"Atheists have faith that there is no God, therefore, atheism is a religion"?

Question

1. Does this comment diminish the value of faith? How so?

2. Is the only requirement of a religion a belief that includes faith?

inspired by a question from this morning... I'll attempt to find it.

just to clarify, as an atheist, I don't believe atheism requires faith or is a religion... the questions are based off of a comment I heard earlier.

Answer 1

seems some are detemined to button hole atheists into a religion one way or another-guess they figure it be easier to argue against a belief rather than a non-belief--be funny if someday atheistism is the last listed religion in existence according to the government and we would still be saying its not a religion---smile and enjoy the night

Answer 2

1. I don't know if it diminishes the value of faith or not. Personally, I think faith has little value on its own.

2. All beliefs, to an extent, include faith. For example, one who uses logic to determine truth has faith in the unprovable axioms of the logical system they use. If the only requirement of a religion was a belief based on faith, things like logic and geometry would need to be considered religions.

The point of the original claim (atheists have faith) is misguided. It's an attempt to say that atheists base their belief that God does not exist purely on faith, because their claim is "unprovable."

In general, they don't understand the idea of incremental confirmation. If each examined piece of evidence incrementally confirms the belief that God doesn't exist, and none of them incrementally confirm the belief that God does exist, then it is justified (though unprovable) to assert that God doesn't exist.

This is similar to switching on a light. Each time I flip the switch, the light turns on. I am justified from this in believing that the next time I flip the switch the light will turn on again, even though I can't "prove" it without flipping the switch.

Answer 3

Atheism is not a religion, so the statement is really moot. Faith in God can't be diminished by the beliefs of someone else. A belief system does not necessarily equal being a religion. The requirement to something being a religion is that it be spiritual in nature, and communing with others of the same spiritual beliefs.

Answer 4

I thought [correct me if I'm wrong] that an atheist believes that it is a FACT there is no god [no evidence, proof] etc. I didn't think it was a matter of faith for atheists. Again, correct me if I'm wrong. I'm going for understanding here. Everything I know about atheists I learned here in R&S. To answer your question: no, if atheists believed what they do by faith, it would not cheapen the value faith itself.

As for Christians, it is a matter of faith because we believe in what cannot be seen or proven with hard facts. Hebrews 11:1 defines faith for Christians as "substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen". A belief in the Christiam God would have to include faith because we cannot see God face to face. Our reference book, the Bible, was written long ago by people we've never met. Of course we believe, by faith, that the Bible was inspired by God and still applies in our lives today.
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Answer 5

1. I think it does. To say that lack of belief is based on faith means that "faith" is nothing more than an answer for lack of evidence. It denigrates the religious connotations of the word.

2. Not according to most definitions. It also tends to include such things as deities, worship, rites, traditions, and collective ideologies. (After all, if faith were the only requirement, then many things would be religions.)

Answer 6

1. No this doesn't affect faith, but it is not a true statement in either the premise or the conclusion. You do not "have faith" that there is no gods and faith doesn't define a religion.

2. No, otherwise there would be a religion for Santa Claus, Ghosts, or Astrology or any other of the millions of things that people have faith in.

Answer 7

I have no faith about the non-existance of the gods, it's just that I have no REASON to believe in the god of the rain, in the god of the sun, in the goddess of love... all these events have come to be easily explained. There are some other questions that have not, and (some of them) will never be explained, but that doesn't mean a god is the explanation for them.

My only faith is that my girl and I will be together.

Answer 8

1. I think only the "strong atheists" believe that there is no God; the "weak atheists" choose not to believe in God. So the "strong atheist" might be classifiable as a belief system.

2. I think that a "religion" would have to be based upon faith, because if it were based upon something else that is objectively testable, then it would be fully defineable, a science or subsumed under one of the existing sciences and not a religion.

Additional note: it is my opinion that anyone who defines him or herself by a lack of belief in God or deity (deities) adheres to a belief system of sorts. Otherwise, the philosophy would not be so important and integral as to require the label by which a person defines him or herself. If you say "I am atheist," you are labelling yourself by this philosophy and it colors the rest of your dealings. While I wouldn't go so far as to call it a religion, it IS a philosophy with definite boundaries, an "-ism" if you will.

Answer 9

Atheists don't make the leap of faith that believers do to have faith in what they believe in. Atheist look at the facts that are present and make a judgment from the evidence. To make the leap of faith is to disregard all evidence that are presented and believe in god. For it to be a religion, one must take the leap of faith, that in effect is the definition of a religion.

Answer 10

Since one can not prove the nonexistence of god it would there fore be a belief system of sort. But not a religion.
I don't pray to my god since he doesn't answer.
An atheist god is not a god at all. We have no services for our non god....maybe a party or two. but that is for ourselves.

2) close but no cigar religion requires a belief in a Deity and that includes faith of existence.