God-fearing Westerners are still afraid of death, that's why they turn to religion in the first place. One thing I notice about strongly Abrahamic religious pe

God-fearing Westerners are still afraid of death, that's why they turn to religion in the first place. One thing I notice about strongly Abrahamic religious people is that they are okay with eschewing the pleasures of life because they believe that heaven is their next step, and the only way to get there is to abstain from things they enjoy, are "tempted" by, and/or would otherwise be ambitious toward. They'll give up things like sex before marriage, education, household autonomy, careers, foods, non-heterosexual partnerships (suppressing their own attraction preferences), coffee, alcohol, being in the presence of the opposite sex...almost anything you can name will be something that someone religious will just give up because they think it will grant them favor by God. Religions that believe in things like faith healing will even give up medical care because they believe God will heal them. I know someone who is doing exactly this and is nearly immobile out of pure stubbornness. A quick and simple procedure could save them a whole bunch of pain and suffering and give them their abilities back. In contrast, I find some of the ideas of "pleasure activism" to be very interesting. We've been taught to avoid pleasure, that it's "sinful," that it's "embarrassing" (especially for women). But why? Why is it bad? Here's an example article: https://thefederalist.com/2019/10/18/gender-studies-professor-calls-twerking-with-lizzo-an-act-of-political-defiance/ https://thefederalist.com/2019/10/18/gender-studies-professo... Watch a televangelist like Sid Roth and you'll see that a large swath of Christianity revolves around sitting around and praying for good things to happen rather than making them happen through action. It's an incredibly selfish and futile form of Christianity.