I don’t believe in God, but I believe in Community. Should I join a Roman Catholic Church even though I don’t believe in God?
The reason I want to do it is to become a part of my local community. Atheism has no sense of society or socialism. And in order to fulfill my goals in life, I’m going to need to use other people to further my ambitions.
Try the Rotary Club.
What’s that?
You sound like a guy I would want to be around. Not.
Maybe you didn’t mean to sound like a misanthrope asking for advice. If you’re not the misanthrope you sound like, then I would say hang around people and groups you are genuinely interested in. Don’t join a Roman Catholic church just to be around people…there are other community groups that would probably be a better fit for you.
Ouch, my feelings and sense of self worth is pierced and bleeding.
Such as??
Like the Shriners, but without the motorcycles.
Never heard of that either.
What, you people have something against Catholics? I just think Atheism has no future. There’s no social cohesion through this ideology. And politics is for…other people.
Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF)? Kinsmen? Kiwanis? Optimist? Lions? Elk? Moose? Water Buffalo?
Atheism is not an ideology, and needs no future. Healthy social cohesion occurs through genuine human contact. Perhaps try Knights of Columbus before taking any sacrements…
I don’t see why I ought to join any of those organizations opposed to a local Roman Catholic Church.
I admire the traditional, conservative values of catholics, despite their mythological beliefs. I value chastity as well as other classical virtues and gender norms.
I guess people cannot help me here, oh well. Thanks anyway.
Hey, by all means, go take the classes and learn how to have the wafer placed on your tongue. I myself am an ex-catholic… I’d siggest you underestimate the extent your lack of belief would affect your communal exercises. (assuming you’re axtually being serious here, which I, of course, don’t 
)
It seems worth the lies, to me.
After all, aren’t all social groups based on lies, including an online forum? (Do you use your real name on here? No!)
The point, to me, is to understand which communities are worth which degrees of lies. Religion is useful, if used properly. You’re on your way out. I’m on my way in. We can give each other advice?
I advise you to get a pet. It’s lonely being an atheist. And I desire companionship. You, what do you desire?
I got two cats, a child and a wife, and I’m a school teacher, so, although my natural state is pretty solipsistic, there’s lots drawing me out. And I must say, for the most part, the atheism thing gets treated as a curiosity at worst, …we’re not living in 1950 any more.
Deception is a key skill for socialisation, yes. But not simply as a tool for crass manipulation. Rather, it’s a means by which to buffer our mutual ignorances… I’m of the belief that we’re all pretty much obtuse fools, and that wisdom is the art of cutting down the degree of obtuseness (not ceasing to be fools)
…alas i must seek sleep, as tomorrow is another school day… 
Well, do you understand how the OP sounds as written?
I’m not trying to offend. I’m being honest. If you want to be social, then maybe it’s worth learning how to communicate better (if you aren’t a misanthrope).
Or do you actually just want to use people like you said?
I think underlying the best social interaction and fraternity is truth, or the closest thing to truth. Connection. Correspondence. Matching up. Clicking. Have you never felt any of these before in your relationships with others? Do you think these things are based on lies? Explain.
Okay, you meet some cool people at a bar. Do you tell them your last name, your social security number, your deepest hopes and fears in life?? Do you tell them your most embarrassing moments in life? Do you tell them you love them, or that you want to have sex with the cute girl?? Of course not, you keep all of these truths to yourself. People keep their thoughts to themselves for the most part. This is common sense.
But let’s assume that a pair knows each other well, or maybe even brother and sister. Does one sibling admit sexual feelings for the other? No, that’s pretty taboo to think of incestuous thoughts. But is it true? Is it worth bringing out into the open? Nobody really goes “all out” with truths. Even silence is a lie, essentially.
So when it comes to an organized religion, like Catholicism, people get what they want out of it. For me, I want to be around people who share the same virtues and values as I do, the same ideals. I value virginity in women, traditional relationships, traditional marriage, not using contraceptives, abortion is wrong and evil, all that stuff. So even though hanging around other catholics entails me to lie about believing in God…maybe it’s still worthwhile. I believe it is, worthwhile. Because I’d rather be around people who are like me, spiritually, than live alone, or socialize with people I disagree with to the very core of me. I detest people who do not share my same values. In fact, I often want to impose my values and virtues onto others. But, that’s kind of beside the point. The point is, all social groups have to deal with some sorts of bare minimum falsehoods and lies.
Philosophy is no different. Do people use their real names and identities here? Not really. Philosophy is just one means of obtaining a “greater” truth than regular. Perhaps philosophers can trust each other more than other groups…but that has nothing to do with this topic, of Catholicism.
The bigger the group, probably the bigger lie the group is based on. This is true for massive religions, with billions of members, because that is the biggest lie of all: God. Of course God is a lie, but still a useful one, a lie with great Utility.
You’re a Utilitarian, aren’t you Fuse? I’m sure you’ll understand the utility of lies, won’t you?
In fact, I’ll go far to say, lies truly bring people together!
Isn’t familial love also a lie? Why do parents “love” their children, and children “love” their parents? What does it mean for love to be true or false?
No, I’m not a utilitarian. And truth goes beyond words. Just because a thing isn’t expressed in language doesn’t mean it’s not expressed at all or felt between people.
My name and my social security number mean very little to me. I don’t think I’d lose much of my identity without them. And I don’t know if I could even accurately communicate my deepest hopes and fears to myself at the moment. That might be unconscious or incommunicable until triggered by a revelatory event. I don’t exactly see a first meeting with a girl at a bar as an occasion to trigger insight about my deepest hopes and fears. I think you’re simply focusing on the wrong things.
As I said before: Connection. Correspondence. Matching up. Clicking. Have you never felt any of these before in your relationships with others? Do you think these things are based on lies?
Not really, I mostly feel those things with my immediate family, and even that is ambiguous for the most part. I feel connected to some family members over others. As for strangers and friends, not really. I have very little in common with most other people. In fact, if they’re not my blood relation, then I often feel animosity or even hostility against them.
However, there are sometimes when I meet people, and wonder if I like them that it’s a sign of an unconscious genetic similiarity connection. I mean, if I vaguely like somebody a little bit, I wonder if it’s because he or she is more genetically similar to me than another stranger whom I feel hostility for.
Yes, all those things you mentioned are based on lies, or at least some small degree of lying. For example, if I asked you for your credit card and bank information, then you probably wouldn’t give them to me, or just ignore the request. So that entails some lack of “connection” and trust. You don’t give them to me outright, because, you distrust me. You don’t know who I am, or whether I’ll use your bank account, and drain it straight away. Because you distrust people, you will lie, too.
I think every social interaction is based on some degree of lie, yes, and conversely some degree of truths. For example, I once told this girl I was sleeping with that I “loved” her, but all I really wanted was to have sex with her, and I got what I wanted. In fact, I don’t even know what I meant by “love”. But she apparently had another idea, lol.
Is it a lie if you don’t even know the meaning of the words?
Is it a lie to believe in God, or Love, if you don’t even know those meanings???
Why catholicism?
Because Catholics are the least “christian” Christians.
And Evangelicals and Mormons are just freaks of nature. I’d think to join the Amish before either of those two…yuughyughyugh! 