Ace on the puritans belonging to “The Sustainable Organic Church of the Carbon Apocalypse”:
Humans are hard-wired to be religious. Just because there are some among us who have repudiated Christianity and other established religions, they still cannot escape the innate religiosity that is part of our existence. The left-wing belief that bad weather and natural disasters are caused by sinners in our midst is the most primitive of religious beliefs.
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When churches are strong and prominent in our culture, they provide so much more than just a place to worship. They also provide fellowship, music, art, structure, the fulfillment of volunteerism, a (semi-)controlled environment for adolescence, grief counseling, missionary work, and so much more.
But churches can also serve as a pressure relief valve for the fervor of those who are born to be moral busybodies.