it ironic when the non-believer just... doesn't do the thing they claim is REQUIRED.
Like: "Everyone worships. - I don't. - *You're persecuting me!*"
It's the classic "Every accusation is a confession." Like the most classic "You just want to sin!" when those people joined *exclusively* to be allowed to sin."
Yeah. When Christians "sin," all they have to do is tell god they're sorry, and they're all good. Many don't even do that much. They're covered by the blood of Jesus, so they've got a free ticket to Heaven, no matter what they do. So, umm... Why would we pretend not to believe in God, knowing we would go to Hell? The logic there doesn't add up.
Considering how awful many Christians are, it would be more logical to say they're only Christians because they want to sin. It's not that simple, of course, but it makes a lot more sense than what they're saying.
Worship is taught. That's why there are so many different ideas about what should be worshipped. Thanks for another brilliant discussion.
great point!
My thought with the OT God was "dude loves his barbeque"
The Sun works in mysterious ways.
Keep trying to mock Him and He might barbecue your ass lol
When I was a new believer, I was confused about all the verses in the Bible that say we should fear god, especially when I read in 1st John about how "perfect love casts out all fear." I can't remember who I asked(probably the pastor) about that, but I was told that the word "fear," when applied to God, really meant an awesome reverence for God.I accepted that answer at the time, but later, I ran across verses that spoke of serving god, no only with fear, but with "trembling." I pictured serving god while "shaking in my boots" so to speak.That was one of the first contradictions I came across in the Bible.There would be many more.
I’m reminded of the scene in Kill Bill:Volume 2 when the head of the yakuza, O-Ren-Ishii, comes to a restaurant inn with her gang. The proprietors constantly bow and scrape before her; they are absolutely terrified (well, O-Ren did move in full kimono all the way down a table at a gathering of crime bosses and cut one of the bosses’ head off when he insulted her mixed ancestry)
O-Ren’s posse derives their power from their connection with her - because she is feared, they are feared - and they give her their loyalty
When The Bride, Uma Thurman, appears to exact her revenge upon O-Ren-Ishii, her gang attacks her; Uma is threatening their boss, the source of their power and prosperity
Non-belief is a threat to the Ultimate Boss; and his loyal followers, apologists and clergy, leap to his defense - however, it would seem to me that an Eternal, N-Dimensional, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent Being shouldn’t need to be defended by humans
Indeed. I used to tease theists when I was in my 20s "is your god so flimsy and easily damaged that you have to protect it so seriously?"
Ah, correction - it was Vol 1
I admit, I wasn’t mad at O-Ren for not allowing her parentage to be disparaged
As a former Christian now atheist, I don't worship anything.
Okay, okay. Sleeping in on Sundays.
lol
sleeping in on Sundays is great 😴
You know what I found once I left the “faith”? Peace! True Peace, I have never known this kind of peace. I do know I’ve always had questions since I was a child and no one has ever been able to answer them! None. And now I am 56 and no longer believe, but I hear the believer and there’s absolutely nothing new there and still no answers. I’m am done looking. They say god wants a relationship with me, well that can’t happen until god shows up!! A one sided relationship is no relationship!
@@Obligate.Carnivore Bingo. A one sided relationship is not a relationship, and all the explanations that excusigists give for why it's a relationship just twist the knot even more.
I was in my mid 40s when I realized I no longer believed. It's been and four years since, and I agree, it's been more relaxing, peaceful and mentally healthy for me since I stopped believing.
@@Obligate.Carnivore that is so true.
I find the mystery of life far more wondrous and miraculous than "magic man did it."
Thank you for choosing to explore "worship" in this episode. You truly shine a beautiful light into all the dark corners that black-and-white thinking tends to disregard. I get so tired of the lack of appreciation and respect for nuance and the folds of thought and pondering. The scolding and judgment is often especially heavy-handed. I would expect the opposite - instead conversations more thoughtful and well-considered in service of that which is supposedly adored and worthy of devotion.
well said, Deb! and thank you. Nuance for the win!
Needed this today. Just came out as Deconstructed on RUclips and TikTok. The comments keep coming ...
The amount of comments trying to disprove my journey is laughable. I knew they were coming, but honestly I'm
not in mental frustration because of them. For me that’s a huge growth. I realized today I have grown and healed so much, that those comments are just comments and they don’t hurt my feelings like they would’ve before.
I have done the work. I have unlearned and learned. I’m proud of myself, regardless what these believers think of me.
