"Do you feel better for not participating in the life of the Church?"
In answer to your question Snuff...Yes.
Like many, my early years were attending Sunday School, then Church/Confirmation etc. There was something I always felt uncomfortable with and it wasn't until my late 20's that I worked it out. Everyone talks about love but, unknowingly, worship fear.It is practised through worry, anger, guilt, sadness, depression, boredom and every other emotional reaction which keeps people living in the past and controlled by the god called fear. When fear is used to control, manipulate and dominate, it becomes a faith in evil. Evil is live spelt backwards and living back to front was the ancient meaning of evil. The modern day connotation is that it's so bad it doesn't deserve to exist. I guess the best description for what I practise and believe now, is metaphysics and self-responsibility. We are born into a duality, that is, freedom of choice and free will. We can choose to live and wake-up or stay asleep. Physically awakening is an inner process of self-observation and not dependent upon external techniques, which at best, can only assist.
