XPost: ucb.math, alt.society.civil-liberty, ca.environment
XPost: alt.mountain-bike
Lately, I’ve been getting a lot of notifications on my Facebook
newsfeed about a new, dumb idea called “atheist church.” Every
time I see it, I just shake my head in disgust. Atheist church
is dumb, and here’s why.
First and foremost, atheist church is dumb because one of the
best things about being an atheist is not having to get up on
Sunday morning to go to church.
Duh!
Who wants to drag themselves out of bed on a Sunday, root
through the laundry pile, find clothes that smell halfway decent
and socialize with a bunch of do-gooders? No thanks!
I never really believed in God or Jesus, but you can rest
assured that the perks of not having to go to church on Sunday
had a helping hand in nudging me over the edge of agnosticism
into full-fledged atheism. There’s no way I’m going to give up
my blissful 1:00 p.m. Sunday wake up time to lug myself over to
some dorky sing-a-long with a group of (most likely) well-
educated people who are smarter than me an undoubtedly more
charitable too. Why would I want to be surrounded by people who
are better than me? I think I’ll stick to the self-esteem
destroying power of Facebook, where the confidence busting
happens virtually with no real human interaction required, thank
you very much.
Morgan Spurlock is going to be leading Sunday services at an
atheist church in Nashville. What the hell is wrong with those
people? Yeah, like I really want to watch some super
accomplished guy who’s younger than me remind me that I’m not
really doing much with my life. Ugh.
The next reason why atheist church is dumb is because it
reinforces the idea that church is required to live a decent
life and be a good person. We atheists are supposed to be good
without God; aka: without church. Now you better believe that
every religious person who finds out about this is going to call
us hypocrites or extremists and laugh in our faces, which is
really the last thing we need. We have enough trouble being
taken seriously as it is! Why give the yahoos more fuel for the
fire? Don’t believe me? Watch the YouTube video at the end of
this article in which the commentator calls atheists “retarded”
for forming a church and says it’s “the biggest crock of s***
ever.”
Additionally, all the pictures I have seen of people attending
services at atheist church have zero diversity. Sorry, sitting
around with a bunch of other white people singing You Are My
Sunshine isn’t really my idea of a good time.
Possibly the most compelling reason why atheist church is dumb
is because it is so freaking embarrassing. It’s really dorky. I
dread every time someone asks me about these atheist churches
because I don’t want to be associated with the concept in any
way, shape or form. What the heck do they do there, anyway?
Congratulate each other? I don’t understand the purpose. Some
say it’s for “community.” Why not spend time with your friends
and neighbors? Why not bring the old lady down the street a
casserole? Wouldn’t doing actual community building activities
be more productive than sitting around patting other atheists on
the back? Supposedly, the service includes “sing-alongs” (dorky)
and “poetry” (ok) along with “trying to figure out life.” It
sounds suspiciously like some weirdo 1960s Hippie commune
mentality; and there’s a reason why that mentality never got
anyone anywhere.
If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s group-think. The moment
people congregate into groups to simply reinforce and celebrate
each other’s ideas, which happen to be all the exact same ideas,
I lose interest.
Quite frankly, I’d rather spend an hour talking to Ken Ham than
attend one of these self-congratulatory, nerdy atheist church
sessions. At least Ham would be amusing, and who knows, maybe I
would learn something new about how young earth creationists
think, which is far more interesting to me than a sing-along
with (most likely) pushy vegans and naval-gazing intellectuals.
Atheist church is dumb. I don’t have to adhere to a set of
ideas, believe in God, or go to church to be charitable to
others and uphold a strong moral code. Being independent and
strengthening society by doing good works on my own while at the
same time reaching out to my fellow man with goodwill and
kindness does not require attendance at a church service. That’s
the whole point of being an atheist, after all.
http://guardianlv.com/2014/02/why-atheist-church-is-dumb/
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