Meetup.com is a great place to find discussion groups. A new one, on the topic of religion, recently popped up in Omaha. Choosing to attend this one was a no-brainer. It was several weeks before I was free during their meeting time, but last Thursday, I was finally able. That night, they had adjusted their regular format, of just having an open discussion, to include a movie.
When I got there, the building was modest. It was in an older residential neighborhood & the building was about the size of a three bedroom house. With one of my biggest problems with churches being the hoarding of money, this was a good sign (I've since looked into it and found they have billions).
They were quite friendly. I'd like to say they were too friendly, but I always think people are too friendly. This is when I noticed the pictures of Sun Myung Moon. These people are Moonies. I had only recently even heard of the Unification Church, and what I'd learned was not flattering. All I could remember was that they require marriages to be of mixed race. Passed that, I was determined to keep an open mind.
They had food available and, as I would have expected from a church group, wanted to say a prayer over it. The person they had do the blessing was someone I knew already. We're in the same atheist group. They already knew he was an atheist, as he'd been attending the group regularly already.
The movie we watched was "Hereafter", directed by Clint Eastwood. It was chosen by a member of the church, "Joyce". I had been aware of the film, but had never seen it. In the announcement of what we were watching, I got the impression that several people there considered the subject matter something that actually happens. This was not a surprise, but that made it no less annoying.
After the movie, Joyce asked if we'd ever felt like we'd been guided by an invisible force. People responded with various stories of unexplained coincidences, but nothing worth taking seriously enough to even chime in. When it came to my turn to answer, I only said "nope" because I have never experienced anything like that. Looking back at it, I was probably a jerk about it, but I wasn't sure how else to answer that question.
A middle aged Mexican man (he came to America 7 years ago), who described himself as a skeptic, mentioned he'd seen weird things in his childhood but was comfortable with the answer "I don't know". He later mentioned he was in the process of "learning about Jesus". He volunteered opinions & skeptic viewpoints about spirituality & the concept of an afterlife that were similar to what I've heard from atheist friends. I hope he retains that skepticism as he continues to learn about Jesus from whoever is attempting to convert him.
Later, Joyce was telling a story about a woman she knows who can talk to the dead. When she finished with her explanation that was the standard apologetics for such things, I asked my standard question for such claims. How can you tell the difference between someone who can talk to the dead and a schizophrenic. The response I got was a momentary look of attempting to figure it out, then a look of confusion. In other words, it was was the same exact response I've received every other time I've asked that question.
Then Joyce told a story of a woman who had asked for her window to be cracked open because she was "going home". Apparently, spirits cannot go through glass or doors. I didn't get a chance to tell her that it's quite common for dying people to know when the end us imminent.
Overall, the group was weird but not any much more weird than most other theist groups I've encountered so far, except for the rings. The people at this event who were members of that church, were all wearing matching rings. It seems like a minor thing, but I found it particularly weird. Hopefully, I'll get to learn more about the rings & this church's other quirks at future meetings.
