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Do you believe Atheism is a religion?

Fairly straightforward, but to expand on why I ask, it's this; I constantly hear theists make the claim that atheism IS a religion. I maintain that it is not. I don't believe in God. I think you are suffering from a highly specialized madness, coupled with an enormous ego (an omnipotent being is watching YOUR EVERY MOVE because you're so fucking important) and a cripplingly huge fear of death, lack of purpose, and lack of fairness, that you will convince yourself that such a ridiculous thing as a God exists and that if you perform certain rituals properly, you'll be rewarded, if you DO believe in God, and you should be carefullymonitored lest you hurt yourself or others around you. But that's the end of it. I don't have Faith and Believe that there ISN'T a god. I don't give it a second thought. So, how is that a religion?

Take it away, doubters and unbelievers! Sound off!

DobbinPitch 6 Mar 23
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61 comments

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0

The simple premise of atheism is that atheists do not believe in gods, period. There is no way to call this a religion.
On a personal level I cannot stop my atheism there because god belief is supernatural and I do not believe in anything supernatural. This is because I am an atheist who came out of theism. Sacred scriptures have something in them supernatural and a creator god is usually a spirit of some sort. If I deny existence of a creator god and still believe in ghosts I see this as an "apple and oranges" compromise. It means that I am "cherry picking" in my beliefs.
Many might say that they have "had experiences" in their lifetime. We all have. This is where religions come from. Before we claim that "earth is a farm and we are the crop" we had best look at facts and possible explanations for events.
Back to ideas of atheism as a religion, it becomes such when we start adding to it and scheduling services and meetings for it. This would lead to dogma which would lead to viewpoint and controversy, and in the end we would have denominations. I avoid atheism as a religion.

23

Calling atheism a religion is like:

  • calling bald a hair style
  • not collecting stamps is a hobby
  • abstinence is a sex position
  • off is a channel on the television
  • barefoot is a type of shoe
  • unemployed is a job

Fucking brilliant!

bald IS a hairstyle, it is what you do with your hair: shave it all

If you spend your free time getting rid of stamps, it IS a hobby

abstinence IS a sex position especially in BDSM

Many would argue OFF is the best TV channel

barefoot IS a choice of footwear: none

And being unemployed is hard work

I have to say unemployed is a job, because it is under and identified with work on an application so either you are working or you are not.

You're funny but at the same time make completely sense. Some people want to believe everything is religion. Closed minds

Can't stop laughing! your answer is brilliant! Would you have any objection if I used some of your lines to counter [stupid] claims by the hordes of morons around me?

@zucicciu - Help yourself - I culled them from various internet sites anyway, so I can't claim ownership.

10

Atheism is the absence of belief. Period.

The absence of religious belief. We all have beliefs, but as Ungod points out, our beliefs are based on evidence, and we change them when the evidence points elsewhere.

10
Any assertion that atheism is a religion is UTTER NONSENSE!!
9

No, we have no holy books, no dogma, or Creed, we are human, striving to be better for ourselves and those round us without fear of punishment or promise of reward.

I'm good with a world with no Creed...

8

No. many theists seem to believe atheists are organized and working in unison. And we worship Satan, of course. Don't they know we are too busy dancing naked at our drunken orgies to worry about that?

...and eating babies.

@Hominid That goes without saying.

@Hominid Funny you should say that. I once had a date with a man (ONLY one date). Once he found out I wasn't a Christian he looked into my fridge. I asked what he was doing and he said "I'm looking for the murdered baby. Ya'll all kill babies". Never saw/spoke to him again.

8

To some everything is a religion. If it were a religion we would get all the perks that the religionist get and, of course, we do not.

6

If im part of a "RELIGION" where is the tax exempt status?

Timm Level 2 Mar 26, 2018
6

Atheism is a religion like baldness is a hair color and abstinence is a sexual position.

4

Religion is a form of belief. Specifically in a divine being (or beings) responsible for creating and overseeing the world/universe. So religion is a subset of belief, and not all belief is necessarily religion.

Atheism is a belief, but if anything, it's the opposite of religion. It could be considered a non-religion or an anti-religion, but certainly not a religion.

Some people (who need to buy a dictionary) seem to consider strong and passionate belief to be religion. They are wrong.

Again, AGAIN - Buddhism is religion, but ATHEIST! There are even Jewwws and Xians who are atheist!

But you’ll have to show me a religion that doesn’t involve belief...

@Ungod Good point. I was going by the typical dictionary definition. But given the example of Buddhism, perhaps those dictionaries are wrong.

