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If atheism isn't a religion... what is it then?

Speaking as an atheist I can tell you atheism is not a religion. The best metaphor I can give is the classic, "Atheism is a religion, like off is a television channel." Definition of religion is:

a : the state of a religious religion>
b (1) : the service and worship of God or the supernatural (2) : commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance
2
: a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices

3
archaic : scrupulous conformity : conscientious


4
: a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith
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We don't hold a belief in God or the supernatural and we don't have a faith or hold faith.
 
I wouldn't call it faith. I understand when many here say they have faith it is a very strong conviction to your beliefs, something that you will hold no matter what.

If I found empirical evidence for any religion I would drop atheism like a sack of potatoes. That is why I wouldn't classify atheism as a faith belief or religion. Atheism is not something I believe in, it is an outcome of my understanding of the world.
 
It's good to have you clarify yourself.
You hold onto atheism because you have nothing else.
This is a good place to be to find something of value to you.
 
plaincents822 said:
Speaking as an atheist I can tell you atheism is not a religion. The best metaphor I can give is the classic, "Atheism is a religion, like off is a television channel." Definition of religion is: We don't hold a belief in God or the supernatural and we don't have a faith or hold faith.
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Hello. Welcome to CF.net:wave (About the definitions you gave....any idea who wrote them???):dunno :shrug :confused
 
allenwynne said:
It's good to have you clarify yourself.
You hold onto atheism because you have nothing else.
This is a good place to be to find something of value to you.
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I don't hold on to atheism because I have nothing else. I am atheist because I personally find that religions don't provide the same or better empirical evidence than the scientific evidence we have, as well as contradictions in various religious texts.

Classik said:
Hello. Welcome to CF.net:wave (About the definitions you gave....any idea who wrote them???):dunno :shrug :confused
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Merriam-Webster is where I got the definitions from.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/religion
 
plaincents822 said:
Speaking as an atheist I can tell you atheism is not a religion. The best metaphor I can give is the classic, "Atheism is a religion, like off is a television channel."
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That's a very clear explanation. I've never heard it before.
 
Dang, those threads always evolve too fast for me to follow and reply. :crying

allenwynne said:
I agree Claudya that atheism as a cause is a religion.
But mostly I see people call themselves atheists because they refuse the truth.
They don't want to face up to the idea that there is a God that they need to answer to.
It is easier to say that "he is not there" and just find other people who agree with them.
After all, misery loves company.
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From our christian point of view it's easy to say that those people "refuse the truth", but from an atheist's view it's a completely different thing. In order to "refuse" the truth one would first have to recognise and acknowledge that something is true, and then refuse it, or chose to ignore or disregard it. But most atheists don't get past that first step - they don't recognise the truth in our faith. For them our faith is no more true than the ancient Greeks' polytheistic religious system, or the flying spaghetti monster.
So there's not much refusal going on at all.
I know a number of people that would like to follow God becaue they think it would make their life easier, give them purpose or make them better people, but they just can't believe in Him and they don't want to live by something that would be merely wishfull thinking in their eyes.

Although you are probably right and there are some atheists who just dislike the idea of God or feel uneasy about having to respond to a higher instance. But it's just not the majority of them.
 
Speculative said:
it might be the Euro;
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Well, at the moment most people here would consider the Euro and everything related to it to be of the devil. :lol

or it might be the Bayern Munich football team-- yeah, I know that last one's pretty far-fetched, but it happens
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Nothing good could come from Bavaria. So how anyone could worship Bayern München is beyond me. :lol
But it happens indeed. You'd be surprised how many religious metaphors soccer language has. Also a lot of military/ warfare metaphors. It's scary. Some people take soccer extremely serious(ly?). There's riots and violence over it too. Some people from my town passionately hate people from a near city because of a soccer rivalery. That rivalery is just fun for 95% of the soccer fans, but there are those 5% that are very dang serious about it, and they keep hundrets of policemen and women busy every weekend. Getting off topic here, but just saying you are right soccer (maybe it's baseball or American football in your country) can fill the spot that is intended to be God's. So the Bayern Munich example isn't very far fetched at all.

