On Attending Religious Services as an Atheist [View all]

From time to time, I, like most other atheists, find myself in a church or other place of worship. Weddings, funerals, the odd musical concert, and other events require attendance. As a musician, I often found myself sitting in a chair, oboe in hand, near an altar, for example.

At one funeral I attended, the pastor of that ELCA Lutheran church approached me after the service. As is typical, a reception catered by the women of the church followed the funeral. She said to me, "I noticed that you were not participating in the prayers during the funeral. I wondered why that was." I responded, "Well, I'm an atheist. I noticed that you were looking around at the congregation while leading those prayers. I wondered why that was, too."

She was slightly taken aback, but recovered quickly. We then had an interesting, polite discussion about atheism, and about Martin Luther's antisemitism.