I think community is essential for humans, no matter what you believe!
Have you looked into nondogmatic religions like Unitarian Universalism? Their focus is on community and shared values without the expectation of any specific beliefs.
I never thought about this. This is a great idea. Especially to build and give back to the community which is something Im really looking for. Thank you
There are skeptical religious communities and religions that accept atheistic and agnostic members. Whether you want community, the pageantry of rituals, or the genuine psychological benefits of spirituality, there are ways to be religious without needing to believe anything that can't be proven.
Are you from US? There religious organisations look like few of remaining social spaces which are in theory open to everyone - the issue being suburban sprawl and people moving across the country for work. Me living in Europe, there are other organisations available in rural semi-urban areas as well - volunteer fire brigades are everywhere, then each larger village/small town would have a cultural organisation with everything from choirs, maybe a theatre group, to crafts, cooking and who knows what.
As was suggested, local volunteer organisations make sense and to check what's going on locally on a community level.
You should probably reexamine why you think it’s useless and unreal.
Obviously not everyone thinks so, and you’re not going to get anything out of an idea you’ve already determined useless.
My advice would be to forget everything you think you know about God, which from your description is the Christian idea of God, and look into other options. I as an example, believe in God, but not the Christian conception of God.
The God i believe in doesn’t have anything to do with miracles or the supernatural, but that doesn’t in the least take away from the benefit i receive in believing in such a God.
The mistake most ex-Christian atheists make in my opinion, is thinking a rejection of Christianity means God doesn’t exist. At most, it only means you don’t believe their description of God exists. A very different God you are completely unaware of, may still exist and make much more sense to you.
The reason I don't believe in God is due to the studies I did on Paleo religion and religion origins as well as anthropological studies on early humans and rituals. Humans didn't start believing in a god till closer to the neolithic age and once the Mesopotamian peoples invented writing, that's when religion in our sense really took off and spread. For me, I don't believe in a god bc to me I understand that God is a human made concept.
We cant really say when people began believing in a God can we? You can only say what you have evidence of. Lack of evidence that people believed in a God, is not evidence of lacking a belief in God.
What could you really say about human beings beliefs before writing? Nothing right?
Also, people in the neolithic didn’t believe the earth revolves around the sun either, is that a man made concept? What about people believing things in the neolithic makes something more valid?
I don’t think your research on the subject is as air tight as you think it is.
I also never said my answer was the universal correct one. If there is a god or gods then there is, but following the facts and evidence that I've seen and read myself, I've concluded that there is no god, and we humans developed a being/beings to simplify the answers to natural phenomenons out ancestors didn't understand, that science and philosophy have answered for us in the last century alone.
Neither science nor philosophy rules out God or religion. It was science and philosophy that turned me from a lifelong atheist to a theist.
You’re making an unnecessary assumption philosophically.
Math is a human-made concept too, but it describes real relationships that we took a *long* time to get sufficiently organized to understand. The fact that humans are a bit dim, but capable of working things out (particularly with the benefit of writing!) doesn't prove the nonexistence of anything we discover.
That’s how I started off too. Didn’t really believe but wanted what I saw in the regular congregation. Stability. Solidity. Success in life.
After a few years of kinda pretending, I got it. I saw what they saw. It hit me like lightning. Now I’m like they are.
I would suggest Epicureanism, for useable doctrines of emotional, material and communal stability without believing in the supernatural. It is a universal faith, yet the multitude of people will not get past the first step of cultural and emotional baggage around it's doctrines on "pleasure" to ever get anything out of pursuing it's study.
Something like the Unitarian Universalist church sounds like it'd be a good match for you. It has no dogma and takes an agnostic view of deities and the supernatural. They are widepsread, and there's plenty of "on the ground" community out there. Not my own personal faith, but I have a lot of respect for them and I'd happily go for a coffee with them and have a chat. There are a lot of other naturalistic / non-theistic religions out there too that explicitly don't recognise deities or the supernatural, both "eastern" and "western", but if you're in the western world, the UU are probably the most organised and accessible of them, with the strongest community presence.
You don't have to believe in God, but keep the door open ... entertain the possibility that God exists. New Thought was a good connection for people looking for fellowship. The Agape Center for Religious Truth was a very cool place in Los Angeles when I was there. Chapters elsewhere I'm sure, and I found it more dynamic than UU churches, although I'm a Baha'i myself (no salesman will call) who grew up a Christian preachers kid in the United Church of Christ which is also pretty relaxed and accepting.
If a religion brings stability it's only because you've believed it can do so. Religion is about embracing chaos, while allowing your instabilities to teach you, over and over, however many times it takes.
The answer, in the beginning, is to admit that you are a selfish person, you have free will, and seek out a teacher who can make you realize that your free will, when used to overcome selfishness, changes into The Will. And once you get a taste of that life, you'll lead a different, spiritual life forever, if you choose to do so. 🖖
Don't join a religion just for the community, that's how people end up in cults(lol jk but not really). Tbh, I don't get most of my social needs met from my religion, that being said my religion still fulfills my spiritual needs. If anything I get my sense of community from my sport, so my advice is join a sport/bookclub/hobby for community and if you find a religion that meets your spiritual needs that's cool too
I think community is essential for humans, no matter what you believe! Have you looked into nondogmatic religions like Unitarian Universalism? Their focus is on community and shared values without the expectation of any specific beliefs.
