Attending Church

Sunday, June 16, 2024, I attended church, at a small,rustic,ancient brick building deep in the Ozark wooded hills. The church has been in existence for nearly two hundred years, but the congregation has never been smaller than now. I am told that thirty years ago their were usually about thirty or forty people in attendance, and that one hundred years ago the number of congregants was about one hundred. Today there were nine, incuding me. Testament to the decline and death fof the Christian faith, in rural America, and throughout the United States and the western hemishere. Western civilization, it would seem, is growing up, abandoning its ancient superstitions, if only gradually. I love going to this little church, having gone now several times in the past few weeks,and I fully intend to make it a habit. This, despite my firmly held lifelong conviction that the Christian religion is a barbaric, primitive,idiotic religion, badly in need of extinction, and that the world will be better off after it has died,which it surely will over the next few centuries, if not sooner. Why then, might a normal run of the mill intellect ask me, do I attend church, given my feelings aobut the Cgristian faith? To these less than brilliant "intellects" I offer the following response:permit me to introduce you to what is apparently a novel concept to you; that of "open mindedness". I have my opinions, as other do. Mine are no better or worse than any others. My personal opinions, however, may or may not reflect provable, demonstrable "reality", just like those of other people. So, maybe I'm wrong, dead wrong, going straight to hell wrong, and maybe the Christian religion, of all the thousands of religions on planet Earth, is true. Not only that, but maybe the Christian religion is the one true religion throughout the Milky Way galaxy, and throughout the inconceivably huge universe, which consists of trillions of galaxies, untold mega trillions of stars and planets. And, if there is indeed life on other planets, which seems increasingly highly probable, indeed almsot a certainty, maybe Jesus Christ goes from planet to planet being crucified over and over again, trillions of times, to save all the intelligent species in the cosmos, by dying for their sins. I highly doubt it, but maybe so, and maybe I am wrong. (If he does, does he ever get tired of it?) Maybe Jesus Christ was and is the one true son of God, maybe he died for my sins and everybody else's sins, and maybe, just mabye, one must accept HIM as their personal Lord and Savior to enter into the kingdom of heaven after death, and live eternally in what would seem to me a very pleasant but ultimately quite boring heavenly home. Communion, the symbolic consuming of the flesh and blood of Christ, what Geroge Washington called "symbolic cannibalism"(he attended church, but never took communion) is not only proper, perhaps, but absolutely essential to any legitimate church service. Maybe. Who knows? I certainly don't, and I strongly suspect that nobody else does either. Mark Twain said it best, as he said many things best."The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that mine is also". Well said, Sam. It seems to me that the Christian religion is one of many primitive forms of attempts that small, ignorant little primates use trying to comprehend and deal with reality, and that it is entirely Oudated, anachronistic, in need if discarding, in favor of modern science. But, maybe I am wrong. And, in any event, going to church is a nice experience, good messages are given by the pleasant minister, its a good way to participate in a community activity, and, to boot,they make good coffee and have good donuts before and after the very pleasant service. Also, I rather enjoy group singing, even if the songs are idiotic, to me.