interesting. I know this was put forth awhile back, but I want to make a few points:

• First, agree on the choir thing, I love it. I've played a lot of amateur music, but my favorite music experience was singing in choir in high school. I also like listening to some choir music sometimes, I don't care if it's religious or not. (example: Aretha Franklin's Amazing Grace live album.)

• it would be interesting, in my view, if some of the religious communities and established church real estate could be transitioned to community meeting practices and places.

• When I contemplate the amount of money that has in the past been sunk, and is being sunk, into theistic churches, wouldn't it be interesting if those real estate investments could be transitioned (or purchased and re-purposed without too much disruption) rather than fall into some terrible financial disaster before somehow the entire communities recover.

• There are two existing "religious" groups I can think of which sort of amount to established religious community gatherings that are accepting of atheists, and whose services I have attended a small number of times:
  Unitarian Church
  Humanistic Judaism
  It is perhaps worth noting that being accepting of atheists doesn't make the services inspiring, but they can be. I have heard one or two decent presentations in the past at a Unitarian Church.

This might be a good concept for a comedy film. An adventure into what a church for atheists would look like.

Churches for atheists will rise up eventually because there is demand.

I like this idea. Thanks.

Be careful. It is that same desire to belong, and or the need to gain power by being a member of a group that leads most people into both religious groups or ideological groups. Any such group will develop dogmas and leaders to enforce the dogma. Such leaders can be or become self-serving demagogues who will try to lead people into immoral beliefs and acts.

You have some wonderful ideas here. But.. one thing we don't want to see happen is it turning into a ritual of sorts like so called churches are all about. Not sure about some area but there is a national Atheist convention that takes place. I know of other group gatherings but it's tough to pull together something like that in the smaller rural areas where you are dealing with some very uneducated, extremist, fanatical people that see this is a treat into their community. It would take a strong bunch of people to make this happen where it didn't turn into a "type" of church like setting.

You have a wonderful idea there that I truly hope something comes of it. Maybe, it's finally time for the world to wake up and make this happen. Of course the question has to be raised as to how to not let it become a religion. Thank you for posting this.

That's a problem for us non believers. Steve Martin summed it up with this song:

That's wonderful of you. We all have this need to belong aside from just being in and with ourselves.

"No Man Is An Island" by Joan Baez

No man is an island,
No man stands alone,
Each man's joy is joy to me,
Each man's grief is my own.

We need one another,
So I will defend,
Each man as my brother,
Each man as my friend.

"I Am A Rock" by Paul Simon

I've built walls
A fortress, steep and mighty
That none may penetrate
I have no need of friendship
Friendship causes pain.
It's laughter and it's loving I disdain.
. . . If I never loved, I never would have cried

I have my books
And my poetry to protect me
I am shielded in my armor
Hiding in my room
Safe within my womb
I touch no one and no one touches me
I am a rock
I am an island

And a rock feels no pain
And an island never cries

Having a place to go to and do a community/socialize type thing with more like minded people would be awesome. It would be nice involved in something like that without being preached at. But I also would not be comfortable with it being a place where it teaches hate towards religions. We do not need more of those sort of meeting places. Just a nice place to have community gatherings and social functions were everyone is just open minded and non judgemental. Excepting of all. Call it the church of the open mind. Should even get all the benefits churches have through the government. Gatherings and meeting would be as random as the members wanted but it would provide the same community things that religious churches offer like weddings, bible school, vbs, relgious day gathering etc just without the religious context.

I agree completely with your sentiments, Jamie. To get something like that going on the ground as opposed to online, you'd need a conducive place to meet. I've observed that the Unitarian Universalists are a welcoming bunch; over the years in different states, I've known them to provide meeting space for humanists and for pagans. If a bunch of humanists meeting at a UU building ever approached critical mass, they could certainly found their equivalent of a church, and it almost certainly has happened here and there. The closest thing that I know of in existence is the Ethical Culture movement, which has a presence in some major cities around the country: [en.wikipedia.org]

I agree 100% because one can feel isolated without community support.

The sense of belonging that churches offer is seductive(and probably part of what keeps so many people going to church in an era when they are so unwilling to commit to attending any other regular meetings), and the sort of group study setting (at least in Adventist churches) where reading books, learning, discussion and all sorts of outreach volunteer projects become a satisfying and enriching way of life for church members. My mom's renewed obsession with Adventism is concerning to me, but she does have all sorts of social activities on her calendar now, and lots of friends who share her obsession and interests. She helps with a soup kitchen sponsored by her church, is involved with running potlucks and picnics, and has several study groups and classes now that she enjoys, probably as much for the social value as for the religious stuff. There's nothing like that for atheists here, aside from the university, which is not actually available to non-students of course as a substitute for religious church life.