Comments on: Why Would An Atheist Go To Church?

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 18:01:37 +0000

Thanks so much for the post. I am myself an atheist (sometimes struggling with what that means) and was raised having never really attended church. My great uncle went to a Unitarian-Universalist church and he was a great person. I think there are some really amazing aspects of religion and I would hate to think that being a non-believer would keep me from all the art, architecture, community, ritual, music, etc. that is part of “church”.

By: Mark Spittle

Mark Spittle — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 12:20:40 +0000

Q: Why would an atheist go to church?

A: Why do people go to zoos?

By: That Good Night

That Good Night — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 02:45:37 +0000

Why Would an Atheist go to Church?

I’m submitting this as “Blog Entry of the X”. Capriciously and at no defined interval I’ll go through all of the sites that I link to from my site and pick my favorite blog entry. Then I’ll feature it here.

Greg at I’m submitting this as “Blog Entry of the X”. Capriciously and at no defined interval I’ll go through all of the sites that I link to from my site and pick my favorite blog entry. Then I’ll feature it here.

Greg at

By: David

David — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 19:25:13 +0000

I suppose it’s nit-picking but a more appropriate analogy in the comment about extremist Islamic groups (namely Al Qaeda), would be to compare them to the Fundamentalist Christians that populate our country. The ones who are willing to kill in order to save.

And is there a disconnect when someone is “Pro-Life” for the unborn but pro-death penalty for the already born? Talk about hypocrisy.

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 16:56:13 +0000

It can be hard see all the separate roles that religion plays in people’s lives. Churches and religions provide people with philosophy to help understand the world, a community for support and a sense of belonging, advice on life…basically everything from creation to recreation. Non-religous people can find these things as well, just usually not in one package. For people inside a religion, who attribute the benefits of going to church to God or whatever, the secular and (perceived) divine benefits of church going are not easily separated. The UU church is handy for people of no other religion to do the familiar church thing without compromising their beliefs.

But the problem of separating Religion from the function of religions in society has dangerous manifestations in politcs. The existence of extremist Islamic terrorists does not necessarily mean that Islam the religion breeds extremist terrorists. There are religous extremist terrorists from many different religions and there are extremist terrorists who are motivated by non-religious beliefs.

Fanatics of all stripes embrace whatever pre-existing beliefs are convenient to their recruitment base, and use or pervert them to justify their actions and unify their membership. Religion may play a role for Al-Qaeda and the KKK that is similar to the purpose that anti-government conspiracy theories play for militia groups or anti-semitism played for the Nazis.

I suppose the point is that a person’s motivations and values cannot be fully deduced from their association with a religion or belief system. The assumption that an atheist would find no value in a church is one thing. Assuming that terrorists have no souls is quite another.

By: Erin

Erin — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 14:10:48 +0000

very thoughtful post, thanks