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Notes -
To follow on from rockbier1218's excellent question and the responses below, does anyone have experience or advice with joining a church as an atheist (or more generally, how I might get more community in my life?)?
I'm looking to get more community in my life, and the two realistic ways I can see to get it is either through church or through some sort of interest group. I've largely ruled out the second since I don't really share interests with the people in my area and most of these groups end up pretty transient in my experience. I do have a friend that would likely introduce me to their church if I asked, I just want to think it through before broaching the question.
To be honest I think I would have a happier life if I had the capability for religious belief. The below thread was quite thought-provoking, but ultimately I don't think I can convince myself out of materialism and this really isn't the sort of thing that it's possible to force, even if I don't have any issues with the orthopraxy.
Is it heretical to be interested in religion only for the material benefits? I'm not sure, perhaps this is the cross that I have to bear.
Have you considered joining a fraternal or service organization e.g. Freemasons, Odd Fellows, Kiwanis, Rotary Club? They don't have the influence or membership they used to, but many are still around and eager for recruits. Some may require a basic profession of belief in a higher power to join, but it's a lot more vague and open to interpretation than becoming part of an established religion. Now it's possible that reaching out to one of these groups could result in a few elderly stragglers dumping the responsibility for maintaining a centuries-old fraternity on your shoulders, but that would still leave you with more to build on than trying to create a community completely from scratch.
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If you’re ruling out interest groups because you don’t have the interest, you should rule out religious groups where you don’t have the religion.
Have you considered volunteering? Pick something that’s not too stressful or depressing, maybe gets you outside of the climate allows. My sister joined some sort of local team which cleans and landscapes the local parks.
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I vaguely recall hearing (I think from Russ Roberts on EconTalk) that there is some debate in Jewish communities about whether belief in god is necessary for practicing Judaism. I vaguely recall him saying something about how there is no command in the Hebrew bible that people need to believe. I haven't done a whole lot of digging in to these schools of thought, so I don't really know if there are any communities like this or what they're like.
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I had similar thoughts as you a while back. And I have decided against it. Although I do not lack community as much as you seem to. Personally, if you do not think you are capable of belief I think you shouldn't go there. Or at least not with the idea of it being permanent.
You may ask you friend to show it to you. But make it clear you are probably not gonna be religious. And may be you may find some folks who you befriend and then you do stuff with them outside of church?
I have attended a theological seminar instead of church. By the way it was majority atheist I think. It was very interesting. As a life long atheist I learned a lot about Church, faith, bible etc. But it had no affect on my faith. And in some cases the beliefs of religious people felt so alien to me. I learned that even though I usually agreed with them broadly, the reasoning or something felt a little off.
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