sunday-assembly-edmonton-58Our guest this week is Hertzey Hertz, who joins us to talk about Sunday assembly, a secular gathering for atheists/agnostics/nones who are looking for a community.  While we talk a lot about the Twin Cities chapter, there are assemblies popping up all over the world.  Many of the people we’ve talked to over the last two years have mentioned that the loss of a community is one of the major obstacles to shedding religion.  The Sunday Assembly movement is a new movement that attempts to fill that void for some people.  Of course Hertzey also gets to answer our five questions!

 

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3 Responses

  1. I think, but I’m not sure, that this was where you mentioned that a friend of yours, who I guess goes to a mainline Protestant church of some sort, had said that you guys should’ve gone to her church instead of the Megchurch. And you said that the whole point was not to go to a “nice” church.

    I’m not sure I get the logic of that decision. Maybe I’m wrong about the underling point, but I would think that the point of going to the church was to serve as a reminder as to why you are atheists, to show how belief is not the right path.

    If that’s the case, then a “nice” church would be a much better test of that than a fundamentalist atrocity. Because one doesn’t need much argument to see why not to go to a church like that. Nor does it show how religion in general is bad. A “nice”, reasonable mainline church, on the other hand, would serve as the perfect test; it weeds out all the extra religious bullshit, and just leaves you with the *basic* religious bullshit. Nice people, no scams for your money, no extravagant missionary trips, but still belief in something without sufficient evidence.

    I know it’s hard, because reasonable churches don’t antagonize us, and we don’t want to antagonize them. But you were respectful at the megachurch anyway, and I’m sure the same project at a more reasonable church would have been just as respectful.

    1. The reason we went to church was as a punishment. It was a challenge during the Die Laughing fundraiser. We weren’t going to test our lack of faith/belief or to see what would happen if we went to church. The entire point of the challenge was “if you guys donate $333, Nick and Tim will shave their heads. If you double it and donate a total of $666, we’ll go to the Grace megachurch and attend services.” So yes, the point was not to go to a “nice” church. Because the point was to punish us in the name of comedy to raise money for a non-profit. 🙂

    2. Part of it was a bet/fundraising, for Fearless Comedy Productions. Part of it was morbid curiosity; Molly and I had been in the churchstrosity for voting, seen its scale and size, and we wanted to actually see what happens inside when the gears are in motion.

      You know how some people love bad/B-movies? Why is Sharknado so popular? Why can’t you look away at a bad accident? Maybe it’s the same thing, with wanting to check out Grace Church. It’s hard to articulate, but I don’t regret going, and I don’t feel bad about deciding to do so.

      We may yet attend another place of worship in the future, who knows? If someone had a particularly good idea for an outing or episode, we’d certainly consider it.

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