An Atheist church?!?! Surely you jest!

[MynameisBlarney]

At first, I thought it was silly.
But then...not so silly.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/08/britains-atheist-church-is-ready-to-expand-globally/

[onehandle]

1. An obvious eventuality for any organized religion-ish group. nt

[MynameisBlarney]

2. Yup.

The only reason I don't think it's a completely bad idea, is the potential to meet cool folks.

[talkingmime]

3. Jean Paul Sartre would be proud.

[hobbit709]

4. Naw. He's still waiting for some clown who never showed up.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

7. I saw this hilarious cartoon...

It's an office. You can see the moon through the window behind the desk, so it's obviously very late. Sitting at the desk, tied to the chair and gagged, is some middle-aged, managerial type. He's clearly not going anywhere.

Nameplate on the desk: Godot.

Funny stuff.

[talkingmime]

5. "And don't call me Shirley."

[MynameisBlarney]

6. I picked a bad day

to stop sniffing glue.

[talkingmime]

10. "THEY'RE COMING RIGHT AT US!"

"Just kidding."

"I'll take Ham on five, hold the Mayo."

"Excuse me stewardess. I speak jive."

"Do you like movies about gladiators?"

"I can make a hat, or a broach, or a teridactyl."

"Municipal bonds."

"Assume crash positions!"

"It's the little room in the front of the plane, but that's not important right now."

"Have you ever seen a grown man naked?"

"Seven. George Zip died this morning."

"There's a small inflation tube just below his belt."

"Do you have the vector Victor?"
"Roger, Roger."
"We have clearance, Clarence."

--
I love that movie.

[MynameisBlarney]

11. lol

me too

[talkingmime]

12. I've seen it a few times, in case you couldn't tell.

[MynameisBlarney]

23. Same here lol

Top Secret is another one of my all time favorites.

[talkingmime]

31. Haven't seen that one. With all of the video stores being defunct selections are rather limited.

RedBox is okay, but they don't have all that many offerings and the machines are typically depleted by 5 p.m.

I preferred the video stores even though they costed more. At least there was a wide offering.

[MynameisBlarney]

32. I hear ya.

It's probably on youtube by now.
Either in 10 minute chunks, or the full movie.
Watch it if you get a chance.
You won't regret it.

[talkingmime]

36. I found trailers on YouTube but not the full movie. I don't do Netflix or similar.

And I hate the 10 minute chunks. I got lucky a few years back and found the ENTIRE movie "The Wall" on YouTube. It's since been taken down, but I downloaded it to my machine. It's wide screen and very high quality.

[MynameisBlarney]

37. I've watched quite a few movies

in the chunks on youtube.
Some are fairly seemless, but others are so mangled as to be unwatchable.

It's probably available through Amazon or eBay.

[bike man]

39. Have you tried your library for movies? Even though we live in a small town, we have

an excellent public library which has a huge selection of movies - some new, others quite old. For example, we watched "Pride of the Yankees" (made in 1942) last week. On DVD even.

[MynameisBlarney]

41. A public lieberry?

That's soshulist!

[bike man]

45. If you go in, don't look right as you wander around, you should be ok.

[Ron Obvious]

14. Did you ever watch the TV series Police Squad?

The TV series, which ran for 6 obscure episodes, not the movies which were merely funny.

[talkingmime]

15. I'm not familiar with it, but I haven't watched TV in over 30 years.

[Ron Obvious]

16. It's from the mid eighties...

I haven't watched TV for decades either, except for DVD series.

But Police Squad came out in the mid 80's, right after Airplane, and it's exactly the same thing. It was totally straight-faced, like the movie, and done by the same people (Zucker Bros, Leslie Nielsen). TV audiences just don't have the same attention span that movie audiences do. You'll love it.

"How did you figure it out, Frank?"

"Oh, just a hunch, back at the office"

"I thought as much, and I brought that hunchback with me". Frank shakes hands with hunchback.

[talkingmime]

17. Ah, a movie then. Isn't that about when he did the "Naked Gun" (or something) movies?

[Ron Obvious]

18. No, a TV series.

No, it really was a TV series that ran for 6 of the lowest rated episodes in TV history. It parodied Quin Martin Production TV shows like the Streets of San Francisco the way Airplane parodied Airport disaster movies.

