cerebralhawks

Honestly curious which branch of religion this comes from. It starts out sounding Christian, but the Indian terms tell me it may be Hinduism? As a westerner I know almost nothing about that religion.

But to answer the question in the context of where I do live and what I do know? Like why do people who believe in God and follow Christ do things that would condemn them in the Afterlife they preach about? Because the fact of the matter is, religion — I suppose, any of them — is seen by the poor as true, the rich as false, and the powerful as useful. That's not to say it actually is false (or true), it can't be proven — it just goes to show, those who preach it and say follow this that and the third... they don't actually believe it.

For example, a lot of religious people here say that it's a "sin" to be gay, and they cite Scripture to back it. But they secretly look at LGBTQ+ porn. They don't feel threatened by the threat of eternal damnation they threaten others with. Not because "the rules don't apply to them." Because they don't seriously believe the rules apply to anyone. And, fun fact, most Christians didn't even care all that much about homosexuality — sure, they thought it was a sin, but one that could be forgiven, and that was between you and the Lord — until insurance companies started denying same-sex couples partner benefits, and they turned to the Church for help. Again, the powerful see religion as useful. The whole reason homosexuality, transgenderism, and all that is even in the public discourse in the west is because insurance companies wanted to collect premiums for a person's whole life and then deny those benefits to their same-sex partner. And I'm sure a few megachurches got a cut of that blood money to get the ball rolling.

So, money. The pursuit and love of, Jesus was once attributed to say, is the root of all evil.

If you believe in that sort of thing. It really can't be proven either way. People have tried. Nobody's succeeded yet. Sure, you got people on both sides with compelling arguments, but there's no proof. And most people accept that the burden of proof is on the person making the assertion. The problem with that is, with half the world or more believing in some higher power, people asserting that there is no higher power should be responsible for some burden of proof. But they don't wanna hear that. But at the end of the day, it's not gonna be proven in our lifetimes. So I just say, try to be a decent person, regardless of the faith you choose.

These should be the only thing going into the collection plate of the church that distributes them.

I have a couple smart nieces. One of them did want LEGO — she wanted a whole LEGO-themed party. I was the only one who bought her an actual LEGO set, not one of the ones aimed specifically at girls (LEGO and Friends, IIRC). Yeah, guess whose she wanted to actually build — and guess who she recruited for help doing it, while all the other sets sat in boxes (dunno if they were ever opened).

Beyond that, I stuck to the "edutainment" aisle. Science-y stuff. Books are another good option, if you can find a fantasy series with light romance (but nothing erotic, obviously). That's more for older girls though, a six-year-old probably can't read. That being said, audiobooks are a thing, and if they're a tablet kid, an Audible/similar gift code might not be a bad idea. They can do a lot worse for themselves with a tablet than having someone read to them.

Also, crafting stuff. Crochet kit, beads, anything that lets her "make" something.

Digitally it’s hard to see the interrobang as the exclamation mark part is mostly obscured. Better to type the symbols side by side honestly, unless you’re going for subtlety.

So Buck A Slice from Cyberpunk could be real, huh?

Got banned for suggesting child predators be punished more harshly by the courts. They said I was inciting violence against a protected class. I said no way a human decided that, must be AI. So I appealed and they upheld it. Said fuck it, they were doing me a favor. Uninstalled the app.

And their flagship costs more than the iPhone 17 Pro but has performance closer to the iPhone 11 and they still sell your data off the back end.

Android was a fine alternative to iOS for a minute… like in 2012 with the Galaxy S3 and Jellybean. Now? I don’t get it. You pay more, you get less, all because — what? Gmail was once cool?

They took your headphone jack. They took your memory card slot. They took your back button. (Anyone remember the menu button?) Now they’re taking sideloading.

What is even the point of Android? It isn’t freedom. I see it as capitulation to Big Data.

Hoping it’s an Animal Crossing thing. Like you can have a kid. My current villager is my first villager’s kid.

I’d rather send her Link memes (since she’s named after that Zelda). She might find it amusing but is probably tired of them by now.

Door number three: a red panda. Also known as the firefox — yes, the animal the browser is named after.

Seriously, look them up on your viral video platform of choice.

The first one is cute one time. When it starts to become a pattern, it’s laziness. Especially when it’s copypasta, which it usually is.

The search thing is less relevant to Google as Google pretty much relies on Reddit for that, but still a good point.

I will help where I can, for the same reason.