Comments on rose city journal: supersize my salvation

mark + anon,I hear you. The reasons listed by both...

2007-08-30T13:07:00.000-07:00

mark + anon,

I hear you. The reasons listed by both of you are a big part of why I don't go to church.

I definitely would never start attending again out of some false sense of propriety. I think that's the worst kind of lie, and insulting to the people who do believe. I hate that sort of pretension.

When I think about going back, I think about the sense of community I felt in church. It was very powerful.

Also, I sometimes wonder if I am lacking some component in my life. I always hear people saying their spirituality is a big part of their lives and I wonder if I am missing something. Something important.

But then I start second-guessing myself and always end up talking myself out of going back to church.

And here we are. Church-free for 2/3 of my life and counting.

Lisa, don't get me started, do I think it's bizarr...

2007-08-30T12:29:00.000-07:00

Lisa, don't get me started, do I think it's bizarre, no, why does marketing, propagandizing and selling of religion surprise you? Nothing new here.

What to me is bizarre is that organized religion is the hypocrisy, no need to even bring up the Priest child molestation issue (organized religion can't even control their own priests sexual desire) or the fact that the the world is starving and overheating but can't use birth control or how many people in history have died in the name of religion. Or the current icon of hypocrisy Larry Craig.

The first problem I have with organized religion is that they take the Bible too literally. I mean that we are talking a collect set of stories, fables, tales, word of mouth what ever you want to call it that was roughly transcribed in the language of the day. Why can't they take the message more to heart rather than the exact words. Why don't they get that God created evolution for crying out loud.

The second is that they have selective recall, they blindly ignore the quote "it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than to pass through the eye of a needle" or that the ONLY time Jesus got major league pissed is at the money lenders? They love to ignore their own lessons.

Third is the inability to take to heart certain key beliefs like Do to others what you would have them do to you. - Matthew 7:12.

For me his real temple, which they ignore they are ruining, is best found in nature NOT a brick and mortar building, how many trees died for buildings we use once a week. Let's not forget where the modern bastardized version of "religion" came from, paganism, a worship of nature. Nor should we forget what "true believers" did to pagans when they would not accept the "True Word", heck they even hijacked the holidays. So if you want to go back, go back outside.

Wouldn't it be better to focus on making reality b...

2007-08-30T12:13:00.000-07:00

Wouldn't it be better to focus on making reality better for ourselves and others instead of supporting irrationality and believing in fantasy?

It wasn't superstition that made man great, it was reason.

I'm just sayin'...

Thanks, Kevin. I still think about going back. May...

2007-08-27T11:26:00.000-07:00

Thanks, Kevin. I still think about going back. Maybe someday.

Maybe not.

Lisa

Your post title is clever!I gave up on attending c...

2007-08-27T11:08:00.000-07:00

Your post title is clever!

I gave up on attending church long ago, mostly for the reasons you cited. It occurred to me that church became more about raising money for the church than it was about Christ.

I'm probably never going back.