A Rant about Church
Sooooo I guess this would be considered my first real entry. I went to church this morning for the first time since I don't even remember. I forgot how silly it all is too. However, it does bring a sense of community, togetherness, and unity of fellow sufferers of our pathetic species. Which may be one aspect I ironically admire about congregation. A crazy amount of people attend Northside. In fact, I would go as far as to call it a ridiculous amount of people attend Northside. Northside is like the Wal-Mart of churches. Massive amounts of people attend, get preached upon, they leave and resume life normally. So fucking convenient. Although the preacher does intend on getting to know the regular 1,400 people that go to Northside, the giant church has lost all feeling of 'homeiness.' When I go, I am simply lost in the sea of faces, a cog of yet another monopoly.
The services are all alike and are reminiscent of preschool classes. First, the army of people sing for a painful 30 minutes. A band and group of singers, unfortunately given microphones, who sing at the top of their lungs and lead the people in chorus. I am confident that these people are put there for the soul purpose of droning out the rest of the tone-deaf crowd in attempts of making what is called music. After this designated music time, an old-fart usually reads boring scripture and then communion is given. This may be my favorite time of the whole service(and not just because of the miniscule cracker and shot of grape juice)There's simply no bull shit from anyone, just music. It is suppose to be a time where you can reflect on the nature of your sins, whine to God about unceasing problems, and pray for Him to make it all better. However, I doubt half the crowd actually uses this time to do some much needed introspection. Anxious kids sit there, waiting for this whole service to be over and the men are most likely lusting while their wives are worrying about marietal problems. So that leaves the elderly who actually give a damn; chiefly because they are about to croak in a couple years and want some sort of security or hope.
Finally, the awaited moment comes. It's time for brainwashing! Actually, I don't really believe that. Robin is good at incorporating God's word into our everyday life. He tells us how to live life and get through it. I am glad he doesn't actually 'preach' and tell us what to believe. His speeches all have that same flow and rhythm similar to that of a story. The structure of them is so predictable, it's fucking rudimentary. We are given programs before we sit down. On these brochures are the usual whats coming up, whats going on sorta thing. But on the back is where the lesson is. There are fill in the blanks, like a god damn high school worksheet. Lessons are interactive now! hooorrrrayyy...
He begins by explaining the daily lesson. He provides scripture from the Bible to back up the lesson, and when its time to fill in the blanks, everyone eagerly writes down whatever is projected on that fancy powerpoint projector, as if writing bullshit down will actually help. I wonder if people actually save those and refer to them when a lesson actually is applicable. Doubtful. By the middle of his speech, he has reached the crux. He has worked the crowd as if he were molding a sad lump of grey clay (analogous to our brains??eh??)and then suddenly turned it into whatever of his days desiring. They laugh on que at his G-rated jokes and shutup on que as if there was an instructional light above the stage flashing on and off telling everbody what to do and when. The resolution soon approaches. He calms down the crowd and gets to the main points of his lecture. At the end, he is almost whispering to signal the vast importance of his words and more importantly the end. Finally, after feeling ADD through half of it, and attempting to understand how so many people could be conned and dupped into believing some of this stuff, I'll call it another day at church. There. It's over. Now I can say I am a good person. Haha kidding...I guess I don't go to church for the religious part, if you will, but rather the moral teachings. I believe society needs to rules to follow, otherwise we would all be living in a chaos, pandemonium, and debauchery. (even more so than now, which is hard to imagine). I go for rules on how to dictate my life more properly. This reminds me of a certain philosopher's teachings, William James. "It's not by the roots, but by the fruits" Meaning that it doesn't matter where you're religious interests lie, how they came about, or even how they developed, but its what that experience brought about in you. So even if Christianity turned out to be entirely false, its about the significant experiences you gained while believing it. I like that.
I'll sum it up with this. Someone once said that the best part of believing is the lie.
Perfect...
The services are all alike and are reminiscent of preschool classes. First, the army of people sing for a painful 30 minutes. A band and group of singers, unfortunately given microphones, who sing at the top of their lungs and lead the people in chorus. I am confident that these people are put there for the soul purpose of droning out the rest of the tone-deaf crowd in attempts of making what is called music. After this designated music time, an old-fart usually reads boring scripture and then communion is given. This may be my favorite time of the whole service(and not just because of the miniscule cracker and shot of grape juice)There's simply no bull shit from anyone, just music. It is suppose to be a time where you can reflect on the nature of your sins, whine to God about unceasing problems, and pray for Him to make it all better. However, I doubt half the crowd actually uses this time to do some much needed introspection. Anxious kids sit there, waiting for this whole service to be over and the men are most likely lusting while their wives are worrying about marietal problems. So that leaves the elderly who actually give a damn; chiefly because they are about to croak in a couple years and want some sort of security or hope.
Finally, the awaited moment comes. It's time for brainwashing! Actually, I don't really believe that. Robin is good at incorporating God's word into our everyday life. He tells us how to live life and get through it. I am glad he doesn't actually 'preach' and tell us what to believe. His speeches all have that same flow and rhythm similar to that of a story. The structure of them is so predictable, it's fucking rudimentary. We are given programs before we sit down. On these brochures are the usual whats coming up, whats going on sorta thing. But on the back is where the lesson is. There are fill in the blanks, like a god damn high school worksheet. Lessons are interactive now! hooorrrrayyy...
He begins by explaining the daily lesson. He provides scripture from the Bible to back up the lesson, and when its time to fill in the blanks, everyone eagerly writes down whatever is projected on that fancy powerpoint projector, as if writing bullshit down will actually help. I wonder if people actually save those and refer to them when a lesson actually is applicable. Doubtful. By the middle of his speech, he has reached the crux. He has worked the crowd as if he were molding a sad lump of grey clay (analogous to our brains??eh??)and then suddenly turned it into whatever of his days desiring. They laugh on que at his G-rated jokes and shutup on que as if there was an instructional light above the stage flashing on and off telling everbody what to do and when. The resolution soon approaches. He calms down the crowd and gets to the main points of his lecture. At the end, he is almost whispering to signal the vast importance of his words and more importantly the end. Finally, after feeling ADD through half of it, and attempting to understand how so many people could be conned and dupped into believing some of this stuff, I'll call it another day at church. There. It's over. Now I can say I am a good person. Haha kidding...I guess I don't go to church for the religious part, if you will, but rather the moral teachings. I believe society needs to rules to follow, otherwise we would all be living in a chaos, pandemonium, and debauchery. (even more so than now, which is hard to imagine). I go for rules on how to dictate my life more properly. This reminds me of a certain philosopher's teachings, William James. "It's not by the roots, but by the fruits" Meaning that it doesn't matter where you're religious interests lie, how they came about, or even how they developed, but its what that experience brought about in you. So even if Christianity turned out to be entirely false, its about the significant experiences you gained while believing it. I like that.
I'll sum it up with this. Someone once said that the best part of believing is the lie.
Perfect...