I like the idea of community. If there is no god then we should at least support one another

Some make them and it's easier to do that than to put up a fuss for what just an hour a week.

There is a sense of pleasure to go to a meeting where everything is prescribed for you. I can go to any Jewish temple on the planet, listen for a couple of minutes and know exactly where the congregation is in the service. (I wanted to be a Cantor when I was a teenager.) It is more than social or community. It is a sense of belonging to something bigger than you.

The problem for me is that I no longer believe in a God or gods and the service make me very uncomfortable, so I no longer go. and the Jewish Humanist services just don't feel right. My Sundays are spent watching the talking head political shows, doing laundry or playing golf.

They're looking for a community to belong to, to identify with, to hang out with and socialize.

I think you mean, why do they still want to go to a church like setting, even after becoming atheist. I think that it is purely a sense of community and validating their ideas with other like minded people. Most people are social by nature (try not being in contact with anyone for a couple of months and you then crave human interaction) so it makes sense they miss sharing ideas and gaining new information from others.

I think it most likely depends on the community one lives in. As several others have stated, it may be the only place to meet (semi) like minded individuals.

I live in the Chicago suburbs, so I have a lot of options available to me. But in rural or less populated areas may not.

Personally, I only go to church when a loved one is getting married or a baby is being baptized. Same goes for any special religious right. That's just decency towards my family and friends though!

I am considering going to my local Universalist Unitarian church because I live in a small town/county and there are no secular groups for me to join. It isn't that I feel a need to go to church, or anything like that. I just feel I need to engage, in person, with some like-minded people. Even though some, or maybe even most, might believe in some sort of god, I think they will be open minded, and more humanist, in their thinking so we would have that in common. I am also considering making the 120 mile trip, at least once a month, to join a Center for Inquiry group in Eugene. If I do that the going to a church thing might become less appealing...although, it is only 12 miles away .

I think it's mostly looking for company. It's hard to meet real people, and one of the best places is an "open" church where real physical connections can be made.

I don't, but it's nice to be in-touch with a community that shares your beliefs. I guess that's why I'm here. Physically, I'm in rural Tennessee, lol.