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Have you ever felt you were missing out on the good things church has to offer?
September 28, 2013 at 6:46 pm
(This post was last modified: September 28, 2013 at 6:46 pm by artistriley.)
Did you know that unitarian churches welcome atheists? I'm tolerant of other people's beliefs (although I may have a tendency to ask too many questions) and I think there's a lot to be gained from a church as a community. Even though I don't believe in supernatural things I still feel a sense of "spirituality" as reverence and awe of nature and science. Do you think I will be disappointed?
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RE: Have you ever felt you were missing out on the good things church has to offer?
September 28, 2013 at 6:47 pm
The wife and I went to a Unitarian church a few years back because she thought it would be good for the kids. I found it just as boring as I remember Baptist church.
We haven't gone in a year and a half.
Everything I needed to know about life I learned on Dagobah.
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RE: Have you ever felt you were missing out on the good things church has to offer?
September 28, 2013 at 6:49 pm
I wouldn't bother. You can have a great community without a church - just organize some events at public parks and meet up.
No creator in the heavens above (I am the lightning)
Rest your weary mind
No demons in the furnace below (I am the frenzy)
I have realized I AM GOD
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RE: Have you ever felt you were missing out on the good things church has to offer?
September 28, 2013 at 6:57 pm
Have you ever wondered about the good things you are missing out on that every single group or organisation you are not a member of has to offer?
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RE: Have you ever felt you were missing out on the good things church has to offer?
September 28, 2013 at 7:03 pm
Ever hear about the Unitarian terrorists? They go about burning question marks on peoples' lawns.
Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
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RE: Have you ever felt you were missing out on the good things church has to offer?
September 28, 2013 at 7:05 pm
I miss the cake sales. I like cake.
'The difference between a Miracle and a Fact is exactly the difference between a mermaid and seal. It could not be expressed better.'
-- Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens
"I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the scriptures, but with experiments, demonstrations, and observations".
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
"In short, Meyer has shown that his first disastrous book was not a fluke: he is capable of going into any field in which he has no training or research experience and botching it just as badly as he did molecular biology. As I've written before, if you are a complete amateur and don't understand a subject, don't demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect by writing a book about it and proving your ignorance to everyone else! "
- Dr. Donald Prothero
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RE: Have you ever felt you were missing out on the good things church has to offer?
September 28, 2013 at 7:11 pm
Oh, I miss choir. I LOVED choir in high school. And what I really like is singing those beautiful hymns and masses- one of the high points of my musical life was learning the entire Mozart's mass in C minor (still one of my favorite pieces of music). Say what you will about Christians, but you can't beat them for group music. I have often thought about going undercover to a church just to join a choir, but that seems rude and weird.
I actually enjoyed everything about chapel in high school (despite my parents' atheism, they sent me to Episcopalian boarding school because it was the best school around)- I listened to the sermons and was a choir junkie. Didn't hurt me a bit. I took 2 years of theology, too, but damned if I can remember anything about CS Lewis except for Narnia.
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RE: Have you ever felt you were missing out on the good things church has to offer?
September 28, 2013 at 7:33 pm
Some years ago Sam and I used to go from time to time to a local church-run free food bank, where we got on friendly terms with the volunteer workers. From my perspective though it was probably that they hardly ever mentioned anything to do with religion, other than the occasional obligatory "God bless you" boilerplate.
I did notice an increasing tendency towards stealth proselytising, however. When the scheme began, to redistribute date-expired supermarket food (Marks and Spencer as well; good stuff) before they got the idea to sell it reduced, everyone queued up outside and took their turns going in to collect their share. Then the weather dipped and we were allowed to sit in the church proper - it was a modernish building, more like a scout hall or community centre than an actual church. Then they started playing gospel-style Youtube videos on their pc projector to keep us entertained. I started walking out when they began showing clips of Left Behind.
One time (at band camp - no sorry, wrong train of thought) I learned that their first anniversary was coming up and I asked, converstaionally, if they were planning anything special for it. They hadn't thought about it until I gave them the idea. So on the day, we all went to this big celebration - involving gospel music, praying and lots of witnessing. Remember, this was nominally my idea. I got some stick for it later from family and friends.
Then there was the time they invited Sam and me to a Sunday lunch. We turned up, having already cancelled lunch at my parents' where we normally ate it, only to find we were early to the tune of a whole week. The church was in full flight and huge soppy grins urged us to join in. After declining, Sam and I took one look at each other, laughing as we realised the narrowness of our escape and just legged it down the street.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
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RE: Have you ever felt you were missing out on the good things church has to offer?
September 28, 2013 at 7:49 pm
I've never heard of this. Don't all churches welcome atheists? Aren't we fresh meat?