I want to thank you, your videos have helped me feel a sense of community and understanding-- Like I am not alone. So seriously, thank you. Your videos helped me feel comfortable enough to get to the point of creating again (slowly but surely).
Thank you.
So happy to be of any help in this process!
It seems like Christian apologists like to play games around words such as "worship", "faith", "god", "first cause", etc.
Yeah, the word games are endless, because most of their major ideologies revolve around intellectual gerrymandering to make ancient, utterly disconnected texts relevant to the ideals and social mores they hold today. To manage that, it's necessary to use words one way in normal circumstances (because you still need to be able to use a word like "forgive" in everyday situations where you have to let someone off the hook for their offense without having to deal with the consequences, or we couldn't maintain social cohesion and amicable relationships), but then utterly redefine it when you start talking religion/god(s).
One of my friends who is a believer about had an aneurysm when I brought up her disconnect between how she used the word "forgiveness" in a number of contexts, but when she _spoke of it,_ she described it as not being all the things she actually used it to describe and how she acted in the real world. She would _act_ as if "forgive" means what we all generally mean: to stop blaming or being angry at someone or a perceived wrong, to not hold someone accountable for their offense. But when we would _talk_ about it, she'd say it's "not about blame" and "doesn't let someone off the hook for their behavior." I'd note that it explicitly does exactly that, that it literally always is about blame and accountability, and what she was describing was just "acceptance."
The mental gymnastics she'd use to try and argue that "forgiveness" isn't actually about the thing we'd call "forgiving" normally, while still struggling to explain the ways she'd used it without the context of a theological discussion or how she'd behaved when doing it, it made me a little sad for her. To expend so much energy to deny the plain things you know and do, just so you can maintain a fictional "definition" handed to you from some deluded jerk at a pulpit. Heartbreaking.
Honestly, God creating us with this hole in us that needs to be filled, putting us into a world of wonder and amazement, and then intentionally hiding and blaming us when we don’t worship him instead of literally anything else has got to be the definition of manipulation.
Well said!
Ha, I was just explaining this concept to my coworker about how we were told constantly that we had a, "god sized hole in our hearts" that needed to be filled. He went to a more liberal church and had never heard this. I have a glazed doughnut sized hole in my stomach I'm going to have to fix.
Reminds me of when a therapist told me that admiring women’s curves (like a normal heterosexual guy) was “beholding” women who were not my wife, implying I was worshipping them. The idea is absolutely ridiculous.
“It takes more faith to be an atheist than a believer” is one of the most idiotic things ever and it’s such a common saying 🙄
what a video, this one was a real treat.
the churches teachings on idolatry is one of the things that made me leave the religion, if something was becoming an "idol" in my life I was told to abandon it. this caused me a lot of anxiety and I stopped doing things I loved, it ultimately made me very depressed and it made me look deeper for the truth.
in some ways, that was my "mindshift" so to speak.
Idolatry is the worship of the evil winter signs. This is well covered in Isaiah 31, 45, and 48. Oh! How the swindling preachers have lied to you. Worship of these same signs, during the summer, is not evil.
It's so they can act like spending a significant amount of their time literally singing praises to some dude they not only have never met, but can't even know actually exists, is a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
Speaking as a man who has never been filled with the Holy Spirit clearly
@@Bossman21DNo one has. Speaking of tongues is called glossolalia, and the nice warm feeling you get is designed to happen due to the worship music. The feeling you get from the holy spirit is the same feeling you can get at any concert, or from any other religion, or meditating. You can make excuses all you want, but that’s true, because it is not real, God isn’t real, grow up.
SPOT ON 😂😂😂
@@Bossman21DEver feeling described by people that they say they know for a fact is the holy spirit, can be felt exactly the same from other religions, concerts, and meditation and drugs. So please enlighten us as to how it’s any different? Oh because you “know” for a fact you were filled with the holy spirit. Just like a muslim knows allah has blessed him and made him whole, or a hippie knows that lsd has transformed his life, blah blah blah.
@@user-vt3vo1yd3v 🤣🤣as I said
One can only imagine how much damage could have been done by a competent logician such as yourself had you remained in the faith… So glad you’re on our side, the side of critical thinking and reasoning.
Great output, as always. Thank you!
