Atheism is a religion! And Christianity is a social and political affiliation! It's not true you say? Why? Because of the various definitions laid out of what "Christianity" is? And because you know that Christianity is a religion because you are able to decipher that from real world knowledge?
Impressive. Apparently, some people can't.
'Atheism is a religion!', they say. 'You are just like us!', they say. How many people think its true? How many people who think its true are atheists or any kind of learned man? I'm guessing the numbers dwindled greatly in the second question.
What constitutes as religion? Religion is the belief in higher powers. It is based purely on faith and belief.
Then what constitutes as atheism? It is the disbelief in any gods. It is not the belief that there are no gods, unlike what many theists would like you to believe. Many atheists are unconverted former-theists who actually believed in imaginary friends like you, but they realised that their friends were imaginary because of evidence or experiences or rationalism of some kind. They would very much have preferred to belief that there are gods, but they can't belief in gods because there are no gods.
Atheism is a wide category, just as religion is. There are various religions, and for atheism, it is even more diverse. A basic analogy would be that someone isn't a stamp collector, his hobby could be anything else that isn't stamp collection. Or someone isn't a socialist, he could be of any political ideology except socialism. For an atheist, he could believe the universe was created by itself, he could believe the universe always existed, he can believe the universe is just a figment of our imagination etc. These all fit into the definition of atheism. All babies are atheists because they don't have understanding of religion and creation, that's the basic concept.
'But they preach about the evils and fallacies of religions, they are like us!' you say? Yeah, Occupy Wall Street is a religion about anti-corporatism, Socialism is a religion about sharing your property with others and the Republican Party is a religion preaching about the greatness of Ronald Reagan.
Atheists preach about the evils and fallacies of religious out of a social and moral obligation, they believe everyone should not waste their time and money in such garbage. It is similar to when Christians preach about joining their ranks, because they don't want others to burn in hell. Christians who preach about the greatness of Yahweh, however, are different from us, because they are not doing it for social good, but for their imaginary friend.
These atheists that do such 'preaching' are 'militant atheists' and/or 'anti-theists', who oppose religion because of it's poisoning of society. It is more of a social movement rather than a religious movement. They preach to have people to leave religion and also to install secularism, a political status where there is a separation of religion from government.
But there are also 'closet atheists' who don't do anything to anyone, they are just atheists and keep to themselves. Then there are 'atheist religions' which are mostly non-theistic religions, that practice common philosophy, this is probably the closest to religion atheism is.
Another thing is, they don't gather frequently for prayer and religious services like theists do. Most atheists educate people just like Occupy Wall Street does, through the internet and peaceful protests. There are no religious connotations, only social well-intentions.
If atheists are a religion, they should receive tax breaks and other benefits enjoyed by organised religions, but why don't they? Because they are not recognised anyway legally by the government.
Atheism is not religion, never was, never will be. I know because I was a former atheist, and now a proud Pastafrian and a Kopimist, and considering third or fourth religion(s), I am happily living as a theist now and I love this life.
Then what constitutes as atheism? It is the disbelief in any gods. It is not the belief that there are no gods, unlike what many theists would like you to believe. Many atheists are unconverted former-theists who actually believed in imaginary friends like you, but they realised that their friends were imaginary because of evidence or experiences or rationalism of some kind. They would very much have preferred to belief that there are gods, but they can't belief in gods because there are no gods.
Atheism is a wide category, just as religion is. There are various religions, and for atheism, it is even more diverse. A basic analogy would be that someone isn't a stamp collector, his hobby could be anything else that isn't stamp collection. Or someone isn't a socialist, he could be of any political ideology except socialism. For an atheist, he could believe the universe was created by itself, he could believe the universe always existed, he can believe the universe is just a figment of our imagination etc. These all fit into the definition of atheism. All babies are atheists because they don't have understanding of religion and creation, that's the basic concept.
'But they preach about the evils and fallacies of religions, they are like us!' you say? Yeah, Occupy Wall Street is a religion about anti-corporatism, Socialism is a religion about sharing your property with others and the Republican Party is a religion preaching about the greatness of Ronald Reagan.
Atheists preach about the evils and fallacies of religious out of a social and moral obligation, they believe everyone should not waste their time and money in such garbage. It is similar to when Christians preach about joining their ranks, because they don't want others to burn in hell. Christians who preach about the greatness of Yahweh, however, are different from us, because they are not doing it for social good, but for their imaginary friend.
These atheists that do such 'preaching' are 'militant atheists' and/or 'anti-theists', who oppose religion because of it's poisoning of society. It is more of a social movement rather than a religious movement. They preach to have people to leave religion and also to install secularism, a political status where there is a separation of religion from government.
But there are also 'closet atheists' who don't do anything to anyone, they are just atheists and keep to themselves. Then there are 'atheist religions' which are mostly non-theistic religions, that practice common philosophy, this is probably the closest to religion atheism is.
Another thing is, they don't gather frequently for prayer and religious services like theists do. Most atheists educate people just like Occupy Wall Street does, through the internet and peaceful protests. There are no religious connotations, only social well-intentions.
If atheists are a religion, they should receive tax breaks and other benefits enjoyed by organised religions, but why don't they? Because they are not recognised anyway legally by the government.
Atheism is not religion, never was, never will be. I know because I was a former atheist, and now a proud Pastafrian and a Kopimist, and considering third or fourth religion(s), I am happily living as a theist now and I love this life.
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