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How many atheists attend church?

This goes for agnostics too. This also includes those that just cannot quite accept that there is a God. I do not attend church, but on rare occasions I will accompany a relative. I used to go a lot when a child, and just about everyone I know attends church. When on those rare occasions I do go, I want to know how many of the others are as severely doubtful as I in the existence of a God.

I know an atheist who can at a moments notice say a prayer in front of a group. It IS an act (a very convincing one at that). I'm not talking about me either. Who else attends church once in a while or on a regular basis that simply do not believe in what they are exposed to. Is it common?

I know how I feel about others that believe. I think they are warped. I think they are great people --just warped in their belief. How does it make you feel to know that others may feel like you? If I stand and sing a church song, I can't help but think that someone else is looking at me like I have been captured by this fantasy.

DaninGraniteCity

Yeah, I go with my mother.

capsaicin67

I don't go. But I *could* in the same way that I might go see a Xmas show that contains silly religious songs, too, if someone else wanted to, or to see the Midnight Mass spectacle. I have to swim in a sea of diversity. >shrug<

There aren't a lot of nontheist alternatives to our religious "mainstream" and so I pick and choose my battles and don't get too hung up on it. I'm not concerned for my integrity overall, unless I think I am significantly modeling acceptance of superstition for a real person in my immediate environment. I wouldn't be likely to donate money etc though, to a church outright.... And I would only expose my children to it sporadically with a lot of pre-innoculation and debriefing etc....that's just me.

jmem

I go to Sunday services once or twice a year at the church I grew up in. My Granny still goes there and the members were like my extended family. It's nice to catch up with them once in a while and give my Granny the chance to show off her great-grandchildren. I also still go to their "Fall Festival" every year, and make donations to the church by buying overpriced stuff I don't need..but it's a lot of fun. I went without really believing for years before that...listening for absurdities in the sermon and making my grocery list in my head during prayers. You're not a hypocrite, you're just surviving in your culture. Personally, I was able to quit going to church regularly when I finally distanced myself from my family's expectations....which is why my firstborn was baptized and my youngest will not be.

kciredor reprah

I didn't even attend church when I thought I may be a xtian.

Peace

jafosei

Personally, I don't think of believers as 'warped'. I also don't worry much about what others think of me, so if they saw me in a church and assumed I was warped, that would be their problem, not mine.

I haven't actually been to church in a couple of years, but I'll go this coming Sunday evening. My dad's singing in the choir for the church's Christmas program, and the rest of my family will be there. I'm going for the comraderie, and the choir's usually pretty good, too. They do this lovely entrance with candles that I get a kick out of.

Chris Weimer

I sometimes attend church with a friend, we're both atheists. I rarely go to Sunday services, but the message is interesting when I do go. I usually go to give a little speech about the government and rights or for a bible lesson (my last one was about Exodus 21:22 and abortion.

It really helps, though, that everyone has Kerry bumberstickers on the back of their car, the sermons are about promoting peace and not Christianity, the last pastor tore up the bible during her first day there (literally ripped it to shreds), and I'm not the only atheist that attends.

Plus, the current pastor, also female, just quoted Einstein, so that automatically scores huge points with me.

All this in a Baptist church.

jfryejr

"Hypocrit" is spelled h-y-p-o-c-r-i-t-e. I hate peeple who can't spel.

That was my attempt at an online joke (get it?). Anyways, I attended church as an atheist with my wife, who is agnostic, simply because she liked to sing in choir. She's finally found other interests so we don't go any more. I always sat at the back and never said anything, so I never really felt too much like a hypocrite.

I do, however, refuse to lead in prayer. Last xmas, someone said, "James, would you like to say a prayer over dinner?" I said, "To who?"

I haven't been asked since.

capsaicin67

jfryejr: lol. Good one. :thumbs:

Garnet

I go to church when I'm in Oklahoma visiting my sisters or when invited by a friend. Typically, whomever I go to church with knows I'm an atheist. I'm very polite when I go to church and don't talk about my atheism unless I'm asked directly. When prayers are going on, I just sit quietly and look around. It's interesting what you see sometimes in a church when people are praying. I usually see a couple of other non-praying people.