Do you attend religious services frequently, occasionally, rarely, or not at all? Most atheists never attend religious services in America, but some atheists attend religious services once a week or more. What about you? Feel free to elaborate on reasons why in the comments below.
It's not surprise that many atheists would go to religious services occasionally, since atheists tend to have religious family members, but frequent attendance at religious services of any sort is very odd indeed. Are they doing it out of a sense of obligation? Do they enjoy it? Do they hate it?
I went to the occasional service when I was a teenager, mostly because I had a religious friend and he’d invite me. He belonged to a fairly liberal Protestant denomination (United Church of Canada), so while the sermons were pretty inoffensive, they were also quite bland (I don’t remember the content – I just remember being bored and trying to sing along during the hymns).
I went because it seemed like the sociable thing to do at the time, even though I didn’t believe in God. All in all, I’m glad that I had the experience, though I can’t see myself voluntarily going to a regular church service ever again.
As an Atheist Humanist I do not even attend Unitarian meetings. As a former ‘born again’ Christian I have no desire to mingle with those who have not evolved past their superstitions and fears, or llisten to speakers who are not truly free.
The few times a year that I attend religious services is primarily for a funeral or a wedding. I attend once in a great while a Unitarian/Universalist service if the topic advertized in the Saturday newspaper appeals to me or if it is a subject I am interested in. I, also, would attend a holiday service if I am a guest of people who attend church regularly – as long as they know I am not a believer and that I will not participate in rituals such as communion, repeating creeds, singing hymns, bowing or kneeling in prayer. I would be there simply as an observer.
I attend UU services most weeks. I wonder how many other atheist churchgoers are Unitarian Univesalists?
A lot of us members at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Central Michigan are Atheists. After I gave the Sunday morning sermon, revealing clearly that I am an Atheist, the members elected me President of the Fellowship. I have a lot of friends there.
Joel, that is so cool. Your fellow UUs sound like good people.
I would discuss my atheist views with the ministers in my church, but I know they would ask me to form a committee or something & I’m too much of a slacker for that.
The last religious service I attended was my mother’s funeral in 2004, and I can’t remember how long it had been before that. I went with “less than once a year.”
When I voted ‘never’ this does not include weddings and funerals of course. Having been a member of serveral faiths before my ‘conversion’ to atheism. I was a regular attendee of church. Everything I learnt, I realise, from the religious was gradually getting me to the point of realising there was no god.
The last time I attended a service of any kind was in 2001..a memorial for a dear friend and a remarkable woman. She almost single-handedly broke down the “color barrier” in figure skating. It was an adventure to have known her!
The service was very informal with no hymn-singing at all; people would stand up one at a time and tell anecdotes about our friend – many of them funny.
There were a couple of prayers, and that’s when it got awkward for me. I don’t bow my head…would never kneel (if everyone else does that), and so forth. Even after more than 50 years of non-belief, it still feels strange to be sitting there doing nothing when the rest of the group is fervently talking to their imaginary friend.
Even as a believing and god-fearing child, I found church-going an unpleasant experience, and I’d usually avoid going at all, despite being a reverend’s granddaughter.
I hated all the icon kissing, the old women gathering there to gossip and all the rituals that orthodox christianity does.
Today, as an atheist, I see no point in going to church other than for admiring architecture. I refuse to attend weddings and funerals, and usually visit the couple or the deceased’s family on a less religious-related occasion.
I don’t fear religion, I’m just disgusted with the theme.
I like the old-time hymns at our local mega-church, but actually socializing with the right-wing nuts…that’s another story. They tend to hate my Obama bumper-sticker. One time, a woman “inadvertently” blocked my car in. We asked her to move her car, and got into a conversation with her. She doesn’t like Obama because of his stand on abortion. Oy.
Once a year at most, I go to Mass with my father-in-law. I don’t kneel, or sing, but I do stand up and sit down as directed, and I do the Sign of Peace handshake. I can say, “Peace be with you” with sincerity. But I’m not “out” as an atheist with my father-in-law. I’m an orphan, and my father-in-law has been more loving and accepting of me than all my many foster parents put together.