Atheists/Agnostics: Do you miss any aspect of religion?

[Heddi]

Do any of you miss churchy things ? The pomp and ceremony? The tradition? The hymns? The prayer? The close connection with God?

Apparently, if you don't, then you are a minority within a minority, as the new hip thing for atheists to do is go to church for the ceremony and incense and songs and worship and bible reading and acceptance of Jesus Christ into their hearts....

22 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Yes
	2 (9%)
	No
	19 (86%)
	Other
	1 (5%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[Rainforestgoddess]

1. Nope, bores the snot out of me. N/t

[haikugal]

2. Not at all...n/t

[mr blur]

3. You missed off "Fuck, no!"

Better to be a minority within a minority than a confused hypocrite (too strong? I don't think so)

[EvolveOrConvolve]

4. Damn, I just got a bad case of deja vu

Hmmmm....

[Capt. Obvious]

5. I miss the church people coming over to do chores and yard work

Amazing what wearing a fake cast will do.

[Ron Obvious]

6. You can't miss what you never had

I grew up in a non-religious household.

On the few occasions that I attended a church service, it bored the crap out of me and I couldn't understand why anybody would want to waste their time that way.

I also couldn't stand the morality lectures. What adult needs lectures on morality? Is knowing the difference between right and wrong such a hard thing for theists?

That said, I frequently listened to the Compline service Sunday evening on our local classical music station for the music.

[Warren Stupidity]

9. Yeah me too.

Just curious if you remember when, as a child, you discovered that other people believed in really weird shit and what you thought about that.

[Ron Obvious]

13. I grew up in secular European countries, mostly...

The Christians I met back then mostly seemed to believe in a very abstract, benevolent God. Heaven, if it actually existed, was a place everyone but the most evil people would go to (nothing about believing the right way), and they'd squirm in embarrassment at the supernatural aspects of their religion. Even the clergy were probably agnostic.

I remembered a radio programme I listened to as a kid, in which a vicar/pastor/minister type was interviewed about the difficulties of his profession. He said he found it extremely difficult to answer children who'd ask him if he believed in God. Either way, the answer would be incredible: "Father actually believes that nonsense!" vs "Father doesn't even believe any of that either!". For some reason I still remember that all these years later.

I didn't knowingly meet anybody who actually believed really weird shit until I came to the US (Texas), where suddenly I was the weirdo for not believing any of it. The first such person ever encountered by the natives, it seemed.

It really felt like being in a lunatic asylum in which the inmates looked perfectly normal until they said something utterly insane. Most people seemed incredulous that I was an atheist and assumed I was just going through a rebellious stage or was putting them on. I lost my taste for religious discussions fairly quickly, since it felt like talking to a brick wall anyway.

In the beginning, I assumed I would hear interesting and maybe good reasons why people believed what they did, but I never heard a rational argument.

This is also when I first encountered the bizarre notion that it mattered what you believed and that every sect seemed to think they were the only ones with the right beliefs and the only ones going to Heaven.

Well, that's indoctrination for you. The church services I mentioned earlier was when I attended with religious girlfriends at their request, but that's something I'd never do today, not even in the spirit of anthropology in which I attended them back then.

[Warren Stupidity]

14. "It really felt like being in a lunatic asylum" - that is the perspective I grew up with.

Only the knowledge that I was an outsider, that my whole family was "different" started at a much younger age.

[AlbertCat]

17. I went to Sunday School...as required. My parents dropped me off.

When I was like 7 or 8 I said something about the "Adam and Eve myth". The adult woman "teaching" Sunday School had a conniption! "Myth???? " I had been reading all about Greek myths and Norse myths for a while and just assumed no one ACTUALLY LITERALLY believed such just-so stories! She was ridiculous I thought, so I started skipping Sunday School and church and would go to my Grandmother's near by and watch "Rocky & Bullwinkle" and eat mint Eskimo Pies

[Warren Stupidity]

31. your grandma was a very good person.

[AlbertCat]

32. your grandma was a very good person.

