Isn't religion essentially a cult that makes billions of dollars annually from donations from their brain dead...

Isn't religion essentially a cult that makes billions of dollars annually from donations from their brain dead followers?

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christianitytoday.com/pastors/2007/september-online-only/what-pastors-get-paid.html).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States#Mean_household_income).
psy.miami.edu/faculty/mmccullough/Papers/Relig_self_control_bulletin.pdf
esquire.com/news-politics/news/a41147/half-of-americans-less-than-1000/).
health.spectator.co.uk/people-who-go-to-church-live-longer-heres-why/
m.washingtontimes.com/news/2006/apr/3/20060403-103809-9183r/
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

yes

You'd think people would have enough common sense to realize this though. They're getting played harder at church than they are at mr shekelsteins store

They're too brainwashed to ever understand, though.

>muh turn the other cheek
>muh jew on a stick

Christianity was invented by jews to cuck whites into allowing them more influence and kindness in their societies. Julianus would have executed all jews, but the retarded Christians protected them.

Yeah I hair wish people would snap out of this brainwashing. I was raised Christian growing up but just pondering and thinking about life made me an atheist when I was just 11. Religion is such a blue pill

>every single one of earth's tens of millions of churches are rich and generate revenue
I tip my banana to you.

Sorry it's more like this. Especially for a dumb nigger like you.

no

I feel bad for Christians, honestly. I know almost no happy Christians. They're usually miserable people who live empty, pathetic lives, and their one driving force is this belief that even though their life on earth was painful and worthless, there's this beautiful afterlife where everyone is happy, and all the people who wronged you get their comeuppance in a lake of fire. I don't hate them for their beliefs; I'm in no way antitheistic. It's just sad to see someone reach a point where the only place they feel accepted is in that pew on Sunday morning, when in the end, it's all just a big scheme.

In what country do pastors get paid enough to afford two cars, one of which looks like it belongs in a rapper's music video?

Presbytarian pastors, the highest earning in the US, earn $78,000 a year (christianitytoday.com/pastors/2007/september-online-only/what-pastors-get-paid.html). That's only barely over the median household income of $72,641, and below the white median household income of $79,340 (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States#Mean_household_income). So on what fucking planet can pastors afford two luxury cars without fucking sleeping in them?

Boo hoo go fuck yourself you whiny faggot. Go be a little self-worshiping libtard, you Satan-worshiping piece of worthless shit. You think you're a good guy? You're not. You're a bad person. Everyone is bad except for Jesus. I'm sorry for you, your parents must be complete retards. And you think you can spit on this peaceful and prosperous land built by my people who worshiped Jesus/God since arriving here in the 1600s, and you think you can worship Satan on this land? You should be hanged, faggot. Now that Trump is President, you better be a good little boy. We're a lot less lenient than that faggot nigger Obama. We want a comfy society for people who worship God. If you are unwilling to submit to Jesus, the one true God, we will destroy you. If we were like Jesus, we would let you overcome us, but we are flawed sinners, who want to live in a comfy society. If you want to worship your own power instead of thanking God and repenting, if you want to worship your own strength, I'm sorry for the pain you will feel. We don't give a fuck about the 'sins of our past', nigger. God forgives those who repent. If you think that was bad, our damage output is going to be off the charts after all these years of being held down by the satanic establishment. Try us, little bitch

Not really.

Why not? Cause it looks to me like these cult leaders are taking advantage of poor and uneducated people.

>pastor
sorry I'm not an inbred protestant

No you fucking atheist Shill Jew. Fuck off

>I'll pray to saints duhhh I'm brain dead duhhh

>Isn't religion essentially a cult
No, a "cult," or in popular parlance, and more properly a "destructive cult," is a certain type of new religious movement (NRM) that is harmful or exploitative toward society as a whole or its members. A NRM in general is a religious community or spiritual group of modern origins, which has a peripheral place within its society's dominant religious culture. Such groups can constitute a social group defined by common religious beliefs that may be sharply or diffusely bounded, and share a commitment to a charismatic leader, organization, or transcendental ideology, which may be expressed through effective, socially established and ordered forms or in concrete external actions performed within the congregation or community.

A world religion, or any main body of a world religion, thus does not meet any definition of either "cult" or "NRM," although both can exist within a world religion.

>that makes billions of dollars annually from donations
Most world religions are represented by non-profit organizations that contribute most of their income to charity work and community service.