Ha! Thanks, Boris
How much damage he could have done by remaining a Christian? Whatever do you even think you are saying? Who runs around as a TRUE Christian bringing damage to anyone else? I don’t and have believed for over 40 years in God and still believe. If you find yourself amongst people that think they are better than you because they are Christians and you are not , get away from them. No one is above another because even a born again Christian is one who is saved only because of the blood shed at the cross for everyone. They are not saved because they are more special than someone else but because they used their Faith that God gives all of us to understand God with. You not knowing God now could change tomorrow if you found God the very way I found God which is through Faith. We are all given the same measure of Faith to understand God with so that I cannot boast only I can find God and you cannot. Romans12v3. You not wanting to believe with your own measure of Faith falls on you to contemplate as well as myself. No one came to me and had to force me to believe in God and I chose to believe in God with the Faith we ARE ALL GIVEN!!
I was not born hardwired to worship ANYTHING. Even as a small child NOTHING about Christianity fealt right to me. It was only until getting a phone and learning of different points of view like yours that i made the decision to leave the faith for good and turn away a second and final time when i was reminded why i left in the first place. Being told I'm worthless without something and that I'm to stupid to understand why is a good way to drive me away not closer towards something. The fact that I'm not that desprate for a sense of purpose to believe everything force fed down my throat is a breath of fresh air to me.
"What do you mean by...?" was probably one of the most wonderful questions/lessons to ask, that my dad left me. As I watched this video I was reminded of how important it is to define our terms. So many arguments and misunderstandings arise because of differing definitions of words/terms. Seek clarification and understanding by asking, "What do you mean by...(insert word/term)?"
I’m 21 years old and Catholic. Thank you thank you so much. While I still believe in God and think that the Bible is trustworthy sometimes it feels so cathartic to listen to you. I paused at 12:54 to type this after you mention the false equivalency. I feel like sometimes these concepts are thrown around without being well thought through. I don’t think the people who say this stuff think about it from the perspective of an average layperson such as myself. They don’t think of the natural conclusion and where this way of thinking naturally leads. I know where it leads and the answer is misery.
15:56-16:02 no this is a conversation worth having and yes I can speak from experience when I say that I’ve experienced harm from this way of thinking.
Appreciate your openness!
Man, this one hits home!
I remember being a young teenager and having anxiety over whether or not I was “worshipping” TV shows or comic books because everyone would warn me of that. I’d always panic that something was wrong with me for even hyper fixating on hobbies or interests for too long, fearing that god would be upset with me because he was “jealous.” I even remember SACRIFICING things I loved because god wouldn’t “approve” of them!
Turns out, the hyper-fixating was linked to my ADD and possibly my anxiety. After deconverting, I’ve been freed from that constant worry of “am I worshipping X?” and guess what? I’ve been learning about moderation and balance, rather than completely removing something out of my life.
P. S. I’d like to elaborate on just how damaging this is psychologically. Christianity (the main example, but other religions do it too) promotes the belief of god before EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING ELSE, to the point it turns anything else one might enjoy into a sort of “forbidden fruit” thus, you want it MORE and it promotes MORE guilt. BUT, if you actually look into our psychology as humans, you’ll find that we function the opposite. If we remind ourselves that it’s just something we enjoy and not place such heavy emphasis on it, we’re MORE likely to be moderate or even QUIT! Christianity has it backward for MOST things.
That’s something I’ve noticed since I’ve started studying psychology in college…which also partially led to my deconversion.
Once again.... and at the risk of speaking redundantly... I SO appreciate your clarity here! I never understood "worship" and the why's and how's and when.... I am truly grateful, Brandon.
Glad to help, David! thanks
From the Oxford English Dictionary:
Worship (verb) - show reverence and adoration for (a deity); honor with religious rites.
Worship (noun) - the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity.
If there's no deity involved, it isn't worship.
It's the tired old ploy of redefining a word to make their god-fixation seem more rational.
It only serves to show atheists that deists don't have anything concrete to serve as a foundation for their behavior.
Ok but what if a football team or nice meals can be defined as deities?
I blame Bob Dylan and his jam about Joshua 24:15 during his Jesusy period. "Yuh gunna hafta sehhhve some-buddy."
As a teen and still a Catholic, I always felt the need to add a caveat before I said I really loved a rock band or a comic book series or any creative person or artistic creation. “Oh, I don’t WORSHIP them, I just ADMIRE them.” On the other side, I chafed, and thought, “Why do I have to spell this out? Don’t they know the difference between liking, loving, admiring, and adoring?” On the THIRD hand, I’m put off by the mass media referring to celebrities as “idols.” It’s hyperbolic, but it still rubs me the wrong way. It took a while for me to balance the scales between the terms, and to finally remove the words “worship” and “adoration” out of the equation. As an adult, I am content with love, which is actually a greater, more satisfying experience than trying to appease an invisible man you have never met nor ever will!