Oh, she wasn't there. I knew where the key was and I knew she'd be at church. She did keep Eskimo Pies on hand however.

[marginlized]

21. My non-religious household

never went to church, although I briefly visited Sunday school a few times when I was about 7 years old. By myself, which right there was my parents way of letting me make up my own mind. It didn't take. I thought the other kids were rude.

In elementary school, my best friends were from Muslim families or Jewish families or Buddhists and plenty of agnostic families. Not that us kids discussed religion at all, but I had plenty of diversity in my community.

In High School I did attend a few services at the local UU. The cool kids were there. But there was never any mention of dogma or even metaphysics. This was the late 60's and we concentrated on current events. They would discuss NASA's budget or the probability of life on other planets. One time, we had a woman representing the Black Panthers appear to discuss racial equality. Not your average "church"!

[Tobin S.]

7. I don't and I don't think about religion much.

Unless it takes center stage in the headlines like it is with the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.

My view is that the world would be a much better place if we did not have religion. Everyone's worldviews would be based in reality.

[Warren Stupidity]

8. De Botton started up that nonsense (again) a couple of years ago.

Its nonsense.

[Curmudgeoness]

10. Not at all. And if I did,

I might go to a UU Church meeting, since that is basically a free-for-all with everyone from Christians to Buddhists to atheists, and all are welcome. But I have no desire to be involved in even fake church.

[bluedigger]

11. We used to get free grape juice for Communion.

I kind of miss singing in the choir, too. Some good music.

[toby jo]

12. It's like watching people be put into a trance.

No. Nothing to miss.

I know people who do miss it, though. They'll say they don't believe in it anymore, but they go once in awhile, because, you know…. So, I respect them for it.

Once in awhile, though, I miss the smell of incense and burn some. The old hippy days come a calling.

[LostOne4Ever]

15. I like the art and architecture inspired by religion

I also like taking the stories as fantasy once nobody believes in them anymore and they become mythology for everyone. Greek mythology in particular I am quite fond of. Religion and all the seriousness and other baggage that comes with it is another story.

But as for churchy things, the boring sermons and ceremonies, the asinine traditions, prayer, etc I am glad to get rid of them!

[uriel1972]

36. First time I stepped inside a Greek Orthodox Church...

I was blown away, I had never seen anything like it before in my life.

[NastyRiffraff]

38. Yes, but you can still enjoy the art & architecture

without buying into religion. I love going to the National Cathedral, and I like the music of some religious hymths (particularly Christmas carols). Remember building cathedrals and composing religious music was how a lot of talented people had to make their living. The Chruch had the big bucks to pay them so they went where the money was!

[AlbertCat]

16. How could anyone?

You can't get away from the damn stuff!

[defacto7]

18. The parts that are

art, music and history that I enjoy I have never given up. No, I don't miss it because the only parts I don't have are the parts I don't want.

We're not required to loose anything by being a non-theist. In the same vane we are not required to have anything we don't want either.

So if there's something about religion you want to participate in, have at it.

[cantbeserious]

19. No

eom

[RussBLib]

20. I sorta miss the cannibalistic aspect of religion

I remember back in the fevered days of my youth that I thought it was kinda cool that we were eating flesh and drinking blood.

Then I grew up.

[onager]

22. Another "NO" vote.

Accepting atheism was like a large weight being lifted off my shoulders. I have no desire at all to put it back. Any of it.

Even the social benefits of religion are over-rated, IMO. Church socializing includes all the usual human aspects of socializing, like forming hierarchies, petty politics, and gossip. I see that play out every time I go back where I came from. Seems like some faction in any given church is always pissed off at something and scheming to get their own way.

[Stryst]

23. The church I was raised in had awsome cook outs

I do love meat cooked with fire.

[Arugula Latte]

24. I never believed any of it. Even when I was very young I realized how stupid it all is.

So, thankfully, I can't miss it.

