Dear Yuyutsu,

I really don't care for your God crap.

Dear Paul,

Certainly there are people who use churches for both the social and religious opportunities they can provide, and your wife could be one of them.

Whether her church as such is indeed a religious institution, is in doubt, but even if it isn't, if your wife is sincere then she can still make a good religious use of it.

«which is the more important to the parishioners, that's debatable.

That's personal, each to their own. There is no 'right' or 'wrong' - those who want social connections go for them and those who want God go for God.
The former benefits are temporary, the latter eternal, yet people should make their own choice.

«I also believe many seem to place the rituals and practices of the institution above any spiritual benefit they may perceive they are obtaining. That's not to say there are not good people, in my view they are.»

So true!

---

Dear David F.,

«I really don't care for your God crap.»

Fair enough, the whole world can be viewed as God's crap.

Why can't everybody leave everybody else the hell alone?"
Davidf,
The parasites would scream discrimination & genocide if we left them to their merits !

Let's be clear about something.
The concept of a god is man made.
The truth is there is no reason to think such an entity exists.
Talking about something non-existent is an empty and almost foolish pastime.

And the bible, which some treat with such reverence, is merely a collection of stories.
All written my man over a space of about three centuries, if I remember rightly.
And what you see today is not the original.
We wouldn't be able to understand that.
So it is many times translated to reach the way it is.
And translated so it is easy to interpret in a particular way too.
Inconvenient statements are discarded.

Religion works for some people because they want it to.
They need the 'escapism'.
They need to feel they are being looked after too.
I see no harm in that if it works for them.
But I worry when they become involved with disturbingly outrageous religions.
And there are cults which draw them in too.
People are easily led it seems, and will suffer greatly as a result.
And that troubles me.

Why don't they do their homework?
Look back just a few hundred years to see what religions were up to?
They would be horrified.
I think they would slam the door on them, immediately.

Dear Ipso Fatso,

«The concept of a god is man made.»

Yes, ALL concepts are man made.

«The truth is there is no reason to think such an entity exists.»

Good heavens - of course not!
We have many good reasons to think that God does NOT exist, and had He existed than we, presumably religious people, would have been worshiping an idol!

«Talking about something non-existent is an empty and almost foolish pastime.»

But only ignorant idol-worshiping people think of God as "something".

«Religion works for some people because they want it to.
They need the 'escapism'.»

Yes, there is nothing wrong about being sick and tired of and wanting to escape the illusionary clutches of the world.

«But I worry when they become involved with disturbingly outrageous religions.
And there are cults which draw them in too.»

Just because dangerous cults describe themselves as "religions" doesn't mean that they actually are, so please don't you too fall for their deception.

«Look back just a few hundred years to see what religions were up to?
They would be horrified.»

These organisations you refer to were not religions, they were pretentious and cruel political systems: again, please don't you too fall for their deception.

Dear Yuyutsu,

Ipso Fatso, I think, deals with reality. All concepts are man made. However some human concepts rely on evidence and others do not. The various creation stories of tribal people and the Biblical ones do not rely on evidence. They are attempts to explain the world by creating imaginary entities like gods or God for a pre-scientific mind. The concept of evolution has much evidence from fossils, adaptations of viruses and micro-organisms and experience of livestock breeders. God is a concept without evidentiary support. A person is free to believe in a concept without evidentiary support. Apparently, you do. I would rather not.