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Care to elaborate? The congregation I grew up in did wonders in the community. The mission downtown helped the homeless gain work skills to get on their feet an

Care to elaborate? The congregation I grew up in did wonders in the community. The mission downtown helped the homeless gain work skills to get on their feet and the church was the primary institution organizing coat drives, food pantries, soup kitchens and helping to build homes. As with any culture, nationality or creed I think there are good and bad. A general comment like this does not contribute to a conversation and only serves to inflame. For the record I haven't attended church in 8 years and don't necessarily plan to go back anytime soon. I don't consider myself atheist either, rather agnostic as some questions such as abiogenesis and the origin of the universe are too big to answer at the moment.

alsetmusic 8y ago
> Care to elaborate? Not the OP, but I grew up in a place where churches influence politics. My niece is in high school there and I recently learned that she lost most of her friends when she decided she is an atheist (this broke my heart). Private faith is probably not so problematic, and some church functions are undoubtedly beneficial to their communities. However, I see organized religion as a negative for society.
curun1r 8y ago
This, to me, seems like one of the central societal challenges today...how do we retain the community and social outreach programs that churches provide without the fairy tales, imaginary-friend-for-grownups and anti-science zealotry that churches bundle into their current offering? I’ve often felt that life would’ve been easier if I’d been able to swallow the dogma without having to question. People who have that faith seem genuinely fulfilled by it, in an almost placebo-like way. And the decidedly local character of churches is a sort of armor against the internetification of the modern world that so often isolates us. But since I could never accept what I still see as a facile relic of a primitive culture, I feel like I missed out on the many ancillary benefits that members of that community so often enjoy.

alsetmusic 8y ago

> Care to elaborate? Not the OP, but I grew up in a place where churches influence politics. My niece is in high school there and I recently learned that she lost most of her friends when she decided she is an atheist (this broke my heart). Private faith is probably not so problematic, and some church functions are undoubtedly beneficial to their communities. However, I see organized religion as a negative for society.

curun1r 8y ago

This, to me, seems like one of the central societal challenges today...how do we retain the community and social outreach programs that churches provide without the fairy tales, imaginary-friend-for-grownups and anti-science zealotry that churches bundle into their current offering? I’ve often felt that life would’ve been easier if I’d been able to swallow the dogma without having to question. People who have that faith seem genuinely fulfilled by it, in an almost placebo-like way. And the decidedly local character of churches is a sort of armor against the internetification of the modern world that so often isolates us. But since I could never accept what I still see as a facile relic of a primitive culture, I feel like I missed out on the many ancillary benefits that members of that community so often enjoy.