An atheist at church

And it wasn't for a marriage or funeral ritual. Rather it was for a worshipful one.

Another one of my goals on my UK trip was to hear evensong at Birmingham Cathedral, this place.

I arrived a little early and found St. Philip's (its proper name) to be a gorgeous place. No photography was allowed so here's a snap I found on the interwebs. 

The chorus was rehearsing so I anxiously took a seat as more people trickled in. I noticed that one person was looking at a program so I hastily went back to the narthex and found a pile of them. Returning to my seat, I found that evensong was more of service than I expected and I would be standing and sitting at various points. Although a worship service, evensong proved to be mostly choral with only a couple Bible readings and a prayer.

Rehearsal ended and the chorus left the chancel.

They returned ere long with whom I presume was the presbyter as he was not donning a mitre. He took a seat on the right as the chorus took their places in whatever you call the choral benches. There were about 10 of us in attendance.

The singing was heavenly! (Ahem.) Just wonderful. The human voice is the most powerful of instruments. But I don't want to give short shrift to the organ playing which was also great. During one interlude when the grand instrument was going it solo, I saw a throughline from church music to my beloved progressive rock. It was hard not to hear Yes, to hear Rick Wakeman's pipe organ work on "Close to the Edge" in what I was hearing. In addition, it occurred to me that Yes' harmony vocals were not totally unlike the church chorus' singing.

The presbyter read one selection each from the Old and New Testaments and The Lord's Prayer was recited by everyone, including parishioners.

This atheist had a glorious experience at evensong.

Operator, Get Me Bishop Wilburforce

Despite being a godless heathen, I sometimes poke around blogs/diaries in search of a good religious diary. Almost invariably, I read that Christ luvs me or some such thing. Unfortunately, most of these diaries are by teenage girls and have entries like "I prayed for Bobby to ask me to the prom" followed by various quotations from the Scriptures. It's all, for me, pretty boring stuff.

I wonder why I never read a religious diary in which the author actually ponders anything or details how his or her beliefs figure into daily life. None of these people seem to reflect upon anything. Let me try to clarify.

Pretend that a Utilitarian has a diary. This person might scribe:

"Today I was confronted with a situation involving moral choice. I was forced to choose between two courses of action: A and B. So I did some hedonic calculus and determined that, while A would have been nice, I was morally compelled to choose B. Here's the high comedy that ensued..."

However boring the quotidian routine of a J.S. Mill adherent may be, at least they offered insight into how his/her beliefs inflected their daily life. And I wish a Christian would do that. Or a Muslim. Or a Hindu. Or whomever of whatever religious stripe.

What do your beliefs do for you? Are you inspired to proselytize? Do they inculcate a sense of hatred towards some of your fellow human beings because they do not share your beliefs? Would you vote for a pro-life candidate even if the rest of his platform is for shite? Did you denounce homosexuals and then find out that a friend or family memeber or co-worker whom you like was gay? What challenges your beliefs? I mean, come on, even St. Augustine was prone to doubt at points in his life.

Are there any Confessions out there?