Church Community Benefits

Suggestion: go to church.It’s a built in community of people who are likely there because of ritual and tradition (am Catholic) and do not care about talking about startups or entrepreneurship (a breathtaking relief sometimes).Church and religion has gotten a lot well-justified complaints over the years, but by liberal and moderately-conservative people abandoning it in droves, it only made it more conservative and dogmatic sadly.Also if you think “hey I can’t go to church they don’t be

Church is really the last "3rd place" around, so I'm not surprised. It's alsmost like community is important.Good luck if you're not strongly religious, though.>And Church youth / under 30 groups are basically marriage express lanesGiven recent news, this is part of why I'm not religious.

As a former catholic, this community component around the church (any of the mainstream sort) is something that new religions like Crossfit, Apple or indie festivals simply can't beat. There are also many volunteering activities and connecting in that context, if you are observant, you can get to know quality people. It's a hit or miss though, depending on your town.

I think it is a very valid option.At my previous neighborhood mainstream church (Methodist) which I attended for a while, many attendees did not really believe in most of what was preached. For them it was mostly a social gathering, an opportunity to sing enthusiastically together (and how often do you get to do that today?), and a lot of social events (church picnics etc). As a social group it worked very well. People really would help each other out. The subject of religion rarely came up i

Church has much more members than other organizations.

That's what church does for a lot of folks, I imagine?

Churches are definitely a great community resource, but I imagine that many people (myself included) don't want to be preached something we don't believe in every week even if it means losing out on those community benefits. I wonder if something else could be established, or even if such a thing as "athiest/agnostic churches" could be organized.

It seems that every time a social topic comes up on HN someone will extol the virtues of church attendance and their sense of community. Like, seriously, if some HNers are that nostalgic towards churches why don't you guys join one of the many congregations out there?

Church is really the classical place. It's a shame there's not a similar place for large groups of secular people to gather once a week for social events.

Some people go to church for answers, but I think a lot are really just there for the community and play along with the religious parts because of inertia.