Orbit
I'm a planet
Interesting article here: Why Americans go to religious and church services
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Why Americans do/don't go to church
- Thread starter Orbit
- Start date
I tried going back, but they kept expecting me to listen to sermons. One sermon was about Satan trying to keep people from going to church, as if I didn't have enough reasons already.
Yes, sermons are the worst. You just sit there waiting for it to get over with. I think I almost immediately tuned out and started thinking about something fun to do after church.
I suggest they bring back the snake handlers. At least it'd be more entertaining.
Will he or won't he get bit today?
Random question, do churches provide meals to the congregation?
Flame
Beware
To my experience it was coffee and donuts.
VoidCat
Pronouns: he/him/they/them
My foster parent's church does.
Sand Dancer
Crazy Cat Lady
We got orange juice instead of coffee. Being Florida and all.
Interesting. We have a full meal after temple with sweets and fruit as appetisers. Honestly I remember only going to get the free food as a kid lol
Some share a meal after the service is over, but usually no. They often will have a little coffee before early Sunday School of various kinds, and then there will be a music service with sermons interspersed. Eating is not considered very essential. The communion is very often minimal, just a bite. It is not intended as a meal usually. Many churches have communion not every week but on a different schedule.
Shadow Wolf
Certified People sTabber
The UU church down the road has coffee, tea, water, and an assortment of food after services. I went once to check it out, to cross that item off my list of things to do, and my reason for not continuing to go is that even though the UU church promotes no god or religion over another, the services are still very protestant in structure and order. Basically the same church I want nothing more to do with, just under different management with a different message.
The Baptist church I used to go to, years ago, had Dr. Pepper and some snacks, usually potato chips and pretzels, but rarely after Sunday services and more typically before/during/after services and programs on other days when the services were more informal.
Salvador
RF's Swedenborgian
In Illinois, hot chocolate, warm coffee, or lots of wine for communion would suffice in taking the edge off the cold weather.
Salvador
RF's Swedenborgian
There are hundreds upon hundreds of various Christian denominations, but none are likely in base reality.
osgart
Nothing my eye, Something for sure
If there were authoritative words of peace and truth id go back to a church. Since they all yappin so self righteously, without a lick of reality to it i find it stuffy, arrogant, and confusing.
All that talk about being saved from their sins, like their faith magically makes them holy and above, exceptional or something. It bugs me, so i dont go. I think its the same old people, wearing a new faith as if they are above and beyond. They all seem so hepped on doing away with sin that they look down on you if you look different.
All that talk about being saved from their sins, like their faith magically makes them holy and above, exceptional or something. It bugs me, so i dont go. I think its the same old people, wearing a new faith as if they are above and beyond. They all seem so hepped on doing away with sin that they look down on you if you look different.
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Church sort of freaks me out in general.
Here you got a group of people that get together and go about pretending something is there when it's actually not in reality , and upon conclusion of services revert back into the real world mode where they talk about the big game coming up and head straight to the sports bar.
Here you got a group of people that get together and go about pretending something is there when it's actually not in reality , and upon conclusion of services revert back into the real world mode where they talk about the big game coming up and head straight to the sports bar.
Salvador
RF's Swedenborgian
There's a good chance we are not living in base reality; we may likely be living in a simulated reality; what we think is real, is but an illusion.
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Even simulations have a reality. It's a bit like paraphrasing some of the lyrics with some creative changes from Hotel California, "Where you can call it anything you like, but it's still Hotel California".
I kind of think of reality is multi-layered or multifaceted ever since I had an extremely vivid dream once where the "real" world I once knew, completely vanished in the "real" world of the Vivid dream, and then I woke up and adjusted my sense of reality accordingly only to lose it again sometime later.
I tend to think reality is the nature of the continuum.
Ellen Brown
Well-Known Member
Don't kid yourself. There are lots of religious services but perhaps not at the old dead edifices. In the past weeks, I've attended two different, filled to capacity, churches, one in a College Athletic Center, and the other at a warehouse in an industrial district. People of color were in the majority at both of them, though I was absolutely welcomed in the most loving way I could have imagined.
In my opinion, many of those who love God are made to feel unwelcome at the Old Dominion churches. Who's not following God here?
In my opinion, many of those who love God are made to feel unwelcome at the Old Dominion churches. Who's not following God here?
My off topic opinion:
Our sense of personal reality is based on relationships and upon obstacles including immovable ones such as unsolvable problems. If everything around you is 100% predictable then you have a kind of anesthetic life. Its as if you are driving down a long road and occasionally find that you have been daydreaming and don't remember the last 20 minutes of road. If all of your friends are people who have to please you, then your sense of reality may lack a certain sense of realness; or if you have no friends or if you are always alone. Life must have its ups and downs and unpredictable situations. We can't have steady state all of the time. Although we seek an anesthetized state we can't live in an anesthetized state. It is ironic. We also need to overcome challenges and learn to deal with rejections and to accept things that are impossible. These contribute to a sense of reality. Its great to get what we want and to always encounter new stimuli, but its the obstacles which make life feel real.
So...whether this reality is the 'Base' reality or not doesn't really affect our sense of reality. It also doesn't change who we are and how we deal with problems. We are just as real as someone living on the 'Outside'. Actually someone on the 'Outside' may not feel as real as we do.