In the meantime, some Christians demonstrate their peaceful minds

So I'm a hypocrite am I? Because my faith waivers at times, but I still love the Christian religion?

This website gets better.

A waivering faith a hypocrite does not make, I think. Re-read my post, it is well explained- about clear non-believers who 'use' the Church for social, cultural reasons, as well as access to schools, etc.

As said, many of our friends and family are as above- they know how I feel about it- and that I do not 'approve'- but it is as far as it goes- we still talk, get on, share a lot of other things- and get on with life, as friends and relatives do. We agree to disagree- even it at times it is a little hard.

Hatched, matched and despatched as they say (with no visits in between)!

LOL, no idea what that means rose.

I think doubt is part of being a believer- Jesus describes this well, if I can remember.

No, as said, talking about those who have no doubt that they do NOT believe, but choose to go along, for whatever reason. Very different.

Haven't you heard that granjura?

It means attending church just to have your child christened (hatched), to get married (matched) and for your funeral (despatched), but not going to church any other time - apart from the hatching, matching and despatching of friends and relatives.

Oh I see, yes, now it makes sense. No never heard it before, thanks- and lol. Guess I will not - although I was 'hatched'

Hatches, matches and dispatches date, I think, from the days when birth, marriage and death announcements appeared on the front page of The Times newspaper. 'Twas a different world and a different newspaper then…

Trying to remember when I last went to a christening.... it might have been my youngest brother's in 1962.

When I was a practising Catholic it used to amuse me how many people turned up to Midnight Mass who never came near the church at any other time of the year. They came because it was a beautiful church and the service was lovely but they didn't have the faintest idea of what was going on. We used to sit at the back so that we could watch them panic when they realised they were stood up when everyone had sat down or sat down when everyone was stood up. I know that's not what I was supposed to do and hardly Christian but it was still very funny.

The other thing I used to enjoy was what the priest called the Communion steeple chase. This was usually run by the little old ladies. You would see them tense up ready for the bell to ring telling us that we could go up for the host. The bell was like the gunshot in the 100m at the Olympics. The bell would ring and they'd move with unbelievable speed to be the first to receive the host. The winner would then return to her seat with a smile on her face like Mrs Doyle when she's just got one over on another housekeeper.

I'm C of E and haven't been to Midnight Mass for a few years now. The last time I went for this lovely service there was an overpowering smell of alcohol in the church as many (unrecognised by the usual congregation) had tumbled from the pub to the church on their way home!

Most vicars do not mind the hatch, match and dispatch brigade and see it as an opportunity to welcome members of the local community into the church. Maybe they think something will rub off?!

Most draw the line at being ask not to mention god! - and who can blame them!

Wanting a church wedding/funeral etc is part of a respect for tradition which is a unifying and comforting thing. And churches can be very beautiful buildings in the main - if you can swallow the images of torture that tend to be on show!

As said before, I absolutely love Churches- especially small simple ones you find by chance. And yes, I understand people harking for the comfort of tradition, singing, etc. But why do people wish to spend their time liying on the most important days of their lives, their wedding, and the most important people in their lives, their children? I would find NO comfort whatsoever, but on the contrary, a feeling of discomfort and shame even, at 'using' people and traditions for my own dishonest needs, as a clear non-believer.

I consider that God 'belongs' to me as much as anybody else, even though I'm primarily an atheist.

I suppose if you regard it in an allegorical sense of good and evil within each of us (God and the devil) then the church service could bring help and comfort in trying to overcome the evil with the good, even if you don't believe in an actual God or Satan up there in the heavens.

He most certainly does petallus.

Petallus you can't have it both ways- if you are an atheist God does not exist.

Isn't atheism a lack of belief that any gods exist? Not a categorical denial.

Even if someone is an atheist, God exists.
So Petallus is right in her statement.

There's definitive.

I thought that was agnosticism Ana.

No. No one can say without doubt that no god/s exist. There's no proof either way.

It is not about proof but about faith (which by definition does not require proof). Agnostics recognise that we can never know about the existence of a deity and focus on getting on with living life as honestly and kindly as they can. Atheists are certain that no deity exists.

On the whole agnostics thankfully don't go in for the sort of histrionics that RD received from some fundamentalist believers.

A theist believes that God exists.
An atheist does not believe that God exists.
Agnostic means "don't know".

Exactly - it's all down to belief. Which is why I was questioning Soutra's earlier post.