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im trying to make a point that 'religion' encompasses a phenomenon that isn't done justice by our concept of culture. i agree the lines are blurry and often coexist, but like... idk, did you watch the recent FLDS documentary on netflix? 'culture' feels inadequate to explain that

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sure but i feel like i'm trying to point at a real distinction here. If you take a group where people genuinely, earnestly believe that contradicting the prophet will make them burn in hell, and they make choices strictly out of that fear, it feels weird to call that 'culture'

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it produces culture & is an element of culture i think axiomatic beliefs are products of culture, but they're also a bit more fundamental & culture develops around them so we can call the faith axioms products of culture while simultaneously considering them something distinct

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yeah the thing im trying to point out is that i think many people do not consider them meaningfully distinct

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I think your OP inspires ire b/c it doesn't make plain 1) religion is definitely part of & productive of culture; 2) culture alone _can_ make a family cut people off (but often that culture can look superstitious/religious [eg communism]); 3) it assaults the audience

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this feels like one of those 'hard to have sufficient nuance in a single tweet and so everybody assumes you're saying the dumbest possible version of the thought'

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This is literally it. S'the thing tho, that's what happens. 1) you're going to be taken out of context; 2) there was no context to the tweet (unless ppl know you, & they'll forget who you are even if they do b/c the point is in isolation); 3) ppl v often assume the worst

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I agree it's hard to disentangle! I'm not trying to outline exactly what lies in what conceptual space, I'm just trying to point out that religion does in fact sometimes do things to people's minds that don't feel best understood with the culture frame, u need the religion frame

11:55 PM · Aug 21, 2022

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Totalizing vs Non-Totalizing ideology?