RE: Does forming an atheist community pose a risk to becoming a religion?
June 11, 2019 at 11:19 pm
(April 5, 2019 at 3:04 pm)yogamaster Wrote: I am an atheist, however, I have not attended formal meetings with other atheists / non-theists to have a discussion about atheism. Would holding formal gatherings to discuss atheist ideas create something "religious" in character (such as weekly church attendance) if these meetings were focused around discussing the disbelief in god(s)?
The real danger in meeting weekly to discuss non-belief in gods is that there really isn't that much to talk about. The beefy subject is religion... and that's the topic that concerns atheists the most. How is religion influencing our government? How does religion contribute to an ill-informed populace due to its proliferation of ignorance? How can people who have been damaged by a hostile religious upbringing heal and move on from that?
I don't think weekly meetings would be necessary to address these concerns. There are online communities that provide such support. The Unitarian Universalists offer a sort of secular spiritualism, for those interested in that sort of thing. Scientists do science. There are plenty of nonreligious social groups that atheists can be a part of to do charity work etc.
If there is one thing that atheists have no use for, it's religion.
