Echoing with joyful song and with a congregation bent on leading better lives, this London church is like any other — except there’s no mention of God.
Britain’s atheist church is barely three months old but it already has more “worshippers” than can fit into its services, while more than 200 non-believers worldwide have contacted organisers to ask how they can set up their own branch.
Officially named The Sunday Assembly, the church was the brainchild of Pippa Evans and Sanderson Jones, two comedians who suspected there might be an appetite for atheist gatherings that borrowed a few aspects of religious worship.
Held in an airy, ramshackle former church in north London, their quirky monthly meetings combine music, speeches and moral pondering with large doses of humour.
“There’s so much about Church that has nothing to do with God — it’s about meeting people, it’s about thinking about improving your life,” said Jones, a gregarious 32-year-old with a bushy beard and a laugh like a thunderclap.
The Sunday Assembly’s central tenets are to “help often, live better and wonder more” — themes that would not be out of keeping with the teachings of any major world religion.
At last Sunday’s service, which had a volunteering theme, songs included “Help” by the Beatles and “Holding Out For A Hero” by Bonnie Tyler.
The “sermon” was given by the founder of an education charity, while in a section called Pippa Is Trying Her Best, Evans had the congregation in stitches as she reported on her attempts at voluntary work.
The service ended with big cheers and — this is Britain, after all — shouts of “Who would like a cup of tea?”
Like many Western countries, Britain is becoming an increasingly faithless nation.
While a majority still consider themselves Christians, census data revealed in December that their numbers plummeted from 72 percent in 2001 to 59 percent in 2011.
The proportion of Britons with no religion, meanwhile, shot up from 15 percent to 25 percent over the same period.
But the Sunday Assembly’s success — 400 Londoners packed into last week’s two services, while 60 had to be turned away at the door — suggests many urban atheists crave the sense of community that comes with joining a church.
“You can spend all day in London not talking to anyone,” said Evans. “I think people really want somewhere they can go and meet other people, which doesn’t involve drinking and which you don’t have to pay to get into.”
It’s an idea that is catching the attention of atheists further field.
Jones reels off the locations of would-be atheist “vicars” who have asked to set up new branches.
“Colombia, Bali, Mexico, Houston, Silicon Valley, Philadelphia, Ohio, Calgary, all across Britain, The Hague, Vienna… It’s so ludicrously exciting that my head occasionally — literally — spins round.”
The pair cheerfully admit that they have “ripped off” many elements of their services from the Christian Church. “You’re asking people to do new things, so it makes sense for it to be familiar,” said Jones.
Religious people have been broadly supportive of the aims of the atheist church. “The only thing is, they’ve said they’ll have to think about what to do if it gets bigger,” Evans laughed.
“Actually, the biggest aggression towards us has probably been from atheists saying that we’re ruining atheism and not not believing in God properly. So that’s quite funny.”
The assembly met the approval of local vicar Dave Tomlinson, who came from his church two miles away to see what his new rivals were up to.
“Being here, I felt there was as much of what I call ‘God’ as there was in my own church this morning,” he said. “Everything we’ve said here would be completely at home in my church. I hope it grows and sustains.”
The second Sunday Assembly launches in the Scottish city of Glasgow at the end of March, while Evans will open an Australian branch in April.
She and Jones say they don’t want to exert too much control over any new assemblies — but they will keep a watchful eye over them.
“We only need one child sacrifice at a Sunday Assembly to spoil it for everyone,” Jones joked.
As for how far the idea could eventually spread, the pair are in the dark.
“Who knows?” said Evans. “We have no idea. We’re just enjoying finding out what it is.”
