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Having grown up in the church, I have honestly never found a good replacement for the sense of community and support that a church offers. Its a shame that no o

Having grown up in the church, I have honestly never found a good replacement for the sense of community and support that a church offers. Its a shame that no other non-religious organizations have been able to replicate it.

ChikkaChiChi 12y ago
I would contest that any communal group that meets face to face regularly develops similar bonds and that this is not exclusive of spiritual gatherings. I think over the past few generations we have lost more of those reasons to get together, and church is one of the last hanger-ons of these close knit communities.
- mercer 12y ago
  Agreed, but spiritual gatherings are often centered around questions or issues that are important, fundamental, and/or relevant to daily life. That's something you generally don't have as much with other types of communal activities, and it's something that, in my experience, creates tight communities much faster, and bonds that often go deeper. It's like friendships. There's a gradual strengthening over time, but usually the big 'jumps' are caused by personal or interpersonal crises; moment of vulnerability.
lesigh 12y ago
Might want to try a humanist gathering.
click170 12y ago
I humbly suggest that you simply haven't found them yet. As an example, I understand that AA meetings foster a very supportive community atmosphere. My local Linux User Group meets regularly and has a very friendly homely feel where you can bring in whatever problem you're working on and people are always happy to at least hear you explain it even if they can't help. Meetup.com is a very good place to find meet-ups in your area which is a great place to start :)
- ChikkaChiChi 12y ago
  I was a part of a car enthusiast group that was incredibly close as well. You just need to find common ground and work from there.
akgerber 12y ago
The Unitarian Universalist church is non-creedal and has many atheist members. Many cities also have Ethical Culture Societies, which mostly grew out of the non-religious elements of the Jewish community.
dm2 12y ago
I have wanted more adoption of community centers for a long time, just a place for children and adults to go for support and supplemental education. I could write a very long article about their benefits and reasons, but this probably isn't the appropriate forum to do that. A place where kids can get mentors and adults can get assistance for a wide variety of subjects would be extremely helpful to the community. This kind of place is usually only provided in poorer areas where it is then overcrowded and becomes much less useful. Many parents assume kids get all the education for life in school. Teachers assume kids get most of their life education at home. This is not true all of the time but I've seen it far too often. The result is a lack of education and guidance for children. Some parents just don't have time for their kids, kids are left to learn on their own or from their environment, which is always less than optimal (yes, always exceptions to everything). Colleges could offer credits for people who help staff and organize these places. Adults who were helped by these community centers could be encouraged to give back if it helped them in life. Children in need of mentors should be the main area of focus in my opinion. They could call upon these people later in life if needed, almost like another parent (which not all people are fortunate enough to have). The children who were mentored would have a much higher chance of ensuring their mentor was taken care of later in life, when the mentor got old. There's just no downside from what I can tell, it's mostly a funding and organizing problem to solve. Please don't take this the wrong way but excluding God from these centers would be important. Not everybody accepts that there is some magical being controlling everything, and many people have different gods. All of these people should be equally welcomed into community centers without fear of having God, Jesus, and the sins of the Devil preached to them constantly.
JL2010 12y ago
I've been having some good discussions about this exact topic lately. I'm glad you brought it up. After mulling it over with some friends, I think it would be awesome to have a community gathering where the principles of its "teachings" are based on respect for the earth, each other, and critical thinking. Instead of typical weekly worship, it could be replaced by something like "Science Sundays" - where folks can bring their kids for a lecture and experiment that the family can do. If one can find enough local individuals who could serve as advocates then I think something like this is possible. Although, I don't what spark it would need for it to reach critical mass. The closest thing that we've identified as such a group is the Maker community. One problem that we've had in these discussions is that any time we try to add structure to the idea (ie, a common reference book, hierarchy) we immediately realize that it sounds like it would be mistaken for a cult. :( http://abstrusegoose.com/31 http://abstrusegoose.com/31
auxbuss 12y ago
Alain de Botton writes more generally about taking the goods bits from religion in 'Religion for Atheists: A non-believer's guide to the uses of religion'. It's an interesting thought experiment, and de Botton writes engagingly. Well worth a read for his lateral thinking and, if nothing else, a starting point for your own thoughts.

