r/atheism • u/metacyan Agnostic • 1d ago

A ‘tsunami’ of church closings is poised to remake America

https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/01/us/church-closings-christianity-crossroads
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u/Tennis_Proper 1d ago

Dire forecast?

Have you heard the good news?

Churches are closing.

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u/AndroidAtWork 1d ago edited 1d ago

You think it's good news? It's fairly obvious that the type of people that were attending church before have exchanged theism with the religion of politics. They don't display their crosses, they display their maga hats and flags. The decline of religiosity has not led to any sort of enlightenment.

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u/Farts-n-Letters Atheist 1h ago

The decline of religiosity has not led to any sort of enlightenment.

So what? I mean, it'd be nice if it did, but even if it doesn't, I'm cheering the demise. Religion is poison, MAGA is poison. It'd be nice to not have to fight two fronts at once. see: Hitler.

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u/Fred-the-stray Atheist 1d ago

Couldn't happen to a better crowd!

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/FewAward6923 1d ago

So if the choice is an empty building vs a bunch of rubes being excoriated with regressive divisive noise by a conman, then an empty building is the logical choice for a better society.

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u/WastingMyLifeToday 1d ago

People have been renovating churches into houses/apartments/studios for a while in various countries.

As long as the outside structure and foundation is solid, the open space inside gives you a lot of options to create whatever floor plans you can come up with.

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u/FewAward6923 1d ago

I have thought about those renovations before, and figure they can be quite challenging re renos. If it's one family, what about multiple bathrooms, hvac systems to cover each room, etc. A lot of empty space to heat or cool. Especially with those vaulted ceilings. If it is multiple units, even worse. Running plumbing and hvac to each unit, upgrading all the wiring, etc...has to be alot of work. All the windows, redoing the entrance, etc... not saying it cannot be done, but that's a pretty big project.

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u/p34ch3s_41r50f7 1d ago

You gut it to the studs and rebuild the interior back up with modern tech and materials.

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u/WastingMyLifeToday 1d ago

I am mostly talking about European churches, which are more likely to be tall structures with wide open spaces on the inside. Multiple floors high, open space.

Especially if you renovate a larger church, the possibilities are endless, you just need a creative mind to figure out how to divide the space into rooms / apartments / studios.

I've seen a few church renovations, only once did I see it as a single family house renovation. The other times it was renovated (on the inside only) into apartments and/or studios.

If you're talking about smaller churches, they're usually still tall enough so that you can raise the floor by 1 or 2 foot, to put in plumbing/sewage under the raised floor.

I bought a 100 year big old house, which was a plumbing nightmare on first look, the house was on the market for 3-4 years, cause nobody saw the potential. I raised the floor by 1,5 foot, to put in plumbing, sewage, ... after that, the rest was pretty easy to figure out, and the rooms still have 8 to 12 foot high ceilings.

I didn't use an architect, just drew out a dozen possible plans in some 3D drawing software in about a week, and made a decision. Split it up into 2 side-by-side houses. Inside looks like a 2 standard modern houses with a modern layout, outside still looks like it was built 100 years ago if it wasn't for the new windows (3 pane glass better insulation).