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It does appear that a lot of people believe religiously that they shouldn't pay taxes. We should all start churches. Maybe get a lawyer or three involved and ma

It does appear that a lot of people believe religiously that they shouldn't pay taxes. We should all start churches. Maybe get a lawyer or three involved and make enough churches flagrantly abusing the law that the supreme court has to hear a case. The Church of Satan kind of does stuff like that. They do have other benefits but they very state to state. Like that guy that legalized his ayahuasca church in Kentucky[0] because they have a law that says you can do whatever drugs you want if it's a religious ceremony. It's stupid that you need a church for that, but also pretty rad that he can do it there. It appears to be helping a lot of people. It appears that there are services for filing the needed documents. StartChurch.com pops up with a quick google. It looks nice. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-88xpl-5ro0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-88xpl-5ro0

stevenicr 7y ago
That startchurch looks like they do do it! thanks for that. I have been kicking the idea around of starting a few 'churches' just have an open 'third place' - I don't mind whatever religions stuff people choose to follow - I'd perhaps want to open a 'coag - church of any gods' and let people choose their own flavors. To me a 'church space' should/could be all inclusive - even athiest / satanic whatever - life's a journey, things change, no judge all that.. a dojo is just a building where people train. I like the tax break options, and let sub-groups be pro-active in whatever their chosen things are. I read a story this week saying some atheist groups are actively trying to stop some religious texts in all government building in a certain state? I found another atheist group doing stuff for homeless that does not push religions.. I would encourage those kinds of things I think. you mention the ayahuasca - I knew some native Indian folks some time ago that got peyote twice a year legally for their ceremonies, and have read Oregon has taken something like that to their state supreme court? There are sometimes counseling services offered by these places where the people are not licensed/dr degreed right? So affordable someone to talk to could be offered. It is interesting the exemptions that are made in the name of the invisible man in the sky as george carlin put it. I found that our city (maybe state?) has exemptions for codes with churches - so you can't build a tiny home community with r10 zoning here, but if you have a church there are not restrictions on buildings. As to where I don't particularly care for some of the extra tall buildings in the area, perhaps it's time to take advantage of their exemptions rather than just be miffed that they are getting them. /randomthoughts
- jelliclesfarm 7y ago
  I was part of such a church. It’s not active anymore. http://www.churchofvirus.org/ http://www.churchofvirus.org/ It was good. Then it was bad. It got worse. Then it died a sad death. I am pretty sure some of it’s members are probably right here on HN. Different time and another lifetime for me.
  - stevenicr 7y ago
    I'd love to hear a synopsis of that situation! I appreciate this bit as well. Makes me think something like this could quickly outgrow itself, and rather than trying to keep so many voices under one growing roof, perhaps it may be best to split in half and split again to keep things manageable and cordial and not have things get worse than bad. But still do the things it was set out to do - provide an open third place for people who may not have such and take advantage of some discounts along the way.
    - jelliclesfarm 7y ago
      It is difficult to create a synopsis for this because it’s a lot of things..little little things that mushroomed and eventually caused the group to implode. There are other things that happened and I can’t talk about it. But I will say this...the biggest cleft occurred after 9/11. It was a very bad time for the group to be cohesive. Looking back, it’s rather remarkable. I actually want to write about it some day because it was a pressurized emotional highly volatile environment where seemingly like minded people couldn’t stand each other’s POV anymore. The group was around for a decade plus after that..but weaker. The ‘virus’ came from how thoughts are like virii and can infect people. And every member of the congregation can be a vector for rational thought. We’d spend hours discussing (remember BBS and Dalnet/IRC?) how religion was a virus and only rational atheistic thought could vaccinate people against the virus of god. Darwin was our prophet. Evolution explained life. We celebrated his birthday. Man..those were some good times. Of course, even then no one got along..but we were all still arguing with ‘one of us’. But 911 changed everything. That’s when it dawned upon many of us..the most dangerous virus is not religion..but politics. What bound us was not as strong as what divides us. It was just sad after that. Slow agonizing ugly death of something that could have been beautiful. I was very young then..in the two plus decades since, I have changed too. I stopped calling myself atheist and became agnostic for a while. Then I called myself ignostic and until recently didn’t care. As I get older, I feel I am ready to explore and am willing to test if faith is more nuanced than ‘organised religion’. I don’t know. I guess we are always looking for answers. And when we are not, we invent questions to look for answers. To your point, I disagree..congregations need to be large. We were trying to replicate how a virus works by spreading rational thoughts memes and the more people we infected with our thought memes, the more successful we were going to be in promoting the virian ideal and virtue of pure rational thought.

