Easter, a call to arms

Hi all, well here I am on an Easter Sunday morning at 10:06am. Some say this is the 'holiest' day on the Christian calendar, well maybe, but for me and many other Atheists this holiness, whatever it means, is full of holes. Of course there is a truckload of Christians heading to church this morning, and I find myself asking why? Because, despite a modern technological society, the antithesis of theism, the church still manages to thrive and draw in the crowds. To me this is truly so amazing. Are people so devoid of creative thought and ideas that they can't think of anything better to do on a Sunday morning?

We know that people don't go to church for moral guidance, well at least they shouldn't given the appalling record of the church with regard to modern moral standards - witch hunts, crusades, opposition to contraception and gay rights being some primary examples. People must go to church, for the most part for the social aspect. Getting together in groups is what we as humans love to do, it is in our genes you might say. That's why I think despite the contradictions and lies the church continues to propagate to the 'faithful', they still manage to draw people in. It is such a big group with such 'gravity' that it will take a long long time to erode the support base, even in modern society. I think to help people make a better choice, atheists and secularists need to offer concrete social alternatives to the church going public. I don't know what this is - more sport on Sunday, less theist laws such as the closing of shops etc on Christian holidays, are just a couple of meagre ideas.

What I am doing with the one hour of my life that I have free because I am not going to church? Well, I've been working on a scale computer model of the solar (planetary) system as a little hobby and I've been trying to reconcile it with measured data of the actual solar system. The simulation is up and working reasonably well, although there are some sources of error that mean that after a few years the positions of the inner planets no longer accurately line up with the real data. So this morning, I'm experimenting and trying to increase my knowledge of the universe we live in - this is much more exciting and rewarding than any promise of eternal life or seven virgins - happy Easter, whatever you are doing.