Do the anti-religious ideas on this album bother anyone else?

I'm not religious or anything but I find the whole criticizing christianity thing cliche and it sort of brings down a near perfect album.

On which songs does that happen? Only listened to this album a handful of times

You should only have a problem with that if you're a delusional Trumpster or fell for the "all atheists are neckbeards" meme

not to be edgy but the world would be better without religion

That's edgy as fuck though and just plain wrong, I'm agnostic bordering on athiest but you can't deny the huge immeasurable impact religion has made on philosophy, art and culture throughout history

Religion only exists because people needed a shelter from the creeping nihilism that is normal for self-aware human beings.

Specifically just on Eternal Life but it makes Halleluja and Corpus Christi Carol both seem very sarcastic

It wasn't cliche in the 90's with the religious right in control of everything. It's overdone nowadays.

What we need now are anti-Islam songs.

one time in church i was the acolyte (basically a non-catholic version of an altar boy) and it was my first time so i stupidly wore heavy clothing underneath the robe and i had never heard about not locking your knees when you're standing for long periods of time so i got overheated and almost fainted in front of the whole congregation

hope you enjoyed that story

and Mark Kozelek is going to be the one to make that new genre

How does he attack Christianity on Eternal Life? All I took away from it is him calling out people who don't practice what they preach.

Religion/Spiritualism/Occultism all exist as mechanisms for humans to band themselves together to form groups larger than the smaller tribes we formed beforehand.

You can argue all you want how useful it is in the modern world, but nobody can deny how powerful of a tool it was in our species' historically recent development and migration. There isn't a timeline where humanity exists today without religion because the latter is an inevitable product of the former.

Attack is perhaps too strong of a word but
"Man, it sounds to me just like a prison for the walking dead" to describe heaven seems a bit harsh

>but nobody can deny how powerful of a tool it was...
and nobody is...

world would be better without islam*

The world would best (not just better) without humans

True

Jonestown: World Edition?

who's up for it?

You'd be surprised. Tons of edgelords IRL and online claiming that religion has led to nothing but war and suffering. As a misanthrope, I'd prefer to say that humans would be fighting and suffering either way, but religion just happens to be heavily associated with it.

And by "tool" I really meant "beneficial tool."

Well I meant in this thread. Yeah, I know what you mean. Religion is largely the reason for Western civilization as we know it. It's a sensible argument if you are merely criticizing religion in its entirety but to sit in a comfy chair and say "Religion is the source of all problems" is beyond idealistic, it's stoner logic.

Exactly. Though I will say, completely eradicating religion will be one of the most important steps towards transhumanity, which I'm personally a big advocate for.

We'll get there one day. Change takes time, and people are stubborn.

He doesn't give me a firebrand vibe so much as one of "innocent bumpkin who just had his first questioning thought about religion." I wouldn't put too much stock in those few lines.

Yes. Religion is largely the reason for our modern society but what would our future be with a religion-free society? I honestly have no idea. I hope it would progress on without it but I don't know. You'd have to hope that once that has happened most people will be on the same page as you.

My thoughts exactly. It was seemingly a huge growth tool for humans, and I feel that it's quite dated these days. It's too flawed with our depth of universal understanding now.

We shall see what the next great step for humans will be. I say that, but I don't think we will be the generation that sees it happen. Which raises further questions on we are capable of the next step. If places like easter island tell us anything, it's that there's a great chance we will burn ourselves out before we can get past our primordial sense of donation and greed.

Then again, the world is a large place, it may have enough resources to hold on till we evolve our thought. I am not hopeful though.

>I am not hopeful though.
I'm not either. I want to be but I'm not. I just don't have enough faith in humans and their motivations.

>Religion/Spiritualism/Occultism all exist as mechanisms for humans to band themselves together to form groups larger than the smaller tribes we formed beforehand.
Why exactly do the most serious followers usually lead an ascetic life then?

The main hope is that technology will progress faster than the greed and evilness that comes with the growing pool of wealth and resources that will come with the new, complex society that comes with it. I predict that we'll make it. Not without strife and setbacks, of course.

I could be wrong though. Leave it to us to fuck things up. It's honestly scary just how much we're capable of and how easily we can squander it all.

It does deeply frustrate me that I won't be alive to see what happens, though.