Apparently, god is omniscient and omnipresent. If you’re insistent upon asking for more money or for that pesky tumor to disappear, couldn’t you do it in your own home? Or is it a crowd-sourcing thing? Are prayers and “worship” more effective if done in a virus-spreading crowd?
Very likely.
Thing is that organized religion has been something humans have participated in, continuously, for millennia now. There’s surely got to be something to it, some real benefit(s) from public worship or humans would have stopped.
In any case, in the US it’s a civil right protected by the US Constitution. Your questions about its merit are irrelevant there.
I don’t think it’s more “effective” although I’m not sure how to quantify effectiveness. But for worshippers, the church/synagogue/mosque/temple is their community. Maybe it’s human nature or maybe it’s something spiritual within us if you believe such things exist, but face to face meetings with people of the same beliefs is pretty universal across almost every religion I can think of. I’m sure there is a good reason for that.
Many of these religions had believers risk their lives, even today, to meet with one another to worship. That type of desire is meaningful for those people who are willing to risk their lives for it.
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We can comment on whatever we want. Thank you.
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How about you Canadians stick with what you know. Maple syrup and hockey 
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Like wearing a mask, it’s not about personal freedom to get sick or not. You get sick from packing into church and then go out and get people who carefully restrict their time outside sick because you were careless. You end up murdering your grandmother (hopefully, so you can have a consequence for your reckless behavior) or someone else’s grandmother (and then continue being an a-hole cuz you don’t even know that your actions caused anything)
So many of the super-spreader events have been in churches. Singing in large groups also a great way to spread the virus.
No 
it’s their community but that doesn’t mean they can’t make zoom (or even phone) calls or properly physically distance to be a part of that community. For the sake of not getting more people sick.
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But they’re not asking to pack into churches. They’re asking to use the same social distancing and mask-wearing rules used in WalMart and every other ahem essential public space.
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For believers, it’s important. It’s not careless for them. In fact, it’s a constitutional right. As @bojack said, they’re following the same protocols. Why do I get to go university and people can’t go to church?
Aren’t they asking to do that?
I’m a church goer. If the argument is we want special treatment during a pandemic then that’s wrong. If the argument is we want apples-to-apples treatment by the government during a pandemic then that’s right.
I’m having trouble telling what the argument in the U.S. actually is though because of all the usual partisan smoke and mirrors.
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From Gorsuch’s own separate concurring opinion:
As almost everyone on the Court today recognizes, squaring the Governor’s edicts with our traditional First Amendment rules is no easy task. People may gather inside for extended periods in bus stations and airports, in laundromats and banks, in hardware stores and liquor shops. No apparent reason exists why people may not gather, subject to identical restrictions, in churches or synagogues, especially when religious institutions have made plain that they stand ready, able, and willing to follow all the safety precautions required of “essential” businesses and perhaps more besides. The only explanation for treating religious places differently seems to be a judgment that what happens there just isn’t as “essential” as what happens in secular spaces. Indeed, the Governor is remarkably frank about this: In his judgment laundry and liquor, travel and tools, are all “essential” while traditional religious exercises are not. That is exactly the kind of discrimination the First Amendment forbids.
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Places of worship are not essential public spaces. First of all, they’re not public. Second, while there are plenty of things you don’t need from Walmart, Walmart is “essential” because people need groceries and in a lot of places in the US, Walmart is the closest thing to a grocery store near their home. You can attend religious services over Zoom.
Also, are church/temple/synagogue-goers wearing masks? Are they sitting at least 6 feet apart? Are they avoiding hugs and doing other physical distancing? The Orthodox Jewish community in NYC keeps being under fire because they have consistently blatantly ignored all the basic protocol and their cases keep spiking. Everyone I know in the US (all various sects of “Christian”) insist that the “Lord will protect them” and they don’t need to wear a mask. My parents said that the Catholic Church we used to go to had a packed parking lot on Thanksgiving morning, and no one actually goes to mass on Thanksgiving.
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Everyone I know in the US (all various sects) does not say that not wearing a mask
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You and I know different people. The Christians I know either insist on the above or stopped going to church because they’re tired of hearing the above.
I always find it funny that the so called Christians that demand the right to go worship and possibly spread the virus are also the same ones that insist on mah freedoms to buy guns (Jesus said use the sword and die by the sword) and talk nonstop about politics (Jesus refused to get involved with politics) along with smoking, gluttony, adultery, etc but heaven forbid you ask them to stay home to prevent a pandemic. Because it’s my right to worship.
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At the end of the day. It’s a constitutional right to be able to worship. That’s the very foundation of the US virus or no virus. The constitution is there for a reason.
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So do it at home.
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It’s important to them they meet with each other.
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Right. Nobody is stopping anyone from attending church on zoom, in fact many church locations were doing that already.
But I guess the pastors aren’t seeing enough $$$ that way.
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Why the specific bias against Christians?, other religions also want the same thing, specifically Jews in NY. And you can attend on zoom if you want, you can go to your house of worship if you want. Or you can not go at all.
No bias at all. All that could apply to Jews as well. Excspt generally you don’t see Jews packing heat as a general rule. The issue is that allowing a free for all during a pandemic under the banner of freedoms isn’t a good thing at all.
The old expression ‘your freedom to swing your fists ends at my nose’ should apply here too.
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