Is atheism a religion?

[Whiskey_Mystic]

Posted by Ellisa (here)
Religions require belief, and faith, that is the definition of a religion, and many also require adherence to a dogma, liturgy or purpose. Some religions do not worship a god as such but they will have an element of belief as foundation.

With respect, this is incorrect. This is a narrow western view of religion based in Abrahamic monotheism. Buddhism, Taoism, and several others do not fit this definition at all and yet everyone accepts that they are established religions. If you stop thinking of religion as a set of beliefs and think of it is a method of practice, you will begin to expand your more narrow definition so that these other major established religions can be included.

"Believe nothing, O monks, merely because you have been told it … or because it is traditional, or because you yourselves have imagined it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings—that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide."
- Buddha

[Milneman]

Posted by LivioRazlo (here)
A friend of mine which I graduated high school with posted a feed on Facebook in which he talks about Christianity, in that there are two types of Christians. A little background on my friend, he currently is retired from the U.S. Marines and was a prominent figure in removing a nativity scene from Shaw A.F.B. through the MRFF (Military Religious Freedom Foundation). He was even called out by Sarah Palin on Fox News - read more here. To quote my friend, he states:

You either accept the Yahweh is a misogynistic homophobe or you reject that in favor of picking out the pieces you like - namely the socialistic loving doctrine of Christ. You quite simply can't have both.

For some reason I felt compelled to comment on this thread, not in the defense of Christianity, but for the goal of enlightenment. I proceeded to tell my friend that I have read the Bible cover to cover and believe it was written by man - which let's be honest, is flawed ten times to sundown. I also stated that there is a lot of good stories with messages, as well as bad. I proceeded to explain that though I do identify with Christianity, I let the Law of Love dictate in my life. This comment came under the scrutiny of many of his followers stating that I was a cherry-picking what I wanted to believe.

I didn't let this get me down though. I proceed to explain that atheism in of itself is a religion. I must have swatted and hit a hornets nest because that got them really fired up. The reason I see atheism as a religion is because atheists believe that there is no God to which scientific evidence can prove without a shadow of a doubt.

How I defended my statement is that religion, as defined by Dictionary.com, is "a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects" and that a belief is "trust, faith, or confidence in someone or something." Not to mention an article which I read earlier this year that what you could call an atheist church sprang up.

If my logic on this issue is flawed, please, feel free to enlighten me. These are my thoughts and do not reflect the purpose and goal of this website.

Your logic makes sense to me.

btw, I'm one of them oddities...a homosexual Christian who believes in the misogynistic homophobic god Yahweh.

Ok not quite.

A suggestion. I was listening to a series of lectures last week and came across something really interesting, something that made a lot of sense to me. Literature, any kind of literature, will make more sense if it's read in the historical context it was written in.

Now granted...I think there are probably going to be a lot of Southern Baptists that would look at me and tell me I was going to go to hell for lots of reasons, and in their world view, they'd be right.

Dawkins argues against the ontological argument in "The God Delusion". And quite frankly? It's a bad argument. Ok, it's a ****ty argument. Likewise, I've heard lots of Christians, both right wing and left wing, give equally ****ty arguments for belief in God. Who hasn't heard, or at least heard implied, "If you don't accept Jesus Christ as your lord and savior, you're going to go to hell!"....which is poppycock. If a person is determined to go to hell, it won't matter what they believe. I suspect if there is a heaven in the Judeo-Christian sense (and I'd like to believe there is something like that out there), I think a lot of us would be surprised to see who is there.

There are two types of human beings. There are the human beings that are afraid, and there are the human beings who don't need to be afraid anymore. Which, do you think, has a greater population?

Seriously..if you can manage to do it, if you have very little to do, I would strongly suggest diving into St. Augustine's "City of God"....and try not to read it as a religious text, or an apologetic. Read it from the point of view of someone who seeks truth and thinks there may be value in this. Or in other words, take what you like and leave the rest.

I'm one of them non-church goers who figures...most adults have enough common sense to worry about their "soul" without my help....or at least I hope so!

[Cidersomerset]

What is religion ..? A belief ? Faith in a higher creator.............Then you get bogged down in the various dogmas of the various sects.

