“I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
Last Saturday night I did something I’ve never done as an adult, I walked into a church. A guy at my gym always invites me to go to church with his family and, since I’m trying to be nice to people, I finally tagged along. Surprisingly, it wasn’t horrible.
While I’m not becoming religious any time soon, my experience did teach me a few things about faith.
- Christianity is just as stupid as every other belief.
As I’ve said before, arguing with people is futile because there’s almost always enough evidence to support both sides of an issue. It’s 2013 and we still have people fighting over whether or not the earth is actually round. An invisible man who secretly manipulates everything from wars to Tim Tebow’s football games is just as nonsensical as galactic explosions and cosmic glitches. Before the service started I put away my prejudice by reminding myself that I believe in the stoned ape theory, something most people would be incredulous towards. With that in mind I was able to enjoy the service with as little bias as possible.
- All groups are the same.
If you go onto any atheism forum you’ll quickly realize that all the “enlightened” members all possess the same behavioral patterns as their radical Christian brethren. People naturally build their own social structures, even anarchists have leaders. The average man needs something to believe in, be it a supernatural deity, sports figure, or angry keyboard jockey.
- Will I go back?
Although I did learn a lot from observing others at the service, I more than likely will not attend again. My world views are a lot different than those of the church and I don’t really feel “connected” to the Christian lifestyle. Despite this, I still have respect for those who do chose to live a pious life