Building Communities of Atheists is Happening

The death of a beloved atheist woman in Los Angeles reminded me of the way atheists get find each other and need fellowship. She started a drop-in center for people considering leaving the faith or had already left and found themselves without friends or family.

In the two communities of "outcasts" I have fraternized with, gay people and atheists, it is common to find people alienated from their parents and siblings. It troubles some more than others. Unfortunate it is that family members think the "outcast" can simply change and conform to what they are supposed to be. 

The family members seldom consider changing themselves to conform to the outcast. It does happen family members reexamine their own attitudes and beliefs and open up to other ways of thinking. I remember hearing a father talk of learning about his son was gay. The family is New York Italian Catholic and was proud of that. The father was so distraught he told his wife and the other children to get in their car. He drove wildly around the city once saying, "We're all going to die tonight." Somehow he came to accept his gay son and became a leader in a gay rights organization. So many others I have known remain estranged. 

I heard years ago a colleague of mine, a professor of religion, told his students atheism is just another religion. Since atheists get together and run through a similar agenda at their meetings they are doing the same thing Christians do. Christians call it ritual. Atheists participate in rituals he claimed. Before Christians there were Pagans. Pagans performed and still perform rituals. Since some kind of religion existed before Christianity, in some cases Paganism, and rituals were passed down can we conclude Christians are really Pagans? 

What I have concluded is it will be next to impossible for atheists to form organizations as big and as wealthy as ones in religion. There are and will be atheist organizations but they will not be as uniform and disciplined. It may be the kind of individuals or maybe it is just the nature of not believing in any super natural being that limits the amount of common cause. 

Where I now live, an urban area of 650 thousand, there is a very active presence of atheists on the net. There are about 2,000 people on the Face Book group and growing. Regularly people sign on and express gratitude such a group exists. There are no doubt thousands of others. Only a few show up at the Sunday brunch.  

Community life of atheists is growing. It will take its own sweet time and develop in its own independent way.