community, church, taxationI’ve never seen one, have you?
Do they receive the same US tax breaks as all the other churches?
How do you go about establishing such a thing?
Churches in the US are 501(c)(3)’s with the added privilege that they don’t have to disclose their financials. Anyone can be a 501(c)(3) just file appropriately with the Secretary of State, for your state. This is the same method of incorporation that most Natural History Museums use, if that works for you.
Some states might diverge from the Federal government’s fairly unbiased stance, and provide different regulations and protections for the Church. I can’t speak for all states. I imagine there are a few southern states with income tax that are likely to get this wrong…
Also read the Wikipedia’s Non Profit US Tax law.
North Texas Church of Freethought, although I’ve never been:
http://www.churchoffreethought.org/
I would hesitate to use the term Church. Though I’m sure some people would like to, Atheism isn’t a belief system, it is simply the lack of belief in a specific type of supernatural entity. There are certainly atheist groups of all sizes and descriptions, but calling such a group a church seems like you’re misusing the idea of church.
This is a tough one, because as Atheists we do not offer the same social interaction of a church, and we are as easy to lead as cats. I have heard the Unitarians are inclusive, but to me there’s a lot of “spiritiuality” froo-froo there, and I don’t tolerate that much better than god-speak. It’s a good question, though, and something that as Atheists we should consider. A lot of people just go to church for the social aspect; we have nothing to offer them.
There is no such a thing as an atheist church and there never will be one. The reason is very simple: atheism does not positively believe in anything. You could say there are numerous candidates for beliefs held that are atheistic in nature, the main one’s being humanism, liberalism and socialism. However these ideologies do not tend to organize themselves in church-like organizations.
The closest I’ve seen is the Unitarian church, however they do not advocate atheism.
To paraphrase Jesus–a church is a gathering of two or more of his followers. I attend a Freethinker gathering once a month, about a dozen of us a month go out to dinner and discuss topics.
I did belong to a Unitarian Universalist church for a few years, but found the group as a whole to be leaning towards the “spiritual but not religious wink wink”. I prefer the less formal gatherings to the trappings of any church.
I guess the closest think to a ‘church’ that atheists might find themselves in are museums for their science needs and art galleries and concert halls for their ‘spiritual/aesthetic (non-religious connotations here)’ needs. They may even visit religious churches for the architecture and artwork (providing the walls and ceilings don’t collapse around them).
There is an existentialist church in the neighborhood I used to live in. It’s not structured around atheists per se, but there’s nothing like traditional reverence for deities there either. So depending on where you are and what exactly you’re after, there are likely a number of community organizations catering to non-traditional spiritual demands.
Harvard has a Humanist Chaplaincy. They recognize that there is some value to getting together and discussing values, ethics and doing the right thing. They also light a few candles and sing. There are many good reasons to do these things and leaving it to churches with creeds and membership restrictions is dangerous. You don't all have to agree on values to have a discussion about them, in fact the differences are what's important.
Atheism is not a religion! We don’t need churches.
I agree that atheists don’t need a church! Atheists don’t have to gather based on belief or lack of belief. There are better subjects to base one’s social life; books, academics, science, sports, entertainment, technology, just to name a few.
Scientology anyone? Technically they do not believe in god.
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