Can we get an Englisher LF poster go in there and give us a report?
getfiscal posted:
ah yes, the old classic "there is no god" to "there is no god but allah"
ahaha I bet they do things like discuss self help books! ahaha Ibet you have to be a desperate alienated suburbanite to flailingly grasp at what you probably know is false hope in a book! those stupid people ahaha ps smash capital
drwhat posted:I mean seriously of all the things to make fun of, here we have professed internet communists pointing and laughing at some everyday presumably middle or working class english people doing something a little odd to try and recreate some kind of sense of community and fraternal humanity which capitalism has so casually torn away from our daily lives
ahaha I bet they do things like discuss self help books! ahaha Ibet you have to be a desperate alienated suburbanite to flailingly grasp at what you probably know is false hope in a book! those stupid people ahaha ps smash capital
Because atheists, especially smug middle class english 'comedian' types are more complicit than nearly anyone in dismantling the last vestiges of social cohesion that organized religion provides. They've heckled, jeered and undermined everything that didn't tick the boxes on their Logic report card and now they're left holding their dicks in theirs hands in a broken, atomized society
“You can spend all day in London not talking to anyone,” said Evans. “I think people really want somewhere they can go and meet other people, which doesn’t involve drinking and which you don’t have to pay to get into.”
They tore down faith and community and common purpose and erected a regime of sarcasm and smartphones in it's stead. And now they have the temerity to try and appropriate (in a ham-fisted and thoughtless way) the very ethics they've spent so much time denouncing.
This is a perfect example of the bankruptcy, nihilism and all-encompassing selfishness that lies at the heart of Atheism.
Zen_Punk posted:im sorry. i was only rejecting god to be cool. if i accept jesus into my heart will they close down the walmart and give grandpa his old job back
This isn't about an individual's attitude towards Jesus or Mohammed, it's about communal values and societal cohesion.
Capitalism has obviously caused the bulk of that disintegration, but Atheists are it's foot soldiers. Say you're a company that wants to make "Little SLut" t-shirts for toddlers to get those sweet profits, none of that would be remotely feasible were it not for atheists enthusiastically chipping away at systems of morality (or 'boundaries' if you want to make it less loaded) and decency.
discipline posted:yeah I don't know all the rules of twitter so I guess I fell for a doozy. some sex worker union from nevada was tweeting at me and so I tweeted back and I guess it's spamming or harassment even though I only tweeted back once
the tweet was like "are we gonna end the food trade now that there is food trafficking?" or some ish
What did you say?
discipline posted:I said last time I checked johns didn't need women's bodies to live
They do kinda ‘need’ them from their perspective at least
Too many advertising promises then no sex make homer something something
discipline posted:I said last time I checked johns didn't need women's bodies to live
I mean, running with gyrofry’s theme: People in Gaza certainly ‘live’ (and longer than residents of America’s capital city at that) but are they really ‘living’ under the threat of fear and insecurity?
Lots of John’s are the same: unless you have some disneyfied idea about fate and destiny and romance, many men simply cannot attract a woman, often through the fault of genetics and circumstance more than their own moral deficiencies. Is that ‘living’? Collecting Katanas and emptying the bins at Kinkos, constantly surrounded by promises and boasts of pleasure and intimacy and yet completely walled off from such joys?
This certainly isn’t a claim that men have a ‘right’ to women’s body. However, it would seem churlish and petty to deny them the right to TRY and get a flicker of that pleasure, and visiting a prostitute would seem to be one of those potential avenues.
Ironicwarcriminal posted:
qq
you can't Have community unless you believe in my invisible old man. no. no don't build it. no! there is only one true process through which moralitty can be apprehended and that is my way you little shit. ill write an internet post about your belligerence so help me god
ARE YOU HAVING A BAKE SALE you fucks we did it first youFUCKS
drwhat posted:Ironicwarcriminal posted:
you can't Have community unless you believe in my invisible old man. no. no don't build it. no! there is only one true process through which moralitty can be apprehended and that is my way you little shit. ill write an internet post about your belligerence so help me god
ARE YOU HAVING A BAKE SALE you fucks we did it first youFUCKS
What I’m saying is that atheism has had many hundreds of years in which to assert itself as the true heir to humanity’ future. Yet here in 2013, in one of the most secular and intellectually rich nations of the world, they’re reduced to stealing millennia-old ideas from organizations they despise as being “backwards”.
I’m not mad at them for ‘not believing in my sky wizard’, if anything I’m angry because I’ve been forced into a position of embarrassment by having to watch such a lame, pathetic sight.