Atheism is a religion

[Fearless]

Originally Posted by jjcrazi

anyone notice that on facebook if you want to type in atheist you have to put it under the 'religion' category. I have left mine blank in protest

That's pretty normal, even in bookshops you can find the same.

I don't mind people seeing that I am an atheist on Facebook, in fact I'm proud

[Keith_W]

Originally Posted by jjcrazi

anyone notice that on facebook if you want to type in atheist you have to put it under the 'religion' category. I have left mine blank in protest

Which do you think is more important - to stand up and be counted, or to take some kind of protest at something which most people will ignore, anyway? It can be argued that choosing "Atheist" in the drop down box for religion might denote "no religion", rather than "atheism being a religion".

[jjcrazi]

LOL anyone on my facebook page is in no doubt of where i stand

[finix]

Well, I think we have to be careful that we don't turn atheism into a religion.

What's the definition of religion? Here is Wikipedia's first line:

"Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values"

I think we could bend atheism to fit into this definition. The only word that I have a problem with is "spirituality" - to me that means some sort of mystical force. But many people interpret that word differently to me, for some people it means a connection with nature.

So, I would say, it all depens on your definition.

[Xeno]

Wikipedia is not my dictionary and even if it were, to fit that "definition" then atheism would be pretty fucking bent.

[AUSloth]

Atheism is not a lens for looking at the world it is an answer to a single question (at least from my perspective).
The question of "is there a god or gods?" I ask this then fill the hopper of the critical thinking and reasoning faculty between my ears with as much info as I can find, crank the metaphoric handle a couple of times (I am currently in the process of upgrading the equipment but it will take a lifetime ) and out plops my answer. No evidence therefore atheism, subject to change on future input. That's where it ends, it says nothing about one of the most closely related questions "can I ever know?". Fill the hopper crank the handle and out plops that answer. Doesn't look good therefore agnostic.
Do you see where I'm going? No belief system, no cultural system, no morality system comes from the answer atheist, it is an end result of my reasoning on a single issue. Good luck trying to build a religion out of that.
I do share common ground with others here not from the fictitious lens of atheism but from the method of achieving that answer ie science, reason and critical thinking, oh yes and beer

[Meissner]

AUSloth said it perfectly, atheism is the result of the answer some people give to one question, "Do you believe god(s) exists?" if the answer is yes, you are a theist, anything else, including "I don't know" you are an atheist. That is the best way I've found to explain it to people who say "it's a belief system" or anything ridiculous like that.

Edit: BTW AUSloth, theism/atheism=belief, Gnostic/Agnostic=knowledge, not sure if you were confused about that or not, feel free to flame if you feel I'm being arrogant

[Martin_Madej]

To unstandardised why they see it as this (a religion) you have to look at Atheism through their eyes.

All they know is religion so Their view is any group that has a alternative view to theirs is an opposing religion.

In other words they have a different definition of what religion is to what the atheist communities definition is.

They see a group of people meeting up to discuss a topic about what they centred their world view on, (so they see that Atheists have a different world view) and every other religion has a different world view to them so there for Atheism is a religion.

In my opinion that's the reasoning of a child.

What they fail to grasp is that All atheism is the doubt that there is a god ( no evidenced or one) that's all.

Every other ideology or stance that that individual person (Atheist) has is based on the experience and the knowledge of THAT individual.

It is not based on a central book that answers everything or tells you how to live, that's why the Atheist community is so diverse from all walks of life and each one has there own world views and ideas which they are willing to discuss and CHANGE if evidence is presented to contradict that particular idea.

This are some of the reasons I like being around Atheists, the intellectual stimulation and the ever continuing process of improving myself and my world view.

[Martin_Madej]

Sorry for the long post.

I am a little drunk while writing this.

[Logic]

Originally Posted by Martin_Madej

I am a little drunk while writing this.

I can tell by the autocorrect issues in your recent posts.


i sent this from my iPad