Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Al Smith]

Even various church leaders have said you don’t have to attend church. I saw a priest blessing with holy water via a squirt gun. Everything is streamed online.

The only ones seeming to be urging people to buck social distancing are the mega churches.

I go out regularly on Sunday AM for a long bike ride and pass multiple small, relatively rural churches. I can tell you that most of them have been open for business over the past couple months one way or another, regardless of what the governor has ordered. Maybe they're social distancing - I don't know. I have noticed that parking lots on Wednesday nights are not as crowded as usual, so maybe that's a compromise of sorts.

 

[Jaded-Fan]

Could you imagine Sheldon going off when knowingly many mass gathered knowing that they could infect others, and just one died?

Oh, you understate the predictable reaction to the pandemic. Instead of superior cynicism there would be unrelenting panic.

 

[Ugene Magic]

Oh, you understate the predictable reaction to the pandemic. Instead of superior cynicism there would be unrelenting panic.

I was thinking the same thing. I think I can stop cropping it now.

You would of had me just with Sheldon looking out the door screaming for Penny to help him. I didn't even have to watch it.

 

[Ryder71]

I can not imagine a religion which would not prioritize life over ritual. Nothing is more precious.

Salvation is, if they believe in an afterlife that's far more important to them (and me).

That said, I haven't been to church in quite some time. But believers like to be among other believers. Kind of hard for that to take place when you're isolated at home. I can't speak for every congregation but in general there's a heightened sense of community and family there.

 

[Factorial]

For some, when it comes to going to church, it's not a matter of smart or dumb, it's a matter of faith that they take very seriously and, almost by definition. they aren't acting according to "reason". Not justifying it. It's just the way a lot of people think. I suspect if you asked some of those infected people if they regret going to church and becoming infected, most would say no.

We're better than rote repetition when we need to be.

And that last sentence is just sad, whether it's your view and/or true.

 

[Snooki Stackhouse]

For many churchgoers, their Church community is extremely important to them and is often their closest friends network. Isolating at home would allow them to hear the pastor's message and would provide some spiritual benefit but they'd absolutely miss their community. I'm sure many pastors take the virus seriously and are following protocols, but I'm sure many think this is ridiculous, not a big deal and just a way for overreacting government officials to infringe on their rights. In some more sinister cases, a leader may believe in the seriousness of the virus but feel that it would negatively affect the church's revenue or negatively affect their own personal income. Ignorant or malicious church leaders are at fault here.

Many people look up to their Church leaders and would do or believe anything they say. I went to an evangelical church when I was young and my friends believed the pastor could see what they were doing at all times, could talk to God directly, and was doing his bidding at all times. Actually, the pastor himself was a nice guy and never really perpetuated these beliefs but that's the level that some of these members believed in his closeness with God. If pastor said coronavirus was a hoax intended to break apart the church, those members would believe it with every fiber of their being.

 

[Mr. T]

Even various church leaders have said you don’t have to attend church. I saw a priest blessing with holy water via a squirt gun. Everything is streamed online.

The only ones seeming to be urging people to buck social distancing are the mega churches.

 

[Ryder71]

For many churchgoers, their Church community is extremely important to them and is often their closest friends network. Isolating at home would allow them to hear the pastor's message and would provide some spiritual benefit but they'd absolutely miss their community. I'm sure many pastors take the virus seriously and are following protocols, but I'm sure many think this is ridiculous, not a big deal and just a way for overreacting government officials to infringe on their rights. In some more sinister cases, a leader may believe in the seriousness of the virus but feel that it would negatively affect the church's revenue or negatively affect their own personal income. Ignorant or malicious church leaders are at fault here.

Many people look up to their Church leaders and would do or believe anything they say. I went to an evangelical church when I was young and my friends believed the pastor could see what they were doing at all times, could talk to God directly, and was doing his bidding at all times. Actually, the pastor himself was a nice guy and never really perpetuated these beliefs but that's the level that some of these members believed in his closeness with God. If pastor said coronavirus was a hoax intended to break apart the church, those members would believe it with every fiber of their being.

I wouldn't go quite that far. Maybe a certain few would have that level of naivety or blind reverence for a preacher, but I don't think to the degree or number you're suggesting. You're describing a cult like mentality. And I'm gonna give most parishioners a bit more credit than that. I do agree with your first few sentences however.

 

[HandshakeLine]

The state reopening or the handling of Ahmed Arbery's murder?

All of it. Everything coming out of that state at the moment.

In other news:

 

[CascadiaPenguin]

"Nevermind that the data Fleischmann linked to contradicts the premise of his article, the important part is that a politician is peddling a conspiracy about her opposition."

There was definitely a politician peddling BS here, you are just confused as to who it was.

If you've never seen a single instance where an algorithm or inquiry produced data that was sorted out of order, you don't have much experience with databases. I don't know that that happened here, but I do know that this sort of occurrence is not rare.

