Why atheists should join religions:

When an atheist joins a religion, they are no longer atheists anymore.

 

I dont know what that bible thumper at my University would do if he didnt have anyone to scream at and tell we were all going to hell..

 

I have actually considered this, going to church. I am 100% atheist, my son goes to church with my mother as I went when I was a child. The only real change in our church is when I went about 30 years ago it was packing in over 300 people and now they'd be lucky to see 30 people. The funding is drying up and the church is on the virge of closing as many other have done. Church attendance overall is on a steady decline, I'm sure my area is not alone in this. While their are fewer people in general going to church there are one or two exceptions in that a couple newer churches are actually packing in more people while dozens of others churches are collapsing. We call the members of these thriving churches "holly rollers". They are the hard core baptist, more aggressive and outspoken religious Christians.

It would seem we are on a path to a more polarized society, with the milder religions dissolving and more aggressive hard core religions strengthening in a few more generations we will be extremely polarized Atheist/Agnostic VS Fanatically religious. This could be a very volatile situation, North America could end up with as much fighting as Ireland or Israel and Palestine.

I just can't see myself going to church and supporting it but the building is a tad sentimental to me, reminds my of my grandparents and I've been to lots of functions in their gymnasium and it will be sad to see it close down.

So there may be something to be said about supporting the milder religions, the churches opened minded enough to support gay rights or evolution being taught in schools. There is strength in numbers, church gets people together, gets them proactive and involved. Let the fanatical churches dominate and take over and the only pro-action we'll see will be the promotion of ignorance.

 

This question has been addressed so often, on so many threads, it's redundant to answer it again. Check them out. I think most believers probably do accept some form of the beliefs that you dismiss as "superstitious". And you're certainly right that atheists look upon religion with scorn, and religious people look on atheists with scorn for being scornful, etc. So what else is new?

 

I wonder if it's the same guy we have at ours: "Preacher Bob", we call him, although that's really an institutional name instead of his real name. There have been a succession of guys who have done that over the years, and we call them all "Preacher Bob"--most famous for calling every coed who walks by a whore and hoping to provoke the university into taking action so he can do his First Amendment schtick.

 

Well said! Yes, it's unfortunately true that what used to be called "mainline" churches are waning, while the fire breathing bible thumping fundamentalist kind are packing them in. In Oklahoma, the evangelical churches are so intertwined with the Republican party that many people find it hard to distinguish them. It's hard for rationality to compete with absolute, inerrant "Truth", especially when the latter promises pie in the sky for the faithful, and a lake of fire for those who disagree. Religious fundamentalism is a mind-crippling disease which Dawkins aptly describes as a virus, and so far we don't seem to have an effective vaccine. I do know Christian fundamentalists who, miraculously, still manage to be relatively open-minded, tolerant, and loving, but in general it looks to me like the Latter Day Pharisees are taking over. Islam offers a sobering example of where this could lead, the insightful theologies of Averroes and Avicenna giving way to the mindless literalism of the Taliban, al-Qaeda and the Shiite ayatollahs. It's interesting that an atheist can consider supporting mainline liberal churches, when I'm already attending atheist meetings along with my regular church services.

 

I don't see why atheists should join religion.

But I see plenty of reasons why Darwinists, Muslims and other hard core Fundamentalists should learn basics of critical thinking from rational, open minded and bright agnostics like myself.

 

The only thing worse than a religious fundamentalist is an agnostic troll!

 

And the only thing worse than an agnostic troll is a darwinist !

 

And the only thing worse than a "darwinist" (as opposed to a New Synthesis believer) is a feeder of agnostic trolls, which is why I say: "No comment". There is not just one but are now two threads in this Forum created just for you and devoted to the validity or non-validity of "Darwin's theory", to which you have amply availed yourself. To bring the topic back to this one, concerning why atheists should join churches, confirms your basic trollhood. I thought we had site monitors to protect us from this sort of thing!

 

You keep calling me a troll while in fact you are the one who trolls all along. Isn't it ironic
Indeed "No comment"