Athiest Jews and Christians? Well I suppose there's a divergence in meaning towards ethnicity and culture rather than religion. And it seems there are Christian Atheists, who follow the teachings of Jesus and the Bible (particularly New Testament) without believing in God. Does it still qualify as a religion, though? And would God believing Christians still consider these people Christians?

We live in a world where practically anything that's possible is provable by example. But it's still surprising to find 'Christian Atheist' isn't necessarily the contradiction it first appears to be.

3

No, it isn't. We are not worshiping deity that dosn't exist. I've been an athiest for approx. 5 weeks and it's quite liberating.

3

I'm with you. It is the absence of religion, which is a hard thing for a lot of people to understand. It's only fair. I can't comprehend faith either.

I don't mind their lack of understanding, though. It's the condescension that irritates me. But I suppose that's coupled with their lack of understanding. The idea that something is missing in my life seems more like a way for them to explain their religious idiosyncrasies.

I was watching a show the other day. A couple got married, one was an atheist, the other an extremely conservative Christian. They eloped. She, the Christian, asked him to lead her family in prayer to smooth things over with her family. I was completely offended. They just don't get it. Would she ask a Jewish man to say a Christian prayer? No, because she would grasp how offensive it would be to ask. But it's okay to disregard the belief system of an atheist.

Yes, I know they're fictional people, but I see this crap all of the time.

@icolan maybe. But in some cases it's just fear.

To draw a parallel, I was having a conversation with two friends who were a few years younger than me when I was almost 30. We were discussing spanking children. I said that every study shows it doesn't work, the behavior continues. I mentioned that some studies show that it tends to be more of an act of anger and frustration on the part of the parent, not all of the time but often enough to disturb me. My point was going to be that, if I ever had kids, I would try to remember that.

One of my friends freaked out. He launched into this tirade about how his dad beat them "but good" and I was saying horrible things. For a minute, I thought he might hit me. I realized he was unable to face the emotions he was feeling and talked him down. It's similar for some people to face the idea that their parents taught them something fundamental about the world that was wrong. It's too painful for some people.

Those people don't offend me. I just feel sorry for them. It takes great strength to face painful truths, and not everyone can handle that.

@AuntieMame The emotion that I usually feel towards the religious is "pity".

3

I sort of think it's the opposite of religion? There is no book of magical happenings and punishments for believers; no mandates to go to war with other tribes; no vindictive monster to object worship; no "testing of faith", etc., etc., etc.

Most atheists/agnostics (many perhaps is a better term) just don't believe the hype any longer, if we did in the first place. What's the BFD? Why is that so difficult to accept or understand?

2

What's the old saying? Atheism's a religion like "off" is a TV channel or "non stamp collecting" is a hobby.

2

Honestly, more of a state of anti-religion if anything. I'm not sure when or how this whole "everything is a religion" trend started but it's horribly annoying.

AmyLF Level 7 Mar 24, 2018

And now XIANITY is NOT a religion!! Everything means ANYTHING when talking religion!

@Ungod I think it's more that because everything has been made a religion, it pretty much cheepens and dumbs down the religions that are out there... not that I think strict religious adherence is a great thing anyway... but still...

Everything has been CALLED a religion, by goddite X who now claim Xianity is NOT a religion!

Football is religion!

Everything means ANYTHING in the goddite world!

Religion is science. Science is religion!

Our belief is religion, YOURS is a “cult”!

Atheism is religion!

2

There are many definitions of Atheism. Check out www.evilbible.com for a lot of talk on the subject; however, I like to make up my own personal definitions:

  1. An Atheist is a person who has thought about God for some time and has decided that it is far more likely that Man created God and not God created Man.
  2. An Atheist is a person who believes that the evidence that “God does not exist” is so overwhelming that you can make the jump to yes, “God does not exist”. For example, I cannot prove that my wife is not a covert secret agent for the Chinese government; however, all the available evidence that I have strongly suggests that she is not.
  3. An Atheist is allowed to change his or her mind as new information becomes available.

    Atheism is not a religion because a religion requires that you accept various dogmas as truth. Atheism makes no such requirement.
    Religions require beliefs in ideas that must be true because the men that wrote down those ideas were inspired by their particular supernatural deity. If you do not accept those ideas, then you can be severely punished – you can be killed, tortured, or simply be ostracized from your friends and family. To aid in the propagation of the religion, free speech must be restricted so that evil ideas, that is, ideas that contradict the religion, are crushed. But you have free speech – as long as that speech does not challenge the religion. And you have free will. That is, you can either choose to believe in the religion or you can be punished in the fires of Hell forever.
    Religion preys on our human nature to propagate itself. It assures us that we will live forever if we just submit to God and do what the various priests tell us to do – including giving them a lot of money. (After all, how much is your soul worth?) Religions make us feel good by telling us that we are loved by God, that we have a purpose in life, that we are very important and that we are a part of something that is wonderful. Religion tells us that we, the members of the religion, are very good, those believers outside of our religion are not so good, and atheists are evil because there can be no morality without God.
    With religion, truth is based on the writings of the sacred texts and these truths cannot be changed. With Atheism, “truth” is based on experimental evidence and can be changed as new evidence becomes available. Atheists seek the truth through observations of the world.
    Religious people know they have the truth because they have accepted the teachings in their sacred texts. Atheists will seek answers to: Why are some people Gay while others are not? – while deeply religious people will simply stone Gay people to death or throw them off of tall buildings because: “If a man lies with another man, it is an abomination unto the Lord – and both shall be put to death” (Leviticus 20:13)

