A Religious Ritual Attracts Even Nonbelievers

[SecularMotion]

“I grew up a fairly typical Italian-American New York Catholic,” says John Corvino, 43, the chairman of the philosophy department at Wayne State University in Detroit. “I was an altar boy, and later a lector. By the time I was in high school” — at Chaminade, the Catholic boys’ school on Long Island — “I decided I wanted to become a priest.”

He was eventually accepted as a postulant with the Capuchin Franciscans.

“But in my first year of college, I figured out that I was gay,” Mr. Corvino says. He gave up on the priesthood, and instead went to graduate school at the University of Texas, where he stopped going to Mass and became, to use his term, a “nonbeliever.” (“You tell people you are an atheist,” Mr. Corvino says, “and they look at you like you eat kittens for breakfast.”) He wrote a dissertation on the great skeptical philosopher David Hume. He has spoken at Skepticon, the annual convention for nonbelievers.

But this year, like every year, Mr. Corvino is giving up something for Lent, the six-week period of reflection and repentance observed by Catholics and many other Christians. “I’m giving up checking e-mail and Facebook before 10:30 a.m.,” he says.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/16/us/a-ritual-of-lent-attracts-nonbelievers.html?_r=0

[Moonwalk]

1. I can't speak for other nonbelievers, but Lent has no attraction for me...

...and I can say absolutely that I don't get this guy or any other "nonbeliever" who goes in for 40 days of sacrifice that usually means nothing in the long term. I mean, either you go back to it--so what did it mean to give it up?--or you don't, which means you realize it didn't matter as much to you as you thought it did, and so you didn't really sacrifice anything that honestly mattered, did you?

Shrug. Like I said, doesn't strike me as all that attractive unless you're a hoarder trying to learn how to do with less. But then, the website won't let me read the whole article anyway (not with logging in, which I won't do). So maybe there's more evidence that this holiday does attract nonbelievers other than this one (certainly confabulating if you say it attracts unbelievers but only provide one such, no?). Maybe these nonbelievers offer valid reasons why they'd be attracted to lent, but in my experience most unbelievers are not so attracted and that puts me in doubt of the article's thesis that it is attractive to nonbelievers.

Now, Yuletide holidays with pretty lights, cookies and gifts--that holiday is certainly attractive to nonbelievers

[goldent]

2. I think the attraction is that is only 40 days

New Year's resolutions are difficult because they are typically "forever." But many people believe they can give up something for 40 days -- it is a like a trial period, and that is all you are committing to. The hope is that in those 40 days you can change your lifestyle permanently (to some degree). And if not, well it was hopefully a learning experience, and no harm done.

Of course for me there is also the religious aspect of it. But I welcome anyone, religious or not, to use lent to try to improve their life.

[demosincebirth]

3. I agree with you. How many of us have commited to something for any amount of time that will better

us spiritually and, yes, physically.? Many give up give up sweets, which to some is a challenge

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

4. Apparently, you don't think much of self-discipline.

[cleanhippie]

8. Apparently, you don't think much about irrelevant acts.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

10. So exercising self-discipline is irrelevant?

That's what you just said.

[cleanhippie]

11. Uhm, yeah, thats just what I said.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

12. It certainly seems to be what you said

The man said that he was going to exercise self-discipline in Lent, and you called doing that "guff". What else does that mean except that you disapprove of self-discipline.

It is meaningful to him, so you should just respect that, and not sneer at him. Or is this just one more example of your general sneering at religion?

[Iggo]

6. Yeah. I'm not buyin' it, either.

[cbayer]

7. I think it's similar to this situation:

When I find myself in a place where there is a call for silent prayer, I use it as an opportunity to reflect on something that I might be struggling with. It's about seeing an opportunity to do something positive, even though you may not embrace the actual reasons that others are doing it.

FWIW, I was able to get the whole article. I think the NYT has a numerical limit per 30 day period of something, which you may have exceeded.

[Gore1FL]

9. I didn't do lent when I was a Christian.

I don't do it even more now.