So they’ve taken out the God part, but kept the preaching and collection plates? Something about this makes my skin crawl.
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Interesting. Although I’m personally an athiest, I’ve thought it might be good to go to a church for the fellowship. One thing I really miss about going to church is that one day a week where you catch up with your circle of peers and organize community service type activities. Without a regular framework for that it is far too easy to go on your life without thinking about serving the community.
Then I talk with my parents and they remind me that it’s also one of the few places where people segregate by race and nobody complains.
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Isn’t that what Facebook is for? 
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Indeed. It seems like an instance of wanting to have one’s cake, and eat it too. There are systems of ideas and beliefs that imply atheism, but atheism, in itself, is just a statement about what one doesn’t believe.
When I was using online dating sites, I found that specifying that I was an atheist cut down severely on the number of matches the site would come up with, but there were still quite a lot of parameters to consider, before we’d got to the point where it looked like we had much in common. Marxists and Ayn Rand disciples don’t always get on well, for instance.
That’s arguably a step down from the Unitarian Universalist church. They’re entirely fine with atheist and agnostic members. Also hindu, muslim, christian, buddhist, pagan… The central (only?) tenant of their organization is basically Wheaton’s Law.
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I wouldn’t mind entering Secular Humanist in a religion drop down, even though it’s not technically a religion.
It sounds like Ted Talks, but with dancing.
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How do you know someone’s into Crossfit? Just read their t-shirt.
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Unitarian Universalism always seemed a bit crystals and patchouli for me. Maybe I just don’t know the right ones. I’m an atheist largely because I’m a strong believer in rationalism, so hippy crystal nonsense is unappealing to me.
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It actually sounds BORING. Seriously. I’d rather hang with family and friends.
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It’s a positive assertion of belief, though, so it would make more sense than atheist in that context.
As a devout atheist, I don’t find this all that interesting and original. I already practice this sort of communal gathering. We call it a party. We practice communion… with vodka.
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They don’t make it sound too thrilling on their mission statement, it’s true. All that inclusiveness, IMHO, seems to lead to this as a logical conclusion:
And I really don’t like Coke (except the Cherry variety).
But even though my family is not small, we’re spread out over four timezones. And I’ve lost touch with most of my childhood friends, so most of my current buddies, such as they are, are people I work with. And I work in TV, so when a show ends and a new one begins, I have a new crop of co-workers, and you wouldn’t believe how hard it can be to stay in touch.
A small neighborhood church-analogue would be just the ticket, and someday atheism will be common enough where such congregations will be as common as all the storefront churches in my neighborhood… or so I devoutly hope. I want there to be more than occasional interesting speeches and free childcare. I want it to include Community Theatre, and frequent amateur sit-in music jams. Book clubs, movie screenings, field trips to places of interest, “barn-raisings” to help out neighbors who could use some assistance cleaning out their gutters or building garden boxes for the Widow McGillicuddy. Perhaps an annual trip to Europe, and certainly D&D and other ongoing gaming meetings. Writing seminars. Crowdsourced community auto repair and maintenance. A biweekly litter-abatement stroll. Cook-offs. Barbecues. Concerts. Sock hops. Tree plantings and a community garden. Maybe a sports team or two. All that shit.
But on just a big enough scale to encourage plenty of content and participation. Not so big that 90% of the people there are strangers to you a year after you join.
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In the words of Groucho Marx, I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member…
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Some of us are. The UU church I attend is about 40% non-theist to 60% theist, out of a congregation of about 250-300.
Alright! The atheists are coming to San Francisco…tomorrow!
I can get a free ticket, yeah! What’s the address?
It’s in…Oakland. Local Fail.
God sees you.
“Join The Universal Brotherhood today, chummer!”
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Maybe they could copy the Catholics and have a Saturday night mass.
Hey we got Unitarians, and Tim DeChristopher is one of them.
I was expecting a reddit-like screed on why “these are not true atheists”
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