Of course, it is not really okay to not attend church, but that is increasingly the way people in modern society see things. The Gallup organization recently conducted a nationwide poll to track church membership. They have been tracking this for around eighty years beginning in 1937. At that time, they determined that 73% of people were church attenders. Church attendance peaked in America just after World War II at 76%. Since that time there has been a steady decline.
However, the sharpest decline has taken place over the last 20 years. Over that period it has dropped from 70% to its current all time low of 47%. Yes, church attendance in America has now dropped below 50%.
In some ways, the decline has been gradual enough to where, even though the decline has been statistically noticeable, most churches haven’t felt it so strongly. The reason for that is because the routine activities of the church have continued, and those who have participated in those activities have mostly kept on doing so.
Continue reading here.
Which church? Is a Synagogue or Mosque OK? A Hindu Temple?
I believe if you will make the effort to take into account the intended audience and overall context of the article, you will have an easier time understanding the blog post.
I understand it completely. I was just pointing out the ridiculous nature of it. Of course it is Okay not to attend church. You might attend the house of worship of another faith or, best of all, you might have left the entire thing behind.
Of course I understand it. I just know it is fallacious and unreasonable.
Well, your response fell flat. You didn’t point out what you were hoping you did, and your evaluation of my point is simply meaningless.
You really are getting annoyed, aren’t you? The fact is you are starting from the unsupported presupposition that going to a christian church is a good thing.
I did make the point I was going for and you have no response for it, thus your quick and content-free response.
Please explain why going to a christian church is a good thing.
Annoyed? Not really. It is only unsupported for a person who doesn’t know a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. You can’t really understand what you don’t know. Just because you don’t understand the content doesn’t mean there was none there.
I think you are. It doesn’t matter in any case.
What is of interest that having failed to use reason or admit to your own biases, you resort to banal preaching.
Just because you subjectively think there was content doesn’t mean there was.
So, you now pretend to know what I know? Seriously? What evidence do you have that what I have said is wrong? You have done nothing but throw out an insult without anything to back it up beyond your own personal contempt for the Christian point of view. I hate to tell you this, but insults are not rational arguments.
Do I pretend to know what you know? Of course not. I never did that. What gave you that silly idea. I stated an opinion… a pretty well grounded one.
I hate to tell you this but I have never insulted you. I have accurately described the flaws in your views and your behavior.
You are just reacting out of your contempt for a real point of view that is demonstrable and reasonable. I hate to tell you this but whining about non-existent insults is not rational argument.
Oh, so telling me that I have failed to use reason and have not been willing to admit my own biases without objectively refuting my arguments is not pretending to know what I know? And it is not an insult? You have accurately described the flaws in my views? Really? How do you know you have accurately done that? Seriously? I have yet to see anything from you that is demonstrable and reasonable. All you have done is throw out unsupported opinion.
I can help you with your problems though. God has revealed Himself to us through Jesus Christ, and in giving your life to Him, you can know eternal life. This will provide you with a perspective that you currently are unable to conceive because it is outside of what you consider possible. I would be glad to share with you how you can know Him.
It is not an insult, it is objectively true. I have accurately described them. I have attempted to educate you and lead you to some understanding of the subject. You refuse to honestly engage.
You have seen nothing that is demonstrable and reasonable? My presentation of the facts proving evolution, just for one. My description of what I mean when I say atheism and how it does not require and proof. The facts I presented about the immoral teachings of the bible regarding slavery, which are unequivocal. I think that’s enough for now.
Your arrogant idea that you have something to teach me is at the heart of your problem. The first thing you need to do is show some good reason to accept your god over any other. You are at heart a presuppositionalist and that is why you fail. At the most base core of what you believe, you hold an unsupportable, utterly subjective position and refuse to admit it. I can say “Goddidit and the bible is right and if you deny it you don’t understand it” while denying all the flaws in that mindset quite easily. It doesn’t make it right.
You keep saying I don’t understand your perspective. I do. You have a set of mythic teachings that make you feel good so you accept them as some cosmic truth with no good reason for doing so. You reject parts of your holy book based on subjective ideas about what you have imagined to be the core meaning of the bible and you have the nerve to claim you have good reason to do that.
There is no way for you to know my thoughts and motives in an objective sense, so what you have said is simply nonsense. Much of what you are calling facts are not facts at all, but opinion and conjecture based on worldview beliefs that you cannot demonstrate to be valid. You call me arrogant, yet you presume to be able to “educate me” regarding things you don’t even understand. You call me a presuppositionalist (which in a technical sense is incorrect, BTW), while you assert knowledge based on presuppositions of your own that you don’t even realize you have.
BTW, your entire last paragraph is simply false. You really do not understand the implications of what you have written. And the fact that I don’t interpret the Bible based on your worldview beliefs does not mean that my beliefs are false. It means that I reject your faith (that is what I am rejecting, not the teachings of the Bible) until you can demonstrate to me that it is a viable way to organize the structure of reality. You can’t back up your naturalistic beliefs based on your own naturalistic presuppositions. And until you do, all of your protestations are just blowing smoke.
There actually is an element of reality that exists beyond the natural universe, and you can know the God go exists there. He has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, and I would be delighted to share with you how you can know Him.