LOL I lived in San Diego for 23 years. I used to see them when Tony Gwynn was there. Got to see a World Series even though we lost 3-0.

Excellent philosophy I love looking around old churches, and will leave an offering as my sort of admission fee. It's only the fanatically evangelical churches that cause a problem. I will tell the priest/vicar that I am atheist and have never been ushered out.
For years dedicated clergy served their communities as a "social services" organisation.

I was just being sarcastic. Churches are beautiful.

@mooredolezal I sometimes wonder how many man-hours of labour went into building them. Labour which could instead have been used to improve societies living standard.

@Petter Public funds are not used to build churches. People that paid for churches to be built wanted to have a church. They spent their money where they wanted to spend it. People that don't care for amusement parks could ponder whether or not the money spent to build them could have been better spent feeding the poor. Besides that, if you took every man hour ever spent on building a church and used that time to improve living standards in the world, the effect would be minuscule.

@mooredolezal I am not talking simple churches. I am talking of the great cathedrals which took generations to build and cost hundreds of lives. They were symbolic statements of power by the rulers of their day, who cared nothing for the peasantry below them.

@mooredolezal In UK the church receives money from the government so in fact they are funded publically. They are not rich though and many have collections for simple repairs.

@Petter now that's a whole different thing!

@Amisja wow I never knew that! I'm surprised the people allow that. Is the UK very religious or more like the continent?

@mooredolezal Not even slightly. We have a state religion but the result is that only very few people attend church. I think at the last census only 11% described themselves as Christian. The most religious people are likely to be the Muslims who make up about 4% of the population. No this is a country of healthy cynical pagans, despite milenia of attempts otherwise, religion never entirely stuck.

There are many in church because they lack a rallying point to trigger them into leaving.

@Petter I’d say it’s just a habit they can’t break.

I agree with everything you say. My statement was pretty much sarcastic. I haven't been to a church service since 2005. I met my half sister for the first time and went to church with her and her family in Georgia. What a trip. It was one of those crazy fucking churches where the people all raise their arms up in the air and wave them around and shout at the ceiling.

lol useful fiction

Of course. I was pretty much being sarcastic. I mean where else are you going to have a funeral service, at the Marriott?