Do You Go To Church Or Is It Just A Waste Of Time

[Parche]

My church is here..................

[rug]

1. Church doesn't make you piss.

[Parche]

2. Church

It could piss you off?? :hi:

[Critters2]

3. It's not a waste of time when

you're being treated to the fine homiletic stylings of mycritters2.

[Fran Kubelik]

4. That is a very pretty church!

[Deja Q]

5. Never fit in...

[begin_within]

6. I only go to take my Mom there.

Now that she's 88, I sit with her through the Catholic mass. I haven't gone to mass on my own for almost 30 years.

[u4ic]

7. Mine is a second home

mind you, I'm UU and can dispute anything I want. :D

[Critters2]

15. We do that in the UCC, too

I sometimes wish I were in one of those churches where the pastor is always right :)

[u4ic]

16. Think of all the money you save on hair products

:7

[Critters2]

17. And mascara!

Ooh...was that speaking ill of the dead? :hide:

[u4ic]

18. Of course not...

[Critters2]

19. LOL!!

I plumb forgot about Jan!

[Nevernose]

42. No you can't

Your disputation hasn't been vetted by the committee, yet.

Stolen from the Internet:

How many Unitarians does it take to change a lightbulb?

Three Hundred

• 12 to sit on the Board which appoints the Nominating and Personnel Committee.
• 5 to sit on the the Nominating and Personnel Committee which appoints the House Committee.
• 8 to sit on the House Committtee which appoints the Light Bulb changing committee.
• 4 to sit on the Light Bulb Changing Committee which chooses who will screw in the Light Bulb.
Those 4 then give their own opinion of "screwing in methods" while the one actually does the installation.
After completion it takes 100 individuals to complain about the method of installation, another 177 to debate the ecological impact of using the light bulb at all, and at least one to insist that back in her day, the lit chalice was quite enough, thankyouverymuch!

[Kazak]

8. My UU church, sure!

We value reason and encourage a free and responsible search for meaning...really!! :o

[The Straight Story]

9. I go to church in my pants, wanna see my steeple?

:rofl:

[JVS]

31. LOL.

[The Inquisitive]

37. Zing

+1 Bonus Point

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. Yup, just about every week

I sing in a fine cathedral choir, enjoy hanging out with interesting, diverse people, work on social action projects, and explore spirituality.

[crim son]

11. I don't go to church because it means nothing to me. Others feel differently

and as long as they keep their faith to themselves they can spend fourteen hours a week in church if they want to.

[triguy46]

12. Nearly every week. Your church looks like my office.

[EstimatedProphet]

13. We go to a UU church, which pisses off my fundie sister

because she doesn't know any better.

[Joey Liberal]

14. UU is the only way to go! n/t

[DogandPony]

20. I love my church

from afar....

[CaliforniaPeggy]

40. My dear DogandPony!

Welcome to DU, where you can worship anything or anyone as you wish!

Careful though...this place is addictive!

:hi:

[Parche]

70. WERESHIP

I worship you My Dear CaliforniaPeggy!!!!!!! :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :hi:

As a nurse you can 'save' us all!!!!

[DogandPony]

78. Thank you!

[Nikia]

21. I have panic attacks at church

My anxiety makes it difficult for me to go to church and even more difficult to get a good experience from it. It wasn't always like this. My dad asks if it has to do with the fear of God. I think that it has to do do with social anxiety and agorophobia.

[elshiva]

27. Dear Nikia sometimes I have anxiety attacks at churches, too.

I don't like being around a lot of people, but I love the liturgy. So, I go but after services I have a difficult time socializing with others.

[JVS]

22. Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

[elshiva]

24. Thank you, JVS. That is a beautiful sentiment.

That is a nice sanctuary. Where is that? I am guessing it's either Roman Catholic or High Anglican by that large crucifix.

[JVS]

30. First Trinity Evangelical-Lutheran (LCMS) in Pittsburgh

[elshiva]

32. Thank you, JVS. Sorry I was a little of there.

Lutherans are nice.

[AlecBGreen]

84. howdy

:hi: Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in Winchester VA :)

[elshiva]

23. My Church(es)

To each his or her own, for me it is a lot of fun to go to church or synagogue:

My parish church Immanuel Episcopal in Glencoe, Maryland:



http://www.immanuelglencoe.org

The Cathedral of the Incarnation Baltimore, Maryland (diocesan center of Maryland Episcopal Church
for Integrity Meetings:


http://www.thecathedral.ang-md.org

First Friday/First Saturday Devotion at St. Joseph (Fullerton) Roman Catholic Parish:


http://www.stjoefullerton.org

Saturday Evening Roman Catholic Mass at Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, Baltimore:


http://www.cathedralofmary.org

Prayers at Villa Assumpta, Retirement Home for the School Sisters of Notre Dame:



Marikle Chapel of the Annunciation at College of Notre Dame My Alma Mater:


http://www.ndm.edu/aboutnd/confServices/chapel_photos.cfm

We went to the Bunting Meyerhoff Interfaith Center for Yom Kippur Services
on Johns Hopkins' University Campus
The Interfaith office has a nice meditation room and free ice cream:


http://www.jhu.edu/~chaplain/IFCChapel

And a synagogue I want to go to with my father:
Bolton Street Synagogue (actually moved to ColdSpring Lane!):


http://www.boltonstreet.org

[u4ic]

41. Those are some very lovely churches, elshiva

I may not agree with all that is being taught in many around the world, but I do recognize the beauty in art and architecture that they have given us.

