Is atheism a religion?

Question

It has the following attributes of a religion:

It accepts something through faith (the non-existence of God).
It has its sacred scriptures and infallible figures (e.g. Richard Dawkins).
It is intolerant of dissent.
Its adherents are emotionally attached to their ideas.
It believes that by following its rules (or non-rules) one can be a better person.

Etc. etc.

By the way I'm not saying it's a religion. I'm just asking the question. And even if it is a religion, I'm not suggesting that's necessarily a bad thing.

Someone asked about the sacred scriptures of atheism. Here are a few, off the top of my head:

L. Feuerbach, The Essence of Christianity
F. Nietzsche, The Antichrist
C. Darwin, The Origin of Species
R. Dawkins, The God Delusion

Actually that's an interesting line of enquiry. Anyone want to add any more?

I am neither a Creationist (except in something like a Platonic sense) nor a fundamentalist.

Answer 1

Atheism is a religion in the same way that "bald" is a hair color.

Answer 2

No.
Its not a religion. And by your examples, some already established faiths would not be considered religion either.

You can barely call Richard Dawkins' an infallible figure, and I've never seen so much as a sentence to support your idea that there is some sort of Atheist Sacred Scriptures.
Looks to me like you're spitefully making this stuff up.

Listen. If you really want to describe a religion, use Ninian Smart's model of Religious Dimensions.

* Ritual Dimension: Forms and orders of ceremonies (private and/or public) (often regarded as revealed)
* Narrative and Mythic Dimension: stories (often regarded as revealed) that work on several levels. Sometimes narratives fit together into a fairly complete and systematic interpretation of the universe and human's place in it.
* Experiential and emotional Dimension: dread, guilt, awe, mystery, devotion, liberation, ecstasy, inner peace, bliss (private dimension)
* Social and Institutional Dimension: belief system is shared and attitudes practiced by a group. Often rules for identifying community membership and participation (public dimension)
* Ethical and legal Dimension: Rules about human behavior (often regarded as revealed from supernatural realm)
* Doctrinal and philosophical Dimension: systematic formulation of religious teachings in an intellectually coherent form
* Material Dimension: ordinary objects or places that symbolize or manifest the sacred or supernatural

What does Atheism have that can fit into these dimensions? And don't just make stuff up. Really do the research. When you just spout out whatever comes off the top of your head, the actual Atheists just think you sound stupid.

Answer 3

No.
1. No faith involved, but a LACK of faith.
2. Richard Dawkins is not infallible. He is mortal like the rest of us. And science books can hardly be called "sacred scriptures." (You would have mentioned Origin of Species here if you were really smart).
3. We are as intolerant as anyone else. That is human nature. We are especially intolerant of ignorance.
4. We are far less emotionally attached than most people as we are willing to admit error when logic dictates.
5. I don't understand how following non-rules can make one a better person. We are moral because we are human and we use our minds to make rational decisions.

Answer 4

I highly suggest you read the book IDEAS by Peter Watson, bub. GOD is only an idea. RELIGION is only an idea. They are ideas that humanity developed over time to fulfill needs that they deemed unreachable through human will and action alone. They are, simply put, a means for society to have a 'safety blanket' and also a means for social control.

We INVENTED THE IDEA OF A GOD and all the ideas that relate to him, not the other way around. History, archaeology, anthropology, sociology, and even paleontology have more than enough evidence to support this statement.

Hehe, the only reason why society in general fails to admit to this truth is because individuals have been socialized into believing that there is a God, and that their religion is true since the age the world's major regions matured and spread across the land.

Atheism is not a religion. It is a realization and acceptance of the truths of how humanity developed the many ideas that shaped human civilization. Heck we don't even campaign the spreading of this kind of thought. It is a sort of thing, idealy, that society grows into.

THIS IS HOW I VIEW ATHEISM:

As it is my view, it will most likely differ from the beliefs of other atheists out there.

To me, atheism, includes a liberal attitude. An acceptance and actual acknowledgement of all human states of mind, human beliefs and human actions. As long of course that those human states of mind, human beliefs, and human action are not harmful or exploitative in any form or way. Atheism, to me, should also entail the acceptance, acknowledgement, and defense of a person's human rights, regardless of their social, racial, gender, sexual, cultural or religious background.

And most of all, Atheism, should never be preached or spread in the manner of how major religions are spread today. Since it is, at least to me, a sense of growing into mature understanding of what humanity, life, this world, this universe really is, without ever adhering to some higher power as its explanation.

