After a quiet-ish time of late – going back to work full-time has meant being really busy – Dispirited seems to have seen a sudden burst of activity..
Two weeks ago, I spoke to Gloucestershire Philosophical Society, partly about the book – but mainly about issues of ‘happiness’ – some of which overlapped with my post here: https://dispirited.org/2012/10/15/death-statistics-happiness-what-else/ – and then we went on to have a really interesting discussion about death, and how atheists go about making meaning in the face of it: I was very moved (as were others present) by some of the contributions..
Last week, I spoke to people at a seminar at SOAS, where we talked about the book, but also about what atheist ‘services’ might look like: I met some people who’d been at this event: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21319945 and we had (I think) a constructive exchange of views. I remain uncomfortable with them – but took a number of their points on board, especially the claim that they might address concerns about ‘community’.
I also spoke to Mary Hynes from the CBC Radio show Tapestry about the book – the podcast (and info) is at http://www.cbc.ca/tapestry/episode/2013/02/08/spiritual-but-not-religiousand-totally-self-obsessed/ – she asked quite searching questions: and I found teh time flew by as we discussed spirituality and religion.
I also chatted with the Secular Buddhist Association about the book, but more of that in another post..
Dispirited 
Interesting point about this atheist ‘church’ perhaps providing a sense of community. I remain unconvinced too – I’m not entirely clear why one would need a sense of community around lack of belief. Join the humanist or secular societies if there’s a gap in your life. Otherwise, go and join a book club or a cricket club …!
The people I chatted to who went to the Atheist Church had previously been members of religious churches – and perhaps missed the social, the joint sense of enterprise, etc, when they lost their beliefs..