This post is prompted by some discussions among members of a local atheist group about building an atheist community.  

My ideas orignate from several months of thought on the subject of community.  A recent discussion thread in the groups online forum included descriptions of an Oregon-based community youth church, comments about the Flatirons Community Church (currently the second largest church in Colorado, based on weekly attendance), and another member's advocacy for recreating…

I continue to run up against this in my conversations with local atheists: "yes, but I still think there is a lot of bad that religions cause and we need to make them stop". This, of course is a paraphrase. I find it is always in response to any suggestion of setting aside the ranting and complaining about religions and moving on to creating community and doing service to address social and human problems.

So I am wondering to myself (since I can't seem to get anyone to engage in the…