(I won't get into with whose money they were created with , either... );-)

[Arugula Latte]

25. Ugh. Huge waste of time. I can't stand churches.

x(

And I can't stand what goes on in 98 % of them...

[elshiva]

26. Sorry about that Oregonian.

And actually, I agree with you in some ways!

I do not like the fundamentalists churches at all. The churches and synagogues I listed above are liberal Episcopalian and mainstream Roman Catholic. Say what you want about the Roman Catholics, but at least they are against the war in Iraq...

[SoxFan]

So liberal...

So open-minded and tolerant of the beliefs of others.

Apparently, there are Fundie Atheists as well.

:eyes:

[Der Blaue Engel]

86. So if someone doesn't like church or xianity

they're intolerant and closed-minded?

Well, count me in, then. Guess I'm a "Fundie Atheist." :eyes:

[Parche]

68. I Feel Your Pain

I despise Churches and all of the hippokriticalnous that goes on inside. :hi:

[yellowdogintexas]

28. I go every week, for worship services most weeks and

Sunday School class always.



Christmas Eve Candlelight Service; we have 4 of these on Christmas Eve.

[elshiva]

29. Thank you, yellowdogintexas.

Where is that church? Very beautiful picture.

[yellowdogintexas]

79. First United Methodist, Fort Worth Texas

a fine liberal congregation too, I might add.

[Guava Jelly]

33. To much of a non believer to sit through the b.s.

Besides I don't think a book written a few thousand years ago by men who were dumber then we are today has any merit or relavance.

[GirlinContempt]

49. Yeah, kinda like Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Xenophon

Pythagoras, Leucippus, Euclides, Epicurus, Vergil.
The ancient Egyptians, Aryabhata of India, Su Song of China, Ibn al-Haytham of Iraq.

[Critters2]

50. Bunch of stupid dolts

We're so much smarter than that now.

[Guava Jelly]

52. I get your point on that

Philosophers are different.
And the bible has good points..
but the whole talking snake world flood b.s. and A magical cloud guy returning to take the obedient ones to heaven is just silly to me

[GirlinContempt]

61. Socrates et all

sacrificed to gods and consulted oracles. Pythagoras was in to mysticism. The ancient Egyptians believed that one big god spat and created littler gods.

[Guava Jelly]

63. Magic and mysticism were ways to explain the unknown back then

Before science and Just because one believes a snake or a dog talks to them doesn't make it true.
Because we all know the world is flat and less than a few thousand years old.
I have no ill will toward those who believe..It just isn't for me

If you wish to believe differently than i respect that.

[GirlinContempt]

64. I get that you don't believe it

I'm just saying the Bible is full of a lot of similar stuff.
I'm not a believer, but I don't think that just because I find a lot of the stuff to be improbable and unbelievable that the whole thing is worthless. And I don't think the people who wrote it were stupid.

[Guava Jelly]

71. Fair enough

Stupid was maybe an unfair word to use or as i said "dumber".
I guess my point was from a purely scientific stand they were less informed than we are today.
After all we know genetically that life didn't start with just two individuals.
We know the earth is round and older than the writers of the bible understood.
Now the lessons of be good to each other, don't kill... yada yada are fine lessons.
So really we are on a similar page

[GirlinContempt]

73. Seems like we are

[RetroLounge]

54. "by men who were dumber then we are today "

i think you missed this point...

RL

[GirlinContempt]

58. How did I miss it?

[RetroLounge]

59. I think he was being specific with bible book authors

no where did he mention Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Xenophon et. al.

Who are obviously pretty damn smart. and wrote non-fiction. unlike matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

RL

[GirlinContempt]

62. Really?

I think, even if it was only referring to the authors of the Bible, which is not how I read it, it's still a bogus thing to say. First of all, not all the greeks and romans and ancients wrote what you would consider non-fiction, and the arrogance of passing judgment on the intelligence of people long dead who've shaped civilization just makes me shake my head.
If the Bible is so stupid, what makes Pythagoras any smarter? He believed people could be reincarnated as carrots, thought a dog was his dead friend, and claimed to remember his own past lives in vivid detail.

[Schema Thing]

65. Well, let's say that some bible writers were mildly intellegent...

(the writer of Ecclesiastes is the only one that seemed to have a whit of wisdom, imo).... does that mean that one needs to sit for an hour or two every sunday listening to preachers (who are at best mildly intelligent, in a snake-oil salesman kinda way) pontificate and make grandiose, mostly unsupported, suppositions about the bible?


