Dear Religious People..

[sara3]

do you think you are leading a better life than us non-believers?

are you reaping any rewards for your beliefs?

and do you attend church/mosque/etc regularly?

[vulcan42]

I live in a small village and about 2 miles outside of this is a Gospel hall. The people who worship here are very keen for the "sinners to repent".They arrive about 6 in the evening,usually two cars but often 3 or 4, full of adults and children. The loudspeakers are placed on a car roof and they preach and sing hymns for an hour, sometimes slightly less. I did complain to them, admittedly some years ago, that this was an invasion of my privacy, they apologised but continued to return and as I say the following week the Police accompanied them. I then spoke to the Police who informed me this was acceptable within the Law. It seems that as long as they are preaching on public roads they are allowed to do so. As I said earlier I consider this discriminatory, as the key word is preaching and as only the religious people preach, they are allowed to annoy other members of the public with impunity.

[LazyGun]

@Vulcan - Thanks for the clarification. I empathise with you. Behaviour like that sounds very intrusive.Should not be allowed, just because it is a religion...

[joko]

depends what you mean by better - i don't believe either live better lives on the sense of behaviour - both have plenty of good and bad people

if you mean better as in more fulfilled etc - i would think any benefits gained from the deeply held belief that they are being watched over, will go to heaven and things can be sorted through prayer, are probably overshadowed greatly by feelings of guilt, shame, fear etc of doing the wrong thing and not being a 'good christian'

and also possibly boredom ... i refer to of course so the full on god squad there, it must be mind-numbingly tedious to pray all the time, deliver sermons, do church and village hall type stuff.

[Answerprancer]

Sara3, from my observation, AB's small contingent of religists only come here to proselytize and if anyone tries to interact, well it's like trying to interact with the DWP ie. they'll only interact if someone uses a few of their pre-programmed keywords.

[tamborine]

Subscribing to a faith enjoins people to a 'supportive' community. rituals & rules (drawn by them) are observed and enforced by vicars/imams etc & regular attendance is a requisite in the name of a God/icon/leader.

Like answerbank ;)

[ummmm]

My mum is a born again Christian *sigh*

Does she live a better life - No, she lives a boring life.

Does she get rewards - None that I can see.

She attends church and gives 20% of her income to them.

[sara3]

Answerprancer.. I work for the DWP ;o)

ummmm, 20%????? wow, I'll bet there's a lot of that going on.

[PinkLavender]

This is a complicated, deep question if you really think about it. I have often thought the same question. What I think is that no matter if you are religious or not, if you are a decent, nice person and you live right then you live the same good life as the believers, and you reap rewards as well (I do believe in Karma).

My parents are religious and I have seen them in too many ups and downs. They do not live a better life than the rest, I observed. They attend church regularly and they are good people (most of the time, given the psychotic tendencies that runs in my family). But no, they don't live a BETTER life, but SOME live a more 'holy' life than others, but NOT better.

[sara3]

well said :o)

[Eve]

I ended up clashing with my church - should have seen it coming really given the pasting I got for daring to wear a red ribbon on World Aids Day and the grief I got for...wait for it...holding hands with a new boyfriend (at 17/18) etc...

Plenty more but suffice it to say I was told after I went to uni and was doing a lot of equal ops work, much of which with the LGB that I would not be allowed back unless I renounced all that and agreed to accept ministry (I imagine akin to when the Christian counsellor I was sent to suggested getting a group of church people to pray the demons out of me to help me with an eating disorder and saying she loved me) etc... I had pretty much left anyway, and had been shunned by some for it, never rejoined.

I won't go on but suffice it to say, religion their way didn't do much to help my faith.

[sara3]

Eve, that's enough to put anyone off for life!