I love that,...
"In the way God demands worship - I worship nothing."
Healthy and liberating
Absolutely beautiful. You're right when you say that having a naturalistic approach doesn't make the world any less wonder-full, because man that story of "worshipping" the seeds had emotional weight behind it. But then, I'm a sucker for a good story, which this most certainly was. And at the same time, nonfictional and educational. You really don't script your videos? I'm envious of that wit.
You should see whats left on the cutting room floor so to speak lol but thank you!
You touch on a great mystery. Why do we think life is worth living at all? I think before we were able to live as we do now, without immediate danger to our survival in every living second, we are able to create meaning. And since we are not threatened as we were in the past, we no longer have to create a God to protect us at every moment from all of the seemingly infinite ways that life can end. I think that is why modern western thought is getting more secular as time goes by.
You suppress the bad, and elevate the good in anything you worship.
Not Christian’s. They’re supposed to consider it all joy when they face tests and trials of many kinds.
That’s B.S. but they’re supposed to do that….
And DENY any truth in any opposing point of view. Just like yewtoob!
I do pay too much attention to coffee...
Oh wait, that's addiction..
Lol
Coffee!!!!!
@@TonyLambregts The Nectar of The Gods 🤣🤣☕
@@CatDaddyGuitar that first cup in the morning. Divine! I'm not even fully human until I have had it. Such an important part of modern culture. Thank God for coffee .😁
@@TonyLambregts David Letterman once said "without coffee, I would have no discernible personality whatsoever".
Thanks for pointing this out, never liked preachers putting it into black and white worship/"idolatry" and master/servant dynamics.
Yes exactly!
This accusation absolutely kept me from enjoying normal and healthy ways of spending my time, when I was a Christian, for fear of that thing being an”idol”. So much guilt!
I can't tell you how much I enjoy your videos and the content within them.
You are appreciated!
Glad you like them! And thank you!
When a believer says something like this to me, it give the impression that they know what is going on im my head. But they dont, and they are just trying to justify their actions or beliefs.
Brandon, your planting the seed example is gorgeous. So detailed, so widely encompassing...and spoken with elegance and beauty!
Thank you Maggie, i know i borrowed some of it from somewhere ha but no idea where.
I totally agree. It is so annoying to have false equivalence with everyday things that brings us joy. Sending love to everyone ❤
Thanks, Greg!
As a kid, you're taught that jealousy is a bad emotion but God stays jealous
It's projection, nothing more...just like that old saw "you're really a believer, you just don't want to admit it" and "I don't have enough faith to be an atheist."
Thank you for this so much!
"Does anything deserve actual worship?"
The long and short of it is, no, I'd think.
I’d tend to agree, but my girlfriend’s feet…
Especially if they requires it
@@Nkosi766 haha! Oooh yeah
Hi Brandon, I don’t usually comment but I just needed to let you know that this video was well thought out and sensible. Thank you for this amazing message on this beautiful Sunday.
Lovely to hear from you then and thank you!
Absolutely loved the hypothetical evolution story you gave. Very erudite in its conception and eloquent in its articulation. Kudos my friend!
Thank you so much!
It's in the world I become
Content in the hum
Between voice and drum
It's in change
The poetic justice of cause and effect
Respect, love, compassion
This is my church
This is where I heal my hurts
For tonight
God is a DJ
- Faithless
I look forward to these videos every Sunday now. 100x more thought provoking than any sermon I’ve ever heard in a church. I’ve noticed over my 20 years of church going (and attending many many different churches) that it’s the same sh”t preached from the pulpits every Sunday and it got to be so tiresome I couldn’t take it anymore. Nothing new under the sun in these places. And I was surprised how in every sermon, I always saw people’s jaws drop like 😮 as if it was some major revelation that the pastor dropped. How many times does a person have to hear about tithing or forgiveness or the grace of God, it’s not rocket science. 😂 But…. Repetition is the mother of indoctrination. 🙌🏼
Nailed it!
It never made sense for me to put a whole lot of faith or effort into something that I couldn't confirm that even existed. I mean, even at one point when I did believe in God, I found it very hard to imagine putting God for say my family, or somebody that I actually loved.
