ways that geocaching is like a religion

[+Bad_CRC]

was thinking about this the other day as I was prostelitizing about geocaching yet again to another friend of mine.

 

let's see...

 

it's often practiced on saturdays or sundays

 

those who practice it depend upon guidance from above ...and are lost without it.

 

Many are followers of someone who's name starts with... "J-E-"

 

a book plays a central role in the practice.

 

Though you get something from it, you are also asked to leave an offering before you go home.

 

It takes some people longer than others to find what they are looking for.

 

people who practice it feel sorry for those who don't, and wish they just knew what they were missing.

 

some followers stick a symbol on the back of their car.

 

It can be practiced alone, as a family, or in large organized events

 

You can't see what's up above, but if you don't trust where it's leading you, you'll stay lost.

 

 

got any more?

[+Paul G0TLG]

people who practice it feel sorry for those who don't, and wish they just knew what they were missing.

 

,,,and people who DON'T practice it think there's something odd about those who do (just ask my sister )

[+Bud]

All of the rabid proselytizers.

 

The debates about the right path to your final destination.

[Shiraz-mataz]

You feel as though you've been lost in the wilderness for forty years, looking for the promised land...

 

You keep hoping for a sign... (footprints, suspcious pilings of tree bark, etc.)

 

Your travel bug has been MIA for ages but you have faith it will return...

[+Ride The Heights]

Many followers have a certain way to dress before practicing caching.

 

They carry certain holy relics marked with dog tags lovenly from cache to cache.

 

You try to clean up the world as you travel across the land.

 

In deep valleys of the "shadow of death" you lift your GPS high and pray to Signal for guidance.

 

You risk your life and limb in unknown lands and foreign countries in search of your next ammo can holy grail.

 

You are often seen walking with a staff like Moses.

 

Demons in the form of Ticks, Thorns, and Poison Plants surround your every move.

 

You embrace a life of poverty as you pursue your religious conviction of finding your next cache and buying your next bag of swag.

 

The National Park Service Inquisition hunts Geocache Heretic Relics and throws them into the incinerator.

 

When you are caching, you REALLY FEEL AT PEACE, AND CLOSER TO THE CREATOR.

Edited November 23, 2006 by Ride The Heights

[+Snoogans]

This will be an awesome fun thread as long as it stays light....Off to make a list.

 

#1 Heretics are verbally stoned and the worst are banished.

Edited November 23, 2006 by Snoogans

[+Bad_CRC]

The debates about the right path to your final destination.

 

I was trying to find a way to compare how different flavors of religion are like the followers of garmin and magellan who each think their path is the true one, even though they all follow the same satellites.

 

Couldn't come up with good wording for it though.

[+ChileHead]

If geocaching is like a religion, it should be banned as it is an agenda. Oh wait, nevermind - wrong thread.

[+Bad_CRC]

Many people enjoy practicing in their own way.

 

Some purists are more concerned with the rituals and dogma than reaching the final destination.

 

There are always those who need to feel they are better at practicing than you are.

 

It never hurts to say a little prayer before you begin.

[+Corp Of Discovery]

This will be an awesome fun thread as long as it stays light....Off to make a list.

 

Too late.

[+The Leprechauns]

Both are things that can be rewarding when done way out in the woods, far away from other people, or in a large group.

 

[+brodiebunch]

I think we reach the end of geocaching topics to chat/flame/pontificate about.

 

Perhaps we should go on vacation from the forums for several months then come back......

[Tahosa and Sons]

When you find an awesome cache on top of the Mountain there is the

Rapture of Transformation Amen - I made it up here.

[+michigansnorkelers]

There's the general congretation.

 

And then there are fanatics.

 

AND, the fanatics go after the geocaching sacrament of sacraments.... the

 

FIRST TO FIND

Edited November 23, 2006 by michigansnorkeler

[+Morgan's Marauders]

There is always dissesion within the faithful (color of the carpets, wood for the pews, micro - vs - regular.)

[+Bad_CRC]

It can often be found in cemetaries.

[+BlueDeuce]

Excuse me; if you want to talk about geocaching as a religion, it's the Puritans who went to explore the new lands, not you Johnny-come-lately Walrats.

 

 

[+Snoogans]

Fundamentalists openly chastise more liberal practitioners of geocachism for straying from the intended path.

[+Quest Master]

The numbers hounds that will do anything for a stat remind me of some kind of a bizarre cult.

 

They move swiftly from this lightpole to the next guardrail to leave their initials on a scroll of soggy paper in the sacred magneto-microscraps left by other cultists that frequent these shrines. They make these "numbers runs" alone or in trains of motor vehicles known as "machines". They have also been known to gather together for religious festivals called "events" where they sign a great many scraps of these scrolls of paper that were brought to be sacrificed. It appears to be some kind of a penance ritual but it is not. It is believed that they will gain the indulgence of some unseen internet entity and receive happiness in the form of "smiles" when these deeds are reported to the high priests of Groundspeak.

 

I don't get it and I have been called a heretic and worse for speaking this blashphemy. The true believers have made me an outcast by sending the inquisition after me. I think that I am probably doomed to excommunication but I'm holding out hope that a cure will be found for their obsessive-compulsive disorder.

 

If you see THEM passing out purple kool-aid at the next Geowoodstock, don't drink it!

[+Snoogans]

Fundamentalists have succeeded in rescinding formerly church sanctioned or at least somewhat socially accepted practices. (Virtuals, Locationationless, Pocket lint)

[+llatnek]

Sometimes I feel that I have to convert everyone with whom I come in contact.

[+Bad_CRC]

If you get too involved it will cost you your family, friends, and your worldly posessions.

[+Snoogans]

We seem bound and determined to engage in witch hunts from time to time.

[Mushtang]

You're allowed in for free, and in theory you're supposed to be welcome for as long as you like without giving any money...

 

... but the true rewards are only available to those that pony up.

[+Wayfinders]

I bring to you the twenty.......(drops stone tablet)

The TEN stage Multi!!!!!!

[+Snoogans]

At a geocaching event there's usually enough food to feed a multitude.

[+Wayfinders]

Your knees are dirty.

[+Snoogans]

The Garminarians lookith down their noses at the Magellanites.

 

The Magellanites lookith down upon the Lowrancians.

 

And the Trimbleites layeth them ALL low.

[+BlueDeuce]

Your knees are dirty.

 

Good one.

[+Wayfinders]

'tis true.......but many a gold coin it cost to be among the Trimbleites.....

 

How about.....when a group of you are looking for an hour at GZ and someone yells "GOT IT!!"

And you murmur......"thank God"....

 

(Disclaimer:......ahhhhh......nevermind)

[+Snoogans]

The customs and rituals of the initiates and acolytes to the holy frog are shrouded in mystery.

 

(I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the reviewer's forum. )

[+Wayfinders]

Geocaching is like a religion because you never know what the sermon will really be until you get there.

 

Religion is like Geocaching for the same reason.

[+Snoogans]

Sometimes the altar boys molest the travel bugs.

 

 

Starting to regret my edit. I first wrote alter boys..... Get it?

Edited November 25, 2006 by Snoogans

[+Wayfinders]

TB Drop.