(October 23, 2018 at 11:58 pm)fromdownunder Wrote:(October 23, 2018 at 5:14 pm)Rahn127 Wrote: I thought about how much time religious people spend focused on something they have no evidence for.
Theists spend so much time on religion that it seems so wasteful to me, but then again, I've also spent countless hours playing a video game that has no real life value beyond entertainment.
If religion was only entertainment, I probably wouldn't have such a hard time with people living out their fantasies on sunday, but it's more than that to them.
To them it's truth. For me I see it as delusion.
Seriously, how much time do you think that most theists spend on their religion? If they go to Church once a week on a Sunday, that is an hour gone, and from past (long past) experience, it was for most a social event, not some evangelical high.
I used to attend three services every Sunday in a tiny Church, as an atheist, because they had a Hammond Organ and I was the organist. Usually after I played in a rock band the previous night, and had gotten pissed out of my brain. I did not get paid, I just loved playing that gorgeous instrument. My experience, and I know that Australians are mostly pretty laid back about religion, was that Sunday services were pretty much it, and everybody then went back to normal day to day lives.
One could argue that atheists spend all their time on their atheism. I find this not to be the case. My atheism rarely comes to my attention, outside of posting on Boards, and does not affect my day to day life at all. The way I live is of course affected by my beliefs, but it has no repercussions as to how I interact with other people.
Norm
Obviously you've never been to an AME.
(African Methodist Episcopal Church)
The service lasts for hours and hours. They cook lunch, pass the collection plate around several times, sing songs until you can't sing no more. Stand up, sit down, stand, sit. Everyone dressed in their Sunday best.
It's quite the event.
Churches have events running every day of the week.
Many provide after school games for kids as a place they can go until their parents get off work.
Some people I know have religion constantly going in their heads.
"Dear lord, help me have a good day."
"Grant me the strength to get through this."
"Guide me to my car keys."
I know this because they say it out loud.
It's a 24/7 thing with a lot of people.
It's not just 1 hour a week.
Insanity - Doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result
