Is Atheism a Religion?

I personal consider atheism to be a religion, because it is the active belief of the nonexistence of the supernatural.

I have found both atheists and theists who agree with me and who disagree with me.

What is your opinion?

 

Yes!

 

No, atheism is the opposite of religion...


http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77539

Is atheism a religion? No

 

It's dogmatic, and based on faith, like a religion.

 

Nope, in the same way that Theism isn't a religion, it encompasses several beliefs, hell, Buddhism is an atheistic religion. Humanism I would call a secular religion. Atheism on it's own is not a religion.

 

It's not based on faith, it's based on the complete opposite.

 

I think this is the best argument I have seen for Atheism not being a religion. Good job. I think you pretty clearly and concisely summed that up. I had never thought of that way, which is strange considering I have often discussed atheism and theism.

I should have seen this myself, being a theist but not having a religion for a long time. I guess that's what people really should say instead of "im not religious, but I'm spiritual" one should say, "I am not religious, but I am a theist."

 

No, atheism is the absence of religion.

 

it really doesn't matter.

what matters is that whatever god or gods there might or might not happen to be, have left certain things up to us. that among those things is the kind of world we all have to live in, and that its condition derives not from how it or they (god or gods) may feel about our actions, but as a direct and natural resault of those actions themselves.

=^^=
.../\...

 

I disagree. I don't think that you can say,"I can use logic to determine that there is no higher power or order to things." The only logical conclusion is that you don't know nor have anyway of knowing whether there is or isn't. So, Atheism is based on just as much faith as Theism is.

 

I agree with this.

So, let's refine the statement. As above, I find the argument valid that Atheism is no more a religion than Theism is. So, it may not be a religion. However, Atheism does require faith.

Is this now a valid statement? Atheism requires faith the same way Theism requires faith.

 

It's not inherently a religion, any more than a belief in an unspecified god/creator is inherently a religion. To my mind, a religion is a belief system; so even if I believe that there probably is a god, that does not mean I have a religion.

 

Yes, I believe atheism, even materialism can be called a set of belief systems, aka, religion.

Just my 2 cents.

 

Depends; do you mean atheism as in "there is no god", or atheism as in "there probably is no god"? I'd agree that the first one requires faith/belief, but I'd say the latter is more of a position than a religion.

 

Is missionary a position or a religion?

 

Hehehe, good one. I'd tell the one about the two nuns in the bath, but it loses something in text form.

 

I think missionary is a religion.

It has helped many priests to the forced conversion of pagans from distant lands.

 

Righty ho. That would kinda make it a religious practice rather than a religion in its own right though, wouldn't it. Not that any religion has a monopoly on forced conversions though, not even atheism.

 

I do not believe in any gods, therefore i am an atheist. It's quite simple, i don't need faith in my life, i base MY beliefs on what i can actually know and (potentially) experiance, factually, founded in evidence and thus the truth.

 

Do you not have faith that your conscious experience is actually real?