The act of sitting through 1-hour of unplanned service. It’s actually quite hard for most people, especially if they are used to being entertained. UU and humanist services provide a lot of entertainment, even if you think it’s boring entertainment. The simple act of sitting together in silence for an hour bonds the people who do it because they understand the level of comitment it takes not to get up a leave.
Additionally, if you keep attending Quaker services, you’ll eventually get sucked into volunteering and you’ll have to show up because that’s the only way the service happens.
The simple act of sitting together in silence for an hour bonds the people who do it because they understand the level of comitment it takes not to get up a leave.
“I did this difficult thing, therefore it must have been worth it” is standard cultish anti-epistemology.
I’m not saying it’s worth doing because it’s difficult, except insofar as doing difficult things together facilitate social bonding.
There are plenty of other reasons to think sitting together in silence for an hour is good, and the difficulty of doing it is only a little related to what makes it good.
In what sense does the Society of Friends require more commitment than Unitarian Universalist or humanist churches do?
The act of sitting through 1-hour of unplanned service. It’s actually quite hard for most people, especially if they are used to being entertained. UU and humanist services provide a lot of entertainment, even if you think it’s boring entertainment. The simple act of sitting together in silence for an hour bonds the people who do it because they understand the level of comitment it takes not to get up a leave.
Additionally, if you keep attending Quaker services, you’ll eventually get sucked into volunteering and you’ll have to show up because that’s the only way the service happens.
“I did this difficult thing, therefore it must have been worth it” is standard cultish anti-epistemology.
Uh, sure, but that misses the point.
I’m not saying it’s worth doing because it’s difficult, except insofar as doing difficult things together facilitate social bonding.
There are plenty of other reasons to think sitting together in silence for an hour is good, and the difficulty of doing it is only a little related to what makes it good.