Why go to church on Sundays?
Many of my athiest and humanist friends probably wonder why I would bother going to church on Sundays. Why miss a couple extra hours of sleep, or an opportunity for a leisurely Sunday brunch?
To this question I respond with a set of questions: How do you remember that we are all connected to each other and to the world at large? How do you remember the unique gift of creation and the brief gift of life? How do you deal with a world in which suffering is greater than your capacity to address it? How do you keep alive your hopes for a better world?
Aristotle said something like you are not what you aspire to but rather what you do on a regular basis. If you want to be something, you must practice being it regularly. Going to church, praying, worship, this is a kind of practice, practicing being a better person. It takes practice to care about the world and to avoid the dangers of solipsism. It takes practice to be fully alive, to be fully aware of the opportunities life presents us. I pray, I go to church, because I need more practice. I need practice on how to live fully and how to live well. In short, it is a reminder to wake up. Miss a few hours sleep, in order to be more wakeful.
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle
To this question I respond with a set of questions: How do you remember that we are all connected to each other and to the world at large? How do you remember the unique gift of creation and the brief gift of life? How do you deal with a world in which suffering is greater than your capacity to address it? How do you keep alive your hopes for a better world?
Aristotle said something like you are not what you aspire to but rather what you do on a regular basis. If you want to be something, you must practice being it regularly. Going to church, praying, worship, this is a kind of practice, practicing being a better person. It takes practice to care about the world and to avoid the dangers of solipsism. It takes practice to be fully alive, to be fully aware of the opportunities life presents us. I pray, I go to church, because I need more practice. I need practice on how to live fully and how to live well. In short, it is a reminder to wake up. Miss a few hours sleep, in order to be more wakeful.
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle
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