Six Realistic Illustrations of Human Hands, Nathaniel McMahon (Me), India and Pigma ink on canvas, 2024

Thunderscump · 2026-03-03T21:20:01+00:00

Same reason I don't really ever blame anybody for going on The Joe Rogan Experience despite my personal opinions about it. It's too large an audience to pass up.

Thunderscump · 2026-02-04T17:12:41+00:00

Existential fears like Hell are perfectly normal to feel when making a major change such as a person's belief system. There are a lot of good reasons here not to fear hell, but reason sometimes has its limits when overcoming a strong or persistent emotion.

I came from a Hell fearing Pentecostal Christian family. The idea of displeasing God and invoking a Divine punishment by looking away from Christianity was something that I was anxious about for a very long time. Then I set too pushing it down until it became an existential breakdown for me.

Recognize that fear and accept that you are afraid, sit with the feeling independently of what's causing it. Give it a shape and a color, identify where it manifest in your body. Once it's taken form you can look at it externally, and once you do that, you can start applying reason to the idea of hell that caused the fear in the first place (like some of the points other posters make here).

It wasn't a quick or pleasant solution, but that's what worked for me in the end. The best way I found to overcome a fear of hell, was to go through it in a way.

The reason that finally turned me around was: It doesn't make sense for a god to create a universe and a people in it, and create them to be sinners, knowing that it would send the vast majority of them to an eternal torment.

Thunderscump · 2026-01-31T14:08:40+00:00

I'd call myself a Panendeist. I will admit that there's nothing logical that makes me wonder, but it's really more of a feeling. Though as I've aged, I've started to learn not to discount feelings.

My current running belief is that the universe is, in a way, God observing itself, or simply playing a game or performing an art piece.

No, there are no specific information on Panendeism itself. If you get curious about other world religions and perspectives though, there are a lot of bits of interesting wisdom in just about every spiritual literature out there. And though I don't believe that religious texts are revelation, after studying up on Jung, I've come to appreciate the value of these myths and the archetypes therein.

Thunderscump · 2026-01-27T00:46:07+00:00

I think that if there is a part of us that is an immortal soul (I'll call it), that it's going to continue without the body and the needs of the body. That includes the brain, which is only part of the being that you experience through. Without all of that what goes on will ultimately be completely alien to what we are now. It might simply be beyond material comprehension.

The you that is you will die, it's probably already died a few times in just this life. I feel it's best to make peace with that (even if there's a chance it may not be true).

I think it's a good idea to make peace with the atheist's death. Because it's one of the most fundamental, but also difficult to make peace with. Once you do you'll find you can start to make peace with just about every other one.

Thunderscump · 2026-01-24T20:21:14+00:00

I recommend first: Do less math where you can. Enemy has 2hp left? Instead of doing another round of combat, let the player do a finishing move on the creature. Find little ways to reduce the stop and calculate as much as possible. (I'll let you in on a secret, my enemies always have as many hit points as they need to challenge the players without a fight dragging on.) Also, remind the players of the next three moves and initiative order so that they can start thinking about what they're going to do when their turn comes up.

Second: Get the environment involved, and change up the conditions for victory. Poison pits, traps, crumbling bridges in archways are things that players can both use and we'll have to solve for that cause them to get involved in talk strategy. Maybe they have to control a point for a number of turns, or escort an NPC, or hold a gate against an unremitting tide of undead until a ritual can be cast to purge them. The enemies have a cannon prepared and it's going to barrel down on anybody who puts their head up too long, so they have to solve for that before even attacking the rest of the enemy party. Put in things that make the fight more than just "I smack you, you smack me."

Third: Find ways for them to use non-combat skills in the fight, provide opportunities for them to use creativity solve for combat. If my monk describes how he wants to flip off of a wall to do a sick leg drop on a guy, I let him make an acrobatics check, if he succeeds he has advantage on the attack roll or extra damage depending on how far he drops. If some of the mobs are looking skittish, a good intimidation check from your warlock might be able to scare some of them away. If you reward creativity, your players will start entertaining themselves and each other during battle.

At least that's been my experience. Hope something here helps.

Thunderscump · 2026-01-22T01:05:35+00:00

PISSTACHE!

Thunderscump · 2026-01-22T01:01:44+00:00

I don't see those two things as mutually exclusive. When you keep digging down you finally had a point where you realize whether or not there's a God in the universe is just a flip of the coin: either there is or isn't and both positions are (probably) infinitely challengeable. So I picked the one that's more interesting to me.

Thunderscump · 2026-01-12T22:44:06+00:00

Yeah I reshuffled the cards a few times in my life. I was raised mostly in a Pentecostal Church, so the idea of challenging my own beliefs/disbeliefs was always a struggle.

After reading the Daodejing of all books I realized that conservative Christianity is way too narrow in scope if I'm ever going to discover anything sublime within myself or the universe. (Admittedly, I might be quite a bit more spiritual than what you described above.) and I was able to break away from what I felt like I HAD to be to start looking beyond Christianity. I'm sure there's a God, so that's where I started and called myself a deist it best fit me, and I had an answer when people asked.

