Should I be forced to go to Church against my own will?

[Lyghts]

I think you should go, take notes of the sermon and when you get home do your own research on what was taught. Most the time you will find many contradictions on what your preachers says vs. what the bible says. If you find the contradictions point them out to your mom and ask her opinion, if you find no contradictions then you belong to a good bible based church and should go as often as possible, regardless of your religious beliefs now or when you get older, you might find the study of theology vary interesting.

 

[_Chaz_]

I think you should go, take notes of the sermon and when you get home do your own research on what was taught. Most the time you will find many contradictions on what your preachers says vs. what the bible says. If you find the contradictions point them out to your mom and ask her opinion, if you find no contradictions then you belong to a good bible based church and should go as often as possible, regardless of your religious beliefs now or when you get older, you might find the study of theology vary interesting.

Get out.

 

[Ikki]

Should you be forced? No.
Should you go? I assume you're pretty young so, yes. You should if your mother tells you to.

I think you should go, take notes of the sermon and when you get home do your own research on what was taught. Most the time you will find many contradictions on what your preachers says vs. what the bible says. If you find the contradictions point them out to your mom and ask her opinion, if you find no contradictions then you belong to a good bible based church and should go as often as possible, regardless of your religious beliefs now or when you get older, you might find the study of theology vary interesting.

LOL

 

[Jamstruth]

Religion should never be enforced. That kind of defeats the whole point.
All religion is kind of enforced. The message is pretty much "Believe this and follow these rules or BURN FOR ETERNITY FOR YOUR SIN!". Well, except Buddhism but its a different class of religion to Christianity or Islam (for example)

QUOTE(Lyghts @ Mar 20 2011, 10:01 AM) I think you should go, take notes of the sermon and when you get home do your own research on what was taught. Most the time you will find many contradictions on what your preachers says vs. what the bible says. If you find the contradictions point them out to your mom and ask her opinion, if you find no contradictions then you belong to a good bible based church and should go as often as possible, regardless of your religious beliefs now or when you get older, you might find the study of theology vary interesting.

Get out.

He signed up just to say that too. I'd say he's troll-bait.

Anyway as for the original poster. What do you believe? You say you believe in God but do you believe in Christianity? Believing in God and believing in organised religion are two seperate things in my mind. Its possible to believe there is a higher power without belonging to a specific sect of religion. If you believe in Christianity, its teachings, its rules then you should go to church before the aforementioned burning for eternity happens. (I'm an Atheist if you couldn't tell.)

 

[Urza]

He signed up just to say that too. I'd say he's troll-bait.

Joined: 26-October 07

 

[Jamstruth]

He signed up just to say that too. I'd say he's troll-bait.

Joined: 26-October 07

Good point but that's his one post. Gimme a break.

 

[Santee]

i'd not go to the church a few times till they understand that grounding you isn't really bother you.

Each time they say that your grounded just go to your room.

after 2-3 times they'll look for a better way to convince you to go to church , if you keep on accepting what they offer as a punishment for not going they'll realize you clearly don't WANT to go to the church.

Thats pure human psychology for you

I'd say this is your only choice, if you really don't want to go then take the punishment and get on with your life the way you've chosen to live it.

 

[LunaWofl]

Ha, reminds me of my younger days when I was forced to go to church.
I stopped being forced after I pointed out something bad always happens to me when im in churches.
The funnest of which was when i got knocked out when a light bulb fell, other wise, id just get nosebleeds, or become really sick after.

But on-topic: No, you should not be forced to do anything. However, there are reasons to do so.
You mention that your dad doesent attend church, which, assuming your an only child, would make you and your mother the only people from your family to attend.
Me thinks the possibility of your mother not wanting to go alone is the source of your problem.

 

[GeekyGuy]

I sympathize with you, man. I was brought up as a Jehovah's Witness, and we went to the Kingdom Hall twice a week, plus a book study at a member's home, and my brother and I both had a weekly Bible study. It was a lot as a kid. I didn't even fully grok the idea of God as a kid. When I was about 13 and rebelled enough, some of the congregation elders recommended to my mother that we be given the choice to go or not.

Was it the right thing to do? Only God knows for sure.

Best of luck.

