Should Atheists form their own religion?

Question

Actually, this a follow up to my earlier question: What has Atheism accomplished? Looking at their answers it appears that they also have certain beliefs. Atheists only need to come up with a common code and creed to qualify as a religion. If they form one will this improve inter-religious dialogue? Will it help if we knew their position on certain issues and concerns? Right now they don't even have a spokesman. What do you think of this idea?

Answer 1

Atheism is a religion. Their object of worship? - Themselves.

Answer 2

You should quit using a capital letter on the word atheist. It is not a religion. All the word means is not believing in God(s). Your personal desire to view it as a religion just displays how limited your mind is. If you ask loaded questions from a certain perspective you are going to get a certain range of responses. This is for a few reasons. One is that they might be the most sensible answers.
I think your Idea is basically flawed and deeply idiotic. If you had a clue at all about what it means to not be a believer and realize that it in no way translates into being a believer in a defined alternate belief system you would quit asking foolish questions.

Answer 3

I think it is a silly idea, and I don't know why religionists keep trying to say atheism is "just another religion". Atheism is a philosophy and worldview....but it is not a religion, no matter how many times you say it.

RELIGION def:
1 (a) : the service and worship of God or the supernatural
(b) : commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance
2 : a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices
3 archaic : scrupulous conformity : CONSCIENTIOUSNESS
4 : a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith

The term religion applies to supernatural beliefs. Atheists don't accept the existence of supernatural creatures in general, though more specifically, those creatures most people would call gods. Generally, those who are atheists tend to hold rational, "show me the evidence" views on most things, though I have met atheists who believe in UFO's and Bigfoot....I suspect they are closet god-believers though. LOL

We actually arent' that coherent a group. We have quite diverse opinions on lots of things, the only thing we really agree on is that there is no god.

What has atheism accomplished??? Well I could provide a long list of famous atheists and their accomplishments I suppose, but you can look that up yourself. Atheists have contributed much to philosophy and science...again, look it up yourself. We generally promote critical thinking and rational logical discourse.

Organizing atheists has often been described as similar to herding cats. We don't have a single spokesman, and we dont' want one, and we could never agree on who it should be. We have lots of individuals who speak out, such as Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, James Randi, Michael Shermer. etc. We are starting to become more organized and politically active in small ways. I belong to a few "Skeptics" groups, and I have an interest in challenging other credulous beliefs in Alternative Medicine, parapsychology, cryptozoology etc. There are SO MANY things to be skeptical of....it really is a huge topic. It's not just atheism for me, although it is often more entertaining to butt heads with the religiously deluded.

Here's what we HAVEN"T accomplished:

-We haven't slaughtered millions of people in often horrible ways over past centuries
-we haven't held back progress with medieval belief systems
-we haven't terrorized and indoctrinated children with fear of eternal hellfire
-we haven't wasted resources and manpower building edifices to the glory of the nonexistent
-we haven't condemned women to suffrage, dying in childbirth because "every sperm is sacred"

Answer 4

Now, I am an atheist and I don't like the idea of our own religion. You know, atheism promotes thinking on your own and deciding for yourself what you want to do in life instead of blindly follow what others say. So if you come up with a code and creed for atheists to follow, it kind of contradicts the purpose in the first place.

Answer 5

Atheist - religion
Oxymoron, don't ya think?

Ya know, people like you should know when to leave things alone. Don't you have anything better to do than annoy people because their belief systems are not like your own? Too bad, deal with it.

Yes, they have beliefs, just like everyone else, and they are entitled to it. And it is not your job to pick it apart.

If people like you would spend as much time working on your own issues and the issues in your own community as you do worrying about what every else believes, we would not have as many social issues as we do.

Work on solutions to the serious problems of unemployment, affordable housing for everyone, feeding the hungry, getting everyone a good education and being a more open person to your environment just as hard as you do coming up with silly answers to something that, quite frankly, is really none of your business.

Move along, there is nothing to see here.

Answer 6

Atheists forming their own religion won't be much help because then we just have another religion that disagrees with everyone else and has a lot of arguments.

Agnostics forming their own religion could be useful - then we have a religion that can include all the other ones - one that says maybe your right, or maybe your not, or maybe your half right and the other one is half right too? That could help inter religious dialogue

Answer 7

You seem ignorant and helplessly unable to grasp the idea that not everyone NEEDS to have a religion. And technically we have had several spokespersons in the past. Right now Richard Dawkins seems the most likely canadate for an official spokesman, FYI. We don't need or want a religion. But, if we wax nostalgic for the days when our parents dragged us to church with them we just worship the FSM (Flying Spaghetti Monster) instead. Thanks for your concern.

Answer 8

Isn't that like members of AA buying a bar. The whole idea of Atheism is that you don't believe. I could see Atheists forming an organization but not a religion.

Answer 9

In a sense, we have... a few of them. If you don't believe there are any gods, but still want the social aspects of religion, including weekly discussions on morality and how they relate to current events, then there are several avenues you can take.

There are various humanist groups that hold weekly meetings with guest speakers.

Also, you could join an ethical union. That is set up more along the lines of a church service, but with a secular focus.

And there are the Unitarian Universalists who accept any range of religious belief, if you really want more of the rituals and such of a church service, along with discussions about other religions.

There have even been a couple atheist churches set up around the country. I haven't been to one, but I imagine they'd have a similar format to the ethical union.

Of course, you could be like me and find your outlet for discussions of ethics and philosophy in various forums like this one.

Answer 10

Interesting, but it wouldn't work. The whole point of Atheism seems to be to avoid any sort of controlled moral ideaology. The best way for an Atheist to conduct his or her life on a daily basis is just to live life like a normal human being, and pay no attention to religion in general - except for debates and civil arguments.

Answer 11

Religion is an organization based on the belief of a (or many) supernatural being(s). So, no, Atheism in not a religion, and we don't need a "spokesperson". We have our own brains.