Buddhism is religion, but ATHEIST! There are even Jewwws and Xians who are atheist!

There’s but ONE central stance in Atheism - absence of a god belief. From there are STAGES of atheism.

Like theism of course, which STARTS at god belief and continues from there...

2

It's not a religion but the complete lack thereof. That being said, I believe that atheism is still a point of view on religion just as theism is.

With evidence or lack thereof playing a crucial role, I would call it more than just an arbitrary point of view IMHO...

You can have religion and be atheist.

The two are NOT mutually exclusive!

2

Is the absense of a religion a religion? I used to watch a youtuber called Nonstampcollector. As you can see he equated it to a hobby. Does the absense of a hobby still make you a hobbieist? So I conclude that the source of the original question can be found in irrational projection on behalf of the poser of the question.

2

Sure but I prefer Humanism. It is a belief system that mocks Christianity where it falls short and yet is a clear set of ideals. Whereas atheism is more like an absence of belief in anything that isn't seen, humanism is the belief in human compassion, complex reasoning, and a set of morals that are innate which I quite enjoy

Yes. Humanism is a rational way to look at life and existence. I'm more of a irreligious Humanist than anything else.

2

No. And belief doesn't even come into it. It's just an outlook to life and existance in general that lays competely outside the domain of any religious group/sect that has the agenda of the mind control of others. It's actually an irreligious outlook. Well that's my 'take' on it anyway.

1

That's because believers do not understand, or refuse to understand, Atheism and so turn it on its head. They think that Atheism is simply a belief or faith that there is no God as opposed to refusing to be entrapped by a belief in God. They mistake the freedom of Atheism for a slavery to a negative faith. Some believers even think that Atheists really believe in God deep down are really just rebelling against God a la Satan.

1

NO!

1

This idea is the result of an intentional false narrative from theologians which is centuries old.

Religious theologians actually teach a false narrative about Atheism and Agnosticism.

They teach believers Agnostics are "Doubters" and Atheists "Deniers", as if their assertion of God is already proven and a non believer is in denial of a fact. They teach Agnosticism and Atheism as points on a linear line, on the left, Theism, In the middle Agnosticism, and on the right Atheism, this is FALSE and INTENTIONAL by theologians.

A-Theism is a response to Theism, the a prefix denotes "lack of"
This is a position on belief, you have a belief in a God, or you lack a belief in God.

A-Gnosticism is a response to Gnosticism, the A-prefix denotes "lack of"
This is a position on Knowledge, you claim to have knowledge of a God, or you claim to lack such knowledge of a God.

Religion does not want to even acknowledge Gnosticism, because by doing so they have to admit Atheism (a lack of belief) has weight.

With the FALSE linear model, they teach followers that Atheists are COUNTERCLAIMING, claiming that Theists claim there is a God, Agnostics do not know, and Atheists claim there is no God. That is wrong both on linguistics and basic honesty.

1

I would say the Xians want to put you in the kind of box they understand, also the box the leaders have decided best suit their agenda/s.
Of course it isn't a religion, yet regardless of those inane claims, I WOULD say atheism is a "belief system", in that religions cannot be disproved,

1

Atheism is merely a DESCRIPTION of a world view. Ditto THEISM. A world view, outlook or RELIGION can be ether! The mistake Atheists AND Theists make is equating theism with religion and atheism with anti-religion.

Theists can be non-religious. Atheists can be religious. The three are not mutually exclusive. I can see the folly THEISTS often have about these things, but my concern is that ATHEISTS don’t see this!

Ungod Level 6 Mar 26, 2018

this one does and i think your observation is very clever.

1

Do you believe bacon is a vegetable?

Perhaps the TOMATO is a better example. Biologically a FRUIT, but legally a VEGETABLE!

Xians want to get in on this and call Xianity “philosophy” NOT religion - but I bet they still want the TAX-FREE definition of it as RELIGION!

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