When I first opened up to my mother last year about being an atheist, I told her that it was difficult for me to have faith in anything. But if there was one thing that I had absolute faith in, it was the fact that my mother would love me no matter what. That is the One singular truth that I know.
Quite honestly, the concept of being forced to worship or made to worship or loving to worship just sounds like a massive case of Stockholm syndrome.
Thank you for this!
It's good to hear what I know put in words so clearly.
I consider it one of the main goals of the channel. Not to reinvent the wheel but to help vocalize how we all know that it spins. Thank you!
Your videos have brought me a lot of peace in my transition from christian to agnostic. Could you please make videos about all the different denominations? Maybe even a deep dive into catholicism.
“Everyone worships something” is also offered as a tu quoque (argument from hypocrisy) fallacy. It isn’t real criticism, it is just a way of dismissing legitimate objections without having to address them. It’s a defense mechanism.
Indeed!
14:33 “dedication is not worship” all I can say is thank you for making this video. Thank you so much.
It was my pleasure
@@MindShift-Brandon it’s the same as when people imply that noticing a woman’s attractive features is the same as lusting after her. I used to struggle with that as well thinking I was constantly committing a mortal sin because I thought attraction=lust. It’s the same with this dedication doesn’t equal worship.
Thank you so much for these videos.
You are so welcome!
Excellent breakdown of this topic and I'm happy to have learned something new in my deconstruction journey! People exaggerate and equate humans simply doing what humans do as "worship" when it is nowhere near the same level or intent of what god demands!
Thanks for sharing your wisdom! Sunday's have never been better!
You bet! Thanks for that
This is my favorite video you’ve ever done. It explicates a very self-explanatory sociology of religion in a way that keeps the profundity of the world present minus the need for a god. Showing the difference in reverence and submission of religious ritual and practice versus the modern, secular lifestyle is something very important that got me started on my atheist journey many years ago: that people can live normal lives not too dissimilar from my Christian one without the need for a god. Thank you for this poetic and captivating presentation!
Oh wow. Thats so nice to hear. Thank you!
babe wake up new mindshift video dropped
Ha. Love it. Thanks!
My favorite videos by you are the ones like these where you connect human nature to religious attachments. Pondering the WHY is not only interesting, but helpful. Thanks again for your work!
My favorites to make too. Thanks!
When ask the question ‘who is God ,the answer is always my mother ,without her caring love and devotion from birth I would not be alive today so if anyone or anything is worthy of my worship it is undoubtedly my mother
I genuinely have no idea what they mean by 'worship' when they claim everyone worships something. Just like I have no idea what some believers mean by 'god' when they claim by being atheist, we become our own gods.
The concept that “we become our own gods” is somewhat similar to both Gnostic Christian tradition and Buddhist tradition. While Buddhism suggests to not rely on external supernatural entity but on yourself, the Gnostic Christianity outright says “look within yourself, that’s where god is” (I’m paraphrasing), that’s in the Gospel of Thomas, non-canonical text that was used as a reference for the movie Stigmata (recommend watching)
It's pure projection because they literally are their own gods if we really examine it.
Thanks!
Thank you!
YESSSS I WANTED TO SEE THIS!
Ask and ye shall receive here lol
REMARKABLE video, Mr. B. This, too, has always bothered me. Your subject matter evoked a past memory that's never left me. Back in the late 70's, (or early 80's?), Bob Dylan released "Gotta Serve Somebody." Though I'm a Dylan fan and enjoyed the groove of the song, the message repulsed me. Your channel is outstanding, thank you.
Thanks so much, yes Dylan and also DFW really helped cement this idea.
Brandon I'd love to see you respond to Mike Winger's "it's hard to think of my loved ones in hell" video that just came out.
It's a big issue that pushed me toward deconstruction and I found his response dismissive, reductive, and somewhat insulting.
Love your stuff, dude
@mai72-jc4cg no I haven't caught that yet, I'll check it out, thanks!
This one is giving me a lot to think about, and in some surprising ways. Thank you for your work, Brandon.
Love to hear that!
It's the same as the statement theists like to spam "Atheism = Nihilism". But most importantly, it's the justification theists use to bridge the concept of [Original Sin/Romans 3:23-24] onto non-believers; while avoiding the need to solve Schrödinger's cat upon making said claim.
I “worship” with my entire being only one thing - breathing. In and out, utmost and awesome, holy and righteous, forever and ever, amen.
It's a magical experience to be told that I'm worshiping the wrong thing by people who worship Donald Trump.
