Anonymous #1 4w

That's not the way the story is told. If you tell it worse it has less power yeah

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Anonymous OP 4w

Kinda like when people make fun of a sport by saying "Just a bunch a guys running around chasing a ball" Being reductive, misleading, and negative works pretty well to diminish something. I am not saying your reductive comment is false, because sure! In a sense that's a valid interpretation of the story, but by changing the way you talk about it you remove the power

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Anonymous OP 4w

Do you get what I mean now?

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Anonymous OP 4w

Yes, I do. That’s entirely the point of talking about it like that. Not treating it as dogma. It only holds “power” if you already believe it’s true.

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Anonymous #1 4w

Oh cool. Well yeah, then if you want a powerful story in your life tell it the powerful way If you feel that that stories power is a bad thing, diminish it. My take was just that when told in a specific way that the story of Jesus is really powerful

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Anonymous OP 4w

No shit. That’s called brainwashing.

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Anonymous #1 4w

When I think of brainwashing I usually think more about drug/torture induced CIA techniques. I think telling a compelling story is more "influencing". Light-core brainwashing. Equivalent to an advertisement for a Ford F150 with rock and roll music saying "Be big, be strong, be a man... buy a Ford". Just influence not brainwashing. But again. I think we agree. Power should be used for good, not capitalism or evil

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Anonymous OP 4w

This story is deliberately taught to kids before they’re able to form any critical thinking skills. Just because it’s not brainwashing like you’ve seen it movies doesn’t mean it isn’t brainwashing.

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Anonymous #1 4w

Maybe we are using different words but I am sure you acknowledge the difference between these 2 things Thing 1: Saying powerful words to influence a susceptible/vulnerable persons world view (ie: child, low IQ male) Thing 2: Torture, drugs, abuse, threats, and coercion from professionally trained state funded intelligence operatives The Jesus story is more like "Thing 1" right?

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Anonymous OP 4w

Yes, but thing 1 is a form of brainwashing itself. In fact the concept of Hell is a pretty popular threat to coerce people into believing. So it is brainwashing. Not just selling a car.

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Anonymous OP 4w

Evil, by its nature has no limit. By putting into this world a worst thing god provides another mercy. A strange form of it. But for those who believe, now they know exactly how bad things can get. Instead of living in fear of the infinite depths of evil that *could* happen to them. Certainty, familiarity, and knowledge of a terrible worst thing can diminish all other bad things. So the idea of hell alone is another powerful and good idea.

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Anonymous OP 4w

What in the mental gymnastics. Is Hell not supposed to be just endless suffering? I don’t know about you but that sounds like a pretty infinite depth of evil. You talk like you know people who’ve been there before or something. As if the ambiguity of it isn’t weaponized. All it does is fabricate high stakes to make people abandon critical thinking and accept the teachings. That is what makes this brainwashing.

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Anonymous #1 4w

I must not have done a good job at condensing all the religious literature I've read to you in a character limited response. I'm sorry. I'm not even a priest. Definitely not the right person and you are understandably frustrated. I'll do the best I can to answer any more questions though

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Anonymous OP 4w

The literature does not make sense. None of it does unless you believe it comes from a divine source. That’s my point.

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Anonymous OP 4w

"Brainwashing is also known as coercive persuasion and is the systematic effort to get nonbelievers to adopt a particular loyalty, instruction, or doctrine." is the first thing that comes up when searching lol

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Anonymous OP 4w

Cults still brainwash people and make them feel shitty and that the cult is the only way to have any positivity in life. Even if they don’t waterboard members to force compliance or drug them and lie to them. That’s exactly what ‘religion’ does.

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Anonymous #4 3w

*this

1