Like a church? A synagogue? A mosque? That fits the definition exactly. It seems like a substitute for a house of worship for people who do not believe in God.
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That may be good or bad depending on what you’re looking for, but my point is I don’t think they’re as comparable as you do.
- Church/temple/mosque/etc: worship - Bar: drinking alcoholic drinks - Gym/sport: physical exercise - Volunteering: whatever you're volunteering for - Coffee shop: coffee? Reading, working?
All these have "a thing you do other than socializing and meeting people". You could (and do) go there specifically for the activity without socializing and meeting people (just like church).
Spaces that are "social-only" are pretty rare. Coffee shops are maybe closer to that as you're probably not going to consume many coffees, but people stay to read, work... it's a bit less structured than other third spaces (and personally I find that it makes it more difficult to socialise there)
I might be very misinformed about how church works, but I think that coffee shops fill a very different niche. History kinda supports this: coffee shops became valuable places of business and occupied the 'third place' role even in extremely religious places and times (I'm thinking of Lloyd's specifically, and 17th and 18th century coffee shop culture as a locus for business ventures in the Netherlands and England).
"House of worship" does not deserve the primacy you assign it. First came "third places" and human relations, and then came organized religion.
You're putting the cart of Churches before the horse of human interaction.
I went to church as a kid and know what you mean. However, the shared belief usually implies a narrower heterogeneity, if that makes sense (in a way that’s proportional to how orthodox the beliefs are).
In a secular shared space it’s far more common to be exposed to people with radically different beliefs, sexual orientation (or even preferences), and political views, to mention a few examples.
I think it’s very important that people have places where they can be surrounded by others that, while different as you say, all share a very important core belief, but it’s also very important for a healthy society to have spaces where radically different people can coexist peacefully and even work towards some goal together (e.g., a “repair” meetup where people go get something fixed or help others fix things).
In the churches I have been to over the years (all Catholic or Anglican) I have met people with different sexual orientations and a very wide range of political views (everything except far right, as far left as outright communist).
> I think it’s very important that people have places where they can be surrounded by others that, while different as you say, all share a very important core belief, but it’s also very important for a healthy society to have spaces where radically different people can coexist peacefully and even work towards some goal together
I agree. It does happen at work anyway though so I put less importance on this as a requirement for third spaces.
Some do. Do people people go to sufficiently sociable cafés daily? Most people go with and talk to people they already know.
>and hold business meetings in church? Do religious people go to a church to do a casual date
Not in church, but with people they meet in church.
> or catch up with friends and associates
A lot of churches do have some socialising after services. Just serving coffee or something afterwards
Even without that people chat on the way out.
> on weekdays?
If you go to church on weekdays
Also a feature of some churches - parties in the church hall, the university chapel I used to go to that had a church run bar in the same building!
More seriously, bars are primarily places to socialise that happen serve drinks so I think they are similar to coffee shops that way.
Yeah, it was similar for me (only Catholic churches in my case), though politics were usually homogeneous per church (what I mean is: whether you leaned left or right, you'd find a Catholic community to welcome you, but I'm not sure it'd be easy to find one that would comfortably welcome wide political views). As for sexual orientation, this was not common at all, but bear in mind the last time I attended Church was in the early 90s so things may have changed.
> I agree. It does happen at work anyway though so I put less importance on this as a requirement for third spaces.
I think the main difference of a third space vs work is that, at work, we're forced to "put up" with people we wouldn't normally engage with, because we all have the common goal of making a living, while in a third space, even in one with a common goal like the repair meetups I mentioned, you go there voluntarily and not because otherwise you can't put food on the table.
Catholic churches, politically, pretty similar to the rest of society where the church was, with a left wing tilt.
Sexual orientation also varies with church. Obviously a gay friendly church (e.g. St Patrick's Soho a few decades ago, Farm Street now - both in Catholic London). For Anglican churches I would say St martin in the Fields where David Monteith ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Monteith ) was one of our parish priests.
> I think the main difference of a third space vs work is that, at work, we're forced to "put up" with people we wouldn't normally engage with, because we all have the common goal of making a living
I agree, but by putting up with people you can come to like them, particularly if you are avoiding people because of things such as a stereotyped view of a group.
I would like to add what many non-religious people (and some "out to lunch" evangelicals) do ot understand about churches (I guess this applies to mosque and synagogue too).
The role of a church is social, not religious. There are religious elements of course, but churches would not be required if it were not for the communities they foster