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Re:A Solution for Loneliness: Get out and volunteer, researc... by maxxxxx on Tuesday May 21, 2019 @01:55PM (#19972746)
That’s something I sometimes envy in religious people. Wherever they go they have a ready network in place. That’s pretty nice.

I think one of the advantages of the US is that for me as a foreigner the patriotism here also feels like a religion which gives the country cohesion.

Re:A Solution for Loneliness: Get out and volunteer, researc... by trevyn on Tuesday May 21, 2019 @01:58PM (#19972795)
You might want to check out the Unitarian Universalists, they provide many of the social benefits of organized religion without a specific belief system attached.
Re:A Solution for Loneliness: Get out and volunteer, researc... by revx on Tuesday May 21, 2019 @02:58PM (#19973579)
As I mentioned on another comment: I am a Unitarian Universalist and an athiest, married to a seminarian in the religion. Happy to answer questions about UU and what it's like. It has definitely made me far less lonely to belong to the UU community, and I don't feel pressured to "believe" anything I don't want to.
Re:A Solution for Loneliness: Get out and volunteer, researc... by bscphil on Tuesday May 21, 2019 @08:51PM (#19976727)
Okay, I have a question. You guys have weekly services, right? What do you do? I assume there are no songs to sing, and so someone has to do the speaking. What do they talk about? Since there's no formal religious principles to promote, my naive picture of it is being the sort of stuff you'd see in self-help books. Which seems, I don't know, boring? (Personally I don't think there's much of value in self-help books.)
Re:A Solution for Loneliness: Get out and volunteer, researc... by revx on Tuesday May 21, 2019 @10:48PM (#19977295)
Hey! So services vary widely from place to place (since congregations run democratically). The form is based on a traditional protestant service, but with modern adaptations. We sing a lot of songs - I've heard everything from christian hymns to buddhist chants to the Beatles and Peter Meyer (probably not during the same service). We have three hymnals, including one in Spanish.

UUs have seven principles (https://www.uua.org/beliefs/what-we-believe/principles) but none of them require any sort of supernatural belief. Coming from an anti-theist background they were all already things I agreed with. Some people say that you can believe in anything and be a UU, which isn't quite true - any belief system that sees others as "less than", for example, would be incompatible.

As for who does the talking, most congregations have a trained minister (like my partner) who leads most services. They talk on a variety of topics, but mostly about community, justice, activism, and lessons from other religions.

Hope this helps!

Re:A Solution for Loneliness: Get out and volunteer, researc... by bscphil on Tuesday May 21, 2019 @11:17PM (#19977410)
Thanks, it's really very interesting to me that you have music. Seems to trigger the ritualistic aspect of religion that others have talked about in this thread.

My impression was always that UUs were a sort of offshoot of Protestantism; I think "Unitarian" refers to their non-belief in a trinity of beings that are a core doctrine of most modern Christian denominations - is that right? Would you say that UUs have entirely abandoned their Christian / Protestant heritage other than the form of the service?

Re:A Solution for Loneliness: Get out and volunteer, researc... by matz1 on Tuesday May 21, 2019 @06:51PM (#19975935)
Same thing as sports club. Whenever I go, most likely there ready network in place.
Re:A Solution for Loneliness: Get out and volunteer, researc... by maxxxxx on Tuesday May 21, 2019 @11:00PM (#19977343)
True. When I still did boxing I usually quickly found people.