Some Americans will be celebrating the 4th of July this Sunday, grilling various meat products and deliberately annoying their neighbors with explosives. If this describes you, then you probably already have plans for how you will spend the day. But if you don't have plans this year and are looking for something different to do, you might consider checking out the American Ethical Union's Independence Day Celebration via Zoom.
Admittedly, I had no idea what this was all about when I saw the annoucnement in my feed reader. I did not think the link they shared (the one I used above) was very helpful in conveying what this event might involve. After digging around their website a bit, I'm assuming this celebration will involve what they call a "platform." You can learn more about what those involve and even view some if you are curious here. These sound far too churchy for me to have much interest, but I recognize that there seem to be plenty of atheists out there who often miss church so I figured I'd pass the announcement along in case any of you are looking for something to do.
Just to be clear, I am not condemning atheists who do miss church. I understand that it was an important part of many former religious believers' lives. Something like that might not be easy to give up without feeling like there is a void to fill. This probably helps to explain why some atheists are interested in creating various church substitutes that offer some of what they miss without the supernatural components. I can appreciate that, but it really isn't for me. Church is something I am very glad to be rid of, and none of the replacements I have seen so far hold any appeal for me. If I am going to do something to overcome isolation, it will have to be something that doesn't remind me of church.
