Atheism a religion?

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Mangi Niugini's picture
Atheism a religion?

It seems to me that the common atheist would rather experience the sensation of their molecules being ripped apart within a black-hole rather than let atheism evolve into a all-god-damning religious sect. That would defeat the purpose of Atheism would it not? Atheism cannot be turned into a religion, or can it? Despite what an intellectual atheist might think, I figured an atheist would rather live a life of content, just knowing what they know and knowing that they don't share in humanity's ignorant trait. I think that the reason for this may be because the common atheist has most probably been subjected to some form of isolation after converting to Atheism. Whether it be isolation from family or peer groups or the workplace or the community, we experience it in one way or another.

I feel as though this distributed mentality amongst atheists, where the spread of ideology cannot be carried out when it is vigorously push upon another human being is rather secular and may in fact lead to the inevitable downfall of Atheism itself. Solitude may well become Atheism's enemy number one. Is this a fair statement to make?

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Aditya Kiran Bukkapatnam's picture
I believe the true essence of

I believe the true essence of atheism lies in the promotion of rational thought and truth. If that happens to refute religion and God and be called atheism then so be it. It is not something to be pursued with devotion or have anything to do with faith of any kind. That's why atheists should not resort to cultism or methods that attempt to persuade others, other than through rationality. The institutionalization of modern day atheism should also be based on the same principles, so that the message is clear to the rest of the world that they can believe whatever they want as long as people use their brain to analyze their beliefs. As long as this is a reasonable request, I do not think atheism will ever become a religion.

To answer your question, I do not think solitude is going to be where I end up, I come from a family of conservative Brahman Hindus, yet the only form of isolation I experience is that of my ideology, I do not experience it socially. Although this can't be said to be true for everyone. For those who do experience social isolation from their family or peers, they will find companionship in the atheistic community in a non-religious manner, so I do not think the atheistic community is damned. For those atheists who wish to live their life in content, their beliefs are totally irrelevant because they do not make a difference in this world anyway.

Nordic Fox's picture
I think for the most part we

I think for the most part we aren't isolated in the sense that non-believers are becoming a larger demographic worldwide (which is awesome), but I do think it is bad to allow individuals to feel isolated, many people feel supremely isolated even in their own homes.

I'm a perfect example, I currently live with inlaws, and aside from my mother I'm the only Atheist in my entire family! Everyone else clings on to childish beliefs about an 'all powerful all loving' creator that allows other family members to die horrifically painful and long deaths because of disease, auto collision and whatnot. People at work, new friends... There are very few people I have around who share my views. It's good to have a community to go to, talk in, and enjoy similar ideas. I honestly wish we had some sort of institution -like- religions have, free, tax-exempt property by the thousands of square feet would be very nice!

But as for when people accuse Atheism of 'being a religion'... It's like calling bald a hair color. Being a bald guy, I've always loved that quote!

Pitar's picture
No. It isn't true. It isn't

No. It isn't true. It isn't even a logical argument. Atheism has no sponsor. It has no source. It has no collective cognitive vehicle such as a religion does with doctrine. It belongs nowhere and asks nothing of or for itself. It does not have a purposeful constituency. It's only a declaration denouncing theism. It does not persist for any other reason other than as a personal declaration. It will not propagate and spread as a religion does because it comes without incentive.

Yet...

It lives on and is gaining in numbers. Is it because it is being openly campaigned within a strategic intelligentsia? No.

Time.

People are aligning with atheism because they have reached a plateau of logic that can no longer be denied by inner fears of mortality. They are embracing their mortality. They are embracing their finiteness. Time has the power to silently and effortlessly recruit.

It is a final surrender.

People, who in droves surrendered their natural sense of inquisitiveness for truths and facts when they embraced religious belief systems, are now coming back to their nature. They're returning to who they are and accepting themselves as part of the finite fabric of nature and not some manifestation of a super-natural conjuring from antiquity. They're coming home and surrendering their belief systems as a natural part of the process. This is their final and absolute surrender.

Time itself will quietly bring the downfall of all belief systems. It's only the hurtful screamers amidst atheism who taunt the theists. It's only those who would casually and apathetically bring hurt upon another human being for such a paultry thing as waxing atheism.

