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(April 12, 2016 at 4:14 pm)drfuzzy Wrote: As I was driving to work this morning I started wondering about church buildings. And why most gods think that they need one.
I mean, even Yahweh was big about people building a house for him. Surely he could have done it himself, if he actually needed one, but probably humans making it was a valued act of worship.
Bible verses:
Isaiah 66:1
This is what the LORD says: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be?
Deuteronomy 12: 3-5
3 "You shall tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and burn their Asherim with fire, and you shall cut down the engraved images of their gods and obliterate their name from that place. 4 "You shall not act like this toward the LORD your God. 5 "But you shall seek the LORD at the place which the LORD your God will choose from all your tribes, to establish His name there for His dwelling, and there you shall come.
Exodus 25:8,9; 40
And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. According to all that I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it...And see that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain.
And of course, only PERFECT males were allowed inside. God doesn't want to see blind or crippled or disfigured humans.
Leviticus 21: 16-23
16 The LORD said to Moses, 17 “Say to Aaron: ‘For the generations to come none of your descendants who has a defect may come near to offer the food of his God. 18 No man who has any defect may come near: no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed; 19 no man with a crippled foot or hand, 20 or who is hunchbacked or dwarfed, or who has any eye defect, or who has festering or running sores or damaged testicles. 21 No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any defect is to come near to present the offerings made to the LORD by fire. He has a defect; he must not come near to offer the food of his God. 22 He may eat the most holy food of his God, as well as the holy food; 23 yet because of his defect, he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar, and so desecrate my sanctuary. I am the LORD, who makes them holy.
I really can't fathom, if there is a deity capable of creating the earth (never mind the universe) why humans would have to build it a house. And yet, even after nearly a decade as an atheist, I'm quiet when I walk into a church. That indoctrination of "special place" is still there. It's "god's house" and you have to behave. Wow.
Well, I think that the witch doctors who created god found out, sooner or later, that a special meeting place gave them even greater special status. It was a place where people presented offerings and made the witch doctor rich. Build a church, tell lies, get rich.
Does anyone else still feel like a little kid and wonder if gawd is watching from the rafters when they enter a church? I'm half tempted to go into the place where I played for Mass and do something sacrilegious.
There is no command to build a dedicated church building. That is something 'religious' people do.
The first century church met in people's homes and in public areas.
While today we do indeed have mega churches we also have churches still meeting in people's homes, skype, and even in places you would not think to look.. Like say an Atheist Forum. (org)
