BellaOnline Forums Religion and Spirituality Atheist Aheists who belong to a church.

This thread is for learning about those who are non-believers, but go to church.

What is yor religion?
Why do you do it?
What do you like or dislike?
Etc. Etc.

Personally, when I was as a Catholic I used to get nauseous while in church. I went to UU once, but it just felt the same to me. I just don't care for the "church" culture and I think it's targeted more for families.

I am fortunate that in the Twin Cities area there are a number of good organizations for non-believers. I regularly attend local events with Minnesota Atheists and I get community from that. There is no ritual, costumes or dogma.
We have fascinating guest speakers, committees, entertainment and events. It's a very good group.

Meetup.com as well can be a good source of community anywhere you live in case you are stuck in Jesusland.

We don't even call it church. We call it Fellowship. It's not "church" for us but a place where we meet up with like-minded (extremely liberal and tolerant) families each week.

I have to admit that I also feel queasy when I'm faced with anything that resembles a ritual, communal singing, and even some kinds of cocktail parties that remind me too much of after church "fellowship" sessions (although it would be a cup of coffee rather than a cocktail in your hand).

I happen to be agnostic pagan (rather than atheist), but I can't bring myself to do anything vaguely ceremonial because of the negative connotations from the religion I was raised in. Just the word "altar" sends shivers down my spine.

Yeah...there's no altar. There's no sanctuary. It's totally different, but I understand what you're saying.

We are very liberal politically. To give you an idea of what UU is like, we're moving to a new city and will definitely check out the UU Fellowship there because that's where we'll find the liberals!!! LOL

Also, we have children now and they enjoy hanging with other children and we want them to grow up around like-minded families.

This brings to mind another one of those funny little things I've heard about atheists- you know, that they're all positively antisocial.
I'll admit there aren't a lot of populated gatherings I'd care to attend, but that's with or without religion involved, and it certainly has nothing directly to do with my atheism.

I do agree with something aredant said about not caring to be around children. Any regular reader knows there are many things I love about children, but if I wanted to be around them more, I'd have some. Family atmospheres often tend to include someone looking at me funny for not being a part of one (I say that only half-jokingly).

Also, since I've been meaning to throw this quote in somewhere:
"I am not looking for intelligent disagreement any longer.... What I am looking for is intelligent agreement."
- Ayn Rand

Quoting that doesn't mean, of course, that I won't always be open to new information, but as long as the information is as it stands, I'll hold the same position I've always held.

Being able to stand alone with what you believe is among the noblest things possible (assuming you have good reason to believe it), but it is wonderful to discover you don't have to.

That's really great - could this be made into a readable bumper sticker?

Heh.