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I read somewhere that atheism is not a religion. I must respectfully disagree. To me, all that defines a religion is having faith in something. Religions, as we normally think of religions, have faith that a god exists. Atheism does require faith that god does not exist. An atheist cannot prove that a god does not exist any more than a religious person can prove that a god does exist. I claim myself as a agnostic/atheist. I have faith a god does not exist, but I cannot know 100% for sure. Any thoughts?

RustBucket1967VW 5 Nov 1
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For an academic definition of religion see Ninian Smart’s Dimensions of Religion.

It will make the definition clear when you are relating with some of the academic minds here.

@RustBucket1967. Good luck then. Offering you an opportunity to learn something. Clearly you know best. The circular referencing you engage in will not teach you anything. Perhaps look beyond the dictionary for meaning in life!

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"I must respectfully disagree." one of those wondrous phrases on a par with "with all due respect" and "I'm not racist but..."
You can almost guarantee the person saying it is about to be totally disrespectful based on spurious reasoning and and ill informed nonsense.

I do NOT have faith that there is/are no god(s) I simple have no evidence to justify my believing in it or them, because no evidence exists. Therefore I adopt the default position that the contention that there are deities has not meet the burden of proof and so can be disregarded until such time as it does.
Faith in the religious sense is the answer given by desperate religious people when there is no evidence reason or logic for holding a belief, it is irrational and stupid to do so, but is given undue tolerance and respect based on hundreds of years of social indoctrination by religion.
I don't ask for evidence of the non existence of pixies, why should I need evidence for the non existence of deity.

haha. I never ‘respectfully’ or ‘humbly’ anything. And as you say. ‘But’ pretty much negates the previous clause designed to temper the real meaning of the coming phrase.

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That is true of Hard Atheism, but you will find that true Hard Atheism is very rare, and that such a large part of sceptical people are either, Soft Atheists or Agnostics of one sort or another, that Hard Atheists are rare and not generally very important to the whole picture.

And since I think that, the existence or not of god is trivial and unimportant, when compared with the issue of whether god communicates or not. Since a deist god, who has no message for us or hides from us, affects nothing, and is therefore of no practical consequence, because it generates no dogma. Therefore I always think of the big division as lying between organized religion, which has dogma and laws, and any place on the sceptical spectrum from deist through agnostic to atheist, whose inner divides are much smaller, and am happy to call myself a Broad Church Sceptic.

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No. Religion is belief in or worship of a superhuman power. What I have is a distinct LACK of belief. Do you have “faith” that there is no Easter bunny? Or leprechauns? Nope - just not buying something for which there is no evidence. And definitely not worshipping it.

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Religions are organizations. You can have belief in a higher power and not believe in religions. I know folks who fall into that category. We are not organized. So, no we are not a religion.

@RustBucket1967VW In the beginning they weren't, but they certainly are now. Atheism still doesn't fit that definition. We have no book or gospel directing our behavior. We don't meet in a place to talk about nothing since a belief in nothing leaves one little to talk about.

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