Going to church when you don't believe in God.

[Whenthenight]

I find it fascinating that so many intelligent people believe in God. I believe in there being a strong energy field in the world that helps things happen but more in relation to nature and spirit.
I am confused that intelligent people believe that God made the earth and then Adam and Eve etc all in 7 days. Didn't dinosaurs come before humans?
I have however, in the last 2 years been drawn to the church. I know, the irony. The community of support, singing, kindness, the feeling of belonging. I've done a little volunteering and been to a few lovely church services at my local church for different things, made friends even.
But, I just don't believe in God and can't understand how/why others do? I've considered speaking to the minister about my questions but not sure it would go down well.
Do people who go to church really believe all of what is written in the bible? Am I missing something?
I feel like a hypocrite every time I walk through those church doors, but there's a sense of togetherness that I can't help but love.
Very confused.
Can anyone shine some light?

I don't think intelligent people believe God made the world in seven days. Only Creationists.

I’m a lay Deacon. I searched for a number of years to find a church that accepted me and my opinions. I found it 4 years ago. I’m pro evolution, gay rights, abortion Single feminist and I believe in dinosaurs! I do not believe In the ‘bible ’. I do believe it is a series of tales with morals put together in times by men for certain reasons. Eg Ephesians is based on a letter written by Paul to a church - it isn’t the word ‘of God’ for me. I believe in God and pray but equally do that in the Hindu temple I visited with a friend. I do think one religion does not trump another. However- I stay and pray and have tea and listen to others. Imagine my horror when I as a single mum was approached to be a Deacon - I even wrote back and said ‘you have me mistaken for someone and something I am not’ but they did mean me. Do I listen to others? Yes. Do I try and offer comfort and refer people to more appropriate help if it is a more serious problem - yes

Every educated person should be familiar with the Bible it helps appreciate culture, literature, music. Also religion generally provides a good moral framework. Church is a once a week chance to catch up with your community.

Why not? Enjoy it if it gives you something satisfactory.

Everyone else is going for the same reason as you. Does it make you feel guilty or something? If it works for you then it's ok. By all means speak to the minister. He or she will be totally cool about it. Even the pros struggle with their faith at times

I don't think intelligent people believe God made the world.

Well I’m intelligent and I believe that God made the world 🤷‍♀️

Careful you don't get converted op!!

@Elisheva I think you may have misquoted @katy1213. She said I don't think intelligent people believe that God made the world in seven days. Not that he made the world. There's a big difference there.

@Elisheva out of curiosity, do you believe that God is a person? A spirit? An energy? I can't get my head around it easily. How do you believe he came to create the world? With some sort of magic? The power of the mind?

I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm mocking you, I'm really not. I struggle to comprehend it all.

Mark 9:24 is an interesting starting point for me when I think about this.

I am not religious. If anything I am leaning to anti theist! But I like churches, I love hymns, I got through my dissertation by listening to Renaissance choral music (I defy anyone to listen to Spem in Alium and not feel something), and I know what you mean about community and fellowship.

Most ministers would think it was fine to attend services and not believe, IME, as long as you are not attending to mock and you don't stand in church and lie about believing.

@Whenthenight I look at the world and the people in it, I listen to music, look at art, I consider my body and the complexities of how it works, my consciousness, the variety of life, the wonder of nature and I cannot believe that it is down to chance. Listen to an orchestra, look at how an eye works. I do not believe that the current scientific theories satisfactorily answer the questions of how we came to be.
So I look at ‘God’, I read what people have experienced, I listen to people talk, I read the Bible.
Every time I go through this process of examination (And I revisit it periodically) I come to the conclusion that there is a God.
All the criticisms thrown at religion and the church, that is where people have got in the way and buggered it up with their own interpretations or used it for their own ends. People who make dismissive comments about ‘sky fairies’ or ‘imaginary friends’ who order us around and delight in suffering are not talking about the God I experience.
The church is responsible for a great deal of suffering but at the same time my individual church is a place of acceptance, of kindness, of learning, of discovery. It is closed because of lockdown and I miss it a great deal. I think that even if I lost my faith I would still go to church!

There was a brilliant AMA thread about the Quakers recently that you might enjoy. I wanted to get married in my village church for reasons of history/place / family. I'm an atheist. I went to see the vicar and he welcomed us and said 'there are many paths, this is just one' and he married us. I'm so grateful to him - I think he's a Buddhist Anglican if there is such a thing!

@Whenthenight start with looking at the Gospels. The parables are good to get your head around because they are figurative rather than literal (although the meaning is sincere).

I'd encourage you to talk to the vicar/ pastor and be honest about your thoughts. They won't be offended. I'd also encourage you to sign up to an Alpha course (sometimes it's called Christianity Explored, depending on the church). Or even join a small group at the church as you can hear what others are discussing and sharing. It's a good opportunity to question and develop more of an understanding.

I grew up being taken to church, but from my teen years I've chosen to go. You're correct in the sense that there's a moment where you have to make a small jump to have faith. After all, a faith can only happen when you trust even though you can't justify everything. I believe dinosaurs roamed once and I think that the 7 day creation was in a different time frame to the 7 days we know. I do believe in the accounts given in the Bible. Some might be harder to accept, but to me that's part of having my faith.

I recommend looking up a man called Mike Pilavachi. He leads a church called Soul Survivor and is very good at preaching clearly and making it relevant to everyday life. I'm sure there will be a number of his talks available online. You might like his conversational style. He's also written some books.

[quote Whenthenight]@Elisheva out of curiosity, do you believe that God is a person? A spirit? An energy? I can't get my head around it easily. How do you believe he came to create the world? With some sort of magic? The power of the mind?

