Do you ever miss it?

[rubikscube]

No, I don't miss it. I suppose I was only deeply religious for a little while and only because my parents taught me to be, but it was a time of little reason. I don't enjoy not thinking.

[Mister Agenda]

If I feel like it, I can get my church fuzzies at the local Unitarian Universalist Congregation. My pastor is an atheist. Our last pastor was a Pagan. Mileage varies, some are more wooish than others, but mine is about half humanist and about a third of those are atheists. I started because a friend wanted me to have more community, I stick with it because Neal Jones doles out interesting sermons/lectures, and because I enjoy going to lunch afterwards with people who are actually interesting. OTH, I sometimes show up too late to catch the hymns and such preceding the sermon, which is not an accident.

I suspect UU is one of the reasons the USA doesn't have a strong humanist movement: why start a humanist center when you can just attend Unitarian?

[LarissaAnn]

I miss the smiling faces and friendly people who genuinely seemed interested in how things were going for me and I with them. My old church actually donated food to us after my brother's suicide and we thanked them VERY much and gave them a donation, it was very sincere, warm and kind of them. However, despite their good, I cannot and do not miss the backwardness I heard in the sermons, singing twelve hundred songs one right after another in the span of a couple hours, sit, stand, sing, sit, stand, sing, and I especially don't miss catching the pastor spreading false information...like how the ancient Greeks were so backwards they worshipped, Artemis "God of the Sun" ~epic facepalm!~ as a huge Greek Mythology fan my jaw literally fell open, Artemis, if SHE existed would have been on vendetta overload.

I would only go back either to join a family member (such as my Grandma if she had no one to go with and wanted company) or out of morbid curiosity to now see it all from an atheist view, OR to simply admire the pretty buildings. George Carlin said the only good thing religion did was music...and I'd have to add beautiful architecture to that statement. Though I loathe Catholicism as a religion, I could stare at its churches all day.

[Ziploc Surprise]

I miss the smiling faces and friendly people who genuinely seemed interested in how things were going for me and I with them. My old church actually donated food to us after my brother's suicide and we thanked them VERY much and gave them a donation, it was very sincere, warm and kind of them. However, despite their good, I cannot and do not miss the backwardness I heard in the sermons, singing twelve hundred songs one right after another in the span of a couple hours, sit, stand, sing, sit, stand, sing, and I especially don't miss catching the pastor spreading false information...like how the ancient Greeks were so backwards they worshipped, Artemis "God of the Sun" ~epic facepalm!~ as a huge Greek Mythology fan my jaw literally fell open, Artemis, if SHE existed would have been on vendetta overload.

I would only go back either to join a family member (such as my Grandma if she had no one to go with and wanted company) or out of morbid curiosity to now see it all from an atheist view, OR to simply admire the pretty buildings. George Carlin said the only good thing religion did was music...and I'd have to add beautiful architecture to that statement. Though I loathe Catholicism as a religion, I could stare at its churches all day.

Churches like that should be museums perhaps with a choir visiting at certain hours for concerts.

[Doubting Thomas]

I don't miss a damn thing about going to church. I always hated it, even as a kid. But I was always taught that if I didn't go every week I'd end up in Hell, so I went as a young adult even though I still hated it. I was Catholic, so all the masses are pretty much the same now as they were when I was a small child being dragged to church. Same boring old readings, long boring homily by the priest, some more recitations of prayers I recited hundreds of times before but still didn't really know the meanings of, get wine & wafers, talk to friends before going home.

Now on the few occasions I allow myself to be dragged to church, I hate it even more because I don't believe in any of it. Out of respect for my wife I don't check my internet on my phone, though that would be a more productive use of my time.

But I think the thing I really don't miss at all was the constant fear of offending God and being struck down & tossed into Hell, the awkward instances of going to confession and telling a priest all the supposedly bad things I did, religion classes where they kept reinforcing the punishment aspect of the religion, watching out for the boogeyman devil everywhere, and speculation on all the terrible things which would happen at the end of the world.

I'm far more happier now.

[frankiej]

I was never religious... Atheist for life, baby

I used to laugh at other kids whose parents made them go to church

[Ziploc Surprise]

But I think the thing I really don't miss at all was the constant fear of offending God and being struck down & tossed into Hell, the awkward instances of going to confession and telling a priest all the supposedly bad things I did, religion classes where they kept reinforcing the punishment aspect of the religion, watching out for the boogeyman devil everywhere, and speculation on all the terrible things which would happen at the end of the world.

Yes this was defiantly a downer for me as well. Even in Protestant churches the punishment aspect is fairly strong. After ditching the sky daddy I had to shake this sinking fear that somehow god was really real and would eventually loose his patience with my experiment into Atheism and pound me into the ground or something. This is the product of 30 years of indoctrination. Ugh!

[Doubting Thomas]

Luckily I was able to let go of the God guilt pretty quickly. I think once I realized it was all bogus, it was easy to remind myself that there isn't any eternal torture waiting for me.

[Minimalist]

Richard Jeni - on church


http://comedians.jokes.com/richard-jeni/...guy-priest

[Ziploc Surprise]

Well once I ditched the sky daddy I started taking careful mental notes of the random events that take place in my life. I tried to be as objective as possible. I compared how I would interpret these events as an atheist to how I would have as a Christian. I understand that this is far from a scientific study. Here's the run down.

Atheist interpretation:
After ditching the sky daddy nothing that can be considered retrobution happened. Things were quiet.
Christian interpretation of the same event:
After my drift into atheism God was silent. Either I didn't drift away from Christianity too far or God is being patient. God is just waiting for me to return. He's holding back jugement.

Atheist interpretation of the random events for the next couple of weeks:
Well things are going well for me. Luck has been in my favor. This has been kind of cool. Gee if I were a Christian I would be thanking god right now. This is odd. God is supposed to be cursing me right now instead I've had good luck. BTW I define luck as random chance that happens to be in your favor.
Christian interpretation of the same events:
Wow God has been blessing me recently. Praise God for these blessings!

The car breaks down
Atheist interpretation:
Well it's a bummer the car broke down but fortunately it did so in our driveway so we weren't stuck anywhere, and it's nice that the repair cost was nominal.
Christian interpretation:
Praise God for saving us from getting stranded. Praise God that he gave us the funds to pay for the repair. God is really watching out for us (notice how I downgrade the car breaking down in the first place)

A family member has a nasty accident with a table saw:
Atheist interpretation:
Well there he goes again, not being careful with a dangerous tool. He got lucky this time. It's odd that we have gotten unexpected cash flow to easily pay for the injury (our savings had been depleted from an injury earlier this year).
Christian interpretation:
God protected him once again. Perhaps the accident was a warning to him. God has been so good to us lately just when we needed it most we got some unexpected funds (note how I ignored the depletion of our savings from a previous accident).

I really supposed to have been punished by now. it's odd to see the randomness.