Is it normal for an atheist to attend church to mingle?

I'm surprised my grandmother is letting me come along. I asked if I could go just to mingle, and she does know I'm an Atheist. This church is in a really small town in the Bible Belt region of America. She told me I can't go looking the way I did tonight(like an emo/punk), but I told her that there are people who do dress this way when they go to church. So, she's fine with it. I think she's letting me go that easily because she's happy about me wanting to at least attend. I haven't been to a church in three years now. I'm not exactly curious, and I don't want to actually read out of the Bible or sing the hymns. I know that that's what church is mostly about, but I just wanna go for the fun of it. Not to "reconvert" back to Christianity.

(This church is full of old people, and my mother said that I will be judged for what I am wanting to wear, because they are old fashioned, which doesn't surprise me. My cousins and my brother are going with me and the church is rather small. When I was younger, there were a whole lot more kids, but now they've all grown up and moved away, so the older people enjoy seeing children still attend the church. Like I said, it's a small town, and the families now either go to the church in the the town I live in or the other one nearby.)

Yes, it's normal for an Atheist to attend a church. 16
Yes, I'm an Atheist and I go rarely/occasionally. 6
No, that would make them look like hypocrites. 6
No, it's not normal. They should not be allowed to attend. 1
No, it's not normal, but they can do whatever they feel is right. 22
Other. (comment) 1
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Comments ( 7 )
  • Gspyder

    At one point I was pretty good friends with an atheist at church who would come with his grandmother. He also dressed sort of emo/punk. He was a really nice guy and I don't think anyone minded him being there at all. From my experiences churches are a pretty good place to mingle with people your age because of how they are structured, a good youth or college group is a tight-knit group where everyone almost always have people to talk to or hang out with. As long as you can accept that everyone else there believes differently than you, I don't see why being an atheist should exclude you from being a part of that.

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  • poon_jabber

    People generally go to church bcuz they want to be good people, give and feel love & be a positive person. Keep in mind that people have been taught tp believe a certain way so theyre brainwashed in a sense, so dont necessarily judge them for this

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  • zoffix

    Don't know how well I'd be able to handle going to church. I'd be a pretty sad sight to see people worshiping statues and paintings and showing clear signs of being totally deluded. I'd feel quite immoral to just go along with their delusion and pretend there's nothing wrong :/

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    • daydreamer394

      Statues and paintings aren't worshipped...

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      • zoffix

        uh-huh

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  • kelseyt

    Why not? Church is as good a place as any other for meeting people. I think as long as you can respect other people's beliefs and they can respect yours, everyone should get along. Some people in the congregation are probably closet athiests as well.

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  • thr

    I live in a place with a different attitude to religion, where religion is not such a serious matter, and where going to church is not a big part of life (if a part at all), so for me it would be different.

    I don't see a problem with it, unless the people there would really have a problem with it.

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