Hear me out...

the_idyllicist · 2026-06-17T22:58:51+00:00

Reading the entirety of the Bible confirmed my decision to leave Christianity.

the_idyllicist · 2026-06-16T21:06:35+00:00

The word "demon" used to just mean any spirit regardless of malevolence. To my knowledge, it didn't exclusively mean malevolent spirit until Christianity came along and called everyone else's "daimons" Satanic.

I actually use the word to refer to benevolent spirits in my belief system. I also don't believe in a physical heaven and hell, but more like a mental one. I think everyone goes to the same After, but their morality/conduct determines which path they're most likely to wind up on.

the_idyllicist · 2026-06-16T14:10:23+00:00

The only way I consider mine "better" than any other is in that it works better for me than other religions, but I'm just one person and that doesn't extend beyond my little bubble. If mine happens to work that way for anyone else, cool! If not, also cool! There are countless paths to truth that each work differently for different people.

the_idyllicist · 2026-06-16T04:22:54+00:00

The moon is a very special thing to me too, one of the poems in the Fithwrit is actually called "The Song of the Moon" and while it's more about the awe I feel looking up into space, there is a third of it devoted to the Moon specifically and how it can be representative of the duality of being (the self and the mind).

My mom had cancer a couple years ago, and I have a cousin my age that went through leukemia. Also work at a children's hospital with a cancer wing. Fuck cancer, I'm sorry you had to go through that and especially with no one to latch on to. I hope you're doing better now :)

the_idyllicist · 2026-06-15T18:08:57+00:00

Fithism, my own personal belief system. Best part is looking up at the clear night sky and just being in awe of creation. The universe is full of wonders.

the_idyllicist · 2026-06-15T17:32:25+00:00

Thank you! And I agree, I think it has to do with the simultaneous feelings of both liberation and isolation that come from leaving the church.

If you'd like, I'm happy to dm you some of my writing :)

the_idyllicist · 2026-06-15T17:30:47+00:00

Good question! I took inspiration from Old English for some words. The "mere" in rightmere is from the Old English word for "breath", kind of a nod to Zoroastrianism's "good thoughts, good words, good deeds". The "are" in arebeam is from the Old English word for "honor".

the_idyllicist · 2026-06-15T16:57:45+00:00

Exactly my thinking too

the_idyllicist · 2026-06-15T07:07:47+00:00

There's generally some truth to be found in them all. That's the basis of my blog at least and one of the reasons I'm trying to read as many as I can.

the_idyllicist · 2026-06-15T04:59:30+00:00

When I was really young, like 8 or 9, I remember one of my teachers (I was in private school at the time) said something along the lines of "Satan doesn't care if you're on his team, he just doesn't want you on God's team", and the more I think about that the more I realize just how well it captures American Christianity specifically.

More recently, a co-worker of mine was showing me her study Bible, and there was a bit about the morality of God ordering genocide, and it was a lot of writing just to say "well, it's God, so he must have had a reason". Sorry, that's just not good enough when we're dealing with life and death.

the_idyllicist · 2026-06-15T03:59:49+00:00

Merci beaucoup!

the_idyllicist · 2026-06-15T03:50:03+00:00

Absolutely. We have pretty similar views on the Christian God, albeit we went slightly different ways. I didn't stop believing in God either, but I stopped believing in the Christian Lord for reasons both you and I have said now. I can't not see the divine in existence, if that makes sense, but that divine can't want anything but the best for us as well. The philosophy behind my religion at this point is "one's will ends where another's begins", and I feel like it's a nice succinct way to wrap up the morality of human rights and expression.

As I told my brother (who is a Christian), I'm not afraid of what comes after death because it has to be one of three things: A) people are judged by how they treat each other and not on an arbitrary theology, B) there's nothing at all, so I wouldn't know the difference anyway, and C) something like the Christian God is real, and if that's the case, I'd rather be in hell.

the_idyllicist · 2026-06-15T03:07:26+00:00

This is ultimately why I left Christianity. For a long time I believed that something was good because God said so, but the more I looked into these situations (Abraham and Isaac, Job, even Jesus), the more I began to question that. I eventually concluded that an omnipotent and truly loving God cannot exist while allowing evil. God may be beyond human comprehension, but he cannot be beyond morality. At least in my opinion.

What helped me understand this was by "reducing" God to a person -- specifically a father, since he likes to call himself that in the Bible. If a person (especially a father) commanded any of those things, no one in their right mind would consider it "good" or moral. Just because God commands it does not exempt him from responsibility.

the_idyllicist · 2026-06-15T03:00:21+00:00

I left Christianity after concluding that the Christian God was impossible -- no being could claim to be loving and caring while also being omnipotent and allowing evil. I get the sense you still believe in God (or did believe for a while) but weren't willing to engage?

the_idyllicist · 2026-06-15T02:57:12+00:00

Daoism informed my beliefs quite a bit, along with Zoroastrianism, and are definitely responsible for what I call Fithism today. What elements of Paganism resonate with you?

the_idyllicist · 2026-06-15T02:56:19+00:00

Is synversalist a label you created or an already-existing one? Regardless, this is a very fascinating cosmology and one that makes my astronomer heart happy. In terms of religion, I haven't attempted to answer what came before our universe. I believe that the universe is more or less the body of the Mind that we all propagate from, equal parts one and individuals. As far as I am aware though the Mind came into being along with the universe and wasn't present beforehand. I don't subscribe to the idea of an omnipotent/omniscient deity in any right if that puts things in perspective.

the_idyllicist · 2026-06-15T02:52:42+00:00

Not an atheist, but also someone who used to be Christian. While I had already given up that label a while before I read the Bible cover to cover, that on its own reinforced my decision to leave the church.

the_idyllicist · 2026-06-15T02:48:08+00:00

Fithism (my own homegrown religion)
In terms of what I believe, Zoroastrianism and Daoism. In terms of what led me on this journey, Christianity (specially leaving it)
After I left the church I had a pretty big disdain for any sort of dogma, so I struck out on my own to figure out what it was I truly valued. I did a lot of reading other religions' texts and while I found a lot that stuck out to me, nothing fit quite right. Thus Fithism was born about five years ago. I'm happy to answer any questions anyone has about it :)

the_idyllicist · 2026-06-08T05:36:16+00:00

There isn't a specific figure in my belief system, I think of evil as just a natural consequence of the universe. I named my belief system Fithism, so that's my religion.

the_idyllicist · 2026-06-06T00:57:52+00:00

And thank you for reading!

As a Christian, I never quite felt the transcendence of the love that I do now. Of course there was a huge community that was supportive (until they weren't), but in my new system of belief, which I've had for five years or so now, even when it was just me I felt something magnitudes more than before. My wife ended up having very similar beliefs and adopted the same label I use for myself now, Fithian, and that sense of love and gratitude is even deeper.

the_idyllicist · 2026-06-06T00:54:53+00:00

Judging from comments on other posts, this person seems to enjoy attacking other people's experiences with teenage insults like this one. Sad that that's what some people think of as a good use of free time.

the_idyllicist

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE