An Agnostic in Church

I will soon return to the Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi series. But I will take a moment to tell you that I went to church today. What business does an agnostic have going to church?

Well, as I indicated in the first entry (now buried deeply on this page below), I am a Christian agnostic. I have no hesitation joining with a group of people who are listening to and revering the words of Jesus of Nazareth. However much I am skeptical of Christian theology and doctrine, I never tire of experiencing the wisdom that comes from engaging my mind with stories about Jesus.

A second reason is that religion is a natural part of our species. I do not believe that there is necessarily a biological basis for religion; but it has clearly been, for at least 30,000 years, a major component of our self-created social environment. (I deal with this subject in a chapter of my forthcoming book, Life of Earth.) There are lots of other things in which I participate but regarding which I am not convinced of every detail. A trivial example is that I celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, even though I do not believe the story about the snakes, unless the snakes were drinking Guinness.

A third reason is the actual church itself. It is a congregation that focuses less on theology and more on living the kind of life that makes the world better. Of course, it is not necessary for people to have the trappings of theology in order to do good and constructive things: altruism is natural to our species as a whole, not just to its religious or Christian members (a subject with which I also deal in my upcoming book). But this congregation is a particularly good group of altruists. Like all churches in Tulsa, it has a lot of Republicans, but when Republicans come to this church, they have to stop and think about what is really important in life; about helping others rather than exercising political power over them; about helping the poor as Jesus said, rather than empowering the rich, as the leaders of the Republican party say. This church slows down Republicans (and Democrats) and makes them think. I have had a very small number of reasonable discussions with Republicans, all of them at this church. In contrast, many of the megachurches, led by preachers whose admiration for the Republican Party is unbounded and very public, sway the people into even more political zeal. I have no problem attending a church (once in a while) that gets people to stop and think rather than just reinforcing them in their political prejudices.

And finally, I was still a conventional believer when I joined this church. Leaving this church would require an open act of rejection, to which I am not inclined.

Let me know of your experiences, ambivalent or otherwise, with religious practice.