If you're an atheist, you don't believe in any god, so you don't believe in the God that Christians and some other religions believe in, so why would you believe in the power of excommunication? I'm not a fan of Duke University, but I'm not going out of my way to go there and do something to get banned from the campus.
Chances68
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Disassociating yourself from a church which supports certain abusive behaviors and discriminates against people because of their sexuality would be reasonable. I'd do the same thing with pretty much any organization. If the organization is bigoted and discriminatory, I'm not going to be part of it.
Pearl L
so they have an excuse not to go there
Everard
I didn't realise atheists were going out of their ways to be excommunicated from the Catholic Church (or any church).
Do you have specific examples?
Most atheists stay in the closet because the family or peer or economic situation as an atheist maybe 'worse'.
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Buttercup
Did someone do so?
Anyway, I imagine that it might be important to someone who was officially baptized and confirmed as a Catholic to have some kind of official, final separation.
Anonymous
I'm probably still on file as a Catholic in their database, even though I don't believe it, neither do I care to let them know.