Is atheism a non prophet organisation? Where do they meet?

Are there any ‘Churches’ for atheists, where people go to collectively ignore deities and practice non-worship?

What would such a place be called?

:slight_smile:

Some atheists go to Universal Unitarian meetings. Most don’t seem to feel the need. I personally don’t feel much need to talk about atheism with other atheists, and making an explicit, time-consuming effort to ignore or not worship something I don’t think exists seems remarkably silly.

What do you call people who don’t like either Star Trek or Star Wars?

Do they have their own conventions?

Funny, I thought that’s what this place was for.

Discordianism is a non-prophet organization. I’d link to my version of The Principia Discordia, but Geocities is experiencing technical difficulties.

Malaclypse the Elder was seen walking around with a sign that people said read, “DOOM”. In truth, however, the sign read “DUMB”. Mal, like all Discordians, is a non-prophet. :slight_smile:

The American Atheists are awfully close.

Here in my area there is the North Texas Church of Freethought - [sub][sup]a fellowship of unbelievers[/sup][/sub]

http://church.freethought.org/

I haven’t been to any of their meetings though.

If atheism is organized, then it must be poorly organized, as I haven’t received a newsletter in ages! :wink:

Here ya go. Don’t let your subscription lapse again. (And for our Canadian friends…)

Here is one directory where you can find groups dedicated to atheism, freethought, secular humanism, etc. The groups on this list (or any other list you find) will likely vary a good bit as far as how active they really are. Active groups which hold regular meetings may have a number of focuses (and one group may have more than one reason for being). These include activism on behalf of church-state separation and for the rights and dignity of non-believers (two separate but related things); self-education, usually on topics at least somewhat related to “religion”, but that still covers a lot of ground in philosophy, ethics, science, and literature; a desire to try to construct a meaningful secular alternative to religion in terms of ethical systems, regular fellowship with other like-minded people, and even rituals or rites of passage; and a desire for a place to socialize with other non-religious people. As a gross generalization, supported purely by personal observation and anecdote, I think organized non-religious groups are more common and more active in areas where the population in general is intensely and evangelically religious. This reinforces both the need for a “social group” function (“It’s so good to be able to come and hang out with a bunch of people without someone trying to ‘witness’ to me!”) and the “atheist anti-defamation” function (“atheists can be moral people, and not all atheists are Communists”). Being surrounded by people who at least claim to have a coherent and overarching “worldview”, which to you unfortunately makes no sense or is wrong at its foundation, may also reinforce the need for a coherent “worldview” of your own (but one which you consider to make sense).

In theory, groups called “atheist” or “freethought” should focus more on defending the rights and dignity of the non-religious, or even on “opposition to organized religion”, while groups called “humanist” or “secular humanist” should focus more on developing non-religious alternatives to religion, including such things as secular “rites of passage”, humanist weddings and funerals, and the like. In practice, it seems that you can’t really go by what the formal title of the group is to any particular degree of reliability–the Smallville Secular Humanist Association may be out picketing the creche on the courthouse lawn, while the Middletown Atheists have earnest discussion group meetings where they talk about the meaning of life, the philosophy of the Epicureans, and whether they disbelieve in God or lack belief in God, and what does the term “God” mean, anyway?

But Discordians aren’t atheists, are they? Eris is difficult enough without being ignored!:o