Is Atheism really a religion as I've heard some say? Is that even possible .......?

Question

because atheists have no doctrines or guidelines that they follow other than what they each think is right which varies extremely between themselves.

To Qonox - It wasn't the Christians that said that. It was a few atheists trying to say that they were religious, too and should be on the religious forum. It made me wonder if they really are a religion unto themselves.

Answer 1

The word ‘atheism’ comes from the negative ‘a’ which means ‘no’ and ‘theos’ which means ‘god.’ Hence, atheism in the most base terms means ‘no god.’ Basically, atheism is the lack of belief in a god and/or the belief that there is no god. By contrast, theism is the belief that there is a God, that he is knowable, and that he is involved in the world. Most atheists do not consider themselves anti-theists, but simply non-theists.

I've encountered many atheists who claim that atheism is not a belief system while others say it is. Since there is no official atheist organization, nailing down which description of atheism to use can be difficult. Nevertheless, following are some definitions offered by atheists. Which ever definition you go by, atheism denies God.

"An atheist is someone who believes and/or knows there is no god."
"An atheist lacks belief in a god."
"An atheist exercises no faith in the concept of god at all."
"An atheist is someone who is free from religious oppression and bigotry."
"An atheist is someone who is a free-thinker, free from religion and its ideas."

There are two main categories of atheists: strong and weak, with variations in between. Strong atheists actively believe and state that no God exists. They expressly denounce the Christian God along with any other god. Strong atheists are usually more aggressive in their conversations with theists and try to shoot holes in theistic beliefs. They like to use logic and anti-biblical evidences to denounce God's existence. They are active, often aggressive, and openly believe that there is no God.

Agnostic Atheists, as I call them, are those who deny God's existence based on an examination of evidence. Agnosticism means 'not knowing,' or 'no knowledge.' I call them agnostic because they state they have looked at the evidence and have concluded that there is no God but they say they are open to further evidence for God's existence.


Weak atheists simply exercise no faith in God. The weak atheist might be better explained as a person who lacks belief in God the way a person might lack belief that there is a green lizard in a rocking chair on the moon; it isn't an issue. He doesn't believe or not believe it.

Finally, there is a group of atheists that I call militant atheists. They are, fortunately, few in number. They are usually highly insulting and profoundly terse in their comments to theists, particularly Christians. I’ve encountered a few of them and they are vile, rude, and highly condescending. Their language is full of insults, profanity, and blasphemies. Basically, no meaningful conversation can be had with them.




Two Main Types of Arguments from Atheists
Atheist positions seem to fall into two main categories. The first is the lack-of-evidence category where the atheist asserts that the supporting evidence isn't good enough for him to affirm God's existence. The second is the category where they believe that the idea of God's existence is illogical and contrary to the evidence at hand. To simplify, one says there isn't enough evidence to conclude that God exists and the other says the evidence is contrary to God's existence. For those atheists who simply lack belief and exercise no energy in the discussion, neither category applies because they are not involved in the debate. But, some of those who claim to lack belief in God are often involved in discussions where they are arguing against God's existence.

A typical argument posed by an atheist to show why God does not exist is as follows: God is supposed to be all good and all powerful. Evil and suffering exist in the world. If God is all good he would not want evil and suffering to exist. If He is all powerful then He is able to remove all evil and suffering. Since evil and suffering exist, God is either not all good (which means he is not perfect and not God), or he is not all powerful (and limited in abilities and scope). Since either case shows God is not all good and powerful, then He does not exist. Of course, the problem is that the criticism is a false dichotomy. In other words, there are more than two possibilities; namely, God might have a reason for allowing evil and suffering; man's freedom might require the allowance of evil and suffering, etc.

Answer 2

Looks like you already figured it out for yourself. No, atheism is not a religion. A religion is defined as an institution that believes in a supreme being/power. Atheism, by defintion, fails to meet the criteria. And you are correct, although atheists are lumped together, they vary in degree and attitude. There are no guidelines, so unless they all convert to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, they don't belong to any "club".

Answer 3

Atheism is not a religion in the way that you would normally see things on a spiritual matter, but more of a group focused on not letting religious views cloud their judgement whatsoever in life. Everyone is independant, and putting atheism into a catagory to suit people such as Catholics, Christians, Muslins etcetera is not any different than trying to conform them so people will still think they are accepted in a twisted logic of the Vatican.

Answer 4

Atheism is not a religion, and anyone who says it is has obviously not read the definition. It's not possible.

Atheists have plenty of guidelines, they're called MORALS, and they have nothing to do with religion. As far as variation goes, you will find that if you ask atheists a question, quite often they will all use the same rules of logic to arrive at the same answer. That is the sort of consensus that scientific minds are capable of reaching.

Yesterday, I saw about twenty atheists answer a question with nearly the exact same words. No doctrine, no rule book, just logical minds, working the way they're supposed to. Try getting that out of twenty theists.

Answer 5

Atheist: one who believes there is no God.
It is a belief, or an opinion, not a "belief system." Therefore, atheism is not a religion.
It is the opposite of a religion.

Answer 6

Simplest reply: No.

And just for the record: I'm an atheist, and I live by a very concrete set of rules, which I believe are shared by most atheists: The Constitution of The United States.

The Rule of Law: The only "doctrine" our country needs. Period.

Answer 7

Atheism is the absolute rejection of ethereal belief. It is the belief of a creation that came out of nowhere, or out of a Big Bang as this nowhere is called. They have NO ANSWER as to who or how brought forth the Big Bang, according to them it just materialized out of nowhere. This is Atheism!

Answer 8

Atheism is not a religion. It is a philosophical viewpoint. You might say it is a religious point of view, but it is not a religion.

Answer 9

Exactly. Atheism can't be a religion. It's the very opposite of.

Answer 10

It is not a religion. If they were to organize into one movement, I suppose you could call them a group. They are individual thinkers whose minds can go, where minds bound by a certain set of beliefs cannot travel.