My experience is different. When I lived in Vancouver for I noticed that trend, but in the smaller towns, ( < 5,000 or so) not going to church was a “thing” and what church you went to mattered not only for your social connections but for your job as well. It’s probably less true now than it was 20 years ago, but it’s definitely a thing.
This being the internet, I can’t definitively prove you’re not chopped liver.
I’m going to have disagree with you Crazy Canuck. I lived in a town of 8,000 people for a couple of years (30 years ago) and no one I knew even went to church - at all. This was in Ontario.
Are you talking British Columbia? I can’t imagine it’s that much different.
I would love to believe that there is a powerful being looking out for both humanity in general and for individual people. And I’d love to believe that some form of existence is possible after we die. These are comforting beliefs.
But there’s no evidence that these beliefs are true and I can’t force myself to have the faith needed to believe them without evidence.
I remember visiting Toronto (granted this was a couple of decades ago) and I wanted to drink a soda. But I couldn’t buy one. Because it was Sunday and all the stores were closed.
Now granted, not being able to buy a soda is not a serious form of oppression. But it clearly was an example of religious people imposing their beliefs on non-believers.
The story had a happy ending. I was able to defy God through the use of an outdoor vending machine.
There are some, shall we say, conveniences of Christianity as it is practiced that appeal to me. I like the term and the concept of “blessing”, for example - wishing someone every reasonable boon by virtue of their decency, or acknowledging that something nice you have is largely the good work of someone else. “That software you wrote for Omaha Humanists has really been a blessing to me. Bless you!”
It is also encouraging and humbling to see the good work in the community that many churches do - sponsoring homeless shelters, for example. Secular organizations do this as well, but the churches seem to get a lot of momentum going that I really envy.
“Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system!”
Amen. I feel exactly the same way. Lex Luthor was right. It’s just us, and we’re all we’ve got.
I acknowledged it’s a trivial issue. Unlike the people who declare that coffee cups are part of an organized War on Christmas.
I have never tried any type of illicit substance, but I gotta admit that I find ayahuasca a tad intriguing.
While I have seen it in northern BC, where I really noticed it was the time I spent in Alberta. It’s really that different there. I can see why people call Alberta Canada’s bible belt.
Quite true. The Sunday shopping law was repealed in 1992 after years and years of public pressure.
We also used to have no alcohol served at sporting events, no alcohol sales on Sundays, and no drink in a bar on Sunday without ordering a meal.
I grew up with all of that, but we still didn’t discuss religion.
You did. Laughing with you, I hope.
There is the point of giving labor the weekend that goes along with the religious aspects of sabbatarianism,* but conversely, what fun is the weekend we work so hard for if nothing is open? Or am I too tied to the capitalist definition of recreation if I’m even asking that question?
*That’s what the books about the history of Sunday blue laws called it back when I did my thesis. Glad to see that at least one online dictionary cites this as a meaning.
Mostly this, and I’m surprised that more posters aren’t taking this angle. In the Pit the sentiment is expressed frequently.
I’m not looking for immortality or an eternal dopamine buzz, but it would be comforting to know that Orel Roberts and similar slime got a touch of post-death judgement. Not an eternity of burning and hopelessness, but maybe a month of eating shit sandwiches until they died the real death.
My parents were agnostic. Consequently, I’ve ended up agnostic. A lot of the friends I grew up with were catholic so I’ve attended a handful of services but got nothing out of it and in fact found it boring. A few years ago after the break up of a long term relationship I was feeling like something was missing and I attended the local UU a few times thinking I would meet some less conservative people in the reddish state I live in but it didn’t work well for me.
I’ve always wondered where “up” into Heaven is. Is it straight up from where I’m standing? What about people who live at different latitudes and or longitudes?
And The rising “through the clouds” thing. What if I croak on a beautiful, sunny, cloudless day?
Never bought in and will never look to cash out as far as organized religion goes.
Alan Watts would call you out. Get real.
I feel the need to offer Maastricht an apology after reading her post once again (this time for comprehension).
I’m sorry and I apologize for being a jerk.
She nailed it however by suggesting Alan Watts.
Only every day. My life would have at least 90 percent less anxiety if I were wired in a way that made me capable of believing in an afterlife.
You don’t think eternity would get boring eventually? The unanswered questions of the reality of an afterlife of which there would be aplenty, I would think cause more anxiety, especially if it is the same gods man has imagined here in this world, would be the same assholes running the next life too.