WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE CHURCHES OF ATHEISM?

In Why Atheism Kills Community, David Goodhew wrote:

•    A decade ago, the Sunday Assembly — a self-styled “Church for Atheists” — was lionized by publications from The New York Times to Huffington Post to Britain’s Guardian. The Assembly aimed to offer the good bits of church, without the theology. It rapidly spread from central London to major cities in the U.K., North America, Europe, and Australasia. It offered a mix of community singing, motivational talks, fellowship, and community action. https://covenant.livingchurch.org/2023/07/21/why-atheism-kills-community/

Although atheist congregations had burst upon the Western horizon starting in 2013, a decade later they are on life support:

•    the Sunday Assembly movement is a shadow of its earlier years. A handful of branches continue (22 worldwide). (Goodhew)

Why? Goodhew explains that atheism is unable to build community:

•    Robert Putnam’s classic Bowling Alone articulated a thesis that succeeding decades continue to prove right. The more modern, the more alone. Most recently, a study showed how Americans have far fewer friends now than 30 years ago. In 1990, 55 percent of U.S. men said they had six or more close friends; by 2023, that figure had halved. One study suggests that loneliness is as harmful to health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. But we all know, instinctively, that loneliness is a curse. It is not good for men or women to be alone.

However, the problem seems to go beyond modernity itself:

•    a study by Richard Sosis, an anthropologist at the University of Connecticut who studied 200 American communes founded in the 19th century. Sosis found that 39 percent of religious communes were still functioning 20 years after their start, but only 6 percent of secular communes were alive after the same amount of time. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/secular-churches-rethink-their-sales-pitch/594109/

Another source digs for a deeper explanation for the failure of atheistic community:

•    Why this dramatic drop in attendance [in atheistic churches]? The fundamental answer seems to be the lack of a coherent binding force beyond the desire for community. Faith Hill, writing for the Atlantic about this decline, quotes one researcher as follows: ‘Being uninterested in something [i.e. religion] is about the least effective social glue, the dullest possible mobilising cry, the weakest affinity principle, that one can imagine.’ https://salt.london/articles/why-the-atheist-church-is-failing/

Building community requires more than merely rejecting religion and celebrating themselves as “brights.” The glue must be more than their slogan implies: “Our motto: live better, help often, wonder more. Our mission: to help everyone find and fulfill their full potential.”

A unifying vision must also require a rationale. Why should we “help everyone find and fulfill their full potential?” It might make us feel good and proud about ourselves, but morality based upon the personal returns soon grows old unless it is nurtured by deeper convictions regarding objective truths of right and wrong. However, atheism lacks such objective moral convictions, which can only be based upon a morality which transcends our own feelings—God Himself.

Besides, this motto also requires an anthropocentric (man-centered) worldview, which regards us as more valuable than mosquitoes and vipers. However, morally relativistic  atheism has no basis for making such a determination or that human population should not be reduced in favor of ticks or lice.

Nor can it affirm the equality of all humanity, another belief based upon God and His Bible. Materialistic atheism believes in the essential inequality of man—some are educated, some are not; some are likeable, some are not; some contribute to our welfare, some do not. Therefore, to be consistent, atheism should favor helping those from whom they can expect a return.

And why should atheism help others “fulfill their full potential,” since this worldview doesn’t acknowledge that this world of chance provides a meaning and purpose for our lives. Instead, we must arbitrarily decide on our own purpose. However, atheism has no justification to impose their concept of achieving our “full potential” upon others. Instead, this can be interpreted as condescending.

The same can be said about other secularized churches:

•    they don’t preach the same message you find in the Bible of God’s wrath against sin, and his peace deal brokered through the blood of his Son, Jesus. Instead, they preach a neutered and secularised version of Christianity, much more tame, and much more lame. They’re identifiable by their language of inclusion, their endorsement of all lifestyles, and their passionate embrace of all religions as essentially the same. But this is not Christianity, it’s just atheistic humanism with an organ and a few candles. They act as mere mirrors to the culture at large and so render themselves completely pointless, and devoid of interest. Their main message is about being nice, the very thing Jesus was emphatically not.

Therefore, is there any basis for shared convictions, moral beliefs, or any adequate basis for the unity required for community building? Certainly not. In contrast, The Bible-based community has been given an adequate foundation upon which to build:

•    Ephesians 4:1–3 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Even more importantly, it is impossible to live according to these teachings without the love and discipline of our Savior who trains and encourages us daily to persevere as we rely upon Him.