There is a word I hate beyond all others and that is
Apostasy
It is a word expectorated like diseased sputum from the mouths of the religious, as even keeping it inside will poison them.
from the Greek -Apo to move away from and Stania to stand up, the word is a description of rising up and moving away, originally practiced by those in governance who disagreed or could not support a course of action.
That is how I see apostasy, an act of courage and principal, not something to be derided or punished with anything up to and including death.
It is a word in the arsenal of the religious fear monger, along with other gems such as Heretic, Apostate, Blasphemy and the all time favourite SINNER.
Words design to enrage the masses, words designed and programmed to elicit evil reactions and hatred, shunning words, loathing words, Killing words.
The words of the Rabble rouser, the Mountebank, the Coward.
Personally I stand even taller when some poor, deluded, God-bothering believer calls me an Apostate because I take it as a compliment given that I, for one, have had the inner strength, will-power and determination to throw off the shackles of religion and enter into the REAL world and they are deriding me mainly, imo. because I have done what they either fear to do or just haven't got the guts to do.
True, it is not so much being called one it how religious institutions use the words to bully and intimidate existing members in to fearing that they might become "infected" with apostasy by "The godless"
@LenHazell53 As I often tell children who are bullied by others, " Only bullies need to intimidate because they are afriad of themselves and their own weaknesses", and the same applies to religions imho.
I am a proud Apostate in the great tradition of Carl Jung, Leo Tolstoy, Meister Eckhart, back to Origen of Alexandria to Jesus and all the way back to Socrates . Tolstoy said there have always been people who believe as I do but, have never been the majority. That's ok with me I like the company I'm in.
The meaning of the word Apostasy is a mater of one's point of view. I'm sure if someone renounced Islam and became Christian the Christians would be okay with it!
@SeaGreenEyez Yes! They are so much alike!
An apostate becoming a Christian is a "Convert" not an apostate, in the same way in war the enemy has filthy spies, but we have brave intelligence agents.
I was just thinking of this today. How can one actually deny something they know is true. If you really can't accept the Bible or christianity, is it really apostasy?
Yes, the babble speaks of apostasy. As for "sinner" I remember a person who came to our church while I was a teenager. He had been in war and had killed people, but he really got into god and church. He could not forget his past and one day a good Christian found him drunk and crying outside the building. He was immediately told "you are nothing but a sinner and you will always be a sinner." Yes, I remember my church daze.
Disgusting Christian hypocrisy
I agree, questioning things should be seen as a healthy and normal way for people to grow. When people shut down open-mindedness it is a red flag for manipulation and control.
I always liked how the word sinner rolled off the tongue. You have to say it with pizazz. SIN-errrrrrrr like how you can overemphasize the diner in Winner, winner, chicken diner. Ok, so it is mostly about words that end in -ner.
Who the fuck uses that word? I mean, some words are destined to disappear due to lack of use, like typewriter or kodachrome.
@SeaGreenEyez zi know what it means of course. But seldom used. Hope it goes away.
I always rather liked “fallen woman” ...fallen from the grace of god. It sounds a lot better than whore or harlot! It was bandied about a lot, by do-gooders in Victorian Britain.
There is an apocryphal story among people who teach English as a foreign language that in an essay one student wrote
"The woman fell down stairs and lay prostitute on the ground"
The teacher returned the essay with the comment
"Please learn the difference between a fallen woman and one who has temporarily lost her balance"
Apostasy, heresy, blasphemy, sin...these are words which are merely cultural constructs which Theists use to convince themselves of the reality of their deity. But, since their deity exists solely in their own imaginations, their words have meaning only to themselves. It’s not possible to blaspheme a non-existent deity.
And while we're at it, let's just throw out all the worthless religious terminology and clap-trap like holy, prayer, miracle, sacred, redemption, martyr, repentence, sacrilege, prophecy, righteousness, salvation, etc., etc.
Oh, sweetie, get yer head outta the Babble & try living! This level of engagement is painful to see.......
When I wised up, and discovered that the church I was raised in, and brainwashed in, was a crock of dung, I was excommunicated for apostasy. I'm proud to be an apostate.
Is it possible to be an apostate if a person has never held theistic beliefs of any kind? Has never attended a religious service of any kind except the wedding or funeral of a friend or family member? I am describing myself.
I would say no. You have to be in a church before you can stand up and walk out.
I expect they would most likely call you a heretic
My old religion was the JWs. You had to both leave and badmouth the religion to be an apostate.
I would call you lucky.