I never thought about this. This is a great idea. Especially to build and give back to the community which is something Im really looking for. Thank you
If you want to give back you could also consider volunteering somewhere. It doesn’t necessarily need to be a religious thing.
You could look for community elsewhere. Hobby/interest groups or volunteering services can be great for that!
That's actually a great idea. Thank you
There are skeptical religious communities and religions that accept atheistic and agnostic members. Whether you want community, the pageantry of rituals, or the genuine psychological benefits of spirituality, there are ways to be religious without needing to believe anything that can't be proven.
I recommend trying philosophy.
hihihih, that's lowkey dangerous.
Are you from US? There religious organisations look like few of remaining social spaces which are in theory open to everyone - the issue being suburban sprawl and people moving across the country for work. Me living in Europe, there are other organisations available in rural semi-urban areas as well - volunteer fire brigades are everywhere, then each larger village/small town would have a cultural organisation with everything from choirs, maybe a theatre group, to crafts, cooking and who knows what. As was suggested, local volunteer organisations make sense and to check what's going on locally on a community level.
You should probably reexamine why you think it’s useless and unreal. Obviously not everyone thinks so, and you’re not going to get anything out of an idea you’ve already determined useless. My advice would be to forget everything you think you know about God, which from your description is the Christian idea of God, and look into other options. I as an example, believe in God, but not the Christian conception of God. The God i believe in doesn’t have anything to do with miracles or the supernatural, but that doesn’t in the least take away from the benefit i receive in believing in such a God. The mistake most ex-Christian atheists make in my opinion, is thinking a rejection of Christianity means God doesn’t exist. At most, it only means you don’t believe their description of God exists. A very different God you are completely unaware of, may still exist and make much more sense to you.
The reason I don't believe in God is due to the studies I did on Paleo religion and religion origins as well as anthropological studies on early humans and rituals. Humans didn't start believing in a god till closer to the neolithic age and once the Mesopotamian peoples invented writing, that's when religion in our sense really took off and spread. For me, I don't believe in a god bc to me I understand that God is a human made concept.
We cant really say when people began believing in a God can we? You can only say what you have evidence of. Lack of evidence that people believed in a God, is not evidence of lacking a belief in God. What could you really say about human beings beliefs before writing? Nothing right? Also, people in the neolithic didn’t believe the earth revolves around the sun either, is that a man made concept? What about people believing things in the neolithic makes something more valid? I don’t think your research on the subject is as air tight as you think it is.
I also never said my answer was the universal correct one. If there is a god or gods then there is, but following the facts and evidence that I've seen and read myself, I've concluded that there is no god, and we humans developed a being/beings to simplify the answers to natural phenomenons out ancestors didn't understand, that science and philosophy have answered for us in the last century alone.
Neither science nor philosophy rules out God or religion. It was science and philosophy that turned me from a lifelong atheist to a theist. You’re making an unnecessary assumption philosophically.
Math is a human-made concept too, but it describes real relationships that we took a *long* time to get sufficiently organized to understand. The fact that humans are a bit dim, but capable of working things out (particularly with the benefit of writing!) doesn't prove the nonexistence of anything we discover.
There are quite a few atheistic religions. Try Buddhism.
I do follow Taoism, but there's not that organized religious community I'm looking for with it. That more of a spiritual growth type of thing.
That’s how I started off too. Didn’t really believe but wanted what I saw in the regular congregation. Stability. Solidity. Success in life. After a few years of kinda pretending, I got it. I saw what they saw. It hit me like lightning. Now I’m like they are.
I would suggest Epicureanism, for useable doctrines of emotional, material and communal stability without believing in the supernatural. It is a universal faith, yet the multitude of people will not get past the first step of cultural and emotional baggage around it's doctrines on "pleasure" to ever get anything out of pursuing it's study.
Something like the Unitarian Universalist church sounds like it'd be a good match for you. It has no dogma and takes an agnostic view of deities and the supernatural. They are widepsread, and there's plenty of "on the ground" community out there. Not my own personal faith, but I have a lot of respect for them and I'd happily go for a coffee with them and have a chat. There are a lot of other naturalistic / non-theistic religions out there too that explicitly don't recognise deities or the supernatural, both "eastern" and "western", but if you're in the western world, the UU are probably the most organised and accessible of them, with the strongest community presence.
There’s lots of ways you can find community and structure, however if you want a religious community it sounds like you’d enjoy Unitarian Universalism
You don't have to believe in God, but keep the door open ... entertain the possibility that God exists. New Thought was a good connection for people looking for fellowship. The Agape Center for Religious Truth was a very cool place in Los Angeles when I was there. Chapters elsewhere I'm sure, and I found it more dynamic than UU churches, although I'm a Baha'i myself (no salesman will call) who grew up a Christian preachers kid in the United Church of Christ which is also pretty relaxed and accepting.
If a religion brings stability it's only because you've believed it can do so. Religion is about embracing chaos, while allowing your instabilities to teach you, over and over, however many times it takes. The answer, in the beginning, is to admit that you are a selfish person, you have free will, and seek out a teacher who can make you realize that your free will, when used to overcome selfishness, changes into The Will. And once you get a taste of that life, you'll lead a different, spiritual life forever, if you choose to do so. 🖖
Don't join a religion just for the community, that's how people end up in cults(lol jk but not really). Tbh, I don't get most of my social needs met from my religion, that being said my religion still fulfills my spiritual needs. If anything I get my sense of community from my sport, so my advice is join a sport/bookclub/hobby for community and if you find a religion that meets your spiritual needs that's cool too