What Do 'Atheist Churches' Tell Us About Our Culture?

There is a strange phenomenon bubbling around at the fringes of our culture of groups of people who call themselves atheists gathering together in groups on Sunday mornings to do what they imagine churches are there to do - provide a bit of community, give a space for reflection and celebration, explore issues. The Sunday Assembly even had a meeting in Edinburgh and they have a rather appealing strapline:

live better, help often, wonder more

Their stated aim is to help people fulfil their potential and this is their charter:

1. Is 100% celebration of life. We are born from nothing and go to nothing. Let’s enjoy it together.
2. Has no doctrine. We have no set texts so we can make use of wisdom from all sources.
3. Has no deity. We don’t do supernatural but we also won’t tell you you’re wrong if you do.
4. Is radically inclusive. Everyone is welcome, regardless of their beliefs – this is a place of love that is open and accepting.
5. Is free to attend, not-for-profit and volunteer run. We ask for donations to cover our costs and support our community work.
6. Has a community mission. Through our Action Heroes (you!), we will be a force for good.
7. Is independent. We do not accept sponsorship or promote outside businesses, organisations or services
8. Is here to stay. With your involvement, The Sunday Assembly will make the world a better place
9. We won’t won’t tell you how to live, but will try to help you do it as well as you can
10. And remember point 1… The Sunday Assembly is a celebration of the one life we know we have

There's not much here to disagree with, though I am left wondering just how satisfied you would be with such a gathering if your life was not all shiny and happy, and I would be surprised if any of these gatherings would have the diversity of, say, an inner city Catholic parish, a Mosque in a medium sized town or even an Anglican cathedral. It sounds to me much more of a charter for the like-minded than any religion I know because it is a powerfully accurate description of a specific culture in a specific time and place - young, middle class, Western, liberal - the kind of audience you would get at a Fringe comedy show. By contrast, I might walk into any church in the UK and find myself standing next to someone whose politics I disagree with profoundly, whose lifestyle could not be more different than mine, whose income is far larger or far smaller than any of my friends' or colleagues', whose culture is a mystery to me, whose family looks nothing like mine.

Religious people have diverse motivations and diverse understandings of their faith. What they have in common is a sense that their faith makes the decisive difference in their lives. It is not something they add to the mix to make it sweeter, but a profound apprehension of the mystery of all life. They may not be able to verbalise their theology very eloquently, but they know that there is something far bigger than even the best product of their imaginations. And when it is working at its best, they do not find their traditions suffocating, but liberating - there is very deep-rooted wisdom here. The atheist churches may say that this is all very well, but why do the religious make it all so very difficult by insisting on that God stuff? My response to that challenge is that God is not a notion but a response to love. I can't do anything to convince you of the merciful, liberating love that I find myself responding to, but I hope you might see something powerful in the lives of those who have staked everything on such a response. And as for all that 'wonder'; where do you think that comes from?