A visit to an evangelical church: I was working out in the college gym where I met this guy. After talking to him a few times and continuously running into him at the gym he invited me to attend a church service. I did not want to go and told him on several occasions that I really wasn’t that interested. He was very persistent and every time I ran into him would ask that I go to a church service so after being pestered for weeks I gave in and said okay.
It was a Thursday and this church was no small white building with a steeple but a huge modern not very aesthetically pleasing building. Inside was a giant hall where the congregation was meeting.
The congregation was multicultural which is rare in many churches. On stage were a rock band setup (I guess they played modern Christian music) and several officials. I think the head preacher was out that day. It was the middle of the week.
The music started to play and soon after the congregates got up and started to sway and sing. They waved one or both of their hand in the air as they sung the lyrics.
After the set of gospel songs the preacher got up and praised god and then inquired were there any new members or first time visitors or attendees in the audience. First time attendees were instructed to raise their hands, which I did. I guess they wanted to keep a homely feeling because they began to ask each of us first timers to tell something about ourselves and say why we came to the service that evening.
I am quite frankly a pretty straightforward person and told them that I was there at the behest of my friend and that I was basically an atheist (that was a slip I am really agnostic).
Soon after I said this I noticed they had television cameras on the balcony. I hope they weren’t filming that day. I didn’t want to become some sort of target for evangelicals everywhere with the goal to save my soul or something (you know how Jehovah’s Witnesses are).
Anyway, after what I perceived to be a brief silence (I thought I heard some gasp but that could have been my imagination) the preacher screamed something like, ‘well it takes all types and we accept all types’. My friend who insisted that I come I think felt kind of embarrassed (I hope he did for pestering me about coming).
After the sermon all first time attendees were hustled into another room in this massive building and given free paperback bibles (funny).
As my buddy and I were going to his car in the parking lot a member of the congregation approached me and said, ‘can I give you a huge’? I have nothing against hugs so I said, ‘sure’. With the bible in one hand the guy grasp me with both hands in a bear huge and shook me. Now that was funny. I guess he was trying to shake the devil out of me or something. Boy, is it nice to be hugged or what?
I am agnostic. After studying many faiths and philosophies I have come to the conclusion that I cannot commit to any one religious philosophy. Many teaching have things about them that I disagree with.
I was raised a Baptist so when I told my family about my agnosticism I was immediately deemed crazy. One must believe in god in some way. You have to believe in some deity in my family’s view. You are either a Christian, Muslim, or Jewish but you have to be something in the Judaic, Christian or Muslim tradition (the eastern religions are off their ‘radar screens’).
The Christian faith informs my humanitarianism. The main tenet I follow from Christendom is love. I accept the concept that god is love.
I also love Jesus. I love Jesus not as a savior but as a philosopher whom I agree with and that I think was a very good person.
I believe very few meet the criteria of his philosophy of non-violence or ‘turn the other cheek’ at all times. Europe the place where Christianity grew did not have many ‘turn the other cheek cultures. The fact is a society probably would not survive for long if it practiced such a philosophy.
Jesus stands as a great philosopher because of his unconditional love and forgiveness for all people. He stands as a great because he believed even those who have violated the tenets or rules of his holy text (of that day) should be forgiven and loved. He was willing to transcend rules that oppressed, or ostracized, or hurt others and he would not lift a violent finger against anyone even if they attacked or oppressed him and such is the composition of a great man.
We are all a product of our upbringing (and genetics) and the society in which we live. Do I admire these traits because of what I was taught were good, and positive traits or did I come to this conclusion after much deep thought? I think one should always come to conclusions after much thinking, analysis and self-examination.
I do not join faiths or love someone or something to receive rewards like a happy afterlife, meeting relatives again, to get good karma so I won’t come back as a rat, to achieve Brahma (or is the correct term nirvana), to quench desire, or achieve nothingness. I do not want to follow a religion by making a deal that says, ‘I’ll do as you say if you’ll promise me good things to come now and in the hereafter’.
I love Jesus intrinsically and don’t seek a reward of any sort. I think he was a remarkable man and achieved a remarkable thing in the history of humanity.
I also do not look for supernatural miracles. I am awed and impressed by the physical world. I call them miracles of the natural world (if you will allow me to label them that way).
I am awed by the nature of water, trees, the planets, sun, other stars or the universe in general if you will. I do not have the time to be concerned with that that is by definition beyond human senses. All I can say is life and the universe is miraculous and beautiful. I’d rather spend my time finding and studying the miracles I see there.
I am not an atheist because that would not be a sensible position to take. There are things within the physical universe that at this point in human history are beyond the understanding of modern science and there are things that I for various reasons (like I may not be intelligent enough or knowledgeable enough) I am not able to understand or even see that others that are just human beings like me can understand and see (if one cannot see it is it really there? The answer in many cases is it is.).
By taking this realization into consideration I can see how it would be foolhardy to profess unequivocally that there is no such thing as a god and that all faiths or religious beliefs are mere superstitions. The belief in god (gods) or other supernatural beliefs are beyond the realm of science and other systems of reasoning used by individuals to understand, manipulate, and transverse the universe. I am only human and must use the tools given to human beings.
As a rule I use philosophies and systems of thinking that enable me to successfully and comfortable maneuver through this life (for the most part- there may be strategies that would not be considered successful in some societies but then one must decide what is successful and what is not successful even though society may define success as accumulated wealth at time of death or something like that)