What is an atheist ? Someone who rejects all of the above , and we are a random bunch of atoms that evolved into a myriad of life forms.
Or some other theory or not bothered about it and when its time to go that's it. So in a sense Atheism is an anti religious belief, so is a
form of religion by default , having a group concept.



Religion...

The word religion is sometimes used interchangeably with faith, belief system or sometimes set of duties;
[3] however, in the words of Émile Durkheim, religion differs from private belief in that it is "something
eminently social".[4] A global 2012 poll reports that 59% of the world's population is religious, and 36%
are not religious, including 13% who are atheists, with a 9 percent decrease in religious belief from 2005.
[5] On average, women are more religious than men.[6] Some people follow multiple religions or multiple
religious principles at the same time, regardless of whether or not the religious principles they follow
traditionally allow for syncretism.[7][8][9]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion


I am happy being a god in my own reality , sharing it with other gods in this eternal universe....

This is a bit esoteric just before bedtime..LOL

[Shezbeth]

Bill Maher had an interesting shpiel on the subject.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=A41WZBcmnfc

I agree with Whiskey Mystic, that one's religion consists of both what a person believes and what one does religiously - with consistency, repetition, and conviction. Atheism does not involve religious practice, but it does involve being religiously convicted else one would be Agnostic.

Edit: This does not mean that everyone who is Atheist is religiously so. It boils down to what/where a person's vested interests lie.

[Javblanc]

Do atheists believe in love? If so, how can love exist without a God?

Can not. The existence of the feeling that we call "love" is in fact the unequivocal proof that God exists. Because love is something that lies in the very essence of the soul and, consequently, in the very essence of God. Moreover, love is not an abstract quality added to the essence of God, but the reality of love is identical to the essence of God. (“God is Love” as Saint John says.) This will become evident to you if you stop to analyze the loving feeling that unites you with someone very dear. Don't you see that this feeling is of a very different nature from the rest of things? Imagine a rock in whose composition we detect minerals different from those that we can find here on Earth. The conclusion would be that this rock comes from outer space, right? It is a meteorite. Well, love is like that meteorite: it is not from this world. Desire does belong to this world. We can say that love is the pearl hidden in the shell of desire. According to the ancient sages, it is our mission -it is the mission of the human being- to unearth that pearl.

[norman]

Posted by Javblanc (here)
Do atheists believe in love? If so, how can love exist without a God?

Can not. The existence of the feeling that we call "love" is in fact the unequivocal proof that God exists. Because love is something that lies in the very essence of the soul and, consequently, in the very essence of God. Moreover, love is not an abstract quality added to the essence of God, but the reality of love is identical to the essence of God. (“God is Love” as Saint John says.) This will become evident to you if you stop to analyze the loving feeling that unites you with someone very dear. Don't you see that this feeling is of a very different nature from the rest of things? Imagine a rock in whose composition we detect minerals different from those that we can find here on Earth. The conclusion would be that this rock comes from outer space, right? It is a meteorite. Well, love is like that meteorite: it is not from this world. Desire does belong to this world. We can say that love is the pearl hidden in the shell of desire. According to the ancient sages, it is our mission -it is the mission of the human being- to unearth that pearl.

That state that's loosely described as atheist ( a much more complicated state than anything so uniform ) has a missing ingredient.

Your definition of that missing ingredient quite well describes it, but calling it love leaves it open to a lot of opportunity for misunderstanding due to the word having so many uses. You have even slightly diverted yourself with the analogy "the loving feeling that unites you with someone very dear". That isn't exactly the missing ingredient that atheism lacks.

Religion isn't the missing ingredient either. Atheism includes a wide spectrum of varieties of religiosity. Those varieties come and go, like fashions, culturally. Science, even, would collapse ( or reintegrate itself back into common sense ) without the religiosity of it's adherents. Traditional religions only distinguish themselves slightly from other forms of atheistic religiosity by being or attempting to be more ornamentally profound or novel, but still lacking the missing ingredient.

The missing ingredient is pure individuated faith. Faith in the creator's firm support within and beyond this life. It's much more than trust tho', it's whole experience, and that whole experience drives eventualities of this life completely differently from the 'missing ingredient' atheistic driver of life.


This is not living advice, or treatment. It is all my own opinion. Seek religious advice before altering your redpill protocol.