I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm mocking you, I'm really not. I struggle to comprehend it all.[/quote]
I assume that the divine is not something easy for us to understand, and am happy to accept that my understanding is not complete and quite possibly wrong.

We pictured God as a bearded old bloke because of cultural expectations that old white men are wise.

That's absolutely not the current cultural assumption 🤣 so we get to imagine God quite differently.

I don't get a sense of 'he' from god. Creation and communication are the driving force, if you see what I mean.

I find it fascinating that so many intelligent people believe in God.

I think this comes across as a bit more insulting than you intended! I would argue that it is more intelligent to be open to the idea that many things exist in this vast universe which we don't know about such as God and ghosts and spirits rather than being very close-minded and stating as a fact that they don't! The way you have phrased your question you seem absolutely certain you are right and that everyone should agree with you and if they don't they are stupid?
I believe in God (not Adam and Eve and Earth's creation in 7 days) but I realise there may also be nothing, and I simply understand that I don't know everything about our existence.

@picklemewalnuts beautifully explained. Thank you.

1. You could try Sunday Assembly which is secular but has a lot of community elements if the religious elements put you off
2. The intelligence thing amuses me, there are some very well educated (in the traditional sense) members of the church community and I heard a very good talk from the Bishop of Swindon on genetics (his speciality). Science and religion go hand in hand.
3. You could of course go to church as you suggest, and ask the questions. FWIW Genesis is a poetry book, the Bible is not solely fact but more a way of understanding. Like aural history. I don't think the multi headed demons in Revelation are real either.

I go to our Catholic church regularly despite being a complete atheist who is not even baptised. I go because my children attend the local Catholic primary (I didn't apply there, we just got allocated there) and I am obliged to take them. My kids are baptised Catholic as my oldest was settled there and school advised it to get the other four in.

I quite like going as it is an hour's peace and quiet and I enjoy the 'call and response' aspect of it. I particularly enjoy the Easter story when many members of the congregation get to play the different parts in the telling of the story.

I guess I don't believe in the stories literally, but I devour their sentiment.

Well, you've understood what the overwhelming majority of Christians know, that the bible is in fact a collection of books and letters, written at different times over different centuries. Many of the stories are literally, as you have noticed, stories created to illustrate a point. Jesus, the disciples, the prophets were often speaking to crowds of people - many of whom wouldn't be able to read or have access to anything to read, so they sat and listened. Speakers use stories to illustrate the point they are making.

I'm glad you feel so welcome and so much love and such a sense of community. I think you would be surprised to find that probably 99% of your Church congregation are on a journey that includes doubts as well as times when they couldn't be more certain of their faith - the ministers included.

It's so great that you feel welcomed in the church, OP, and feel like you are within community. Churches are full of people who are at different stages on a journey - whether unsure about any of it, on a seeking path, or with years of faith and wrestling at times with doubt (most people, probably!) There is, or should be, no judgment whatsoever as to the 'faith status' of a church goer - all are warmly included, as Jesus included those on the margins at all times.

Like others here I am a Christian but do not believe in a literal 6 day creation because I think that God imbued us with reason and curiosity to explore and discover the world we live in and the mechanics of that word. Genesis 1 is written in a kind of poetic prose common in that period of antiquity, where the point to the story was what was being communicated through a parable of sorts, using the poetry of let there be light etc. I have no issue whatsoever with the big bang, evolution etc as the process by which God created and sustained. I love the scientist Francis Collins who is the founder of the Human Genome Project - his work on evolutionary creationism is outstanding.

So no, there is nothing wrong with you going along and enjoying the community. But the fact that you feel drawn there might impel you to explore further, and I would warmly suggest an Alpha course for that - a place you can safely talk about your thoughts, ask questions and hear the foundations of the Christian faith, without any forcefulness (well, to be fair, that might depend on the church putting it on - in my experience though I have only come across good, non judgemental, sensitive courses. Usually in the C of E.) Do ask your vicar, too - s/he will love to talk to you and will not in any way look down on you. Ask here, as well, many of us with faith are happy to talk about why we believe. And we are quite intelligent too

You cant go wrong talking to the priest. If you are enjoying going to church keep going. Its open to all. You dont have to discuss your beliefs if you dont want. Faith is very complicated. People have all sorts of different ideas. The bible is book written by men a long time ago. I get a lot out of reading the bible but my prayer life and going to mass is more important to me. I also love singing hymns.

I started going to catholic church when I did not believe Christian God. (LONG story but I now do believe in God and am still exploring my faith). I still struggle with aspects of Christianity (currently thinking a lot about the divinity of Jesus and what Jesus knew of or understood of his situation).

I have done lots of reading around the subject. I particularly enjoyed "The Reason for God" by Timothy Keller, a easy to read book on Christian apologetics.

I really enjoyed and devoured books by Nick Page. His history of Christianity wont help you with the questions you asked above but is so enlightening if you like to learn about History and he's quite comic in his style. I'm planning on reading "The Badly Behaved Bible" by him which will probably interest you as he doesn't say he believes it all but it will be eye opening.

Other things that have helped me:

Marcus Borg "Reading the bible again for the first time: taking the bible seriously but not literally"

N.T Wright "Surprised by Hope"

Loads of others I won't go into here.

I don’t believe in God but I also know that I could be wrong.
I believe that the bible was written to keep people in line, a sort of early policing system.
I don’t go to church now but I have been in my past, and enjoyed the friendship and singing familiar songs.
I’m sure I will choose to go again in the future.
Enjoy it.

Rather than Alpha, which encourages questions but has set answers I suggest reading ‘Love wins’ by Rob Bell and ‘How to be a bad Christian’ by Dave Tomlinson. I think lots of church goers don’t take the bible literally.

An extreme example of not believing in a traditional way but being part of the church is Anthony Freeman who is still a priest in the Church of England and his book is called God in Us