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Nov. 5th, 2007 10:04 amHere's a great blog post: Atheists and Anger.
Based on what I've heard about the Church of England, it seems like they're going in the right direction. There's a huge value in the community and helping-people aspects of organized religion and we'd all benefit from having something like that, without the ostracism of groups of people and the political meddling that a lot of U.S. Christianity engages in.
My grandma is an atheist (but she believes in aliens. That's another story) but she attends the weekly Church of England service at the retirement home where she lives (in northern England). She likes all the singing. The awesome thing is everybody knows she's an atheist and she's still totally welcome and nobody tries to convert her.
If I could design an alternative to religion in the U.S., it would look a lot like that. There'd be singing and inspiring stories and support groups and community service. People could have discussions about life and morality in an atmosphere of mutual respect and understanding. There could be lectures about philosophies and religions from all over the world, and people could think about it and formulate their own moral system based on their own knowledge and life experiences. Belief in the literal existence of anything supernatural would be left privately to every individual. That would be great. I don't know if it'll ever happen.
Based on what I've heard about the Church of England, it seems like they're going in the right direction. There's a huge value in the community and helping-people aspects of organized religion and we'd all benefit from having something like that, without the ostracism of groups of people and the political meddling that a lot of U.S. Christianity engages in.
My grandma is an atheist (but she believes in aliens. That's another story) but she attends the weekly Church of England service at the retirement home where she lives (in northern England). She likes all the singing. The awesome thing is everybody knows she's an atheist and she's still totally welcome and nobody tries to convert her.
If I could design an alternative to religion in the U.S., it would look a lot like that. There'd be singing and inspiring stories and support groups and community service. People could have discussions about life and morality in an atmosphere of mutual respect and understanding. There could be lectures about philosophies and religions from all over the world, and people could think about it and formulate their own moral system based on their own knowledge and life experiences. Belief in the literal existence of anything supernatural would be left privately to every individual. That would be great. I don't know if it'll ever happen.
