After a schism, a question: Can atheist churches last?

CNN Belief Blog ^ | 01/05/2014 | Katie Engelhart

[SeekAndFind]

LONDON (CNN) - The Sunday Assembly was riding high.

The world’s most voguish - though not its only - atheist church opened last year in London, to global attention and abundant acclaim.

So popular was the premise, so bright the promise, that soon the Sunday Assembly was ready to franchise, branching out into cities such as New York, Dublin and Melbourne.

“It’s a way to scale goodness,” declared Sanderson Jones, a standup comic and co-founder of The Sunday Assembly, which calls itself a “godless congregation.”

But nearly as quickly as the Assembly spread, it split, with New York City emerging as organized atheism’s Avignon.

In October, three former members of Sunday Assembly NYC announced the formation of a breakaway group called Godless Revival.

[RitchieAprile]

only if they make the mortgage payment..

[ConorMacNessa]

No surprise to me.

America demands Justice for the Fallen of Benghazi!

O stranger, tell the Lacedaemonians that we lie here, obedient to their command.

Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (Isaiah 49:1 KJV)

[ansel12]

Of course not, but what will this eventually morph into?

This kind of organizing probably isn’t intended to endure, but to be a seed of something larger, I doubt that the purpose is to merely be a routine service, quietly held in rented buildings forever, this is about something much uglier, this is about organizing people and forming an active movement.

Atheists aren’t forming up just to share coffee and community, they tend to go bad.

[Viennacon]

The lunacy continues.

[Gene Eric]

Atheists are idiots.

[wjcsux]

The PCUSA and ELCA are basically atheistic churches and they are dying.

[This Just In]

Can the atheist churches last? I thought they already had. It’s called Public University.

[GeronL]

schism?

seriously?

[jsanders2001]

Its just a stupid fad and a political statement, ergo no.

[pkmaine]

Perhaps they could merge with...

http://www.coffeepartyusa.com/

Remember that great movement back in 2010.....

[Olog-hai]

Next stop, Reformation.

[donmeaker]

Buddhism has been around for a while, and is, essentially, an atheist religion.

[GeronL]

lol

will there be protestant atheism?

[Gene Eric]

I do — the beanbags.

[SeekAndFind]

Some teachers tell students beginning Buddhist meditation that the notion of divinity is not incompatible with Buddhism.

At least one Buddhist scholar (Dr. B. Alan Wallace) has indicated that describing Buddhism as non-theistic may be overly simplistic.

[tbw2]

I’ve heard atheists talk about why people like religion, and they sometimes fall upon the conclusion that it is the community.
Here are people who celebrate life milestones like births, deaths and marriages. They gather regularly for holidays / holy days, creating community and connections, something too few atheists have, hence their higher divorce and suicide rates. Rituals are reassuring, but they lack those of the Christian community, so they gather and sing their own songs. (”Imagine” is high on that list.)
The atheists attracted to these churches long for a larger community that many atheists only see in political organization, but that lacks emotional depth. Atheist churches are an attempt to bring deeper emotional connections and community to their lives, something churches naturally create unless too strict or abstract.

[terycarl]

and their point is????????