stevenicr 7y ago

That startchurch looks like they do do it! thanks for that. I have been kicking the idea around of starting a few 'churches' just have an open 'third place' - I don't mind whatever religions stuff people choose to follow - I'd perhaps want to open a 'coag - church of any gods' and let people choose their own flavors. To me a 'church space' should/could be all inclusive - even athiest / satanic whatever - life's a journey, things change, no judge all that.. a dojo is just a building where people train. I like the tax break options, and let sub-groups be pro-active in whatever their chosen things are. I read a story this week saying some atheist groups are actively trying to stop some religious texts in all government building in a certain state? I found another atheist group doing stuff for homeless that does not push religions.. I would encourage those kinds of things I think. you mention the ayahuasca - I knew some native Indian folks some time ago that got peyote twice a year legally for their ceremonies, and have read Oregon has taken something like that to their state supreme court? There are sometimes counseling services offered by these places where the people are not licensed/dr degreed right? So affordable someone to talk to could be offered. It is interesting the exemptions that are made in the name of the invisible man in the sky as george carlin put it. I found that our city (maybe state?) has exemptions for codes with churches - so you can't build a tiny home community with r10 zoning here, but if you have a church there are not restrictions on buildings. As to where I don't particularly care for some of the extra tall buildings in the area, perhaps it's time to take advantage of their exemptions rather than just be miffed that they are getting them. /randomthoughts

jelliclesfarm 7y ago
I was part of such a church. It’s not active anymore. http://www.churchofvirus.org/ http://www.churchofvirus.org/ It was good. Then it was bad. It got worse. Then it died a sad death. I am pretty sure some of it’s members are probably right here on HN. Different time and another lifetime for me.
- stevenicr 7y ago
  I'd love to hear a synopsis of that situation! I appreciate this bit as well. Makes me think something like this could quickly outgrow itself, and rather than trying to keep so many voices under one growing roof, perhaps it may be best to split in half and split again to keep things manageable and cordial and not have things get worse than bad. But still do the things it was set out to do - provide an open third place for people who may not have such and take advantage of some discounts along the way.
  - jelliclesfarm 7y ago
    It is difficult to create a synopsis for this because it’s a lot of things..little little things that mushroomed and eventually caused the group to implode. There are other things that happened and I can’t talk about it. But I will say this...the biggest cleft occurred after 9/11. It was a very bad time for the group to be cohesive. Looking back, it’s rather remarkable. I actually want to write about it some day because it was a pressurized emotional highly volatile environment where seemingly like minded people couldn’t stand each other’s POV anymore. The group was around for a decade plus after that..but weaker. The ‘virus’ came from how thoughts are like virii and can infect people. And every member of the congregation can be a vector for rational thought. We’d spend hours discussing (remember BBS and Dalnet/IRC?) how religion was a virus and only rational atheistic thought could vaccinate people against the virus of god. Darwin was our prophet. Evolution explained life. We celebrated his birthday. Man..those were some good times. Of course, even then no one got along..but we were all still arguing with ‘one of us’. But 911 changed everything. That’s when it dawned upon many of us..the most dangerous virus is not religion..but politics. What bound us was not as strong as what divides us. It was just sad after that. Slow agonizing ugly death of something that could have been beautiful. I was very young then..in the two plus decades since, I have changed too. I stopped calling myself atheist and became agnostic for a while. Then I called myself ignostic and until recently didn’t care. As I get older, I feel I am ready to explore and am willing to test if faith is more nuanced than ‘organised religion’. I don’t know. I guess we are always looking for answers. And when we are not, we invent questions to look for answers. To your point, I disagree..congregations need to be large. We were trying to replicate how a virus works by spreading rational thoughts memes and the more people we infected with our thought memes, the more successful we were going to be in promoting the virian ideal and virtue of pure rational thought.