I spend three days a week volunteering in my community and in the public school system. I will never support a system that fear mongers and takes money from those that can least afford it so the preacher can live the high life. You will not learn ethics at a church, that is learned at home, not from a crook at the pulpit.

Weddings & funerals. I have no reason to attend a church service.

I sang in a choir for many years despite lack of belief because I just enjoyed the singing parts. The sermon parts were torture, but I liked learning my part and hearing my voice blend with others. I'm not a good enough singer to do it for any other kind of audience, so that was my outlet.

It doesn't cross my mind, I don't need a church for all the bits you mention

I attend church, sing in the choir, and am a trustee, but I don't take the sacraments or affirm the creeds. It's a small community and I suppose everyone knows I'm agnostic. I have told the pastor I would bow out if my participation was offensive, but so far (15+years) I have been warmly included.

I cannot even imagine doing such a thing willingly.

It would hurt my insides

I haven’t stepped foot in a church in 8 years. I doubt if I ever go back. It’s not for me.

I attend Unitarian Universalist services 2-3 times a month.

I used to go with mom when visiting my parents in Florida. But at some point I found it too hard not to laugh out loud at the rituals and sermons. The last time I was in that church was for my father’s funeral three years ago. I was the primary speaker, it was just a small gathering of friends of theirs, and my eulogy had no mention of god. Though we rarely talked religion (even less politics), the conversations we did have led me to believe that Dad was more Agnostic than a believer. Much of his infrequent going to church was more to make Mom happy than to support his beliefs. We had two other memorial services in various locations they had lived, none of them held in a church setting. The only other church visits in recent years have been for the baptism of my grandsons and in support of my son and his family who are believers.
What I find every time I do attend a service is the complete ridiculousness of what they are promoting. The total unbelievability of the book they promote as world history. The hypocrisy of what they preach and how they actually function! So the best thing for me is to just stay away from the temptation to get into arguments with people I love.

Like many here, I go to support family and friends in services of marriage, death and Baptism celebrations. I have three friends here who are also atheist, and we all seem to congregate in the left hand rear seats so the local English vicar who takes English services refers to it lightheartedly as the Non Believers Corner. Like Tim Minchin, "I quite like the music, but some of the lyrics are dodgy".

To be honest this post comes across as a subtle way to extol the benefits of religion. IMHO the benefits you describe are innate human qualities that exist without the baggage of dogma.

One of the most attractive aspects of atheism is getting to sleep in on Sunday.

I will go to support friends and family.

I went to support my sister when she got babtized because it was important to her. But being in church service makes me very uncomfortable so I didn't stay for long. Other than the actual service I miss the sense of community and service in church but i don't go anymore because i don't think I'd be welcomed because I don't belive in god.

I live at home still, so I have to go usually. I don't go for the reminder of ethics though because some of the viewpoints go against my own such as the homophobia and the intolerance of other religions. There are better places to hang out than a church.

Nope. I like to sleep in.

I attend religious rituals to celebrate births & marriages, or to support the family after deaths. I know that the faithful generally see the rituals as having other purposes, but I try not to let that ( and the inevitable spouting of nonsense) bother me. Otherwise, I'm opting out - no Christmas services, no Easter services, no third Sunday in Lent, or whatever. It's better for me, and for those I'd be in the company of (they don't need to listen to my shocked gasps, exasperated sighs, and endless muttering of disgust).

Never

?

During my last few years of church attendance, I was filled with doubts and had gravitated toward unbelief. I called myself an agnostic, because it was an 'easier pill to swallow,' but I'd seriously begun to question what was being spewed forth from the pulpit, and much worse, from that book sitting on the back of every pew! Out of sheer boredom I had began to re-read the Bible during sermons, and that, more than anything else, hastened my exit, even as it increased my disgust.

I last went to church on October 28, 2012 with my dad. It was the Sunday after my mom's funeral.

Most of my friends believe as I do as an atheist but I have good friends who are religious and they are not disqualified from my friendship. When they have ceremonies important to them and ask me to stand with them I do, regardless if they are in a church or anywhere else. I do not fear churches and am pretty sure Jesus isn't going to show up at a church I am in and point at me and shout, "What the hell is HE doing here". As far as funerals go I think that most people in this country think that funerals (in a church or chapel) and burials are legal obligations. I assume most readers here understand that neither is an obligation or necessary.

I have not been in a church since Aunt Stella's funeral in 2001.

Not too often but I do feel it is a valuable service to community. Even if you don’t believe in the tenets of a faith it doesn’t mean you can’t feel peace in places of worship, nature, with your dog and so on. It seems at atheism assumes some sort of intellectual higher ground which I generally find disconcerting. Intellect can take you so far empirically and then we all diverge with our personal focus. It doesn’t matter what you do or don’t believe. It’s the individual in your own centre that counts.

I’m spiritual, so I sometimes go to the Zen Center. I haven’t been to a church in years, but I’m not opposed to it, I’d take my granny or go to an excercism or something