Yes, this is a great point that I bring up frequently. Even though I don't participate in churches I do think there is a real value in the communities they create.
The challenge is, is it possible to create such a community without it being around something like a religion or cult?
Sports (either watching or doing) are the closest thing I can think of but that takes a certain type of personality.
That's Unitarian Universalism, for the benefit of anyone trying to Google it. :) But yeah, UU seems like a really solid substitute for the traditional religious community. Shame it isn't more popular.
Not a substitute at all. It would be like getting rid of football, but still wanting people to go to stadiums for the sake of going to stadiums. Football was the reason they went.
The religions bind mostly due to the doctrine of the religion, not the activities of it. UU has no real doctrines and no binding point. Without that doctrine motivating you to do the activities, people just stop or don't bother. This is why secular attempts will mostly fail, because the doctrines they do have tend to be extremely narrow and non-universal, i.e. knowledge worker-style atheism.
That hasn't been my experience in the Episcopal Church. We're pretty liberal and don't do a lot of telling people what to do. People may come for the doctrine, but they stay for the ceremony and the fellowship.
That's my perception of church-based community. The doctrine is really just an excuse to get together and form community bonds. By your analogy, I think it's more like switching to, say, track and field, not gathering in an empty football stadium--a very different sport, but still a reason to get together and cheer. I'm not sure how that can be translated to the secular world, but it seems like there should be a way.
(I think a lot of modern atheists don't realize that liberal Christians exist. The awful fundamentalists dominate the news cycle so much. Most of us are happy to mind our own business, do charity work in the community, etc., but none of that makes headlines.)
We as a family have tried going to a UU church, but it was so much like any protestant church that it felt just the same. Beyond that, there was little that we connected with the other congregants on.
Some people obviously make it work, but I don't know if just mimicking church with secular ideas is a winning solution.
I think it's just one of those things that families/individuals have to work out for themselves.
The challenge is, is it possible to create such a community without it being around something like a religion or cult?
Sports (either watching or doing) are the closest thing I can think of but that takes a certain type of personality.