The Importance of Community

I’ve had some excellent conversations over the last few days with other nontheists about the idea of community. Surprisingly, this seems to be a somewhat controversial subject amongst atheists, many of whom have a strong distaste for agreeing to any kind of uniting principle for fear that this will morph into dogma. But for those of use who envision a freer, fairer, more secular future, we must be clear that community will have to play an essential role.

The most pragmatic reason for building nontheistic communities is that if we want to effect political and social change, we have to be a visible constituency. We can’t do this without organizing. And organizing means community.

But I think there is a more important, less strictly rational (but still sensible) reason we need to build communities. The idea of community, at its most basic level, simply means that we make something shared—ideas, values, our joys and sorrows...and this kind of sharing fosters empathy and compassion. Nontheists seem to be really, really good at promoting reason—at forming logical arguments and advocating for rationality...but we’re less good at nurturing compassion, or even seeing the need to nurture compassion. The problem with this is that logical arguments rarely encourage people to take action; in order to act, we must be inspired. And inspiration comes from caring. We need to teach ourselves to care more, and then we guide our caring acts with our reason. Logic doesn’t inspire us to be ethical—it only tells us what ethical behavior means; the inspiration to act ethically comes most naturally from a feeling of compassion. The simplest, most effective way to learn how to care is to form relationships—and this is what happens when we come together in community.

A little over a year ago, I started a nontheistic community in my town. I included intellectual discussion, lectures, reading, etc., in the kinds of activities we would participate in, but the primary focus of the group has been simpler: fellowship. And our most successful events aren’t the discussion groups or lectures. Our most successful events are things like our kid-friendly potluck, our Rational Sunday School for children and our weekly night eating out at a restaurant together. Beyond this, the people in our community have formed supportive relationships with one another—bringing food to sick group members, providing rides to doctor’s appointments, trading childcare. I believe that we’re better people because we’re growing our capacity to care; our sphere of ethical concern is stretching farther beyond ourselves all the time. And I think we’re better advocates for nontheism when we demonstrate this to the world around us.

Fellowship may not come naturally to atheists who are used to swimming against the tide, but this capacity for community is such an amazing part of the human experience. The things that can happen when we learn the art of participation—when we think together and feel together—are big. Collective brainpower and collective heartpower! Our secular vision can’t work without inspiration—and communities create opportunities for us to inspire one another.

We don’t have to create some kind of dogma in order to come together and help one another bring out the best of our humanity—we just have to be willing to share the best of ourselves.