Silence is the key, time is the guarantee.

webkrawlerr's picture
Well, it definitely is not a

Well, it definitely is not a religion but in my opinion Buddhism is not a religion, either.

BUT, for legal reasons, I have no problem with atheists being protected under the same laws that protect people
based on their "religion". It's a catch phrase for "a particular point of view" and atheism is definitely a particular point of view.

Jeff Vella Leone's picture
Atheism is a very broad

Atheism is a very broad definition which is not really defined well.

Some atheists label themselves atheist without knowing the actual meaning of the word.

Atheist just means "Not a theist."
The A added to Theist means NOT

So a follower of a pagan religion which does not believe in a Theistic god is also an atheist.

Atheism is simply the lack of belief in a theistic god.

It is a point of view/opinion of-course, but that does not make it a belief.

There are a lot of people that mix the two as one, especially theists that want it so.

Here is a clarification:

http://www.waupun.k12.wi.us/Policy/other/dickhut/religions/03%20Belief%2...

http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/teaching/co300man/pop12d.cfm

mce9976's picture
Theist means god. Polytheist

Theist means god. Polytheist means multiple gods, monotheist means one god. therefore atheist means "No god," rather than "Not a theist". Just a bit of clarification.

skepdicks's picture
No, I disagree completely.

No, I disagree completely. First, the main reason for atheism's isolation in our society is the fact that atheists are NOT vocal. Second I don't think that atheists wanting more people to become atheists isn't out of a religious zealous, rather a desire to spread knowledge. Galileo (and many others before and after him) didn't want to spread the idea of a round earth to cause civil unrest or heresy, rather to create order and meaning to a chaotic world. Third, if any group of people gets together and agrees on an issue, they are not inherently a religion(by that standard, people who believe in climate change, gun rights or freedom of speech are a religion).

ZeffD's picture
Mangi N: "..lead to the

Mangi N: "..lead to the inevitable downfall of Atheism itself."
Atheist is simply what religionists call non-believers. There is no downfall involved, unless humans start becoming more superstitious instead of less so.
Religious "beliefs" (i.e. opinions) are superstition like witchcraft and voodoo and will inevitably go the same way, with clerics being bracketed with warlocks, psychics and soothsayers.

SecularSonOfABiscuitEater's picture
Disagree. The "Common Athiest

Disagree. The "Common Athiest" as you say may take umbridge with religion, but this is in no way, shape or form a belief system.

ZeffD's picture
What "belief system"? And no

What is a 'belief system' anyway?

@SecularSob: "Common atheist" was used in the first post, so I take it you disagree with him?

SecularSonOfABiscuitEater's picture
Yeah @ZeffD I was disagreeing

Yeah @ZeffD I was disagreeing with the OP not you necessarily lol

SecularSonOfABiscuitEater's picture
Yeah @ZeffD I was disagreeing

Yeah @ZeffD I was disagreeing with the OP not you necessarily lol

Charles Thornton's picture
What do you mean by religion?

What do you mean by religion? If you include singing songs in front of a selected leader whilst partaking of ceremonial meal - or similar - then no atheism cannot be a religion. If you mean having a knees up following a prepared talk - then that isn't religion either, it's a social event.

There is also the minor problem that bringing atheists together can be a bit like herding cats

MCDennis's picture
Yes you caught us. Atheism

Yes you caught us. Atheism is a religion. with no organization structure, no religious tenets, no believe system, no deity, no religious texts, no religious services, no dogma, no rituals, and no belief system.

cherrystar27's picture
If you approach religion

If you approach religion sociologically (i.e. Karl Max), functionally (i.e. Emile Durkheim), etc. then yes, Atheism is "religious". Atheism may not theologically be a belief system but it's certainly a cultural system (i.e. Clifford Geertz). The point is that the definition of religion is not concrete.

mykcob4's picture
I totally disagree

I totally disagree cherrystar27. Atheism is a label given to people that don't believe a myth by people that made up the myth. There is no organization, no affiliation, no common belief system that any atheist adheres to. Therefore atheism is definitely not a religion. Atheists don't believe any religious myth. All christians believe in one god.

