The main reason that I go to church is so that I can socialize with others; most of my experiences with other suburbanites have been extremely negative, so I don’t seek them for social interaction anymore.
In contrast, the Presbyterians whom I know are much friendlier and more hospitable, but they are under the impression that I am a monotheist, albeit a pessimistic one who believes that G-d merely puts up with me and won’t answers my prayers because I’ll probably just get stuck in a very long waiting list. (My current waiting time is between ten to fifteen years.)
At least you have the presbys! I’m surrounded by southern Baptist and Baptist, the main difference being the skin tone of attendees. But I’ll attend Baptist first, and they’re good people, but most ignore the bigger rules (the big 10) in favor of the small ones, lol. I blame capitalism, epigenetics, memes (in the Dawkins/Blackmore sense) and multigenerational trauma.
A side note here, I’ve been reading up on Jung’s troubled history, and I see why he’s problemati; and I think he was onto something about the collective unconscious and religious archetypes because of memes, multigenerational trauma (religious and other abuse where religion excuses or justifies it, “spoil the rod, spare the child, etc,” “wives obey your husbands,” etc). So the opiate of the masses may need weaning, rather than sudden withdrawal, and that’s doable. But I still don’t want to live in a world where there are no Raphael’s cherubs, Da Vinci’s Vetruvian man, or Handle’s Messiah. I think they can be explained easily by pointing out the primitive understanding of psychological archetypes, just as artwork and tales of the other myths, such as Medusa being punished for her own brutal rape, which wasn’t her fault, but also ended up protecting her from other unscrupulous men who would have abused or conned her. But I also think that would go hard -in- hand with: but now we’ve mostly eliminated conditions that caused such behaviors, and have medicine, therapy, and supervision, or humane segregation for the mind that can not be successfully rehabilitated, otherwise.
The main reason that I go to church is so that I can socialize with others; most of my experiences with other suburbanites have been extremely negative, so I don’t seek them for social interaction anymore.
In contrast, the Presbyterians whom I know are much friendlier and more hospitable, but they are under the impression that I am a monotheist, albeit a pessimistic one who believes that G-d merely puts up with me and won’t answers my prayers because I’ll probably just get stuck in a very long waiting list. (My current waiting time is between ten to fifteen years.)
Right, it’s one of the few places left that are communal and aren’t trying to monetize you.
At least you have the presbys! I’m surrounded by southern Baptist and Baptist, the main difference being the skin tone of attendees. But I’ll attend Baptist first, and they’re good people, but most ignore the bigger rules (the big 10) in favor of the small ones, lol. I blame capitalism, epigenetics, memes (in the Dawkins/Blackmore sense) and multigenerational trauma.
A side note here, I’ve been reading up on Jung’s troubled history, and I see why he’s problemati; and I think he was onto something about the collective unconscious and religious archetypes because of memes, multigenerational trauma (religious and other abuse where religion excuses or justifies it, “spoil the rod, spare the child, etc,” “wives obey your husbands,” etc). So the opiate of the masses may need weaning, rather than sudden withdrawal, and that’s doable. But I still don’t want to live in a world where there are no Raphael’s cherubs, Da Vinci’s Vetruvian man, or Handle’s Messiah. I think they can be explained easily by pointing out the primitive understanding of psychological archetypes, just as artwork and tales of the other myths, such as Medusa being punished for her own brutal rape, which wasn’t her fault, but also ended up protecting her from other unscrupulous men who would have abused or conned her. But I also think that would go hard -in- hand with: but now we’ve mostly eliminated conditions that caused such behaviors, and have medicine, therapy, and supervision, or humane segregation for the mind that can not be successfully rehabilitated, otherwise.