What do you think of people who say atheism is a religion?

Question

I'm thinking of that episode of south park where Cartman is transported into the future and the world is divided by a war over which is the 'right' kind of atheism.

Answer 1

Well, religion is defined as a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe or a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects

So yeah, Atheism is a religion, it's just not an organized one.

Answer 2

There are two sides to religions in this world.... One side is of religion is the beliefs in understanding the world around us (defining the nature of God, the universe, etc), and the other is a system of beliefs that allows us to function as a society (thou shall not kill, etc). If atheism were the "religion", there would still be belief systems that develop.

Atheism is not a religion as it does not deal with the supernatural, however it seems that even if God were absent from all belief that we would still strive to understand the world around us. As atheists we would be much more skeptical and rational about our understanding, compared to faith based religious groups, but we would still experiment, study, etc. to define our place in the world.

Now as humans in a society, even without God we still need morals to function and live together. With atheism as the predominant belief, there would still be conflict on different beliefs on what is moral and what is right... it would perhaps be more political than theological.

Answer 3

Religion is a belief in a supernatural controlling power, which atheism isn't about at all. One girl summed it up very well on Y/A before: "Saying Atheism is a religion is like saying Not Collecting stamps is a hobby." People who say atheism is a religion are using lowhanded tactics to insult religion, and then they complain when the insults are returned openly.

Answer 4

I think they are morons... they can't even be bothered to learn the meaning of the words that they use.

Atheism is NOT a "... belief that there is no god." Atheism is defined as the ABSENSE of a belief in god. Atheists simply find that the so-called 'evidence' that purports to support the idea that magical, all-powerful, invisible sky-fairies (gods) actually exist is not compelling, and is therefore insufficient to initiate and/or sustain a mental state of 'belief'... for EXACTLY the same reasons that christians do not believe in Thor, Garden Gnomes, Bridge Trolls, monsters under your bed or an invisible herd of pink unicorns that cavort in your back yard under the light of the full moon, atheists do not believe in god.

*** "I contend that we are both atheists.  I just believe in one fewer god than you do.  When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours." ~ Stephen Roberts ***

*** "Atheism can be considered to be a 'belief', or a 'religion', only in the same sense that one might regard NOT collecting stamps to be a 'hobby'." ~ Unknown ***

*** "If you claim that something is true, I will examine the evidence which supports your claim; if you have no evidence, I will not accept that what you say is true and I will think you a foolish and gullible person for believing it so." ~ Richard Dawkins ***

Admittedly, there are some people who 'believe' that gods do not exist... and since that ALSO means that they do NOT believe that gods exist (the definition of 'atheist'), then it is obvious that such people are captured under the 'atheist' umbrella. However, their position (BELIEVING that gods DO NOT exist) does not DEFINE atheism... and it is just as logically untenable as BELIEVING that gods DO exist.... and for the same reasons. (Such people are sometimes referred to as 'strong atheists.)

While atheism has to do with 'belief', agnosticism has to do with 'knowledge'... i.e., they conclude that the do not have access to sufficient knowledge to make an informed judgement pertaining to the existence/non-existence of gods. So, they do not BELIEVE that gods DO NOT exist... AND... they do not BELIEVE that gods DO exist. You might notice that the latter phrase satisfies the definition of 'atheist'. So, it follows that all agnostics are atheists... but not all atheists are agnostic.

Answer 5

Atheism in not an organized religion, has no churches, makes no 'rules'. Has no priests who are assumed to have less religion than other atheists. The point of South Park of course is that anything taken to extreme becomes a fight by the people in it as to who is right...righter...and rightest. And who gets to clean the toilets.

Answer 6

Those people have a strange perversion - they get some relief when they can attribute/share their existential misery to/with others.

As someone rightly said a few lines before, to say that atheism is a religion is like saying that baldness is a hair color. Atheism is absence of belief in deities, like baldness is absence of hair, like rationalism is the absence of belief without sound empirical evidence !

> What do you think of people
> who say atheism is a religion?
.

Answer 7

I think they're the same people who say they themselves aren't religious, and then 5 minutes later say they're Christian.

When I get stuck in conversations over "what's a religion", I avoid the term and start talking about "world views" instead. Christianity is a world view, atheism is a world view, etcetera. I don't bother arguing over which is a "religion".

Answer 8

Religion is "belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe." An atheist is a "one who disbelieves or denies the existence of God or gods."

Since atheists do not believe in a creator or governor of the universe, atheism cannot be a religion.

Answer 9

Atheism is the belief in Zero gods, or the zero belief in gods.
I'm not sure it semantically the same but it's a mathematical equality

Answer 10

If atheism is a religion so is collecting comic books. So are history teachers.

Calling atheism a religion is like calling health a disease. quote author unknown.