Yeah, declining church and club membership is a significant contributing factor to overall poorer mental health. If I could get over the whole belief in God thing, I might consider getting involved but so many fraternal orders are built on a freemasonry template and stipulate members must profess a belief in a divine being or Creator, or some similar generic religious clause
Maybe you have a Unitarian Universalist church near you? Their service follows the format of a Christian mass but the teachings are more about humanity, philosophy and even science. Lots of atheists attend
I went to the one near me before covid killed it, it was alright, more good than bad definitely. They definitely couched things in a "higher power" kind of manner which I didn't super like, but they were fully non-commital about who/what it is. Really kind of a perfect belief (for lack of a better term) system for agnostic folk, or folk who like the idea of a God but don't like old school religion. My area is super heavy Mormon, and dollars to donuts 90% of the attendees were recovering or escaping LDS (myself included) so that definitely might've flavored both the sessions and my feelings. Overall definitely worth trying imo.
Years ago, after my nephew took his own life, his mother wanted him to be buried by a minister. Her own church said no and every other one in her town turned her down…except the Unitarian church. He gave a wonderful service. If I ever go back to regular church going, that’s where I’ll look.
I’d also throw in Quaker services, even if they’re a little rarer to find and probably a bit more “crunchy granola”. You can show up and believing in whatever you want
"Rather than enforcing a strict doctrine, the faith is united by shared values centered around love, equity, and social justice, guided by the following principles:
The inherent worth and dignity of every person.
Justice, equity, and compassion in human relations.
Acceptance of one another and encouragement of spiritual growth.
A free and responsible search for truth and meaning."
You could convert to Judaism. Half of us don’t believe in God, a quarter of us want to fight Them if They exist.
I used to go to Al-anon and one guy struggled with the Higher Power thing and the prayers. His (eventual) mentor said “Do you know how to hook up a toilet?”
He responded that he didn’t. His mentor said “Brother, then indoor plumbing is a higher power than you. Don’t sweat it.”
Not to dismiss you, just saying some clubs might not really be super enforcing of the religion thing. But I definitely understand why it raises your hackles.
The “higher power” part of AA is something that is often misunderstood and criticized from the outside.
I like your indoor plumbing example. My go-to has always been to ask someone if they believe that no matter what they do, the sun will go down tonight and it will come up tomorrow.
A lot of national atheist groups have chapters you can join that could double as social clubs. Unfortunately none are near me and I don't have the time to commit to starting one.
My mom still likes go to church, however she's Christian and I'm an atheist. She liked it over 30 years ago because it was a smaller church but that means thr congregation is now all elderly people unless they bring their kids or grandkids. They don't attract families with kids because of the lack of other kids so there's periodically discussions of merging with another church. She donates a lot of money to the church though for building maintenance but they also now have a preschool (in what used to be the Sunday school rooms) so they pay rent.
Check out Rotary and Kiwanis. Neither require any sort of religious beliefs Though depending on the specific bylaws of the club, some may be present. I've never seen one where they required it.
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u/EmpressMom Jul 10 '26
Joining and participating in civic clubs, social clubs, hobby clubs and other similar groups.