It was a flop because there was no laugh track and it was done totally straight, with the same hyper-literalism of Airplane, milking every cliche of the genre.

It was revived several years later as the Naked Gun movies, but those weren't nearly as brilliant as the TV series

You literally notice something new every time you watch it.

Here's the first episode:

[MynameisBlarney]

19. Ah, thank you!!!

Loved this show!

[OriginalGeek]

29. I remember and love that show.

Saw all 6 episodes back when you had to actually be there when it was on. No DVR or video tapes for me back then!


Also, back to OP: No drinking? I am an atheist but no way I'd want to hang out in a crowded room full of 'em without some alcohol.

And they'd say the same about me.

[MynameisBlarney]

33. Whoa! Hold the phone there OG!

I never said nuthin about there not being no libations!

*take THAT! grammar nazis!*

I wholeheartedly encourage imbibing...
*looks around*
Ahem...in moderation, of course.

[OriginalGeek]

34. lol, ok then - I'll come to YOUR branch

but not this guy's:

“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.”

(found about half way down the article)

[MynameisBlarney]

35. LOL

Well, to be fair, according to some articles I've read, England does have a bit of a binge drinking problem at the moment.
So, maybe in their case, a respite from alcohol is a good thing.

But as for me.
I have no binge drinking problem at all.
I drink socially every day.

I drink VERY socially on weekends.

[rrneck]

40. That videotape bit makes me fall out of my chair every time. nt

[TM99]

8. When the Buddha taught 2500 years ago

he was insistent that he was not starting a new religion but rather freeing people from the current religion of his region - Hinduism. During his life, he never allowed the six hallmarks of a religion to define him or his teachings. Houston Smith says that all religions include six things - authority, tradition, mystery, grace, ritual and speculation. After he died, all bets were off, and much of Buddhism today does indeed have all of those six traits especially ones like Tibetan Tantra but not so much Theravadic.

His original teachings were instead empirical, psychological as opposed to metaphysical, scientific (for the time), pragmatic, therapeutic, individualistic, and egalitarian. Atheists today are much the same. They are freeing us yet again from the strictures of religion. Yet, a community is always important, and there is something psychological within the human animal which, no matter how hard it tries, always seems to create religion for itself.

Perhaps we are witnessing the start of the Atheist religion of the future? In 2500 years, it will have an authority, tradition, mystery, grace, ritual, and speculation as well.

[bamacrat]

9. Whats the point?

I always thought the great thing about not believing is not having to go to church. I have a cousin who is a fellow non believer and he asked if I would like to go to an atheist conference. I declined citing my enjoyment of lack or organization as a big draw for me. The whole group think thing is unappealing to me.

[talkingmime]

44. Athiests deny the existance of gods. While I don't believe in them, I can neither prove or disprove.

That makes me an agnostic. Perhaps gods exist, but I just don't buy it. I can't prove they don't, so I'm agnostic. But my belief is in the science behind the creation of the universe, not mythology. And frankly I think the science is wrong in a lot of ways. I'd have loved to have been alive to have gotten stoned with Einstein. Then again, I can't prove that he ever got stoned.

[csziggy]

13. The agnostics beat them to it, but were too apathetic to push it

http://apatheticagnostic.org/contents.html

WARNING
A caution to visitors

This site deals with the doctrine of Apathetic Agnosticism in a combination of total seriousness and sophomoric humour. It is up to you, the visitor, to determine which is which.

Once upon a time we used to advise visitors that if their personal religious sensibilities meant they would risk being offended by what is found here, then they should promptly press the BACK BUTTON on the browser and go somewhere else. This advice has generally been ignored, as evidenced by some of the mail we have received and by a few of the comments in the Visitor's Book (no longer available). So now, we invite you to enter the site and get totally offended.* Really, we don't care! Remember, if the views expressed herein offend you, it is highly probable that your own religious views offend us.

* If you are in a hurry to get offended, we invite you to read Reflection 6 in the Reflections on Ethics section under Essays.