Loved the hypothetical Brandon. Great show.
Thanks for making it that far, Jeff!
It always annoys me when Christians try to convince me how I "actually" feel or tell me that I believe something that I know I don't. It doesn't help that the way they all phrase it is nearly the exact same way, which makes them sound fake [lack of a better word]
P.S. I don't have a problem with people who simply believe in a God, y'all are good. Only the ones that try to convince me that I also believe in him, but am just denying his existence
I love Tobias Sammet's work on both Edguy and Avantasia, I think he's a great singer and songwriter. What I do not do is have a shrine, or pray to him, both of which people do for gods.
That said, I do remember the conditioning that led me to think this way, and the subsequent stress when I entered high school and stopped feeling God's presence. It was the start of my deconstruction.
Thanks for sharing. Exactly
Thank you for all you do!❤❤❤
Thanks, Jamie!
Bob Dylan has a song called “you gotta serve somebody”. It basically makes this same point.
From the same view that patriarchal hierarchy is inevitable, like the Divine Right of kings. But is it? As Ursula Le Guin says, we once believed that the divine right of kings was an inevitable truth. Now we don't. Power structures may seem indomitable, but they don't last forever.
That "somebody" could be a tennis ball.
What you said there at the end about how being human and how we still yearn for these feelings and rituals even though they are just natural is powerful. Its enough for me to consider ourselves almost divine-like in essence when I look at it that way. Considering that the hard problem of consciousness is such a mind-bending part of reality for myself, I'd say, that if there was to be anything truly worthy of worship, it would be ourselves. Putting ourselves first, loving ourselves and others, easing our own sufferings as well as others if we can. I think that's how I choose to define my reality. Being the divine, we worshipped all along. Great video bro!
I have had this argument more than once with a family member on Facebook. I have come to believe that a lot of people need to worship something. They need to believe that there is a hierarchy with one thing at the very top, pulling all the strings and righting all the wrongs. If they are also arrogant, they project this need onto the rest of us and convince themselves that any other way of thinking is erroneous or evil. I'm not sure if this kind of arrogance is part of their psyche or if they get it from their preachers. The preachers certainly encourage this mindset.
What you esteem as the highest valued thing in your life is the thing you worship.
@@heavenbound7-7-7-7 Nope.
@@heavenbound7-7-7-7 Did you watch the video? That definition has been debunked.
Great video! Especially loved your closing thoughts. Made me think of one of Sam Harris' talking points (that I think maybe you've cited before?), that knowing the technical mechanics, so to speak, of why you like chocolate (or whatever else) doesn't take away from the experience of enjoying it. You can understand the mundane hows and whys of a thing and still enjoy the feelings it produces, admire the spectacular effects, etc.
(Though maybe I'm thinking of somebody else who cited it? I wish I could remember which video I was thinking of. #SwissCheeseMemory)
It IS a false equivocation. Context matters, but there is nothing I can think of that would rise to the level of being worthy of `worship.` Sure, I place value on things. For example music. I love music, but I don't give music the extravagant reverential devotion that the religious give a god. Even my children and family in general. I love my kids at least as much as myself, but I don't worship them. Then again, I don't worship myself either. It's kind of entertaining to see some theists make that argument, because to compare my love of music, for example, with their devotion to a god, diminishes their own understanding of worship.
Aaahhh my favorite sermons
Keep going and I salute you brother
Thanks so much!
If the normal activities they call worship in non-believers actual were worship them all Christians, without exception, are guilty of "worshiping false gods" and are thus going to Hell. It's a lose-lose argument
Well, using apologist "logic" and definitions here, there is a bunch of things that I worship. Off the top of my head: eating filling meals regularly, sleeping in, not having to wear my "Sunday best," being able to travel without needing a car, not needing to bankrupt myself because of a medical emergency - I could go on, but you get the idea, right?
Okay, so these things are not exactly existent in the US, but there is a little something called "the rest of the frickin' world" where each and every one of these things do actually exist, so that is where I am and thus get to enjoy my "worshipping."
You notice what is not included on this list of worship? Some hypothetical hypocritical raging psychotic alcoholic narcissist with the biggest god complex ever (yeah, there's a pretty big reason why that is the name for it) who can and undoubtedly will toss aside me and anyone - and probably everyone, believers included - for eternal burning and likely for no reason at all.
See why the apologist definition is never included in any dictionary other than the one they keep in their deluded minds?