Britain's first atheist church is barely three months old and has 400 plus members, more than can fit into its services. Officially named The Sunday Assembly, their ‘meetings’ combine music, speeches and moral pondering with large doses of humor and are held in a former church.
The Assembly's central tenets are to "help often, live better and wonder more." At last Sunday's service songs included "Help" by the Beatles and "Holding Out For A Hero" by Bonnie Tyler. The "sermon" was given by the founder of an education charity on the subject of volunteering. The service ended with big cheers and shouts of "Who would like a cup of tea?" The Sunday Assembly's success suggests many urban atheists crave the sense of community that comes with joining a church. (Is that all that they crave?”)
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I've known that for years. The bars are full of communing Godless heathens. They crave whiskey.and popcorn.
ReplyDeleteKinda lame. I've said many times that Atheism is a belief that requires as much FAITH as anything else in the religion biz. The usual argument as I understand it, when we acknowledge that we have no proof of God, is we have faith. The atheists scoff yet agree that there is no proof that God doesn't exist either. Verrry interesting topic. I wonder if religion and such beliefs are pap, magic, and tomfoolery, why has every society had belief in something. What is the function of this if not real. It may not be real but I'm still interested in knowing "why do societies make up complex religious belief systems?"
ReplyDeletePlease keep your responses short. I'm kinda bored now.
ReplyDeletegod and religions r psychological responses to death, fear of the unknown, and an effort to explain what we not understand. men need to believe that they control their circumstances, that which i do not understand is god, makes peace in my mind and allows me to 'control' it through worship and sacrifice, all known societies have done this
ReplyDeletevery enlightening Doc, thanks, sincerely
Deletesorry for going on but I'm really interested in this very topic. So some create religions and God(s) to explain and control to some extent the unknowns - are Atheists trying to explain the same by DENying that there is an unknown? or in the case of scientific atheists, denying that there is an unknowable? The Church service you post kinda washes away these folks Faithful Denial. Good Atheists need Church like a ...can't think of a good analogy but they don't need it. Vocal scientists like Dawkins and others put a lot of bother into their denial. They not doing it to save others from false beliefs cause if there is no higher power then whether you worship or not is a matter of taste, not truth.
ReplyDeleteJust a little more, I promise. I'm near the IQ point of no return anyway. OK, in response to fear mankind develops wisdom, from expe4rience and extrapolation that doesn't prevent fear (of a snake maybe) but learns to manage fear to be able to continue to function. In the case of the unknown one must either find reasonable and effective information about ways to deal with it (walk around the snake), or when the fear is of something where knowledge is not available or iffy or seemingly capricious (being swallowed by a sinkhole in the middle of the night), to go beyond the "truth" for explanations (god's will, act of nature, sins of mankind, etc). This makes much sense if I'm correct in my understanding. And Atheists don't do any of that, so why the hell are they going to Church; go to Bingo instead. And Scientific Atheists make Science "God". Give it time and we'll figure out what's going on, they say. I say Like Hell you'll figure it all out or your ancestors or AI. Can I Skip the final and just take a Pass for this class?
ReplyDeleteIf any of the readers find all this Jibber Jabber from me a waste of time, please go back to the beginning and skip everything after that.
ReplyDelete