I think that might be what GOPsux was getting at?

[RetroLounge]

77. Well, yes, i see your point

Especially since we have millions of little buildings across the country with steeples so we can go worship the Pythagoream Theorum every sunday...

RL

[GirlinContempt]

80. Who cares?

What does the number of buildings devoted to it mean? Actually, Pythagoreanism (which is not the Pythagorean theory) is supposed to be the jumping place for groups like freemasonry and rosicrucianism. But it doesnt matter. If being religious in such a way or believing such things make you dumb, they make you dumb, right? It doesn't matter how many other people are dumb along with you.

[RetroLounge]

82. Ah yes, religious mob mentality...

RL

[GirlinContempt]

83. I don't know what you mean by that.

[RetroLounge]

88. If enough people believe, then god must exist

or something like that...

whatever.

RL

[GirlinContempt]

89. I think you've lost me

Cause I'm not sure where that ties in.

[RetroLounge]

90. I think i'm too tired to think about it anymore...

namaste.

:hug:

RL

[1gobluedem]

34. I do go to church

Almost every Sunday. I have a lot of issues with the Catholic Church but hope to try to effect change from within. But I go primarily because it makes me feel very close to my friend, Paige. We were almost the only Catholic kids in our school; suffered through First Communion, Confirmation, and CCD together. Paige was kidnappped and, presumably, murdered almost 17 years ago (no trace of her has ever been found; her car was found running at the side of the expressway with her purse and shoes inside); I can feel her with me when I go to Mass. Not that she was pious -- so far from it! But I connect with her at church and that's why I go. Also, at my church (a very liberal parish, by the way) the music is gorgeous and gives me a real sense of peace.

[AlecBGreen]

85. .

:hug:

[Deep13]

35. No and yes.

That's all.

[Maestro]

36. Long story,

short answer is occasionally. My kids go every Sunday though.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

38. For me, it would be a huge waste of time -- if I ever went --

which I don't, any more, because I no longer believe in any of it. If, however, attending church adds something positive to your life, then it isn't a waste of time for you.

[Robeson]

39. I watch football on Sundays.....

...is something else going on at that time?...:shrug:

[BlueJazz]

43. This Atheist went to Church last week and this happened >>

[Deep13]

72. I find that annoying too. nt

[RebelOne]

44. I only go to church for weddings and funerals.

Otherwise it is a waste of time since I'm a non-believer.

[Inchworm]

45. I did for my daughter as she grew up

just in case she saw something I didn't.

I don't believe in any of that stuff personally.

I do like the stories sometimes though. The literal figurative illustrations portrayed in epic prose spewed as fact in an enlivened manner. It's neat to hear a speaker(preacher) tell these stories and watch the crowd(congregation) be effected by it.

I get the same pleasure watching those at a poetry reading, a play, or a concert be effected by the Muse as well though.

:hi:

[cobalt1999]

46. As an atheist, I have Sunday mornings open.

This is my Sunday morning "church"

[deepthought42]

47. Ah, now that is nice. :)

Wish I had more time/energy to spend outdoors.

:hi:

[Rambis]

48. If I did go it would be here

But only on dark beer Sundays!

"I have come to the realization I really do not like yellow beer"
Mrs. Rambis

[Fire Walk With Me]

51. Eepa! Eepa! One thousand eyes! Curly tail!

[Dangerously Amused]

53. As God speaks directly to me and W., neither of us have any need for church.

But he goes anyway, just to parade his sancitmonious arse around.


On second thought, he probably needs the extra credit for all that sinnin' he does.

[I Have A Dream]

55. For me personally, it's a waste of time...

going to either a traditional church or your church. :silly:

[RetroLounge]

56. Take a guess...

RL

[JitterbugPerfume]

57. I got enough of church when I was a child

and all it did for me was to make me an athiest.

[Tyler Durden]

60. "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help."

If you NEED a church, you're not getting the right message.

If you WANT to go to church by all means, feel free. I'll be here when you get back, meditating in the garden.

[Schema Thing]

66. Ah yes, The HIlls Have Eyes II

very spiritual movie.

[flvegan]

67. I don't go to church, but I don't think that it's a waste of time for those

that do believe in going. Everyone practices their faith in their way, even those that don't have any. If going to church makes someone act/behave/think more "Christ-like" if you well, then that's a good thing, I think.

[Burma Jones]

69. Only if Kearns, Zimmerman or Young are unavailable

[applegrove]

74. I don't know how well I fit in but I love the love that is expressed the whole

way through the service and the questions that are asked at the end of the sermon.

[texanwitch]

75. I belong to the church of Shiner.

:toast: :beer:

[kwassa]

76. I do go to church and it is rarely a waste of time.

Sometimes the sermons are not that good.

[qnr]

81. Well, I go to church to photograph the architecture, and that isn't a waste of time, but

that's the extent of my churchgoing.

[idgiehkt]

87. church comes to me.

Just kidding...church is everything that people haven't put walls and a roof on.