6 ms·

Personally, this really resonates with me. Growing up Catholic (but later abandoning it), I find that the sense of community you get out church is pretty much u

Personally, this really resonates with me. Growing up Catholic (but later abandoning it), I find that the sense of community you get out church is pretty much unrivaled by anything else. I do miss that. The relationships you have with friends, family, coworkers, people who you share a hobby with, etc. is just different. Also, growing up in a religious environment, you are used to thinking about things higher than yourself such as the meaning of life and morality. I find these questions to still be relevant, and yet, there aren't a lot of spaces outsides religion to explore these topics in a serious way. Philosophy meetups in a bar just don't quite do it for me. Personally, I think that we've given up a lot more that we think by giving up religion. I think The School of Life does a good job of tackling this problem. They're not religious, but they've created a community of people who want to actively question and improve how they live in a deeper way than most regular, secular people do.

scrollaway 11y ago
> Also, growing up in a religious environment, you are used to thinking about things higher than yourself such as the meaning of life and morality. I find these questions to still be relevant, and yet, there aren't a lot of spaces outsides religion to explore these topics in a serious way. This is extremely arguable. Some religious environments promote the exact opposite: proxying of morality and any question about the meaning of life so that you don't have to think about it.
- hiphipjorge 11y ago
  Agreed. Just talking about my own personal experience. That being said, religious environments that impose these world views on people have a much higher success rate at having people think about these things than they would in almost any other way (even if they accomplish this by making people rebel against religion). They're certainly not going to get that from the media and pop culture. It's interesting that the most philosophically profound individuals I've met (again, personal experience) are mostly people who were religious and then abandoned their fate. I think that has to do with the combination of wanting to rebel against the imposition of those beliefs with trying to somehow find something to substitute it.
Qantourisc 11y ago
When you give it up, you give up religion _and_ community. So maybe we need the Church of Morality ?

scrollaway 11y ago

> Also, growing up in a religious environment, you are used to thinking about things higher than yourself such as the meaning of life and morality. I find these questions to still be relevant, and yet, there aren't a lot of spaces outsides religion to explore these topics in a serious way. This is extremely arguable. Some religious environments promote the exact opposite: proxying of morality and any question about the meaning of life so that you don't have to think about it.

hiphipjorge 11y ago
Agreed. Just talking about my own personal experience. That being said, religious environments that impose these world views on people have a much higher success rate at having people think about these things than they would in almost any other way (even if they accomplish this by making people rebel against religion). They're certainly not going to get that from the media and pop culture. It's interesting that the most philosophically profound individuals I've met (again, personal experience) are mostly people who were religious and then abandoned their fate. I think that has to do with the combination of wanting to rebel against the imposition of those beliefs with trying to somehow find something to substitute it.

Qantourisc 11y ago

When you give it up, you give up religion _and_ community. So maybe we need the Church of Morality ?