Background to Apathetic Agnosticism

There are those that see agnosticism as only a way-station, an intermediate step for those still trying to decide whether to believe in God (or a god or gods) or to absolutely believe in no gods exist at all. Agnosticism is seen as a refuge for those who cannot make up their minds.

What this site seeks to illustrate is that agnosticism in itself is a legitimate end position in religious belief. We do not know because we cannot know. The ultimate truth about the existence of a Supreme Being is unknowable. Recognizing this, we can free ourselves from a fruitless search and indeed, no longer care about answering the question. This does not mean we don't care about agnosticism.

Our Articles of Faith

The existence of a Supreme Being is unknown and unknowable.

If there is a Supreme Being, then that being appears to act as if entirely apathetic to events in our universe.

We are apathetic to the existence or non-existence of a Supreme Being.
http://apatheticagnostic.org/ourchurch/intro.html

[MynameisBlarney]

20. Damn lazy Agnostics!

And get off the fence why don'tcha!?!?!

Seriously though, they sound like my kinda peoples.

[csziggy]

21. I've been following the UCTAA for over a decade.

The Universal Church Triumphant of the Apathetic Agnostic (since it's too long to fit in the subject line) for a long time. Someday I might join, but I just haven't cared enough to do so.

If you use the Wayback Machine to find their early pages, their early essays are great. College humor, but reasonably considered. As time went by, they have gotten more in depth and more serious.

I like that they explain why deciding the existence/non-existence of a deity is more trouble than it's worth.

[MynameisBlarney]

22. I will have to check that site out later

"I like that they explain why deciding the existence/non-existence of a deity is more trouble than it's worth."

True, but it can be fun when trolling a rabid churchy.

*disclaimer*

I do not lump all religious folks into the rabid churchy category, as I have many many friends and relatives that are very religious, but not in everyones face about it.

[csziggy]

25. I just no longer have the energy to poke at religious types

The ones that get in my face about their religion I just do my best to avoid. Unfortunately I am descended from a long line of rabidly fundamentalist religious types. Fortunately, most of the worst have passed on to whatever reward/punishment/nothingness they might have reaped.

I do know people who are very religious but most of them are quite respectful of alternative beliefs. For instance in the one group I am active in, we have members who are conservative Anglican, Orthodox Jews, non-believers, and Baptists. We don't discuss beliefs, though we will talk about cultural activities of the various religions.

Locally, the various churches and groups are cooperating in promoting ethnic cultural celebrations: http://news.wfsu.org/post/perspectives-international-festivals I love that they are working together and not at odds. (A note - the page there has messed up links. Just copy the links and paste in your browser.)

[MynameisBlarney]

26. I still do, though it is not as abundant as it once was

But when faced with willfully ignorant people that think the world is only 6000 years old and want to legislate their morality onto everyone else.
I can't help but confront and harshly ridicule them and their beliefs.

But you know, it really just all boils down to that one simple word, dunnit?

Respect.

[talkingmime]

42. Agnostics are NOT lazy. They just haven't decided.

[MynameisBlarney]

47. I know

It was a poor attempt at humor on my part.

[talkingmime]

48. Well it was still funny.

[MynameisBlarney]

49. Well thank ya muchly

[siligut]

24. If you are oppressed by religious people . . .

It would help people band together against the brain-washed masses.

[MynameisBlarney]

30. Agreed

[talkingmime]

43. "Repressed", but still...

[Warren Stupidity]

27. Modern Ethical movement started around 1877.

They established a-theistic institutions (ethical society, ethical humanist society, etc.) that still exist today and are essentially atheist 'churches'.

[MynameisBlarney]

28. Hmmm

I think I read about them a few years ago.

Will have check them out again.

[kwassa]

38. Many Unitarian churches are pretty close to this.

speaking as a cradle Unitarian, who is no more.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

46. UUs worship the Giver of Life.

The coffeepot!!!!

?v=1182193796000

[Bucky]

50. There used to be "Free Thought" churches all over America.

They started to die out in the 1930s when people realized not believing in God meant they could stay home Sunday morning and read through the funnies at a leisurely pace. Sometimes the jokes in Blondie took a while to sink in.