I'm delighted to hear you know such things. I financed 6 weeks of skiing and lodging in Jackson Hole in the late '80's by being contracted to code a DBaseIII front-end for a national CPA firm in Pittsburgh. I was 20 at the time. I've forgotten more than I've learned in the decades since, but I do know this- it is absolute bullshit to blame "sorting errors" for this kind of nonsense (they also blamed an unnamed "outside vendor", how stupid are they?) Maybe the dog ate it? Wake up: there were only fourteen (EDIT -15) data points on the x-axis of that bar chart. A 5th. grader would see through that in seconds. The chart was obviously manipulated to suggest linear curve flattening success. Rather than question my bona fides/experience, perhaps take an inventory within in terms of naivety and/or bias?

It is unfortunate that years of ragebait media have conditioned people into thinking that the purpose of newspapers is to slay the enemy with conspiracy theories (nevermind whether they're true or if there's even any attempt to substantiate them--in Fleischmann's case, there is not), rather than to inform the reader with facts.

Fleischer's position is valid and accurate, as the data was originally presented to display a trend, and the presentation was completely dishonest, but I do agree with the most of your last paragraph. We are polarized beyond belief and facts/critical thinking just don't matter anymore, at least to a significant portion of our population. I'm done with this discussion in any case, I'm late for my hydroxychloroquine dose... ;-)

 

[ColePens]

Salvation is, if they believe in an afterlife that's far more important to them (and me).

That said, I haven't been to church in quite some time. But believers like to be among other believers. Kind of hard for that to take place when you're isolated at home. I can't speak for every congregation but in general there's a heightened sense of community and family there.

I love hockey and love being around hockey fans. I found an avenue on HF Boards to do that. Not comparing hockey to religion, but there are avenues to get that.

Nonetheless I think @Snooki Stackhouse painted a picture that is fair. It is what it is. I just hope people are safe. Period. All people.

 

[HandshakeLine]

My version of heaven is sitting in your favorite bar, watching Don Cherry get pie'd in the face on loop, and someone else has paid your tab.

Feel free to tithe me.

 

[ColePens]

My version of heaven is sitting in your favorite bar, watching Don Cherry get pie'd in the face on loop, and someone else has paid your tab.

Feel free to tithe me.

I think mine is Mike Zigomanis winning a faceoff, Joe Vitale winning a forecheck, and Patric Hornqvist scoring the GWG OF THE STANLEY f***ING CUP PLAYOFFS.

 

[Shockmaster]

I think mine is Mike Zigomanis winning a faceoff, Joe Vitale winning a forecheck, and Patric Hornqvist scoring the GWG OF THE STANLEY f***ING CUP PLAYOFFS.

Well 1/3rd of that actually did happen.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Well 1/3rd of that actually did happen.

Yeah, I think I saw Ziggo win a faceoff once. It was drawn on some tattered scrap of papyrus though.

 

[Ogrezilla]

are you all dissing on the zigg?

 

[ColePens]

ZIG IS A CAREER 60.6% FACEOFF GUY. HOW DARE YOU.

 

[ColePens]

Well 1/3rd of that actually did happen.

Are you saying Vitale couldn't win a battle? I used to run into him all the time at Market District. How dare you.

 

[HandshakeLine]

ZIG IS A CAREER 60.6% FACEOFF GUY. HOW DARE YOU.

His career was like 20 games.

 

[Ogrezilla]

His career was like 20 games.

and those 20 games were all because of his faceoffs

 

[HandshakeLine]

Is this the first schism in the Church of Zigomanis Redeemer?

 

[ColePens]

Is this the first schism in the Church of Zigomanis Redeemer?

We never win the Red Wings/Penguins game (late 2008 or early 2009) where Staal scores a hat trick w/o Ziggy.

Just sayin'

 

[Snooki Stackhouse]

I wouldn't go quite that far. Maybe a certain few would have that level of naivety or blind reverence for a preacher, but I don't think to the degree or number you're suggesting. You're describing a cult like mentality. And I'm gonna give most parishioners a bit more credit than that. I do agree with your first few sentences however.

I can only speak anecdotally. I grew up Catholic but spent a phase attending a large Pittsburgh area "born again" type evangelical church. The Catholic church was pretty normal. The priests refreshed once or twice in my lifetime (either retirement or rotations in their service) and so everything seemed pretty normal and level headed. But the born again church was pretty culty. After about a year I had enough of the unhealthy obsession with teen sexuality, the speaking in tongues, the beliefs that the pastor had special abilities, and the politically charged sermons.

 

[Mario_is_BACK!!]

Not to take away from Stanley Cup Champion Mike Zigomanis but fwiw

 

[HandshakeLine]

Back to licking doorknobs, as is my right as an America! UAS! USSA!