A Question

[cl154576]

How do religious people view an atheist who wears a cross or goes to Church?

[G L Wilson]

How do religious people view an atheist who wears a cross or goes to Church?

They view him as a bishop.

[papayahed]

That sounds like the start of a joke:

Q: Why did the Atheist go to church?
A: To get tot he other side

[JuniperWoolf]

I like crosses because they look cool. I own a couple, and no one's ever accused me of being a Christian. I think the symbol is too widespread to be note worthy in North America. As for going to church, my assumption to an atheist attending church would be that they are there in a research capacity. I've often wanted to go to church just to see what goes on in there, but I can never wake up before 9 am on a sunday.

[papayahed]

The Catholics usually have a saturday evening mass...and a lot of the fundies have evening services during the week. I'm just saying.

[Panglossian]

Being a devil worshipper I wear crucifixes upside-down and go into churches just to hiss and spit.


(only joking)

[Buh4Bee]

Funny, but some atheists or agnostics go to church to be in community or to be a participating part of a family unit. Most church-goer of a moderate religious doctrine are respectful and accepting, at least, in my experience. If they wear a cross, there may be a very personal explanation such as it was a gift from a dear person or an inherited piece of jewelry. I think some people, as Juniper mentioned, wear it as a secular symbol, because they like the piece of jewelry. I know ministers that get very fashionable about their crosses as well. But the religious may get offended by the wearing of a cross as a piece of jewelry. I personally could care less, but I can see the frustration from a religious point of view.

[Tlaoc]

How do religious people view an atheist who wears a cross or goes to Church?

Church is boring, unless you are there for some sort of family reason, why would you go?

As for the cross thing, I can understand someone wearing one because it has a sentimental value to them, or even if it's just out of pure aesthetics.

On a side note, the thing to remember is that the cross is not necessarily a christian symbol in its self. Granted, in the modern western world, nine out of ten times people will associate it in its general sense with the christian use of it.