>from their brain dead followers?
Some religions, such as Anglicans, observant Jews, and Roman Catholics (excluding Latino Catholics) routinely outscore Atheists and Agnostics on IQ tests. Almost all of the greatest human intellects that have ever existed have been devoutly religious. I myself am a Christian and I have been clinically evaluated as having a genius level IQ. But if you think following a secular worldview makes you more intelligent than others, all I can say to you is that you shouldn't worry about your own intelligence so much. Being smart doesn't make one a good person.

...

>I know almost no happy Christians
That's a nice anecdote. It'd be a shame if someone were to offer evidence to the contrary.

psy.miami.edu/faculty/mmccullough/Papers/Relig_self_control_bulletin.pdf
>Similarly, a 2-decades-old meta-analysis (Witter, Stock, Okun, & Haring, 1985) concluded that religiousness was positively associated with subjective well-being (mean effect size of r .16). A more recent meta-analytic review of data from 49 studies (Ano
& Vasconcelles, 2005) also concluded that “positive” forms of religious coping (e.g., benevolent religious reappraisals of stressors, collaborative religious coping, and active religious surrender) were positively associated with scores on measures of positive psychological outcomes, such as satisfaction with life and happiness (mean r .33), and negatively associated with measures of negative outcomes, such as anxiety and depression (mean r .12).

Religiosity correlates positively with an improved subjective experience of life ie. happiness.

That's strike two, friend. Care to shove some more bullshit in my face for a third one?

>in what country do pastors get paid to afford 2 cars
Welcome to the United States of America. It's a dog eat dog world over here and the uneducated poor Christians get preyed on by these money hungry pastors. Organized church is all about money my friend.

Pastors don't even make a lot of money though.

fpbp

>care to shove some more bullshit in my face for a third one?
You get enough of that at church

I feel bad for Atheists, honestly. I know almost no happy Atheists. They're usually miserable people who live empty, pathetic lives, and their one driving force is this belief that even though their life on earth was painful and worthless, there's oblivion after you die, and all the people who wronged them get their comeuppance in oblivion. I don't hate them for their beliefs; I'm in no way anti-Atheistic. It's just sad to see someone reach a point where the only place they feel accepted is in Redit, when in the end, it's all just a big scheme.

>uneducated poor Christians get preyed on by these money hungry pastors
Then why is this not reflected in their salaries? What you're talking about here are probably a handful of televangelists who need donations so they can buy a private jet. The average pastor's salary is, as I've shown, barely above the median of all races, slightly below the median of white Americans and significantly below the median of Asian Americans. If we assume the average pastor truly makes bank, than the average American is stupidly rich. Yet the average American lives paycheck to paycheck (esquire.com/news-politics/news/a41147/half-of-americans-less-than-1000/).

It's almost like you're just mad and coming up with accusations against an institution you don't like for subjective reasons on the fly. But that can't be possible, right?

>That's a nice anecdote.
>you're not allowed to form opinions based on your own personal experiences, you have to base your entire worldview off of statistics I found on the internet

don't mess up op's facebook meme spree

Yes.

hmmmm are you mad that god is rewarding his shepherds and not you?

> I myself am a Christian and I have been clinically evaluated as having a genius level IQ.
Kek you're delusional. If you had any common sense you would realize the religion you are is determined by where you're born and your parents.

>Organised church
You mean televangelists and black "protestant" churches.

The vast majority of pastors make very little money

Come visit America you'll find out that's not true most of the time

>be atheist
>numale
>cuckold who throws life away.

>tfw my pastor acquaintance somehow gets free housing through his church

Fucking Rekt

>you're not allowed to form a world view based on your subjective experience, you have to base your world view on facts and statistics
FTFY.

I don't question that you know some very unhappy Christians, but on average Christians are happier than their irreligious counterparts. Psychiatrist Andrew Sims even goes as far as to call this the best kept secret in psychiatry.

> Le edgy 12 year old
There's a reason the christian nations prosper and kicked ass all around the world back in the day atheism and other forms of amorality were prosecuted.

My parents were both atheists. My entire extended family lacks religion. My grandmother was a Marxist. I was raised atheist and converted when I was 19. I was born in Canada, which is hardly the most devoutly Christian society in the world or in history. The mass media, popular culture, and higher education here is staunchly anti-Christian.

That said, I seriously doubt that you would be an atheist if you weren't from a first world country in the year 2016, so right back at you, senpai.

>If you had any common sense you would realize the religion you are is determined by where you're born and your parents.
If that were the case, all religions would be stagnant. There would be no new religions, there would be no perversion from faith to irreligion and there would be no conversion from religion to faith. In this wholly deterministic faith, half of Europe would still follow the pagan gods of Rome and nobody would be irreligious.

