this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2023
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As an atheist, I had to ask myself how I know people are worshiping a god. In the US, it seems to boil down to a few things:
Based on this, I am already worshiping Apple.
I disagree woth the third one, as it implies using critical thinking to evaluate the success of an organisation, be it in a positive or negative light. I haven't heard a single strongly religious individual immediately agree that Joseph and Mohammed were p*dos, and using that as evidence to make a sound reasoning and evaluation on their religion's moral principles.
Religious people clearly use critical thinking. They just base a lot off of flawed premises.
They do use critical thinking but never apply it on their own religion, just all the others. To quote Richard Dawkins, "We're all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just take it one god further".
I would argue that nobody gives money to their church as a form of community participation. Rather, they give money in the hope that they can buy their way to salvation or as payment to ease their guilty conscience. Probably both.
I live in Utah. Mormons are absolutely required to tithe in order to participate in temple ceremonies. I've never been LDS, but my understanding is that the accounting for how much you tithe is carefully monitored. It's also my understanding that you must participate in temple ceremonies to achieve admittance into heaven.
Your statements are correct about the practices of tithing and temple attendance. The things you mention are widely practiced among the faithful. My dear father and oldest brother attend their annual “tithing settlement” while I happily deposit an extra 10% into my savings.
So it's a cult. Not like that's any huge revelation, but there's no way anyone can claim they are NOT a cult.