Starbucks and Religion

I have always loved coffee.  At first it was the manliness my father seemed to exude when he was sipping a cup.  I tried to down the black, bitter swill he called coffee, and after scoops of sugar and some creamer, I would usually succeed. My 10 year old brain imagined this as a significant step towards adulthood. Later, I finally had good coffee, from properly made drip coffee at a few restaurants, to the delicious chicory elixir concocted by Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans, I realized just how amazingly delicious the drink could be.  


By my late 20’s, I finally lived in an area where there were a few Starbuck’s franchises. Around the same time I experienced a health issue that necessitated a significant reduction in my caffeine intake.  I was unwilling to give up coffee, especially knowing that perfectly adequate decaf options were available.  Starbucks not only proved to brew strong decaf, but they always had some available.  Sure, it probably wasn’t as delicious as the single origin platinum grade beans you would find at the more exclusive coffee shops, but I grew tired of the quizzical looks baristas would give when I asked about decaf.  My Starbucks problem was born.
As I began to settle into a routine at a few of my favorite Starbucks locations, I started to notice the clientele. There were soccer moms getting sugary drinks for their kids, well dressed business men and women dashing in to fuel their brains for the day, and students who enjoyed the free wifi and venti Frappuccinos as they studied.  Somehow the buzz of activity provided a kind of visual white noise that allowed me to focus on various tasks.  Every once in a while I would come up for air, to get a refill or to hit the restroom, which would afford me the opportunity to take notice of others sharing the shop with me.  I began to notice that one of the most common assembly of people at Starbucks typically involved some form of religious meeting.


I am not a religious person at all, so I am also generally ambivalent to the religious practices of others.  It took a long time for me to see the telltale signs.  Most meetings involve a leader, holding a bible or some other religious text, usually worn and riddled with post-it notes to mark the pages to review.  A number of meetings are between two or three men, while some seem to be more of a bible study group.  Sometimes it is a couple meeting a pastor, presumably as a prerequisite for them officiating the wedding.


I have often been a bit perplexed by the frequency that I have seen this.  Too many, Starbucks exudes a certain pretentiousness that does not seem compatible with those who consider themselves religious.  The general opinion of the company is that it seems to cater to liberals, like it is the antithesis of Chic-fil-a.  There is also the annual controversy where Starbucks refuses to adorn their cups with an adequate amount of religious iconography, as if Jesus mandated that PSL’s should only be served in vessels inscribed with crosses or Christmas trees.  It would seem this would turn off most who are religious enough to meet up to discuss religion on a regular basis.


Contrary to all that stands against religious exhibitions and collaborations at Starbucks coffee shops, I am confident the stores would rank highly in a list of places where people congregate to observe.  I am sure they are doing so for many of the same reasons I regularly visit.  

Why Atheism is Not a Religion

Not long ago, I witnessed an online discussion regarding religion.  Several people commenting were atheists, addressing the issue with a number of theists, mostly Christian.  One of the theists responded to the atheists with the age-old statement that atheism itself is a religion.


I am sure I will discuss my spiritual path in other posts, but suffice it to say I took a path frequented by many former Christians.  I was baptized out of cultural imperative, never really attended church much as a child, started asking questions that resulted in swift retribution from believers, and finally decided that the whole thing was too bizarre to be real.  Without any evidence or reason to believe one religion over another, I came to the logical conclusion that it was all mythology, just like the beliefs of those who rambled the Earth in ancient times.


What I have never understood is why the claim that atheism is a religion bothers me. I guess, in part, it has to do with my general distaste for organized religion and its clearly self-serving motives.  Atheists usually don’t have any motives, we simply do not believe that any form of theism describes reality.  My disdain for the comment led me to wonder…how do I explain to someone that atheism is not a religion?

Most obviously, atheism doesn’t share many or really any of the characteristics of a religion.  We don’t congregate in a holy structure.  We don’t have a text to follow.  We do not have any particular holidays, though I observe the shit out of Christmas because I love that time of year, most Christmas songs are amazing, the lights on the houses are beautiful, and who doesn’t love presents?  So, even when you set aside the fact that not believing in something itself isn’t the same as a belief, there just are not a lot of similarities between atheism and religion.


Of course, those mired by decades of following a single belief system will beg to differ.  Theistic open-mindedness is not something that is common among most religions. Dare to step outside the standard dogma of even the most mild religious organizations and you will likely face some sort of rebuke.  This zealous adherence to a single doctrine generally leads the followers to consider all other belief systems as the opposition, but atheists are a bit more challenging to characterize without lumping them in as well.  I think theists also desire to put atheists in their place by saying “You can’t hate all religion, because you are a member of one.”  I also think categorizing atheism as a religion helps theists to comprehend what they consider zealous reactions to religious intrusions into our lives.
I realized I was unprepared to respond to this comment, so I dwelled on it a while.  How could I convince someone that defining atheism as a religion was incorrect.  Yes, I am someone willing to waste time on the impossible, but this seemed like something that might be achievable.
Now, I realize that construing religion with something mythological lights the fires of theists hotter than the hottest burning bush, but I started to play around with the concept as it related to Santa.  Today, we have people, mostly small children, who believe in Santa Claus.  They believe because they are told he is real and lives at the North Pole.  The rest of us are non-believers, because we know the real purpose of the legend, which is to make parents build bicycles starting at 11:00 pm on December 24.  Imagine if retailers in the early 1800’s had never started to leverage the legend of Sinter Klaas to sell merchandise?  Wouldn’t everyone be non-believers, since it the little known legend would not have taken a place in our modern culture?  


Now imagine if humans did not feel the need to register belief in a higher power to explain the mysteries of the universe.  Very few of us believe the Roman, Greek, or Norse mythology as true.  Does our lack of belief in that mythology create a binding force that would be called religion?  The unwillingness to accept a set of parables as fact is not a belief, it is, in fact, the default status of us all.  If you are born and grow in an environment bereft of any religious influence, you would be an atheist by default. We all don’t automatically fall into a religion simply because we are ignorant, ambivalent, or intentionally unaffected by the wiles of religious doctrine.
In short, lack of belief is how we are meant to exist. It is our natural state, before the drive to instill spirituality and religious obedience is started.  It cannot be a religion.