The atheists are going to church.

Sort of.

Andy Sharp/AJC (ENLARGE)

Jack McKinney, left, and Steve Yothment, members of the Atlanta Freethought Society, an educational group geared toward atheists and agnostics, at the 142-year-old Collins Springs Primitive Baptist Church.

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The Atlanta Freethought Society, an educational organization for atheists and agnostics, will begin meeting this spring at the former Collins Springs Primitive Baptist Church in Smyrna.

The society bought the 142-year-old building and about a half acre of land from a developer this month.

Society leaders say they're not thumbing their noses at Christianity.

"We're not taking over a church," said longtime society leader Ed Buckner. "We bought a building that used to be a church."

In fact, Buckner said, he imagines fondly gatherings at the church for weddings, funerals and covered-dish dinners in earlier days. He said he hopes the freethinkers also will pull in neighbors and friends for special events.

In the meantime, there's lots of work to do in the old building, which has been empty for years. The roof leaks; the avocado green carpet is stained and moldy; and most of the ceiling tiles that covered the antique beadboard are piled in the oak pews.

The freethinkers won't have to tear out any stained-glass windows or remove any religious icons. The church had none. And there's no piano or organ.

The New Testament has no references to either religious images or instrumental accompaniment, said Elder Charles Westbrook, whose father was pastor of the church.

"We hold strictly to the King James Bible of 1611," he said. "If it's in the Bible, that's what we hold to. If it's not in there, we don't hold to it."

Although he ministered at a church in Powder Springs for 30 years, Westbrook kept his membership at Collins Springs until it disbanded.

A twisted path

The atheists came to own the church through a convoluted route that involves a developer and an alcohol license.

Records say the present church building opened in 1866, replacing an earlier one that was believed to have been burned down during the Civil War by Sherman's army marching toward Atlanta.

Two restrooms and a foyer were added later, and at some point the church was covered in red brick.

The church probably had several dozen worshippers in its heyday. But as older members died and younger ones moved away and the surrounding area became more industrial and commercial, the flock dwindled.

By the mid-1990s, fewer than a dozen members were meeting only once or twice a month for services.

Then came Kroger.

In 2001, a developer planned to build a gourmet Kroger on Atlanta Road across from the church. But county ordinances prohibited the sale of alcohol within 600 feet of a church. Collins Springs Primitive Baptist Church was too close.

So, the developer offered to buy the church property and the remaining members agreed.

"The building was in disrepair," said Westbrook, "and we didn't have the money to keep it up."

The Kroger was built — despite other attempts to avert it — and a beer and wine license was granted.

'Just a building'

For years, the church sat empty.

Freethinker Lew Southern decided to investigate.

Southern, 76, who retired from a career selling educational films and videos, is a former Baptist himself, but of the larger Southern Baptist variety.

Southern and the other members of the 200-strong Atlanta Freethought Society had held their talks and programs in a series of meeting sites, settling for the past several years into two office condominiums they owned.

But they wanted a proper meeting hall, one that would hold as many as 100 people.

They plan to be meeting in the former church by April when they have a speaker coming from Americans United for Separation of Church and State, based in Washington.

Westbrook, the Primitive Baptist pastor, said atheists' meetings might not be what he would have chosen for the historic building, but the church lives on.

"If they had wanted to turn it into a dance hall, it would be the same thing," he said. "But that's just a building. The church is the people. That's just a place where the church could meet."