Being Atheist at church

Is fucking creepy. I really didn't think it would be, and always enjoyed church as a closet agnostic-Christian, but I felt like I was at a cult. When things like the Psalms were read, and there was all the chanting - I felt like I was listening to people being brainwashed.

Crazy shit.

Any experiences or thoughts to share?

 

same here dude. i went to Louisiana last year for a wedding. didnt know what i was getting into apparently. that whole side of the family is catholic and so they were kneeling, chanting, sitting back down, singing, etc. it was only my grandpa, my brother and i that werent doing anything. and when we didnt stand up to take our turn to eat those lil 'body of christ' crackers, everyone was looking at us. my brother leaned over to whisper in my ear "i feel like we're about to be stoned to death" haha

 

I had to go occasionally for work, it was a pentecostal church and it was the strangest experience for me. I used to get told off because I wouldn't join in the singing and stuff, but it's just not for me at all. It is a really strange feeling.

I went a couple of times to a mosque with a friend, when they went to do their prayers, and that was far better than the church.

 

It gets better in summer, when the hot young girls wear sun dresses.

 

The last time I went to a religious ceremony was my grandfather's funeral. I was touched by the ceremony very deeply.

I was also touched by my baptism (at age 8 or so, mom is also an agnostic ) at my late grandmother's insistence.

I was also touched by that. In fact, I can think of numerous occasions in which I was touched by religious ceremonies, weddings, and certainly the Harlem gospel choirs I have witnessed.

I guess I could be said to be one of those weird atheists who thinks religion is a good thing for certain purposes.

Edit: Though vexing in other ways.

 

Nah, the church I was at is the one I grew up going to (well, our second); the one pastor is one of my best influences, and the one that did the sermon was a fellow patron a little older than me that would lead youth group activities and whatnot at times.

It's a really great church and I've done a lot of charity work with them and whatnot over the years. I'm not very into religion, but I do recognize it had it's good and bad sides (I just think there's a lot more bad).

But it was still like a bunch of creepy zombie people.. albeit good hearted and well meaning ones

 

As an agnostic it didn't phase me at all. But I became full blown atheist when my old buddy from highschool, who I met up with a couple years later, became the most militant "if you don't believe everything the bible says you're going to hell" type of Christian and it had a reverse affect on me.

My uncle and step grandfather are both protestant pastors. So whenever I visited that side of the family, I just did what they wanted me to do in church just to humor them. Being with them, I never found church to be creepy, I found it to be boring.

Church is boring.


I tried to date a girl from my previous work and she invited me to go to a night time sermon. At her church, I felt it was more of a cult than anything else. It got creepy then.

 

i hate church it feels like im pressured to do stuff like pray and sing,i am an atheist and my parents make me go to church a few times a year

 

Try a UU church. They give religion a much less blatantly evil face.

Which is, of course, why the rest of religion hates them with such a passion.

 

Excruciatingly boring.................................

When I was a kid, that 1 hour sunday sermon( southern baptist,western style) seemed to me the first example of the eternal hell they always threatened us with!

ZW

 

is this anything like being a pothead in a crackhouse?..

 

I often feel like a cookie in a cracker factory

 

Oh man, yeah I know how you feel. When I was a heavy atheist I absolutely dreaded church. It made me feel so out of place, like I was the only one there realizing the crazy shit the pastor was talking about ahaha. But I've grown to repect Christianity through it's unbelievably ridiculous faults.

 

Being an athiest missionary is a losing battle. I gave up ages ago and just said fuck it, live and let live.

 

As a pair of atheists we thought it'd be fun to check out a church whilst on holiday last year. It was empty, but they had all kinds of drawings and posters up, clearly made by small children who couldn't even spell and could barely write. They said things like "Jeses is my saveior. I luv you jeses" and "jesus plese help my baby bruther" and "if i met jesus i would give him a sword to help him fight". Some prayed to be free of sin. That was some weird shit.

They had a board where you could write up a prayer, and it said they would pray for whatever you wrote for a month straight. I wrote a prayer for rationality. I still smile to think they might have actually done it.

 

the problem is that the churches are among the least awe-inspiring buildings around

if it was a beautiful old mosque, or medieval cathedral, or eastern orthodox smoke-and-icon filled church, you could at least feel something

most churches i've seen remind me of community centers, i keep wondering where the ping pong table is . . .

 

As a Roman Catholic who was once studying to be a priest, I completely understand where this is all coming from... particularly as the OP stated during the psalms - specifically if they are said and not sung. However personally I think the Catholic Mass is absolutely beautiful, if done 'right'.

 

I used to regularly go to church every Sunday. I, at first, was bored by the sermons, but then I grew to be uncomfortable with the messages stated by the priest as I got older. He said many things, but his overall message was the following: "If you are an independent thinker, you are going to Hell. If you are a blind follower who allows a cruel tyrant to control your lives, you are pure and free of sin. If you think independantly, then open the Bible and have it think for you." It disgusted me so much that I would always find an excuse to skip church.

After I finally came out of the closet, my parents were, thankfully, respecful and allowed me to stay in the apartment while they went to church. This still happens even to this day.

 

Most of the religious persons I talk to describe themselves as free thinkers. I really cant even begin to understand what it means when they say it. Though, I did have a long, unlettered discussion about animal sacrifice at a bible study. I was confused as to what it was god is receiving when someone sacrifices an animal....

The last time I went, the collection dish was being passed around, and the pastor kept repeating "YOU HAVE TO SEW WHAT YOU WANT"....sigh

My mom gave those cocksuckers $400. She falls for a lot of Internet scams too though.

 

haha.. a while ago, I was made to go to church.

I went with this Austrian girl who was visiting, and she had never been to church in her life.

during the service, there was alot of creepy cultish stuff going on, (speaking in tongues, well more like yelling in tongues as they were praying over this sick person who was weeping hysterically. that type of stuff)

after the service she turned to me and whispered, ´that was the most frightening thing I have ever seen in my life´


I´m sure thats what Jesus had in mind..