The times I've been into churches have largely creeped me out (what the f@#$ is that mildewy smell in most churches? Do they pipe that in?). Some large and ancient churches such as cathedrals are interesting for the history and architecture, though; I'll give them that.

Should say my parents were not religious by the time the kids came around. My mother had taken communion but got to college and just realized, "Wow, I've been sold a pantload." My dad came from some German Lutheran stock who didn't have much use for actual religion and belief had faded from that side of the family by the middle of the last century.

[NeoGreen]

25. No. At least nothing of 'Religion' that you can't find elsewhere...

...but without the dogma.

I have joined a UU "church" for a the connection, community and participation with humanity.

The "church" is defined by the people within.

No god required.

[amuse bouche]

26. I do not miss being around a bunch of mindless Zombies

Even occasionally interacting with them online, reminds me how happy I am, that I am not one of them

[Jokerman]

27. I attended church just once, for porn.

My high school girlfriend wanted me to go to church with her and I wanted her to go the XXX rated drive-in movie with me so we struck a deal. You can imagine where two horny 18 year-old kids had a better time. I'll just say that I remember very little about the church service yet I have many fond memories of the drive-in.

We went to the drive-in together several times after that but I never went back to church and I certainly never missed it.

[AtheistCrusader]

39. I went to a church sleep-over once.

With predictable cause.


Drive-ins were always fun too. My brother: "How in the hell did you get these dents in your roof from the inside?"

[trotsky]

28. Nope.

Hated every minute of church and Sunday School. Bored to tears.

[John1956PA]

29. No. I wish I could scrub away the decades of memories I have of attending church.

I was a practicing Catholic for many years. Also, I am a graduate from a fundamentalist christian college. About ten years ago, I came to the conclusion that practicing religion is a total waste of time, effort and money.

[AtheistCrusader]

30. I voted 'other', can't miss what you never had.

Alternate option: No, I never miss, it's too big a target.

[Act_of_Reparation]

33. I was never really a believer even when I was active in the Church.

It was a waste of a Sunday then. Even more so now.

[OriginalGeek]

34. lol nope

even when I BELIEVED that horse-shit I hated going to church. I did like dressing nice though - but I can do that any time I want and wear my fancy clothes to something fun like drinking or the dentist.

[TreasonousBastard]

35. I don't miss my childhood Missouri Synod Lutheran...

upbringing for a minute. Missouri Synod Lutherans, for anyone who cares, seem to really want to be Catholics if the Catholics weren't so liberal. Big on discipline of a sort, talk of angel wings holding us up and the Bible is absolute literal truth. Pretty much Fundie, including the judgmental attitudes.

Don't miss the silliness of the dogma at all, but do miss the concept of a spiritual community. I don't believe we can sit in a room and work it all out by ourselves. Things like Ethics are part of the philosophy department and self study without some group interaction is not that easy. The "meaning of life"? Apples, arks and crucifixes are cute stories, but the symbolism doesn't really cut it these days.

I eventually joined a Quaker meeting, and it was religion without the religious stuff. If something in the Bible didn't make sense after kicking it around, it's not worth wasting your time on. Plenty of group interaction and support, though, and I pretty much fully bought into the ethical streams. Quaker weddings, btw, are really cool. And the Silent Meeting is a group meditation.

Not many Friends where I moved to, so I did what lonely Quakers do and hooked up with a UU church. I don't think we have one Bible in the whole place, but it is a "spiritual" community of sorts and we spend our energy on food drives, art shows, and other good stuff.

Some time ago I went to a black church anniversary, complete with a bunch of firebreathing preachers and three choirs in full throat swaying and dancing with the spirit. Had two nurses in the back in case anyone got too much of the spirit and fainted. I gotta say it was a grand show.

So, I don't buy it, but can't bring myself to hate it.

[sakabatou]

37. I'm still with my family, so there's that

If I wasn't, there are some good festivals that'd be missed.

[AtheistCrusader]

40. "But my aim is improving"

Someone had to say it. j/k

[brooklynite]

41. Never had one to miss...

I walked out of Sunday School when I was 8.