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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   3352 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for March 8, 2023

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

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  • Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).

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This, but unironically. Do people really choose their church based on whether they like the music and not on their doctrine?

Yes. The noughties are over, age of christian-atheist debates is over. No one cares about doctrine, no one cares about apologetics, no one cares any more to prove or disprove existence of God and literal truth of the Bible.

"Just go to church, bro. One full of majestic music, lots of incense, shiny pictures and golden statues. It is based and trad. You want to be based and trad, don't you?"

No one cares about doctrine, no one cares about apologetics, no one cares any more to prove or disprove existence of God and literal truth of the Bible.

The people in the churches that have the highest birth and retention rates do.

You look down on it, but how is that wrong? Ultimately, people have a God-shaped hole. Two millenia of tradness – which is in fact more impressive in person than your tacky description suggests – has a better plugging effect than baseball, Marxism, BLM struggle sessions, therapy counseling, Marvel cinema or whatever is the surrogate of the day. I fully expect people to come out of liturgy in a decent Orthodox church with more noble thoughts and feelings.

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