Cognostic's picture
HUH? I have a degree in

HUH? I have a degree in Sociology. You have no idea at all what the hell you are talking about. "Max's" Assuming you mean Marx's theories about society, economics and politics—collectively understood as Marxism—hold that human societies develop through class struggle. Please show me his theory on ATHEISM. THERE IS NO THEORY OF ATHEISM. IT IS NOT A BELIEF SYSTEM. IT IS NOT A DOGMA. Atheism is a position on the existence of God or gods. Atheists do not believe in gods. This says NOTHING AT ALL about what else they believe.

There is nothing 'CULTURAL" about atheists. There is no system. Atheists are liberals and conservatives. Atheists can believe in all sorts of WooWoo. Some believe in souls and spirits but not in Gods. Some believe in Karma or Rebirth and other utter nonsense. Where is this CULTURAL SYSTEM you speak of?

Clifford Geerts knows nothing about Atheism from what I have read and has not commented on it. Please cite your source. He is an expert on Moroccan Culture (North Africa) and South East Asia. . Greets Asserts RELIGION is a CULTURAL SYSTEM and he is a "DIE-HARD ATHEIST." (You just alter quotes to suite your own purpose? ) There is no definition of religion that fits modern atheists.

Emile Durkheim on Atheism? Now I know you are out to frigging lunch. Emile Durkheim was also an Atheist. He never studied Atheism. Please cite a source. "He was born in 1858 in the little French town of Epinal, near the German border. His family were devout Jews. Durkheim himself did not believe in God, but he was always fascinated by, and sympathetic to, religion."

http://thephilosophersmail.com/perspective/the-great-philosophers-11-emi...

What in the hell did you do --- Pick some names out of a hat and then just start making assertions?

cherrystar27's picture
Like I stated...Atheism is

Like I stated...Atheism is "RELIGIOUS" (see the quotations?)...not necessarily A RELIGION. A star trek fandom is "religious". Veganism is "religious". Musical subcultures like rave and metal has elements of "religiosity". There are other approaches to religion.

Sheldon's picture
Oxford English dictionary

Oxford English dictionary

religion
noun
1. the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.
2. a particular system of faith and worship.

Atheism
NOUN
A person who disbelieves or lacks belief in the existence of God or gods.

I do wish theists would stop desperately trying to redefine the dictionary in their absurd apologetics.

CompelledUnbeliever's picture
Atheism is simply the lack of

Atheism is simply the lack of a belief in a God. That is all. There is no dogma. Groups of athiest do get together simply as pushback from theist. As long as there are vocal thiest there will be vocal atheist. I really hope that the word atheist one day goes out of common use and is a quark found in history books. The only downfall of atheism will be the end of theism. It will not and can not collapse as a movement as it is not organized as a religion and can not be.

arakish's picture
***tree shaking limbs like a

***tree shaking limbs like a cheerleader***

Bravo! Bravo!

I might have to steal this to add to my répertoire.

rmfr

EDIT: fixed HTML entity

A1S2fin's picture
Atheism is not a religion and

Atheism is not a religion and it can't be a religion since it is only adressing a single question (do you believe that a god exists). There are some atheist religions (religions that have no gods), but atheism itself is not a religion.

Cognostic's picture
Calling Atheism a "Belief

Calling Atheism a "Belief System" "Religious" or a "Religion" is an attempt by theists to establish a "Straw-man" position so that Atheism can be attacked. After all if it is a belief system, religious or a religion, it obviously has to explain its "World View." There are millions of Atheists and we have NOTHING AT ALL IN COMMON. Atheists are communists, socialists, capitalists and more. Atheists support both pro life and choice. Atheists are democrats and republicans. Some atheists even believe in WooWoo BS like spirits, Karma, Reincarnation, Pyramid Power, Crystal Magic and other crap that is not God related. Generally most Atheists are "Skeptics." Even so this tells you nothing at all about what they believe. The only thing atheists, as a group, share, is an answer to the question "Do you believe in a God or gods?" To this single question, you will hear a resounding "NO" from atheists. Even that "NO" will not tell you why different atheists do not believe. It tells you nothing at all about Atheism. It tells you nothing at all because there are NO SHARED BELIEFS. NO DOGMA. NO MAGIC BOOK OF MORALITY. NOTHING AT ALL THAT CAN CONNECT ATHEISM TO RELIGION. NOTHING.

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