Don't forget those unions.

allahu akbar

Here, religious leaders get huge tax breaks and benefits from the government. They suck pastor cock more than their mindless followers

>Boo hoo go fuck yourself you whiny faggot. Go be a little self-worshiping libtard, you Satan-worshiping piece of worthless shit. You think you're a good guy? You're not. You're a bad person. Everyone is bad except for Jesus. I'm sorry for you, your parents must be complete retards. And you think you can spit on this peaceful and prosperous land built by my people who worshiped Jesus/God since arriving here in the 1600s, and you think you can worship Satan on this land? You should be hanged, faggot. Now that Trump is President, you better be a good little boy. We're a lot less lenient than that faggot nigger Obama. We want a comfy society for people who worship God. If you are unwilling to submit to Jesus, the one true God, we will destroy you. If we were like Jesus, we would let you overcome us, but we are flawed sinners, who want to live in a comfy society. If you want to worship your own power instead of thanking God and repenting, if you want to worship your own strength, I'm sorry for the pain you will feel. We don't give a fuck about the 'sins of our past', nigger. God forgives those who repent. If you think that was bad, our damage output is going to be off the charts after all these years of being held down by the satanic establishment. Try us, little bitch
delicious pasta

I don't know, in the Army officers drive tge same vans they have to use for Corps business. They get a good retirement plan but generally aren't paid shit. And for couples their Social Security is fucked up because only the man is paid.
There's a joke an officer told once: a Salvation Army officer, a Catholic priest and a Rabbi meet up to talk about stuff. The topic comes to how they count the collection. The officer says "we go in the back room, draw a circle on the floor, toss the money in the air and what lands in the circle we keep and we give the rest to the Lord". The priest says "we do a similar thing but we keep what lands outside the circle". The rabbi says "well, we do a similar thing but we don't bother with the circle, we just throw it up and say 'what you want you keep'".

Orthodox and Roman Catholic clergy are paid according to their level of education and usually less than that. Generally they hold Masters degree and PhDs. Niggers and gaytheists dont believe priests have bill to pay, let alone that God exists

My pastor lives in the church and takes care of the building and grounds when not tending to the congregation.

Just cause you have mega churches and televangelists doesn't mean religion is just a money draining operation. Look at what the actions are.

>Pastor
>Owning a Rolls Royce
That's a half a million dollar car.

Most of those greedy bastards suck their church members dry in the name of the LAWD

Oh, a fedora thread, how exciting!

People who go to church (any denomination) once a week live 10 years longer, have fun dying early!

health.spectator.co.uk/people-who-go-to-church-live-longer-heres-why/

Churches, monasteries and holy orders were often targets since they owned a lot of wealth that couldn't be tapped into by nobles, royals, etc. This isn't just a western thing. Scientology is a modern example.

You heathens.
if you don't believe in god,you're goin to hell
ya'll need jesus
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>Here, religious leaders get huge tax breaks and benefits from the government.
Maybe that's because they get low salaries and churches are non-profit organizations that survive on donations from members who have already had their incomes taxed, and churches dedicate most of their operating budgets to performing charity work and community service?

It's almost like the handful of American megachurch televangelists who live large are an exception and don't represent religion as a whole.

woops,
my text-art cross didn't come out well.

>to ignore this phenomenon would be foolish

m.washingtontimes.com/news/2006/apr/3/20060403-103809-9183r/

>Here, religious leaders get huge tax breaks and benefits from the government.
Because they're classified as non-profit organizations. The biggest and most wealthy religious organization on the planet, the Catholic Church, actually barely breaks even on an annual basis and is globally speaking one of the most active organizations in terms of humanitarian development. I think that justifies "huge tax breaks", don't you? And if you don't, do you think Unicef should be denied those same tax breaks?

This may sound greedy as fuck, but I'm thankful for the church in my area. Despite most the faith having hot rides, they're the most humble people I've ever met. Truly brightens my day to spend even 5 minutes talking to these people.

use this next time

I have very pleasant memories of going to the church as a kid.

Church of our parish was tiny and all clergy were the finest bunch you could meet.

Shit, every sunday there were 2 dedicated masses for the children, the priest would play the fucking guitar and praise Jeebus hour long. The walls and stained-glass windows were genuinely vibrating. It was very unorthodox but fun as fuck.

Kids fucking loved it and there was always no place to sit and very little place to stand (because surprise surprise older parishioners liked it too)

Lmao that's all you got? Church goers live another 10 years of their pathetic lives? Makes sense because they wasted 10 years collectively going to church to hear their priest scream nonsense.

