What would you want to see in an atheist chuch?

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Permalink Reply by Natalie A Sera on September 22, 2011 at 8:39pm

Lots of good ideas, and I agree with those who object to calling it a church. The word "church" definitely has Christian connotations, although some Buddhists in the US have taken to calling their buildings churches for lack of a better word. Church also has the connotation of a place for religious services, and that's the LAST thing I would want!

I think it's better to start off with the idea of a Community Center or Meeting House (although that sounds kind of Quaker). What kind of CC, I don't know, but Non-theist, or Humanistic sound sufficiently non-inflammatory that maybe the building wouldn't get torched by loonies.

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Permalink Reply by Russell Christian on September 23, 2011 at 2:40am

If I were to design something like that I'd have a warm and inviting lobby with free handouts explaining in the most general way what atheists are about and how we differ from agnostics or deists.  The lobby might also double as a reading room stocked with books and magazines relating to atheism as well as other relevant issues.

 

Past the lobby I think a decent lecture hall/multi use room would be nice and a separate room loaded with tv's for sunday football.  I think the comfy chair and bartender idea would dovetail nicely here.  Throw in some clean restrooms and a nice, private outdoor area in back with tables, chairs and barbecues and I'd be in hog heaven.

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Permalink Reply by George on September 23, 2011 at 8:34am

I'd like to see murals relating to science and nature.  In particular, large blow-ups of Hubble Telescope images of galaxies and nebulae, along with images of nature, maybe microscopic phenomena, etc.  

 

Whirlpool galaxy.

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Permalink Reply by Jan deBoer on September 23, 2011 at 4:53pm

Here's Toronto's Atheist "Church" -

 

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Permalink Reply by Daniel J Plaat on September 24, 2011 at 9:58am

link?, name, maybe? a front doesn't tell me much. thanks

 

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Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on September 23, 2011 at 7:20pm

As a concept, as opposed to reality, I would love to see a cathedral of life, a temple of knowledge, starting with your photo showing dinosaur skeletons in a glass-roofed hall.  It would have stone benches with imbedded fossils.  Walking around the hall, there would be stained glass images, beginning with the barren, volcano-studded earth, then images of early life, so that as one walked around the perimeter one would see the start/branch/stop/evolve/develop of evolution's eons of change.  Not with homo-sapiens as a pinnacle, but as an especially successful branch, for the moment.  Not a place with music, but with birdsong.  In alcoves, there would be fountains structured as waterfalls, with moss and ferns growing from the stones.  The cathedral would inspire the kind of awe that theist cathedrals invoke, but awe of the immense stretches of time, and endless diversity that have resulted as life evolve(d)(s) on earth.  It would have the accuracy of museums, but with staging designed to uplift the mind in wonder.

 

 

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Permalink Reply by mojo5501 on September 24, 2011 at 8:43am

Yes, that's more like it.  I love the birdsong idea....sounds of nature would be appropriate.

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Permalink Reply by Daniel J Plaat on September 24, 2011 at 10:00am

The pic you mention was of the oxford natural history museum. Very Victorian

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Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on September 24, 2011 at 10:33am

Quite beautiful.  It's filled with light, and at the same time you can see its skeleton.  The presence of the ceiling gives a greater impression of height than a completely open roof would.  It makes the dinosaur skeletons seem even larger.  (Please know I have no idea what Im talking about).

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Permalink Reply by Tarentola Mauritanica on September 24, 2011 at 3:23pm

"Simply, what would you like to see in a building for the godless?"
Frankly, i wouldnt want to see any "building for the godless".
I do not know why people want to seperate from churches and organized religion only to do the same stuff the others do. They start to label themselves "atheists" and wonder why theists claim that they "believe in atheism". They want to have "buildings" and wonder why theists claim they "preach in godless churches"...

 

Now that aside ... nice proposal (the pdf).

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Permalink Reply by Daniel J Plaat on September 25, 2011 at 11:19am

I can't reply to everyone but for the same reasons any people of like mind get together. for where I'm coming from, and to everyone else with simaler comments, I refer to Dan Dennett YouTube - ‪Daniel C. Dennett on What Should Replace Religions? 

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Permalink Reply by jackie browne on September 25, 2011 at 4:13am

royce yeah i wouldnt call it a church..a place where you can meet new people and kids can play freely like a good old once a week luch/bbq..but not on sunday as its not a church....listen to anyone who wanted to air their views etc and get comments and good discussion...what would i call an athiest meeting place.......well i think thats hard without making it sound churchy..

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