 

[MEGAMANTROTSKY]

If you believe it is worth fighting for, refuse to go to church. And if she's willing to ground you for a week because you do not attend a certain location on command, then it says far more about her than you. Resist the grounding, too, if possible; given the irrational and potentially reactionary position of religious thought, I don't think it's worth submitting to. But don't take this as a rule of thumb, for I speak here out of my own experience. In my opinion, it's highly unlikely that there is a god.

He's not resenting religious thought, he does believe in God. What he resents is having to go to church even though he does not want to.

I completely understood that he does not resent religious thought, and that he believes in a god. The last bit was merely my own position on such matters as being forced to go to church and religion in general. In other words, while he may not resent religion and god, I do. Hence the reason why I was careful to say that he should not take it "as a rule of thumb, for I speak here out of my own experience."

@Lyghts: You want to speak of contradictions to religious doctrine? Try science. I doubt that would go over well with his mother or even the original poster, however.

 

[Garro]

When I was a kid I assisted Church, after a while my whole family stop going because we lost the point in going the church and myself because I thought it was a waste of time (That time I was catholic or christian, I dont remember, just because my family was). Then with school I started thinking for my own and decided to don't care if theres a deity or not because that won't change my lifestyle.

I disagree being forced to go to church, if you don't want to do stuff, doing them becomes a pain and practically you won't learn anything, the only consequences you will face is losing obvious teachings from the bible and have more time for other stuff (and whatever your mom punich you).

 

[Ziggy Zigzagoon]

Either you are not a true Christian (since Christians have a new song in their hearts) or your church is not true and honest (since there are some churches that are full of fluff and do not get to the true meat of the matter: preaching God's Word).

P.S. I am a fundamentalist "ronin" (churchless) Protestant, albeit with low levels of maturity.

 

[kiba93]

I'm going to put this in the shortest way possible before my mom yells at me "Get off the computer and get dressed."

Alright, Should anyone be forced to go to church against their own will? I mean, I believe in god, but I refuse to just go to Church because I got alot of stuff to manage as is. My DAD believes in god, but he NEVER goes and my mom never asks him a thing about it, but I'm forced to get up every Sunday morning, and sit through a long sermon with words that I can barely understand. And if i DIDN'T go, I'd get grounded for like a week.

Anyone think this is wrong, yes?

If you don't want to, just stay at home, nobody can force you into believing in anything, especially if you can't understand that "mumbo-jumbo" stuff.
plus, one piece episodes comes out on sunday

You get grounded?

what does that feels like? cause i have never been grounded

 

[Lyghts]

@Lyghts: You want to speak of contradictions to religious doctrine? Try science. I doubt that would go over well with his mother or even the original poster, however.

I completely agree, and in my experience, I have independently learned that a lot of mainstream teachings are incorrect. Regardless of that, hopefully my suggestion will give TC something to do besides trying to sleep in church or getting grounded.

 

[1234turtles]

go to church man us minors have no power until we are 18 its better to just avoid punishment to then

 

[Advi]

it somewhat depends on why.

if it's because you just don't want to go, then you should respect your parents, but if it's because it doesn't suit your religious beliefs, then it's worth talking with your mother about.

 

[Law]

When I was a kid I assisted Church, after a while my whole family stop going because we lost the point in going the church and myself because I thought it was a waste of time (That time I was catholic or christian, I dont remember, just because my family was). Then with school I started thinking for my own and decided to don't care if theres a deity or not because that won't change my lifestyle.

I disagree being forced to go to church, if you don't want to do stuff, doing them becomes a pain and practically you won't learn anything, the only consequences you will face is losing obvious teachings from the bible and have more time for other stuff (and whatever your mom punich you).

There is no consequence in that.

Tell her you're sick of being brainwashed, then set fire to the church.

 

[ProtoKun7]

Ultimately, it will be a matter of choice. If it'll make her feel better then it might be worth it.

Now I'm an atheist, after learning heaps of Physics and Chemistry.

That implies that they contradict each other, when in reality they don't.

 

[Urza]

Now I'm an atheist, after learning heaps of Physics and Chemistry.

That implies that they contradict each other, when in reality they don't.

Nothing can really contradict "I believe in magic."

 

[Advi]

Now I'm an atheist, after learning heaps of Physics and Chemistry.

That implies that they contradict each other, when in reality they don't.

Nothing can really contradict "I believe in magic."

"this happened for a reason" contradicts "this happened for no reason" pretty well, the logical difference between reason and faith is something is either considered true until proven false or false until proven true; science and religion aren't mutually exclusive.