So far I’ve contacted any non-belivers that I know, contacted Military Assostiation of Athiest and Freethinkers and Sunday Assembly.
With some support from them, I should be able to scrap somthing together.
Worst case scenario is I’ll have to travel to Abiline to meet other like-minded people.

That sounds like a great idea! Some time ago, Craigslist used to have a board for platonic friends... not sure why they did away with it. But starting the group in Meetup sounds like the way to go! Best of luck to you!

Look into the Sunday Assembly. You may get some info and maybe even support there

This is such an awesome plan! I also live in a highly religious area. Please give us updates on this. I’d love to know how it goes and how you did it.

It is my understanding that is currently what is being done via the Unitarian Church. Each congregation, as I understand it, is different. They are not religious, some do have spiritural leanings, but many are totally devoid of religion. I always assumed they just called themselves a "church" to be seen as "respectable, a social outlet, and to get the connection to their communities that churches get. Oh yeah, and the ridiculous religious tax write offs.

I've thought such groups could form as 'rescue missions' and not be limited to theological emancipation, but political as well. To become intellectually independent is a difficult task and needs maintenance/support for awhile or we tend to find other 'ideologies' claiming similar perfections and promises of security.

People held mentally captive within ideological frameworks demonstrate paralells with those in physical captivity. They identify with captors; considering criticisms of their 'isms' to be attacks on them personally.

Freedom can be terrifying.

Being in a mostly religious town, there may actually be a greater need for the nonbelievers that are around.

It sounds like a wonderful idea to me. If you try it and it doesn’t work out at least you gave it a shot. If it’s a hit there will likely be others who want to help out with it. There is nothing to lose and potentially a lot to gain

Good luck with this!

How active is the local Texas Militia group or the KKK? If 'ya can take the heat then open the pandora's box. You have the right.. Do you have the backbone? Use it or lose it.

Sounds great to me. I am not surprised that you feel anxious about it all. Be careful there are way too many religious trigger happy nutters in the US. Perhaps you should start with the people you know and they may others who are likeminded. Good luck.

You might start by attending a few social justice events with your local Unitarian Universalist congregation or community service groups.

Maybe this will help ... whenever I think about doing something that causes anxiety, I think "what's the worst that can happen ?" Then I think it through - as many possibilities as I can, to it's often nonsensical conclusion, which is never as bad as my imaginary fears.

Go for it !

It can't hurt to try it. There are probably people who would welcome this type of group. It might start small, with just your friends, but grow. There may be religious people who are curious about what the other side thinks. If it is just an opportunity to slam religion, or a bitch session, it might stay small. Maybe if you think about what you want to achieve, it could be announced on meetup with a description, and see what happens.

Well, it should be fun. I mean there is no real recoarse that they can take religious wise. If you can just keep the thing lowkey and just treat it like a meeting of friends then I see it being a great success

I think you probably just need to put it out there.

I suspect that you might be surprised: atheists, unlike believers, don't tend to wear their (non-)belief on their sleeves, so you probably know a lot more people than you think who'd be interested.

Start by talking to the non-believers you do know. Ask them what would bring them to something like this. And ask them if they also know a couple more non-believers. You might find you've got more of a core group than you think! And then you can open it up to others...

Just call it a BBQ.

I want to do this becuase I enjoyed the social aspects of church. Discussing topics, engaging with like minded people and just sharing the moment. I’ve tried going to churches here to see if I could feign being religious, but I can't stand it. And so far, no such group exists