Is Atheism a religion?

Question

I'm new to this being Atheist thing but some people always claim that we're no better than the Religious folk because Atheism is a religion as well. Can anyone help a fledgling Atheist in need?

Unless I say "I am an Atheist but still believe in Jesus" do not question whether or not I am an Atheist . I am. Nuff said.

Answer 1

Don't listen to the idiots, being an atheist only means that you have gained the inner strength to no longer need the crutch of religion to support you. You are walking on your own two feet and directing them just find without the stumbling of some make believe God who can't even keep his own followers walking their straight and narrow.

Answer 2

Atheism is the *lack of* religion or belief in supernatural deities.
Theists like to claim that atheism is a religion because they can't comprehend the idea of not having religion. Some people feel as though there is something missing if they don't have religion. And they assume that atheists are the same way. Yet, we don't have a *hole* that needs to be filled with religion, or anything else. And since there isn't any doctrine of atheism, the only thing that joins atheists is the non-belief in god, it cannot be considered religion. There's nothing to follow.

Answer 3

Atheism isn't a religion, but it is a belief.

I believe VERY STRONGLY that there is no god.

We admit that you can't "prove" anything, unlike the Christians who insist that they talk to and see God, and who insist they can "prove" that god exists, by some bizarre twist of faith.

If there are atheists forcing their beliefs down someone else's throat - yeah, that's the same as any other religion forcing THEIR beliefs on someone. But other than giving answers (on Y!A) to Christians that the Christians don't want, for the most part, Atheists (at least the ones I know) are pretty much of the "live and let live" variety. I wish people of more religions would be like that.

Answer 4

Atheism is not a religion, that is a popular mistake among religious folk. Unlike religions which define people by what they believe in, 'atheism' defines people by what they do NOT believe in. It's an absence of something, rather than a something.

Some might describe themselves as skeptics, or scientists, or humanists. It is theoretically possible to find 2 atheists who agree on nothing at all - apart from the fact that there are no gods.

Answer 5

Atheism is a philosophy, as are most religious viewpoints, but atheism itself is not a religion. It is the non-belief in deities which religions are based upon. Most religions have the premise that a supreme, omniscient being has created the universe and is responsible for life existing. Atheists do not believe that. They hold the belief that the universe was not created by a being but my mechanical processes and that life was also not created but arose by accident, or by chemical/mechanical processes.

Answer 6

People who make this claim do not really know what atheism is or what religion is. Atheism is not a religion. However, theists often feel quite free to change the meaning of words whenever and however they want, not tell anyone, and then act as though their meaning is the correct and natural one. This is an example of such.

Answer 7

Atheism is nothing but the LACK of religion. The lack of belief in a god or gods.
Many theists (especially Christians) seem to need to portray atheism as some sort of a belief system. I think this is so they can try to point how how much better their dogma is than yours. Or maybe they can't get their minds around the idea that some people just don't need glorified fairy tales to give life meaning.

Answer 8

It really depends on your point of view. On one hand your stated religious viewpoint is that all religions are false, and thus you reject them all. However at the same time you also believe in scientific theories that explain the origin of everything. So it can be seen as a religion in that it has both faith in something and a religious viewpoint in that it rejects all religions.
On the other hand you are rejecting all religions and spirituality. You have no dogma, or spiritual practices on which to base your life and rather than aligning yourself with the creed or moral system of one faith or another you are left to make up your code to live by.
So really you could go either way on this one.

Answer 9

Technically, atheism is a lack of religion. To me, though, being atheist is a worship of reason as the solution to humanity's problems. This is what you'll find most atheists will tell you. My personal atheist practice also includes a reverence for the beauty and synchronicity of nature.

Answer 10

You'll never convince them that atheism is not a religion. The reason for this is that theists have such a need for a deity that they can't imagine there could be people that lack this need. They reason that since all people must have the need to worship, atheists simply worship themselves or science (that always makes me smile--the ludicrous thought of worshiping science!)

The best thing to do is to gently correct them by saying, "Atheism comes from the Greek word atheos, meaning 'without god.' Atheists do not worship anything, not themselves, not science, not even nothingness." Of course, you'll probably just be wasting breath or keystrokes, because their minds are made up.