It really doesn’t seem that far fetched. Though, we would have to collectively get more involved in city council/planning meetings

To a certain extent you are correct and that is the point. For those leaders not so engrossed in the dogma abstracting away the idea of god acts as a bridge. Someone showing up to AA must believe in something outside of themselves as being more important than themselves otherwise why would you improve yourself? For religious leaders who operate in institutions, the ways of the institutions must be upheld, but it is also obvious that the institutional ways are bullshit and change is slow, so compromise is made to enable those who see through the bullshit to participate without drawing the ire of the “true believers”

edit: this compromise has been going on for a while and acts as the basis of the Unitarian-Universalist denomination

This comment is entirely clueless to the nature of the American Catholics. The US would be in a much more neutral political position if the American Catholics actually followed the pope’s lead.

It crosses into willful ignorance once they reject an empathetic articulation of the information and they become malicious at roughly the same time. Though this is less “becomes” so much as “is revealed to be” i think

We might be early, from how i understand the age of the universe. If we don’t great filter ourselves out of existence soon we may become the elder species. The universe is remarkably young

Huh, neat tip, i’ve noticed everything orbiting this but never has this occurred to me. Thank you internet stranger

What, you expect us to take all the money we stole from everybody else and dump it in a big pile and light it on fire? What else are we supposed to do with such massive mountains of wealth but wreak havoc and destruction on those who don’t live like us? Have you even read the Bible? We’re the hand of God here to bring about the 1000 year reign of Jesus; now how are supposed to do that if we wasted all our money, neigh a single penny, loving our neighbors?

I think assuming they operate their economy like the US does has a high probability of leading to committing grave errors

They put one in on 21st street a couple years ago much to the chagrin of the old ladies in the neighborhood. Ohio will not stand for these red aggressors, if you need gas you go to Marathon, BP or Speedway and suffer as God intended

Taxing churches just for being churches would be counter-productive. What needs to happen is the current set of rules regulating what counts as a church and what doesn’t needs to be tightened and enforced. There are tons of shit people running churches as their own personal profit machines and those need shut down. The Methodist churches built in every town in America, for example, are only barely hanging on by a thread and bring more good to their neighborhood than they do harm; their loss would be tragic.

What you are describing is absolutely not “mild depression”. I have seasonal and mild depression and exercising is absolutely a cure-all for me, when winter is running a bit too long i start getting back into running to get out of having to otherwise be on antidepressants seasonally.

My wife, on the other hand, has depression like you describe, and she requires a lot of support to keep her afloat. This article is definitely not talking to target your situation. I am so sorry you have to experience life the way you do, i hope for the treatments and support you find to bring the right balance for you to experience the full breadth of the joys of life