I tell 'ya, if there's one thing religious people know how to do, it's sell their product. Every so often, I see a group of westerners, Mormons, roaming about town here in Seoul. They're always about my age, tall, good looking (men and women), well-dressed, clean-cut, smiling and chatting happily, and ready to spark a conversation with a willing stranger. And those aren't travel books they're holding!
And I give them credit. I could never sell a religion the way religious people manage to, for two reasons. First, I'm a bad salesman in appearance (or, more specifically, well-kept-ness), and second, I tend to use reasons and evidence to convince people of things, rather than vacuous appeals to the baser elements of their emotions.
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Let me ask this: how long would Catholicism (or any other major faith) last if children weren't 'brought up Catholic'? I mean to ask, what would happen to the Church if only men and women over the age of majority could attend? I suspect that it would last about as long as the lives of people currently attending, and not much longer.
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As for the Mormons, I will say that they make for very good salespeople right up until the moment they reveal their product. It's so tragic, the waste of good talent and intelligence, on such a useless and evil product.
And here in Seoul, Christanity (in its various forms) is by far the most heavily advertized product over any other. And it's no shock, since churches have volunteer employees by the thousands who donate money, and spend their spare hours on streetcorners handing out leaflets and imposing their unsolicited babble upon irritated subway passengers. Westerners are no less a target; some of the leaflet people even have a few english versions to shove at the occasional American or Canadian expat that might happen by. And I do mean shove; they literally stand in your way and put the thing in front of your face.
Night time downtown (by 'downtown' I mean 'everywhere inside city limits') is a sight to behold. Giant, obtrusive, horrendously ugly neon orange and pink crosses are perched atop more buildings that one would ever think viable, even for a city with a population of 20 million.
I don't know what to think about, or say to, very religious people, people for whom pleasing a god and preparing for an afterlife are top priorities. There's just such a gaping disconnect in worldview that I don't even know how to have a normal conversation about anything with them.
"Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery"
- Bertrand Russel
And I give them credit. I could never sell a religion the way religious people manage to, for two reasons. First, I'm a bad salesman in appearance (or, more specifically, well-kept-ness), and second, I tend to use reasons and evidence to convince people of things, rather than vacuous appeals to the baser elements of their emotions.
---
Let me ask this: how long would Catholicism (or any other major faith) last if children weren't 'brought up Catholic'? I mean to ask, what would happen to the Church if only men and women over the age of majority could attend? I suspect that it would last about as long as the lives of people currently attending, and not much longer.
---
As for the Mormons, I will say that they make for very good salespeople right up until the moment they reveal their product. It's so tragic, the waste of good talent and intelligence, on such a useless and evil product.
And here in Seoul, Christanity (in its various forms) is by far the most heavily advertized product over any other. And it's no shock, since churches have volunteer employees by the thousands who donate money, and spend their spare hours on streetcorners handing out leaflets and imposing their unsolicited babble upon irritated subway passengers. Westerners are no less a target; some of the leaflet people even have a few english versions to shove at the occasional American or Canadian expat that might happen by. And I do mean shove; they literally stand in your way and put the thing in front of your face.
Night time downtown (by 'downtown' I mean 'everywhere inside city limits') is a sight to behold. Giant, obtrusive, horrendously ugly neon orange and pink crosses are perched atop more buildings that one would ever think viable, even for a city with a population of 20 million.
I don't know what to think about, or say to, very religious people, people for whom pleasing a god and preparing for an afterlife are top priorities. There's just such a gaping disconnect in worldview that I don't even know how to have a normal conversation about anything with them.
"Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery"
- Bertrand Russel
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