Time Immortal

Well, I guess that it should technically be called a humanist church — but then, atheism and humanism have been close allies for some time, and most of the “big players” on the atheistic scene — Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett for example, although not Christopher Hitchens — are also ardent humanists.

Still…

Ken Novak, a marketing analyst from Evanston, Ill., is an atheist. But that doesn’t stop him from going to services on Sundays. While there, he leads a discussion group and a book club, listens to the Sunday school children sing and finds fellowship with others.

Novak, 54, is a member of the Ethical Humanist Society of Chicago, a religious group that focuses on respecting others and does not worship a deity. He found it 16 years ago when looking for a nontheistic moral education for his children, and knew right away that he wanted to get involved.

“It’s a place where atheists and agnostics can get what a lot of people get out of church and temple,” Novak said of the society.

Novak is part of the growing group of American atheists who have left traditional Religions but still feel a desire to be part of a religious group. Many had a positive experience with religion before losing their faith and now miss the community, the tradition and the chance to talk about values with like-minded people. So they join religious organizations that are accepting of atheists, form churches just for atheists or even attend traditional theistic churches.

And yet people get all funny when I speak of atheism as some sort of quasi-religion. I’ll have more to say on that issue a little later today, if I find time to write, but let this be at least an interesting appetizer, O Reader.

And lest anyone think this ‘church’ is a one-off…it isn’t.