Why? Let me just repeat my line from above:

WE INVENTED THE IDEA OF A GOD.

Answer 5

No.

"It accepts something through faith"
No, it does not. It accepts something through lack of evidence, not despite it.

"It has its sacred scriptures and infallible figures"
Just because you can't conceive a world where not everyone worships a religious leader doesn't mean everyone else does. Richard Dawkins is not the 'pope of atheism' and I'm sure there are atheists that disagree with things that he says. Praytell... what are the 'sacred scriptures' of atheism?

"It is intolerant of dissent."
Not really. We'd be happy if you proved us wrong and actually demonstrated YOUR god's existence.
...none of you have succeeded as of yet.

"Its adherents are emotionally attached to their ideas."
...who the hell isn't emotionally attached to their ideas? This isn't unique to the religious.

"It believes that by following its rules (or non-rules) one can be a better person."
What, exactly, are the 'rules of atheism' aside from 'lack belief in gods'?
Atheism has NOTHING to do with morality, although most atheists are moral relativists.

Note:
Wrong. Those are not 'sacred scriptures'... they do not contain internal declarations of absolute truth, numerous inconsistencies and contradictions, and are not divinely inspired nor claim to be. They're BOOKS, and nothing more. Stop attempting to warp the definitions of commonplace things to suit your agenda.

Answer 6

"It accepts something through faith (the non-existence of God)."

Bzzt. Didn't take you long to screw that up, did it?

"It has its sacred scriptures and infallible figures (e.g. Richard Dawkins).
It is intolerant of dissent.
Its adherents are emotionally attached to their ideas.
It believes that by following its rules (or non-rules) one can be a better person."

False, false, and false.

Doesn't the fact that you have to lie so much to defend your beliefs tell you something about the quality of those beliefs? It should.

Answer 7

It is not a religion:

It accepts nothing on faith - only facts

Dawkins, Darwin etc are not sacred, just ordinary guys who have studied and observed.And anyone can do the same, no speacial qualification, just need to do the work.

As for intolerance - anyone can any opinion as long as they do not try to force others

I am emotionally attached to my sanity

It is not a set of rules that makes a person better, it is the methodology.

So therefore not a religion

Answer 8

1. I have no faith in the (belief of the) existence of god.
2. Dawkins isn't and has said he isn't infalllible - but the question is irrelevant and weasel-worded because being atheist is not dependent on Dawkins
3. I can only comment on the atheists I know, they're not intolerant of dissent. Questioning 'beliefs' is not intolerance.
4. Emotionally attached? - the phrase is used in a catch-all manner. Who knows how many atheists are emotionally attached? Those I know are attached through reasoning.
5.This one is hilarious - I've never heard that claim from atheists, only from those who fear atheism.

So .... no, atheism is not a religion.

Answer 9

First, it does not accept everything through faith, at least not the theory of god's in-existence.
2, I don't quote Richard Dawkins at all.
3, I tolerate pretty well with dissent.
4, Logic is used most of the time.
5, who wouldn't want to have a positive approach to life?

I am not saying atheism is not a religion, but your case in points are not accurate.

Answer 10

Atheists are tolerant of dissent. That is an untrue statement. Also, accepting the nonexistance of god is not through faith but rather through lack of evidence of otherwize. Richard Dawkins is not sacred. It doesn't believe that by not believing in god you are a better person. Most of what you stated is false.
However, to me, (and perhaps only to me) I feel it is my religion only because I want to be treated with the same respect people who are christians, etc. are treated for their beliefs. I feel that people look at me like I am a sinner, and a horrible person because I feel the way I do.

Answer 11

Technically, no. For classification purposes, yes. I'm an atheist and I think I'm religious in the sense that I BELIEVE that God does not exist (which is pretty evident, so it's not so much religion to think that), but not all atheists think that way, and just because atheists can be 'religious' does not mean that atheism is a religion. Buddhism is an atheist religion, but Buddhists don't consider themselves atheists as far as classification goes.

My answer: NO. Atheism is not a religion. It's lack of belief in God, lack of concern for God, lack of God, being without God; any of that and you're spiffy.

Responses to your stuff:
Faith is not required to not believe in something (like Santa)
Don't even try.
We're actually tolerant of dissent; we are dissent, in a way
We can be (I am)
Atheism does not have rules, people have their own personal rules