Atheism is a religion

[jjcrazi]

Honestly, the shit people say! What are some of the frustrating things people hear about atheism, what have you said and why do you think people say such shit like "Atheism is just another religion"

[Voltairine]

The general reply is "if atheism is a religion then not collecting stamps is a hobby".

[Fearless]

Atheism is as much a religion as bald is a hair colour

[Fearless]

I often think it is to try to trivialise atheism. What was once a lesser known term is getting right up the nose of the religious more and more. The best way they can think to address the rise of atheism is to denigrate the term. They only make matters worse for themselves though highlighting how ignorant and even bigoted they are.

Use humour and read up on what others have to say on it and you will soon have these sorts of people sitting uncomfortably, even if they don't show it.

The other big one I find is
'if you don't have god and the bible, where do you get your morals and values from?'

Again pure ignorance and stupidity.

[Loki]

It's funny though. Theists want to arbitrarily declare atheism a religion so they can declare it of no value.

Irony what.

[Voltairine]

Originally Posted by Loki

It's funny though. Theists want to arbitrarily declare atheism a religion so they can declare it of no value.

Irony what.

Quite. Ask them whether it's meant to be an insult.

[Keith_W]

I think many Christians think religion is a bad thing. See how quick they are to say that Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship with God.

[jonno]

Best one I've heard was from a co-worker who stated "you're an atheist? So what do you believe in - science?" (with a sarcastic overtone on the last word).

The rest of the conversation was based around the usual arguments that science keeps on changing it's position with me responding in the affirmative that with the presentation of new evidence science does indeed evaluate and, if required, change its position - unlike religion which will either ignore the evidence or attempt to change it to suit their beliefs.

This lead onto the classic statement that "you have to believe in something" and unfortunately no humour was seen in my flippant reply that I believe I'll have lunch now - but I did have lunch so at least my belief happened

[Durro]

A religion is the organised acceptance of claims made not only in the absence of evidence, but often in the light of direct contradictory evidence. It relies on faith.

Atheism is simply the state of not accepting the claims made by religion and having an absence of faith.

There may be various causes for people being atheist - lack of familiarity with the claims of various religions, apathy or disinterest over religious issues and so on. However, for many of the members of forums like this, their atheism is supported by their willingness to actually explore religious claims and see them falsified by rational examination of the alleged evidence.

As an organised group, we're not buying into unsubstantiated claims. If anything, it the direct opposite by rejecting the claims of the religious based on their falsibility, incoherence or logical self-contradictions.

[rayne]

Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to explain the origin of life or the universe. They tend to derive morality, ethics, religious laws or a preferred lifestyle from their ideas about the cosmos and human nature.

Talal Asad. (1982). The Construction of Religion as an Anthropological Category.

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Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities. Most inclusively, atheism is simply the absence of belief that any deities exist. Atheism is contrasted with theism,which in its most general form is the belief that at least one deity exists.

Edwards, Paul (2005). "Atheism". In Donald M. Borchert. The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Vol. 1 (2nd ed.)

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Atheism as you can see is defined as having no belief in any deities. The atheist community is just a bunch of people who believe that no deities exist, that's our common denominator whereas we as individuals have different morals, ethics and values. If a group of people who have one thing in common is considered a religion than being gay would be considered a religion considered the gay community is made up of individuals who have a common denominator - they're gay.