In all seriousness, community is the biggest benefit of religion, and the reason I'm ok with it existing in modern society. The idealized church (and these do still exist in smaller churches) is a safe place for people to come, not be judged, and find acceptance and support.
A friend of mine goes to a church like this, and honestly sometimes I'm jealous. I'm as atheist as they come in my personal beliefs, but hearing all the actually cool stuff they do to support their members is really cool. I don't agree with their religion, but they're practicing it right as far as I'm concerned.
Religion should absolutely be either personal or small community, though. As soon as you have states using it as justification for violence, that religion has stopped being useful or acceptable.
Agreed, it's mostly community as far as personal benefits. We had a friend group through it that fell apart recently and my wife wants to go back to church only for the community.
Outreach is mostly a guise in my opinion, a show that's put on to make the congregation think their money is being used wisely. I have a lot of disdain for organized religion though, having grown up in it and painfully "deconstructing" a couple years ago. I can't step foot in a church ever again (minus a wedding).
Yeah, for sure there's some scummy stuff churches can do with money. Again, that's not EVERY church, and the bigger it gets, the more likely the preacher has a supercar. Some have actual accountability, and actually spend the money helping congregation, but it can take some looking to find them, and unfortunately they're overshadowed by the Joel Olstein style mega churches.
In all seriousness, community is the biggest benefit of religion, and the reason I'm ok with it existing in modern society. The idealized church (and these do still exist in smaller churches) is a safe place for people to come, not be judged, and find acceptance and support.
A friend of mine goes to a church like this, and honestly sometimes I'm jealous. I'm as atheist as they come in my personal beliefs, but hearing all the actually cool stuff they do to support their members is really cool. I don't agree with their religion, but they're practicing it right as far as I'm concerned.
Religion should absolutely be either personal or small community, though. As soon as you have states using it as justification for violence, that religion has stopped being useful or acceptable.
Agreed, it's mostly community as far as personal benefits. We had a friend group through it that fell apart recently and my wife wants to go back to church only for the community.
Outreach is mostly a guise in my opinion, a show that's put on to make the congregation think their money is being used wisely. I have a lot of disdain for organized religion though, having grown up in it and painfully "deconstructing" a couple years ago. I can't step foot in a church ever again (minus a wedding).
Yeah, for sure there's some scummy stuff churches can do with money. Again, that's not EVERY church, and the bigger it gets, the more likely the preacher has a supercar. Some have actual accountability, and actually spend the money helping congregation, but it can take some looking to find them, and unfortunately they're overshadowed by the Joel Olstein style mega churches.