Theists, What Do You Get Out of Religion?

[Mister Agenda]

The title of the thread is the question I would like answered but with one slight caveat. Could theists not respond with anything about the afterlife? I want to know what theists get out of having faith right now. If I need to explain the question further, I will.

OK, since the theists so far have responded with either babble or evasion, I'll field it for you, drawing on my experience as a former Pentecostal (so it's going to be the fundamentalist point of view).

It's a special community. A very comforting community in a rapidly-changing world that affirms that your grandparents were right about pretty much everything, no matter what subsequent history or science might have to say. It helps you cope with change by giving you a refuge from it. It helps you make sure your kids are raised right, the way you were, or the way you wish you had been. They reassure you that you're right, you're among the select few to know it, among the select few who are saved while the rest will wish they had believed you and will wish they had been obliterated rather than suffer the fate that awaits them.

I've been to Pentecostal churches with only 15 people showing up, and they still had a band and a soloist. Lively music is an important part of every service. Pentecostals are good at getting people to do a credible job of singing, I'll give them that. The Unitarians could learn a thing or two from them. It's a show, and if you're a strict Pentecostal who doesn't go to movies or watch TV, it's probably the most entertainment you're going to get in a week. This routine was established before TV came along, and it's a good example of social evolution in action: what works was kept, and what didn't work was thrown out. Pentecostal services are rarely boring, especially with audience participation by shouting 'hallelujah!', 'amen, brother!', and maybe some tongues or dancing in the isles. It's enough to scare off most people who just wander in, but to a Pentecostal, it tells you these are your people.

The sermon tends to be of the fire-and-brimstone variety, ending in an altar call, and you hate to leave the poor guy hanging if no one steps up, so someone will, and you don't want to stand out in the pews by being one of the few who don't go up once the herd has decided the altar is the place to be. There's a lot of praying and speaking in tongues and the preacher being supportive by putting a hand on your shoulder, and if you're not careful to not stand out, he'll be joined by two or three more people and they'll have a prayer huddle centered on you.

Everyone calls you 'brother' or 'sister', hugs are plentiful after the service. There might be food. There might be love-bombing. It's hard for someone who hasn't experienced it to understand how seductive it can be. They really seem to love new people, especially. Now later, you'll find out how you have to change, of what and who you'll have to disapprove, who you'll need to start avoiding, Once you're in, it can get pretty ugly if you have trouble conforming. They don't want nonconformists, that defeats the whole point of being Pentecostal, which is to build a bubble where you never have to deal with someone who doesn't agree with you about pretty much everything.

Plus there's the healings, exorcisms, testimonies of miracles like your car making it 20 more miles to the revival site when the needle was on 'E', worldly conspiracies, and rumors taken at face value because it comes from a fellow Pentecostal.

You are guaranteed a religious experience if you can suspend your disbelief and incredulity.

All this is not nothing. It can be addictive. It can be an incredible support network for the price of your intellectual autonomy. It can assuage loneliness, reassure you of your value as a person, and make you feel like you're part of something important that's bigger than you are, and on top of all that it makes you feel like you're aligned with the will of God, which carries the bonus feeling of utter certainty. It doesn't matter how much more successful someone else is compared to you if you're with God and they aren't (or the wrong version of God). It's a very exclusive club, hardly anyone who isn't a Oneness Pentecostal will be saved, correct belief has absolute primacy over every other consideration. The list of denominations whose members are going to hell is almost all of them, including the wrong kind of Pentecostal.

In a United Pentecostal church, professor would fit right in. Except he probably believes in the trinity, so he's going to hell.