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One of my biggest complaints with New Hampshire/New England is the general lack of religiosity. Religion is basically irrelevant in many people's lives, and otherwise is kept under wraps. It is one of those things that makes people very uncomfortable to even acknowledge. This represents an unfortunate loss of tradition among other things.
And what I dislike about visiting South was that southerners will throw in that quick and insincere "god bless" into the end of their conversations with the implication that if I don't give them the same "god bless" back, I'm not part of their club. I find that to be a very judgmental phrase.
NH is religious enough and the attendance at the local churches seem healthy enough. And many socialize and play catch-up with the week's events at that time. Maybe not all of them are truly god-fearing, but I do think that they take their religion with a grain of salt and use it to be good moral people.
Otherwise, even though I am an atheist, I have a much stronger moral compass that most of the city christians that I work with.
And what I dislike about visiting South was that southerners will throw in that quick and insincere "god bless" into the end of their conversations with the implication that if I don't give them the same "god bless" back, I'm not part of their club. I find that to be a very judgmental phrase.
NH is religious enough and the attendance at the local churches seem healthy enough. And many socialize and play catch-up with the week's events at that time. Maybe not all of them are truly god-fearing, but I do think that they take their religion with a grain of salt and use it to be good moral people.
Otherwise, even though I am an atheist, I have a much stronger moral compass that most of the city christians that I work with.
They even had religious education (LDS only of course) in public schools on public school grounds. I never figured out how they got away with doing that. It was an elective, so students didn't have to take their classes, but still why would the LDS church have a building on public school grounds to teach religious education?
Seminary buildings are never right on public school property. They are usually next door or right across the street. The way they "got away with doing that" was that it's a law in Utah that students may be dismissed during school hours for religious training. If the Catholics or Baptists or Lutherans had wanted to offer classes during school hours and provide a place (even a private home near the school) for the classes to be held, they would have been more than welcome to.
Seminary buildings are never right on public school property. They are usually next door or right across the street. The way they "got away with doing that" was that it's a law in Utah that students may be dismissed during school hours for religious training. If the Catholics or Baptists or Lutherans had wanted to offer classes during school hours and provide a place (even a private home near the school) for the classes to be held, they would have been more than welcome to.
I guess there's not enough time outside of school hours to teach religion at home and at the countless LDS churches located on almost every corner? Sorry, just another way for the LDS church to exert control and dominance.
I'm off topic. I'm sorry. I just hope NH never becomes Utah in this respect.
I guess there's not enough time outside of school hours to teach religion at home and at the countless LDS churches located on almost every corner? Sorry, just another way for the LDS church to exert control and dominance.
And I'm sorry it's such a sore spot with you, but as I said before, all churches have the same opportunity and just don't take advantage of it.
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I'm off topic. I'm sorry. I just hope NH never becomes Utah in this respect.
And what I dislike about visiting South was that southerners will throw in that quick and insincere "god bless" into the end of their conversations with the implication that if I don't give them the same "god bless" back, I'm not part of their club. I find that to be a very judgmental phrase.
NH is religious enough and the attendance at the local churches seem healthy enough. And many socialize and play catch-up with the week's events at that time. Maybe not all of them are truly god-fearing, but I do think that they take their religion with a grain of salt and use it to be good moral people.
Otherwise, even though I am an atheist, I have a much stronger moral compass that most of the city christians that I work with.
NH has less church goes than any state besides Vermont. The churches there are are often small. I don't know if you've ever traveled but most states have mega-churches; NH has very few; even churches we may consider to be large are not very big compared to those in other states. You may have a larger moral compass than other Christians but that doesn't prove anything. Christians are not Christians because they are moral winners, but because they are moral failures (though in a sense everyone is) a Christian therefore is not necessarily someone who is anymore self comtrolled than anyone else, and often times are not. I myself used to think, when I was an atheist and before, that thought the ordinary nature of your average Christians was nothing impressive, nothing like they are supposed to stride to be; nothing in their moral character that reflects a divine truth that they adhere to. I learned that it is because Christians are simply people who are humble enough to admit their moral failure. The fact is that whether it is true or not has nothin to do with how moral or how immoral followers of Christ are.
NH has less church goes than any state besides Vermont. The churches there are are often small. I don't know if you've ever traveled but most states have mega-churches; NH has very few; even churches we may consider to be large are not very big compared to those in other states.
Umm... that's because NH and VT are extremely small states by land mass and because of both states are extremely rural. We don't have enough people to compete with the larger states for number of churchgoers. What would we do with mega churches (ick!!!)? And they would look silly in our landscape and empty because of how few townsfolk are in them.
And imo those mega-churches are just symbols of those churches showing off how skilled those ministries are in brainwashing their followers to donate in large amounts. Surely their god is not impressed by the size of their mega-church and it would be money better spent giving back to poor in their communities.
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You may have a larger moral compass than other Christians but that doesn't prove anything. Christians are not Christians because they are moral winners, but because they are moral failures (though in a sense everyone is) a Christian therefore is not necessarily someone who is anymore self comtrolled than anyone else, and often times are not. I myself used to think, when I was an atheist and before, that thought the ordinary nature of your average Christians was nothing impressive, nothing like they are supposed to stride to be; nothing in their moral character that reflects a divine truth that they adhere to. I learned that it is because Christians are simply people who are humble enough to admit their moral failure. The fact is that whether it is true or not has nothin to do with how moral or how immoral followers of Christ are.
But why then, do most religious church-going people think that they are more moral than non-believers? Because that's what I keep hearing from them even as what I see is that they have no work ethic (feeling justified in stealing by their lazyiness on the job) and arrange their income stream in order to collect the most government benefits.
This thread is a perfect illustration of Religion in The North Country.
People actually do have strong opinions about it, and ties to it. But generally, we don't talk about it in public because everyone's opinions are different, and our nature is to keep that private. This is M.Y.O.B. Country, and most of us like it very much this way.
NH and VT constantly get put on "Least Religious" lists but I agree that the data doesn't necessarily reflect the spiritual reality of the area. We are just very diverse in the respect, and don't generally put that religiousness out public.
We found a house we love in New Hampton. Give me some info on this town please. How would it compare for us to the other towns we narrowed it down too? We really, really like this house a lot.
BTW it's not in town, it's on the outskirts but it is a New Hampton address.
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