For some people the replacement object of their quasi-religious worship can be money, love, sex, their jobs, their children, and other things. Christians themselves can be in danger of putting something else in God's place.
But we must not consider everything that an atheist or believer deeply cares for an idol (does that sentence make sense?).
Some people really just don't seem to have enough spirituality within themselves to become religious about anything at all, true God or idols. My parents are like that. They are loyal and care about things, but never in a religious way.
So I doubt all atheists have their "Gods".

Classik said:
Speculative said:
or it might be the Bayern Munich football team--yeah,...
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:toofunny:toofunny:toofunny:toofunny:toofunny You are absolutely funny. I totally agree with this. Hahhaahhahaahhaahaha
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Hey Classik, aren't you using fotos of a soccer player as your avatars?
Maybe you shouldn't laugh too loud about people turning soccer into a religion. :p :lol
 
Claudya said:
Well, at the moment most people here would consider the Euro and everything related to it to be of the devil. Nothing good could come from Bavaria. So how anyone could worship Bayern München is beyond me. But it happens indeed. You'd be surprised how many religious metaphors soccer language has. Also a lot of military/ warfare metaphors. It's scary. Some people take soccer extremely serious(ly?). There's riots and violence over it too. Some people from my town passionately hate people from a near city because of a soccer rivalery. That rivalery is just fun for 95% of the soccer fans, but there are those 5% that are very dang serious about it, and they keep hundrets of policemen and women busy every weekend. Getting off topic here, but just saying you are right soccer (maybe it's baseball or American football in your country) can fill the spot that is intended to be God's. So the Bayern Munich example isn't very far fetched at all. For some people the replacement object of their quasi-religious worship can be money, love, sex, their jobs, their children, and other things. Christians themselves can be in danger of putting something else in God's place. But we must not consider everything that an atheist or believer deeply cares for an idol (does that sentence make sense?).Some people really just don't seem to have enough spirituality within themselves to become religious about anything at all, true God or idols. My parents are like that. They are loyal and care about things, but never in a religious way. So I doubt all atheists have their "Gods". Hey Classik, aren't you using fotos of a soccer player as your avatars? Maybe you shouldn't laugh too loud about people turning soccer into a religion.
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Do you know King David? However I see Arsenal demolish Bayern;) UEFA CL hehe.
 
Classik said:
Do you know King David? However I see Arsenal demolish Bayern;) UEFA CL hehe.
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"King" David... :lol Be carefull, you're getting closer and closer to idolatry. :lol
Well I'm not much into soccer (well I used to be a fan of Schalke 04 when I was a lot younger, young teenager or so. But only because they had a few hot looking players, not because of the actual soccer. :oops) but I kinda know David Villa (I suppose I did see him on screen during the last world cup or Euro cup) or at least I did recognise that your profile pic is some spanish soccer player, and from that point it wasn't hard to remember the name.

I'm okay with anyone demolishing Bayern, btw. ;)
 
Classik said:
Thanks for the miraculous permision. Okay. I wanna know (still on topic), how does one convince oneself that one is an atheist? How can an atheist prove that he is atheist and how does one become an atheist? Danke:wave
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It is different for many atheists. I can tell you that most atheists that I have personally met or talked to grew up in a household with religion in it, and later became atheists. Although I have recently been meeting more people that grew up in an atheist or secular family. But many of us have actually deeply studied various religions, and found contradictions that steer us away from them. Meanwhile science (though imperfect) tends to better explain in a rational sense what occurs around us.

I personally grew up in a Catholic household (though my parents weren't very religious, we maybe went to church 2-3 times a year). I was for a while similar to my parents being lapsed Catholics, and though I believed in God, God was never really on my mind. Eventually as I lost my faith in Catholicism, I began to have the idea that maybe God wasn't interested in us anymore. I looked at like if the earth was a flower in God's garden, would God really care if one flower wilted and died? I then from there moved to a Nietzsche-esque "God is dead" stance. I eventually moved into Deism, and then shortly after atheism.

As far as how to "prove" yourself as an atheist, there would probably be several ways. I believe Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins set up a program called The Clergy Project for atheists that were previously minsters, priests, and clergymen. In order to become part of the program they "screen" you to make sure you are an atheist. Really the only way I could imagine they could make sure would be if they had the person denounce their faith. A truly religious person would not openly denounce their faith I would assume.
 
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