Is anyone else scared of churches?

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I found Kierkegaard right on the edge of my reading abilities, but possibly most people do.

^ Yes, it's challenging, but very much worth the effort.

Ok first of all I have to admit that I found the op's post, while being a bit incoherent, almost hilarious. (no offense)
Much of it sounded like a joke that would start with "An Atheist goes into a church..."

On a more serious note though, I have to ask where you get this from

^
I guess you're new to the Internet.

IRL the religious come knocking on your door.

But on the Net its a segment of the Atheists population who do all of the proselytizing. So much so that even the nonreligious like me can find it tiresome.

There was even a bunch of Wrong Planet PPR regulars who called themselves "the Strident Atheist club" a couple of years ago.

Not taking sides. Just sayiin' that any creed can be obnoxious if its flogged to much. Atheism is no exception.

I find churches beautiful, but fundamentalist religious practitioners frightening. I live in a former church that has been renovated, and I like to think there was positivity and fellowship within.

I don't understand how people take the Bible literally. It seems like taking Aesop's fables literally...it defeats the purpose.

I avoid churches as a matter of principle. I wouldn't bother with Catholic services either. They're probably comparatively serene compared to manic pentecostalists, but serene can also mean boring. They also do this creepy thing where their priest insists that he can turn bread and wine into Jesus, and no, that is not a metaphor.

When your Pentecostal friends told you that their church wasn't "very religious", they were either being dishonest, or delusional.

If you read through the New Testament, you'll find surprisingly few instances where Jesus prayed. And when he did, most often, he went off by himself and prayed alone. And he didn't have a lot of good things to say about making prayer a public spectacle.

I can understand why some people find churches scary. They have images of Christ being tortured, killed, and brought back from the dead. They're always telling us why we're going to Hell, 90% of clergymen are pedophiles and nuns brutally whip small children because "God told them to".

Was raised a devout Southern Baptist, later deconverted to atheism towards the end of high school.

Churches have always made me uncomfortable, even before my deconversion. All those smiling people, feigning kindness and familiarity, and the guilt of the sermon that made me feel perpetually inadequate; makes me slightly queasy just thinking about it.

I actually have some aversion towards entering churches (even though I'm fascinated by the architecture).

Since I'm not religious, I find it somewhat hypocritical of me to be present in a religious establishment...

... Either that, or it might just be another symptom of my medical condition, which manifests itself as anaphylactic reactions to garlic, acute inflammations in response to UV radiation and paralysis when exposed to kinetic energy applied to the cardiac region through a wooden medium.

Stand up and be a proud atheist! No one ever asked me to go to a church. I respect people, but not their nonsense ideas about a wizard in the sky that made everything.

A priest I saw on a PBS documentary said "the Bible should come with a warning label:'handle with care because the contents can be hazardous your health'".


A great quote! Applies to ANY container of religion (building, or book).