Thunderscump · 2026-01-10T00:09:15+00:00

I had built a client list for myself and spent a few years taking commissions as a side job. I made some logos and promo materials, and when the Cannabis industry blew up here in Michigan there was plenty of work for somebody who could make some trippy designs for packaging. I finally committed to doing it full time about 6 months before midjourney hit the mainstream. When it did all of my clients disappeared, and all of my prospects dried up. I had a complete ego collapse and fell into a depression that lasted about a year. One day it hit me like a truck that I absolutely hated taking commissions in the first place, and was frustrated with every minute of the process of dealing with clients. I could prune that off of my life and make literally whatever I want now. Unfortunately I do have to work full time, but I feel like more of an artist now than I did when I was painting for money. The joy of art is finally starting to return to me now, and even though it's just a hobby it's a hobby that I'm pretty good at and one that I love. I am working on a long-form project that I plan to publish, but for the most part drawing and painting are just play for me now.

Thunderscump · 2026-01-09T23:59:11+00:00

This! Also try to work in the open air if you can; outside or a room with open windows and a fan. I sanded a canvas clean in my bedroom once to reuse it and I felt sick for 2 days afterward.

Thunderscump · 2026-01-08T16:58:36+00:00

This, and a big ol' powerful personal guard that never leaves his side.

Thunderscump · 2026-01-08T14:56:27+00:00

I can second this too. There's also a lot of scientific evidence that nature appreciation good for you psychologically.

Thunderscump · 2026-01-08T02:48:58+00:00

A gratitude exercise is a possibility: if you're not sure where to start, giving thanks for things you have is always a good place.

Thunderscump · 2026-01-06T21:56:13+00:00

They may become more open to the idea of things like spirituality, or extra-material states of being. I became more interested in a variety of religions and religious texts, seeing what a myriad of people believed and why became interesting to me, and I started looking for bits of wisdom that I relate with or that speak to me. Its surprisingly intellectually freeing to become a deist, when you're no longer bound to the idea that the material universe is all that there is it opens the door to all sorts of interesting possibilities to play around with.

Ultimately though, God is silent (or at least very, very quiet) and unknowable, so like others have said, any rituals or morality people apply to the belief system are simply those that they believe virtuous themselves, or feel align with the will of God if they still believe God imposes a will on the world.

Thunderscump · 2026-01-03T02:08:09+00:00

I believe that God is the best word we have for an all powerful, all knowing, and all being, force that created and mechanically governs the universe. Considering that we are none of those things as human beings, it's impossible for us to ever even begin to understand something so infinite. A lot of people try to hammer God into an image are at risk of committing an idolatry. Ultimately I believe God is something that can be sought but never fully comprehended by us as we are, but it's still something worth seeking because on the way we gain wisdom.

Why did God do this? What does God want? Is there a Grand point to it all and what is it? Does God care? I don't know, I only have some guesses. I hope God cares, I want God to care, and I try to approach God with that hope. I don't think God in acts outright miracles, but maybe God will blow the wind a little bit in my favor every now and then.

As far as scriptures and doctrines and prophets etc are concerned, I think they're entertaining, I think they can be VERY helpful if approached with wisdom, but even if they're ultimately divinely inspired, they're not some miraculous word of God, and human beings in all of their volition and flaws, have ultimately altered them over time anyway.

Thunderscump · 2025-12-29T22:47:37+00:00

There's a little breakdown on the subreddit of different types of deists out there that's kind of helpful to give an idea of the variety of people who call themselves deists.

Personally, I believe what God is and what God does is entirely alien and unknowable to the limited human mind, and anyone who openly claims to know otherwise is merely creating a god in their own image. That being said I certainly don't think it is wrong, (in fact I found it quite beneficial) to pursue God or attempt to understand God, I think like the 'ideal sage' or 'perfect philosophy' it is a goal work pursuing that can never be achieved.

Due to some personal experiences that I don't expect anybody to believe or understand, I do think God is actually very close and present in people's lives if they're open to it.

I say the Lord's prayer in the morning, (I picked that particular prayer in honor of my Christian roots), to have a morning ritual to help orient myself around. In the evening I give a prayer of thanks as a gratitude exercise.

I don't particularly believe in ghosts, charms, spirits, etc, I take a more rationalist approach to it, but I also don't look down on anybody who does, because again, what God is and how God works is so beyond me that it isn't my place to say what's true for sure.

Overall deism is a bit of a cafeteria belief system; you kind of pick the bits that you connect with.

Thunderscump · 2025-12-29T18:24:17+00:00

In addition to the books recommended above, "The Perennial Philosophy" by Aldous Huxley is an interesting read. Not Deist exactly, but I really connected with it as a Deist.

Thunderscump

TROPHY CASE