ChikkaChiChi 12y ago

I would contest that any communal group that meets face to face regularly develops similar bonds and that this is not exclusive of spiritual gatherings. I think over the past few generations we have lost more of those reasons to get together, and church is one of the last hanger-ons of these close knit communities.

mercer 12y ago
Agreed, but spiritual gatherings are often centered around questions or issues that are important, fundamental, and/or relevant to daily life. That's something you generally don't have as much with other types of communal activities, and it's something that, in my experience, creates tight communities much faster, and bonds that often go deeper. It's like friendships. There's a gradual strengthening over time, but usually the big 'jumps' are caused by personal or interpersonal crises; moment of vulnerability.

lesigh 12y ago

Might want to try a humanist gathering.

click170 12y ago

I humbly suggest that you simply haven't found them yet. As an example, I understand that AA meetings foster a very supportive community atmosphere. My local Linux User Group meets regularly and has a very friendly homely feel where you can bring in whatever problem you're working on and people are always happy to at least hear you explain it even if they can't help. Meetup.com is a very good place to find meet-ups in your area which is a great place to start :)

ChikkaChiChi 12y ago
I was a part of a car enthusiast group that was incredibly close as well. You just need to find common ground and work from there.

akgerber 12y ago

The Unitarian Universalist church is non-creedal and has many atheist members. Many cities also have Ethical Culture Societies, which mostly grew out of the non-religious elements of the Jewish community.

dm2 12y ago

I have wanted more adoption of community centers for a long time, just a place for children and adults to go for support and supplemental education. I could write a very long article about their benefits and reasons, but this probably isn't the appropriate forum to do that. A place where kids can get mentors and adults can get assistance for a wide variety of subjects would be extremely helpful to the community. This kind of place is usually only provided in poorer areas where it is then overcrowded and becomes much less useful. Many parents assume kids get all the education for life in school. Teachers assume kids get most of their life education at home. This is not true all of the time but I've seen it far too often. The result is a lack of education and guidance for children. Some parents just don't have time for their kids, kids are left to learn on their own or from their environment, which is always less than optimal (yes, always exceptions to everything). Colleges could offer credits for people who help staff and organize these places. Adults who were helped by these community centers could be encouraged to give back if it helped them in life. Children in need of mentors should be the main area of focus in my opinion. They could call upon these people later in life if needed, almost like another parent (which not all people are fortunate enough to have). The children who were mentored would have a much higher chance of ensuring their mentor was taken care of later in life, when the mentor got old. There's just no downside from what I can tell, it's mostly a funding and organizing problem to solve. Please don't take this the wrong way but excluding God from these centers would be important. Not everybody accepts that there is some magical being controlling everything, and many people have different gods. All of these people should be equally welcomed into community centers without fear of having God, Jesus, and the sins of the Devil preached to them constantly.

JL2010 12y ago

I've been having some good discussions about this exact topic lately. I'm glad you brought it up. After mulling it over with some friends, I think it would be awesome to have a community gathering where the principles of its "teachings" are based on respect for the earth, each other, and critical thinking. Instead of typical weekly worship, it could be replaced by something like "Science Sundays" - where folks can bring their kids for a lecture and experiment that the family can do. If one can find enough local individuals who could serve as advocates then I think something like this is possible. Although, I don't what spark it would need for it to reach critical mass. The closest thing that we've identified as such a group is the Maker community. One problem that we've had in these discussions is that any time we try to add structure to the idea (ie, a common reference book, hierarchy) we immediately realize that it sounds like it would be mistaken for a cult. :( http://abstrusegoose.com/31 http://abstrusegoose.com/31

auxbuss 12y ago

Alain de Botton writes more generally about taking the goods bits from religion in 'Religion for Atheists: A non-believer's guide to the uses of religion'. It's an interesting thought experiment, and de Botton writes engagingly. Well worth a read for his lateral thinking and, if nothing else, a starting point for your own thoughts.