Atheist church? lmfao

[Nullifidian]

http://news.discovery.com/human/life...bal-130308.htm

yep..
As if it wasn't hard enough already to convince people that atheism is not a religion or belief, now there's a church for lacking belief..


I've seen some arguments that I can see being beneficial such as social benefits, financial benefits of funding such gatherings and perhaps reflecting on world events, breakthroughs in science and reflect on human culture at such gatherings but calling it a church would be a really stupid idea

[blindreper1179]

[rsr2]

First thing I thought of...

[Izzy]

They are maybe just calling it a church to get away with no taxes. Honestly I think they might as well do it despite being a stupid idea just out of spite for how religion is somehow tax exempt.

[i love you]

^ Exactly what I thought.

[Nullifidian]

Yeah that thought crossed my mind too (hence the financial benefits) but it's still weird, having a church for a lack of belief.

[eastsideman09]

Cool concept. I'm interested in seeing the direction this will go.

The article mentioned Census numbers of people identifying as Christian, and how they've plummeted in the last ten years... They'll definitely continue to do so, and if this atheist church idea catches on, atheist numbers will continue to go up... Though starting a church probably wouldn't be necessary for that trend to continue, it will help to give some atheists something to 'identify' with, I think.

Originally Posted by _.Spitfire._

but it's still weird, having a church for a lack of belief.

I feel like it's more for a sense of community, ya know? And I think something like this would be good for some atheists, especially those who live in the bible belt. I, for one, remember being ostracized in high school for not identifying as Christian.

[Wayward Vagabond]

the church of people against having an atheist church

[Nullifidian]

Originally Posted by eastsideman09

I feel like it's more for a sense of community, ya know? And I think something like this would be good for some atheists, especially those who live in the bible belt. I, for one, remember being ostracized in high school for not identifying as Christian.

I actually didn't think of that situation because I grew up in the Netherlands, which is a rather secular country. But yeah I'm not opposed to gatherings and what not but calling it a church seems silly to me and only fuel for religious to say "HA SEE?! I TOLD YOU SO". A church stands in the dictionary as a religious institution, which seems rather silly for a lack of religion. But then again the origin of the word church means a gathering of the citizens, not necessarily religious.

[adlp]

itll be more of a challenge for an atheist church to gain traction in latin american countries than it would in other parts of europe

[UserNameGoesHere]

Seems pretty cool to me. Why not?

You'll see it's mainly as a social gathering for people who aren't religious, which they otherwise might be lacking.

And as long as religious institutions get special privileges, shouldn't an institution which is about lack of religious belief receive the same privileges? Anything less would be religious discrimination, I would think.

The more important question is, if something like this was in your town or city, would you check it out? I would.

[Wayward Vagabond]

Originally Posted by UserNameGoesHere

The more important question is, if something like this was in your town or city, would you check it out? I would.

i definitely would

[Izzy]

I'd have to leave my bed to go to something like that...

[Hakulyte]

*Waiting for Agnostic church*

[funmonkey54]

I'd like a Christian church that has this atmosphere. That would be nice.

And it sounds like they are doing things to deserve the tax exempt status by inviting charity organizations to get their message out through them. The social benefits so many churches provide to their communities has always been what justifies the tax exempt status. I've always felt churches that can't adequately justify their tax exempt status through direct social aid should't maintain that status.

[rushyrulz]

Originally Posted by Wayward Vagabond

the church of people against having an atheist church

You mean normal church?

[Mollocephalus]

So it seems people still need some kind of comfort, but i'm glad it is a secular one this time around. Dogmas are basically what made religious organizations dangerous no matter their positive effects on the society. If the same positive effects can be achieved with a dogma-free godless church i'm all for it. It might actually be a nice critical hit to the already declining religious demographics.

[reuben_tate]

I usually have a bug to pick with most threads based on religion but I usually refrain from posting due to the controversial nature of the subject in general and how it might be possible for my postings to backfire against me and possibly make me lose any credit or respect I still have in this community. But I have a fair deal to say about this subject and I can't help but at least say a few words.

First of all, atheism =/= non-religious! This common misconception that's been thrown around in this thread a million times is what really grinds my gears. By definition, atheism is simply the belief that no gods or supreme beings exist. This is in contrast with theism which is the belief that at least one god or supreme being exists. (Notice how the word "atheism" is simply the word "theism" with the prefix "a-" meaning "not" attached to it.)

However, theism is only one facet of religion. Even though a large percentage of religions are centered around one supreme being, you still have a good amount of both theistic and atheistic religions. In other words, yes, you can be both atheistic and religious. The most easiest example to understand is Buddhism. Like all major religions Buddhism contains an explantion of the origin of existence, a morality, and a specific set of rituals and behavior. However,they do not believe in any all-sentient creator or supreme being. And many Buddhists "meet" regularly in an organized fashion in a common building that was built for the sole purpose of their religion, the analogous version of what you could call a "church" so atheists have already been meeting in "churches" for a long time already :P

So like I was saying before, atheism =/= irreligious. Perhaps there are atheists out there that know that they don't believe in any god, however, they would like some spiritual satisfaction still. Some moral code to live by, some point in life. Whether they have a church or not, I don't know, but Christian atheists (link leads to wikipedia article), are those that only agree with the moral teachings of Jesus but not in the ideology of the belief in the God of Christianity.

Perhaps a non-denominational religious atheist church would do people a lot of good. They could meet regularly and share with each other moral values and religious, yet non-theistic ideas and perhaps everyone can at least take a little something home with them and have a more positive and brighter outlook on life. One of the main functions of religion in society is a sense of community and it wouldn't be fair to deny atheists that right.

-----

On a completely unrelated note, I just hope this doesn't become like a church of "active atheists" or in other words, atheists that go out of the ****ing way to shove their lack of religiontheism down people's throats. Although, I find the thought of an organized group of people meeting regularly and then later going door-to-door to preach to people the lack of good news and handing out pamphlets to be kinda funny.
Note: No offense to the Jehovah Witnesses

[Spenner]

How about they just change the name to something that's not something directly contradictory? I think they just wanted to start a shitstorm tbh.

Also a buddhist temple is surely not a church by definition, but I see what you're getting at. However the definition of church restricts the possibility of having the contradicting names like "atheistic church" or "Christian atheistic society".

[reuben_tate]

That's why I put church in quotes, I and I'm sure many other people use the word church to refer to the analogous of the Christian church sometimes. I don't know about elsewhere , but here many Buddhists use the term church to refer to the temple for ease of conversation I suppose.