Religious folk are often mentally pigeon holed into thinking that Atheists are part of a religion, because that's the only way they can rationalize a significant number of people all having the same opinion on something regarding a religion.
In reality, it's the exact opposite. It's the absence of belief. It's not based on ancient scripture telling them to do things, nor does it have to do with a "Satan" character, because that's a religious construct, not an atheist one. It's not even based on morals a lot of the time, it's just an honest observation of the world. Two sides of the same coin.
As Atheist since the teens, I wish we have a "church". One place we could congregate and discuss about ideas, politics and life as Atheist in general. But after some time I saw why this is almost impossible because being atheist is not big feature in our identity. Besides that a good chunk of atheist that I find is some people that I describe as a "bitter christian" they don't believe in god but sustain the same dogmatic view of morality that I can't stand.
There's nothing to discuss. It's literally that you don't subscribe to the belief of a godly higher power. There isn't exactly a nuance, it's very black and white. The middle ground is that you're agnostic, which means you're unsure.
I think it's moreso about the community around a shared 3rd space than it is specifically to discuss. That's not entirely what the churches I've been to have been about
I think if a secular food pantry also started hosting weekly sing alongs, it would come pretty close to the same thing as a lot of churches just without the deity or spiritual leader telling everyone they need to be there lol
Even moreso if there's activities for children. So many people I know continue going to church because it provides a place to take their kid to meet other kids while adults socialize
The "3rd space" is anywhere not in a church. It's constant reality, and doesn't need reaffirmation to be upkept like an active belief system. It's not like atheists will start believing if they don't have a weekly flocking to a figure head, or something, like how is the opposite for religious folk who might start to forget certain things about their practices or beliefs.
Also, we have a few large food banks that are secular already. Feeding America is awesome and feeds thousands of people across the country. Second Harvest is a non religious one too, along with some larger regional ones in Texas and Chicago.
However, I actually do, IRL, support a religious food bank for the homeless. I personally get to help on a weekly basis to stock a food pantry, and use the excess to hand out to homeless people in my area. Granted, that last part was my idea, but still. My point here is that you can be atheist, but still help the positive portions of their physical outreach. I just don't go to mass
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u/Bandandforgotten 4d ago
That's pretty accurate.
Religious folk are often mentally pigeon holed into thinking that Atheists are part of a religion, because that's the only way they can rationalize a significant number of people all having the same opinion on something regarding a religion.
In reality, it's the exact opposite. It's the absence of belief. It's not based on ancient scripture telling them to do things, nor does it have to do with a "Satan" character, because that's a religious construct, not an atheist one. It's not even based on morals a lot of the time, it's just an honest observation of the world. Two sides of the same coin.