He thinks the handful of organizations that abuse the tax system means that no organizations use the system properly.

>all the religions require some sort of "earthly" donation while all-mighty frog god KEK, the most glorious, only wants us to meme and/or shitpost and blesses us.
we all know the true answer guys.

you'll grow out of your edgy atheist days

Lol umad?

I'll be banging sack-titty grannies in the home long after you're in the ground.

Christian churchkikes lmao

its funny how everyone on Sup Forums has genius level IQs and they are lawyers, doctors, PhDs, and multimillionaire business owners

Am pastor. Must be doing something wrong because drive 2001 Chevy s10. 4x4 at least. In addition, all preachers I know must also be doing it wrong

My personal view is that as long as you live a good life and have a personal relationship with God, the Church you attend isn't particularly important.

I see organized religion as initially working as a structure to help people find God and then as an organization for improving the community ideally.

The churches that I've attended didn't ask people for exorbitant donations though, mostly just fundraising for repairs etc. I'd be suspicious if my church was regularly asking for donations other than a couple of pounds for collection on a Sunday.

I used to live next door to a preacher for a protestant church. Here's a story. I got a bunch of them if people want to listen in.

>be browsing the internet
>suddenly the internet and TV cable are out
>wondering what the fuck happened, reboot everything to no avail
>call the cable company
>"lol everything's fine this end"
>notice that evening there is a cable leading from the cable box into our neighbor's house
>the preacher stole our cable
>pull the cord, hide the end in a bush
>watch him dig through the bushes to get the cable out

Kek is the only god I will worship.

You know it's the opposite right? Most kids are raised religious by their parents and then they grow out of believing in magical sky fairies.

because calling something a cult doesn't make it a cult

Kek. I wanna hear more that's fucking hilarious. Has he raped little boys?

...

>spooks: the image

>mfw the narrator in my mind had a certain skin pigmentation even before reaching "nigger"

>magical sky fairies

ooh what a zinger m8, did you just think up that one yourself?

I think it's amazing that the existence of God, one of the most discussed and studied subjects of all time, has been disproved by people on the internet using nothing but macro images and snark! Wow, it really blows my mind how you've managed to btfo all those ignorant religious scholars with your biting intellect.

...

Noice

epicurus is childs first atheist. you should also read Omar Khayyám's stanzas or whatever you guys call it. hes a pretty based "unbeliever" back from middle ages arabia.

>disproved
Please give me a source
Also pic related

Lol Einstein said that God exists because evil is just a lack of God. Maybe you should pick a better picture to try to display your ((((knowledge))))

>protestants

>God preventing evil and thus ruining good

atheistshits, everyone

Einstein believed the universe is God. He believed every though around is a god. He was spiritual, not religious. And he sure as hell didn't believe in a 2000 year old book written by Jews and a magical sky daddy.

The "pastors" are protrstants. Go look at monks or some shit and tell me the difference.

Revelation 2:9 (KJV)

"...and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan."

>Epicurus
>childs first athiest
>isntead you should read the nonsensical scribbles from a desert nigger from a thousands years later

yes. it's a hussle. religion preys on the weak, the hopeless, the stupid. the simplified version is calling ms cleo on a 1-900 number to hopefully hear good news. they pray on the desperate, pay no fucking taxes, and feed you nothing but lies. and those same lies do nothing but give morons fuel to wage wars and fights with because they are then indoctrinated to; and rely on, a specific set of bullshit arbitrary rules which are designed to keep them under control.

i don't know how else you could explain it. however, this applies only to specific religions, not all. east asian religions are free of any of this tripe because they do not have a 'god' character. and i say character, because it is imaginary bullshit.

tl;dr christian-judeo, islamic, and abrahamic religion is horse shit.

can i get a citation with that? would love to use it but you know how sources works

the only pastors atheist know are the satanic whores who run shitty mega churches and shittier tv only ministries.

THE MAGICAL SKY DADDY ARGUMENT HAS BEEN USED! OH NO! anyway the point is he believed in a God,

Kek such a tolerant and loving religion

>trust a man who throws the devil horns

Yeah, that REALLY convinced me on how wrong I am.

Many pantheists believe he was one and they don't think of God in the sense that you do. For all intents and purposes, it's just a name used to communicate the point of their beliefs.

they are successors of each other. Khayyam was not an ordinary man though, mathematician as well with a geometric solution to the 2nd order quadratic equation and many more shit. but you are an american, of course you wouldnt know much about these stuff.

>Omar Khayyám

Fascinating, Mehmet.

Very well said user.