What if all the churches were REALLY gone?

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Mirdath

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The title of this thread had me expecting a rather different question than the one actually posed, so to avoid making a mess of that one I took it here. Sorry for stealing your title, ALLFORHIM :o

What if all churches of every religion disappeared in a puff of smoke overnight? What would change for those of you who worship a deity or deities – actually, let me make that more general: what would that change for everyone?

Obviously it’s not proof that ‘God is dead’ or what have you (considering someone had to make them go poof) or even necessarily an indictment of religion. But things would be different, and I’m curious as to what you all think they’d be like.

For me… I think my agnosticism might take a hit just on an emotional level, but the power to make a bunch of buildings vanish is not indicative of divine presence. Also I’d hope the Pieta got left on the ground when St Peter’s went up… I’d really miss that 😃
 
In the Book of Samuel, the people asked for a king,a Central unifying authority to rule over them. At this time they were 12 separate tribes following what they individually thought was right. We all know what happened. Fights became the norm. Once they got a king, they were once again unified and spoke with One voice.

In todays world, if all churches were to disapear, so does the unifying voice of authority. We would all be left to do what was “right based upon our individual concept of what was right in our heart”. In other words, Chaos and Confusion (in my opinion). We have plenty of examples in the Old Testement to show us what would happen.
 
So many aspects of religion require a suspension of belief in the way the world works that if we woke up tomorrow not remembering anything about our religion, we’d probably give the texts no more credaibility than a Harry Potter book.
 
Hi,

Its ok you took the same name for your thread:thumbsup:

I would do everything I do now just not in the church building I am a member of.😃

I would worship God at home or at someone else’s home who decided to have a service.

I would still serve the poor.
I would still sing and listen to praise music in my car.

I would still read my bible and I would still pray–maybe more then I do now.

I dont think a building is absolutely necessary to serve Christ.
Initially I might be shocked and wondered what happened but I have the peace of Christ and my church family and we would help each other and get together and worship somewhere. Maybe in a park.👍
 
Do you mean, what if all the buildings go bye bye, or religion along with the buildings?

My religion isn’t organized and doesn’t have buildings etc. We worship…wherever, usually outside, and converse online.

Honestly, I’d probably feel a bit smug if the buildings all went “poof”, like it was a “sign” that they weren’t on the right track. Not very nice of me, but there it is. I’d probably also be a little scared, wondering what/who was responsible for it.

If all religion disappeared…there’d be a lot of disoriented people wandering around, scratching their heads over bumper stickers etc. But I doubt it would take long for humans to start a bunch of new religions. We like to have something to worship, think about, fight about, something that fills the scary voids in our lives.

cheddar
 
Valke and cheddar – I meant the buildings and organizational structure (all that paperwork and so forth).

Thanks all for the answers so far, they have been quite interesting 🙂
 
If all the Meeting Houses disappeared…the church would continue meeting in various places. The Light doesn’t dwell in buildings made of stone or wood…but in Temples made of flesh and bone. Where the church meets is not the same as who the church truly is.
 
Christ promised us that not even the power of hell would overcome his Church and that it would endure to the end of the world. So presumably, at least one church would remain on the Earth. If it didn’t I guess it might be time to reconsider my Catholic Faith (and if the Catholic Church disappeared, then I would have to anyway… maybe the Orthodox Church would survive?).

–
Bill
 
If the building all of a sudden disappeared I think I would praise God because the Mass could be celebrated where it fits best: the Cathedral of Creation!
At this point I would be jealous because of all the couples married after this event could have a Nuptial Mass in the forest when my wife and I had to marry inside. Oh well. Good thing it’s just speculation…right?:rolleyes:
 
I wonder if one can interpret that thread to mean what will happen when all the Christians are raptured. I do not know if “Catholics” would be deemed “Christians” in that sense.
 
wonder if one can interpret that thread to mean what will happen when all the Christians are raptured. I do not know if “Catholics” would be deemed “Christians” in that sense
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Well, we don’t believe in the ‘rapture’ as portrayed a la “Left Behind”, that’s for sure. Some of the “Christians” of that persuasion perhaps don’t view Catholics as “Christians” but then again, things ‘are so’ whether or not they are ‘believed’ to be so.

Since we Christians had no ‘church buildings’ to begin with, most likely we would simply go back to that beginning–the priest coming to a large home, people coming from outside to celebrate, etc. until new churches were built. . .

