[Maru]

Originally Posted by Cranbred Goose

The most exposed to that side of life some skeptics on here are is awareness of chicken nuggets. Like I said, about as spiritually seasoned as a ham butty. And they’re proud of it when they ridicule people who have more colourful exposure to that side of life.

I can't speak to the UK, but in the US most people now are exposed to watered down spirituality, or commercial "woo". In TX mega churches are a major thing and it's like religion from within a mall ... but the worst variant is the Hollywood variant of "woo"—which I hate with the energy of a million burning suns... that all gets mixed into everything else, including our medical/mental health ... I had a friend who fell for that tripe through therapy and it messed him up very badly (though he was already messy). So while it's largely for people who prefer the appearances of seeming to be spiritual and deep thinking, there's escapist aspects to that, but they don't actually have any grounding in anything...... so many people see the messiness and think it is all performance surrounding narcissistic personality. I do not blame them one bit.

Skepticism though is obviously very healthy, and when not tinged in hubris it's better to err on the side of caution. And I really do prefer that to seeing people fall into schemes. It causes so much needless suffering... unfortunately there is a toxic side where people seek endless quick fixes and it leads to years of pain, whether that's through pills or "therapy". There is good therapy out there, but good God is it hard to find... and obviously that exists in religions as well... but in vast majority of cases, religious institutions... or better yet, "churches"... that don't have denominations and have weirdly California-like descriptors of what they do... they mostly appeal to dabblers, but it's the dabblers who get pulled into actual cults like Scientology...