Is Atheism a Religion?

ahahaha i can't stop laughing at this internet guru

 

Fear in the face of knowledge rings common.
Guru is a concept of the unenlightened. Dose memo wallow in ignorance and selfrightousness?
Respect leads to knowledge; whereas the arrogance of children leads only to hardship of learning.

 

Lets define religion then shell we?

 

Belief in the irrational.

 

In high school, I had a class on world religions.
On the first day of class the teacher said that to be defined as a religion, it needs two things;

1. a deity (god)

2. a congregation (ppl)

Therefore we would not be discussing Taoism or Buddhism....no deity!

I really don't get what part of A-theist some folks don't understand.

 

Your teacher is entitled to define religion any way (s)he wants, but Buddhism and Taoism are generally considered to be major world religions. I agree it would be peculiar to regard atheism as a religion. I did go to a meeting of the American Humanist Society, once, where they were talking about the need to develop rituals equivalent to baptism and confirmation to provide their kids with experiences similar to those of religious folks. They also seemed to be pretty dogmatic about rationalism and naturalism. Enough of that could easily lead to something similar to a religion--minus, of course, an ingredient which I'd consider to be important:a deity. Chicken soup without the chicken?

 

I didn't mention that my teacher also said that he was personally inclined to include "ritual" as the third defining element.
I agree that many modern Taoist and Buddhist temples, for example, have adopted certain "western friendly" rituals, in an effort to increase donations from tourists. I would be surprised if they don't have gift shops by now.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe there are sects of Buddhism that pray to the spirits of dead ancestors.
Yea, religion.

I believe the original conceptions of both these philosophy's (Buddhism, Taoism) included neither ritual nor deity.
They have been corrupted. ( as I suspect of the original message of the one called Jesus Christ)

ZW eace:

 

Buddhism is a non-theistic religion, as are Confucionism, Taoism, Unitarianism and more.

Not all religious people believe in God, and not all atheists are humanists (re reference to the American Humanist Association).

Some people (though not myself) consider humanism a religion, because it has a set of shared principles and there are national and local-level organisations devoted to the philosophy. Atheism, however, is not even close.

Peacelove,
Aldousage

 

of course atheism is not a religion,
it is the abscence of religion.

if your atheist, you dont have a religion, therefore, atheism cannot be a religon.

 

religion has nothing to do with atheism because religion isnt about God, its about power and control...

 

i'm sorry, but religion is absolutly about God (or Gods, depending on your religon).
whatever your veiws on religion, you cannot say that relgion has nothing to do with some type of god or greater being.
i'm not religious, because i agree, it has become mostly about power and control, but you cant say that religion is not about God(or gods), thats ridiculous.
religion is a way for humans to ease their fear about what happens after we die. the thought that we will no longer have an recolition of our lives or that we will just no longer exist, scares the shit out of people, so they created religions, all with a higher being at the center of their religion. its ridiculous to say that religion has nothing to do with God.

 

In my opinion religion is about the rituals of that particular god that they are endorsing... atheism is the opposite of religion
- its not contained - it's a merely a belief

I'm agnostic.

 

i have to disagree. religions are centered around the gods they worship. the rituals in that particular religion would mean nothing without the god or gods they are worshiping. atheism is not beliveing in a god, so therefore it cant be a religion

 

that's right, but the purpose of the religion is to keep up with the habitual practices, not just to have an ongoing belief

 

thats true, but seeing as the religion itslef is based on the beleif of a god or gods, you cannot have a religion without a god

 

god schmod

 

what a well thought-out response

 

thank you

 

haha
that wasnt an insult, btw

 

*blushes*