What is religion to a athiest?

Answer 1

athiesm itself is a form of religion (a set of beliefs based on no actual proof)

they BELIEVE there is no God, that itself is a belief, they can neither prove it or disprove it. but as for any othe religion to an athiest its just a bunch of nonsense

Answer 2

I am a former Christian turned agnostic. I don't call myself an atheist, despite the fact that I don't really believe in a personal God, because I know that NOBODY can say for sure whether or not there is a God, just like NOBODY can say for sure where the earth came from, or what happens after death, or any other thing that we humans were not around for.

Religion used to be the most important thing in my life when I was a Christian. As an agnostic, I realize now that it was largely a crutch, a tool for understanding an increasingly confusing and chaotic world, and something to give hope in the face of a lack of answers.

Answer 3

I think the best answer is that they are not sold on any of the current forms of worship. There was a time in my life where I questioned the Catholic religion used by our family. I think with many atheists they feel like they were sucked into a belief system doesn't reflect their understanding of life. Perhaps they are more rational or they expect more information before they allow themselves to be a believer. What ever the case I view it like politics, you have to be stupid to believe everything the government tells you. We all know the earth wasn't created in 7 earth days but if you consider the information that was available when the scripture was written it becomes more believable. I also think that our concept of thinking has evolved immensely since the dark ages[except for in our current administration].

Answer 4

Atheism


Atheism, in its broadest sense, is a lack of belief in a deity or deities: the opposite of theism. This encompasses both people who assert that there are no gods and those who make no claim about whether gods exist or not. Narrower definitions of atheism typically regard as atheists only those people who assert the nonexistence of gods, leaving other nonbelievers classified as agnostics and/or non-theists.

Although many of those who identify themselves as atheists share a common skeptical attitude regarding spiritual or supernatural claims, atheistic beliefs may derive from personal, philosophical, social or historical rationales. While there is a tendency among self-described atheists toward secular philosophies such as humanism, naturalism and materialism, atheists do not adhere to one system of philosophy, nor does atheism have institutionalized rituals or behaviors. Under the broad definition, atheists need not have anything in common, since they are defined by what they are not (i.e., theists) rather than what they are.

This answer came for the site below

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism

Answer 5

athiests view religion as something that the easily led people and the gullible masses beleive to help them sleep better at night. They have taken one of many paths to deciding that a higher being can't exist. It is differentiated from agnosticism, where religion (as an insitution) is devalued, and the view on god may be accepting his existance as something not fitting into any religion's catagory, or a view of apathy.

Athiests actively believe that humans are simply animals with higher thought, and this higher thought leads us to fear that our conciousness will one day be extinguished. Being unable to cope with the idea of our consciousness just not existing one day, we create a god which offers immortality to our minds (and souls).

now i'm catholic, but i think that is a slightly harsh, but pretty accurate description having a lot of very strongly vocal athiest friends and not being particularly fanatic about religion myself, but faithful enough to see distinctions between me and them.

Answer 6

A collection of myths and superstitions which have been formed into a semi-coherent system of beliefs which are used to control society for the benefit of the ruling classes.
"Religion is what stops the poor from murdering the rich" Napoleon Bonaparte.

Answer 7

Someone else's explanation of the world, existence, and life... More specifically religion, as apposed to belief and faith, is a man made grouping of individuals who choose to come together and share the same variation of a belief system.

Edit: To Matt (and others) above me... it is a Dis-belief in gods...not a belief. And not a religion. A religion is a grouping of people, we do not gather together to study or worship our view... we are only individual people that have non-belief in common. It can't be a religion in any way if we don't come together as a group to practice it. Besides, there is nothing to practice. Some of you need to let us speak for ourselves.

Answer 8

What is so wrong with being an Atheist? So some people do not believe in God or see God? Is that a crime? I do not think so. People are not all alike. Atheist believe as they do because they have a brain and they think. They do not follow what people tell them to do and I think that that is a great thing. We should all think about who we are, where we are, what we are, and where we all come from? What is our purpose? Why are we here?

Answer 9

An imposition of someone else's views, beliefs and values.

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To lcj43938, (three answers above me):

If what the Bible says is true, people who proclaim to be Christians but have a maliciously punitive view of the world will actually be front and center in God's Judgment over an Atheist.

Answer 10

A force to reckon with. An athiest analyzes all the reasons why there is no need to accept religous based doctrine and beliefs. He basically stands for nothing. Quite a confused individual.

Answer 11

Possibility.