Furthermore, I have a feeling that throughout the world, those ‘buildings’ would be replaced. After all, just the fact that they ‘disappeared’ would not necessarily mean that they disappeared because God ‘took them away’ or, after some 2000 years, disapproved; far more likely that some force, either intrinsically evil or used by evil was responsible. That being the case, it would be a duty to replace the sacred buildings ASAP.
 
Tantum_ergo said:
Furthermore, I have a feeling that throughout the world, those ‘buildings’ would be replaced. After all, just the fact that they ‘disappeared’ would not necessarily mean that they disappeared because God ‘took them away’ or, after some 2000 years, disapproved; far more likely that some force, either intrinsically evil or used by evil was responsible. That being the case, it would be a duty to replace the sacred buildings ASAP.
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Why would it have to be evil? God has certainly been known according to Scripture to decide after a very long time that things are not as they should be and take action to change them (see Noah, if one goes by the genealogy, that was 1556 years from the birth of Adam to the birth of Noah’s sons). God said he would never again curse the ground or kill all the living things of the earth. He didn’t say anything about buildings 🙂 .
 
I’d put a chalk outline of a fish on my front door, and when the people came, we’d pray the Rosary, the Liturgy of the Hours, and do the readings of the Mass.

I’d prepare a Mass kit just in case a priest were to come, so that he could say Mass for us, and I’d also set up a private space where he could hear people’s Confessions.
 
Mirdath said:
The title of this thread had me expecting a rather different question than the one actually posed, so to avoid making a mess of that one I took it here. Sorry for stealing your title, ALLFORHIM :o

What if all churches of every religion disappeared in a puff of smoke overnight? What would change for those of you who worship a deity or deities – actually, let me make that more general: what would that change for everyone?

Obviously it’s not proof that ‘God is dead’ or what have you (considering someone had to make them go poof) or even necessarily an indictment of religion. But things would be different, and I’m curious as to what you all think they’d be like.

For me… I think my agnosticism might take a hit just on an emotional level, but the power to make a bunch of buildings vanish is not indicative of divine presence. Also I’d hope the Pieta got left on the ground when St Peter’s went up… I’d really miss that 😃
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Absolutely nothing would change for me, other than having to deal with where to gather as a parish and a guano-load of REALLY annoyed “paper-pushers” within the parish/diocese/etc.

The Church would have lost quite a bit of architectural building material but that’s about it.

I’m not sure why this is a particularly interesting question for you, Mirdath? Why is it? What’s the REAL question behind your question? 🙂
 
jmcrae said:
I’d put a chalk outline of a fish on my front door, and when the people came, we’d pray the Rosary, the Liturgy of the Hours, and do the readings of the Mass.

I’d prepare a Mass kit just in case a priest were to come, so that he could say Mass for us, and I’d also set up a private space where he could hear people’s Confessions.
Click to expand...
ALLFORHIM said:
Hi,

I would do everything I do now just not in the church building I am a member of.😃

I would worship God at home or at someone else’s home who decided to have a service.

I would still serve the poor.
I would still sing and listen to praise music in my car.

I would still read my bible and I would still pray–maybe more then I do now.
Click to expand...
👍 Who needs a building? An umbrella and some lawn chairs in the rain, a house or apartment when it’s cold, the green grass when the sun shines, ought to suffice for me. I love church buildings but lacking one wouldn’t stop me from worshipping God.
I actually was a believer for a couple of years before I had a church to go to.
I thought this thread would be about a time of future possible persecution of Christians when we would have to whisper through walls to arrange a meeting place, and I wanted to know what plans others had made for such a thing.
 
if we had no visible churches then the priests who are the ministers of God’s sacraments would have to live in hiding, underground and we would have to worship underground. similar to what it was like pre constantinople.
 
Then we would do what JP2 did when he was a young bishop…head for the hills, forrests, lakes, etc. I have had “church” in a cathederal of ancient elm trees…where their trunks were as thick as any pillar of concrete. I have woshiped our Lord on a mountain top with my bible in one hand, and a hymn in my heart. The opening scenes of Sound of Music comes to mind, or the little scene of the Who’s in Whoville as they welcome Christmas one and all. Our Lord often spoke on mountain tops, on the shores of a sea and under the shade of a fruit orchard. “Whenever two or more our gathered in my name…there I shall be” 🙂

My family had to flee our homeland over a century ago when it was “determined” that Christians could no longer live or worship there…eventually they came to the US. Those that remained may “officially” be something else on their documents, but many have contunued to worship and believe; even with out a building.
 
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