Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by PanchoTaffy on March 4, 2012 at 8:09am

I agree, they seem to have missed the point of atheism.  Call it something else, but church is the wrong name.  

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Permalink Reply by Carl Rowley on March 4, 2012 at 9:05am

Hmmm, I'm at 6's and 7's on this. On the one hand it's complete bullshit, an oxymoron, a fallacy etc etc...but on the other hand, one of religions greatest strengths and pretty much the sole reason for its longevity is its institutions. Its infrastructure and in a weird way, the unity of its clergy (and I mean unity in a very loose sense) are also major factors...but without the institutions, religions die.
This is something that the atheist community has always lacked by its very nature. Maybe it is time that atheism and atheists became manifest in an organisational entity, maybe that will turn out to be the best weapon in "the war on religion" (and again, I use this term very loosely).

Thesaurus.com gives some nice alternatives to the word Church:
basilica, bethel, chancel, chantry, fold, mission, oratory, sacellum, sanctuary, tabernacle being the most neutral of the terms on offer. Maybe the Tabernacle of Atheism might be better!!!

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Permalink Reply by SteveInCO on March 4, 2012 at 10:14am

The last thing we need is to give the religious another excuse to claim that atheism is a religion.

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Permalink Reply by Kris Feenstra on March 4, 2012 at 8:52pm

It's nothing to me.  I tend to favour the individualistic approach.  My atheism is my atheism; their atheism is their atheism.  In this case the use of terms like 'church' and 'minister' is about taking advantage of privileges afforded to religious institutions.

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Permalink Reply by Wynprks on March 5, 2012 at 2:41am

I think you're confusing "Minister" with "Ministry," A trip to Wikipedia came up with many kinds of Ministers, there's an Agriculture minister, a Business minister, a Commerce minister, a Communication minister, a Culture minister, a Defense minister, an Education minister, an Energy minister etc. etc.  So "atheist minister" doesn't mean they're attached to a religious organization (unless they've changed the meaning of the word "church".)  Actually religion has nothing to do with a legal marriage, you'll still need a marriage license. A marriage minister could be a judge or a ships captain, the church represents a type of marriage ceremony, not the legalities of a civil union. Their use of the word "church" makes it a little suspicious to me.

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Permalink Reply by Kris Feenstra on March 5, 2012 at 2:54am

In this case, 'minister' refers to an atheist analogue to the religious office.

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Permalink Reply by Dean Stretch on March 5, 2012 at 4:25am

Hi everyone.

I’m somewhat perplexed about this.

I agree with Carl, that Atheism needs a recognised institution of some sort or another even if it’s just a means to an end, but we need to be very careful with this. We should be very wary that atheism follows the same 'historic" path theism has followed, in that; organised theism is institutionalised by its very nature. Atheism is non-conformity to the institution of religion. So how could we possibly pigeon hole Atheists into this type of group?

Now, I had a look at this web page for "The Church of Atheism": (Consider me Ordained :P)

The first thing I noticed was the "add to card link", then donations section. There is nothing too untoward about this so far. I mean THINKATHEIST has the same thing. Then there is a link where you can become ordained "For Free". Problem!  One thing I have learned in life that nothing is for free. When I see the words (on any internet web page) "for free", I start looking for smelly cyber rats.

If this web page is genuine (and don’t think it is) then perhaps the creators of it are a little misguided or at least a little delusional or just short of cash? Big whoop! 5577 ordained ministers, so what!?

Na, I think this has a more sinister agenda. Call me paranoid but this smells like cyber rats at work.

If I were to get married I would certainly NOT use an ordained atheist to perform the ceremony. I would ask a close friend or a relative to facilitate. Not some so called "ordained" minister who clicked on a web link once upon a time.

Oh! And P.S. - If this "church" does ever become a reality, I would like services to be held on Monday's. I could use a shorter work week. :)

 

Cheers

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Permalink Reply by Ceci on March 5, 2012 at 3:07pm

i agree with you... the best thing in atheism is that 
we don't need a church, so i can't see the point too.

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Permalink Reply by Rob Klaers on March 5, 2012 at 3:34pm

I think having a church and ministers just feeds in to the concept some have of Atheism being a religion.. I can hear it now.."If Atheism isn't a religion why do they have a church..?"..

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Permalink Reply by Julia Arena Miller on March 5, 2012 at 4:13pm

I agree there should be no church of atheism. The point of atheism is not to have a church isn't it? And if they need some one to marry people who don't have a church, they don't need to create a church, they need to use a notary public. Works just fine every time.

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Permalink Reply by Sebĉjo on March 5, 2012 at 6:26pm

That's just ridiculous.

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Permalink Reply by Deborah Moreno on March 5, 2012 at 9:03pm

There is no point, and it makes it so much easier for people to insist that atheism is a religon or belief system.

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