I
loathe having people take what I say
out of context, so I find it necessary
to correct you on a few points which you very conveniently
misconstrued and twisted. Its can't be helped I suppose, that's what an argument is.
MY life has no carrot. I am good because, in direct opposition of
Christian faith,
I believe I am intrinsically good. You die and you believe you get a cookie if you are good. I honestly believe firmly that "I have no clue what is going to happen".
Life isn't fair; sometimes
the bad guys don't pay in the end.
Now here in one place you say that being around all these people is important, then two paragraphs later you say that its none of my
concern OR my
responsibility what they are thinking about. Well I should hope it's my concern. If I am sitting in a room full of bored people thinking about not being where they are, how is that conducive to the over all "
vibe"?
Here is what
John Irving had to say about it:
"
...I prefer these
weekday services to
Sunday worship; there are fewer distractions when I have Grace Church on-the-Hill almost to myself
..."
"The other thing preferable about the weekday services is that no one is there against his will. That's another distraction on Sundays. Who hasn't suffered the experience of having
an entire family seated in the pew in front of you, the children at war with each other and sandwiched between the mother and the father who are forcing them to go to
church? An aura of stale
arguments almost visibly clings to the hasty clothing of the children
..."
"The stern looking father who occupies the aisle has his
attention interrupted by fits of
vacancy--an
expression so perfectly empty accompanies his sternness and his concentration that I think
I glimpse an underlying truth to the mans
churchgoing: That he is doing it
only for the children."
Then he goes into a nice long description of the family fighting silently in the pew.
"Should
you move the
hymnal before she is through praying and sits on it? Should you pick up the hymnal and
bash the boy with it? But the father is the one you'd like to hit; and you'd like to
pinch the mother's thigh, exactly as she pinched her son.
How can you pray?"
This is what I am talking about. How can you expect a person to grow up around a bunch of people who don't want to be where they are but damn sure expect you to not only be there but like it to? It seems like
a taboo version of Santa Claus for adults; no one wants to say they don't believe, but everyone in the room is going to pretend if it kills them. That's the
vibe I get. It is most certainly not all
encompassing, but it's
prevalent enough to be
noticeable.
Now define "
sacred place"...
Christians tend to place a lot of faith in
things
I don't see how things and places have anything to do with any ones spirituality. I have seen many "
neat-o" churches that look pretty
expensive but I don't see how this is crucial. I have been privy to attending St. Andrews Baptist church and watch them joyously celebrate their beliefs with dancing, singing and clapping. I have also had the misfortune to sit in
many a stuffy middle class church where they sure
talk about "
joyous celebration", that part always used to make me giggle.
Don't get me started on communion...
Yes, I firmly believe that old white people should not be allowed to attend church.
Dogmatic law takes care of all that silly thinking for all the Catholics! Why debate something that is not
moot (moot actually means "subject to debate"). You in your own mind could decide that
pre-marital sex is okay, does that change the fact that the church says its wrong? I don't know about everyone else, but I know that what the
Pope says goes. End of argument. Just take the
letter of church law to heart and you don't need to think about anything.
I am going to stop talking about this now... This is when I get to the point where I want to start dragging it more twards the "
I find Christianity creepy" and "
The ritualistic cannibalization of ones own savior is weird" arguments. Which can never be arguments simply because they have no basis in logic and are in fact
rude and
unpopular opinions that get everyone in a
knot.
Score:
moJoe: 0
Quizro: 0
I suppose
you don't have proof and
I have no faith, so we have now turned a rant about arguing
religious semantics into an
argument about
religious semantics...
ironic Nu? :P
Circles within circles.
At least I am now
ignorant,
lazy and
hypocritical; I can't help myself, I have never been able to pass up a good
argument. :P