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Atheism a religeon?

I've recently had a lively debate with a deist who asserted that atheism is a religeon as it has set tennents and creeds that are followed i.e. the tendancy to adhear to certain "dogma" such as skeptism and so on..

Now I've heard this flacid arguement more times than I'd like, but this particuler individual pruposed that not only is atheism a religeon that the whole of philosophy is by definition a religeon in that it follows set guidelines put forth. He went onto to assert political philosophies are as well. That is what got me thinking...Is a religeon a commonly held set of beleifs shared by a group as proposed by a figure head(s)?

this got my brain scratching...so I'm interested to hear what you think

-cheers!

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Permalink Reply by david on February 21, 2012 at 8:35am

oh I see no need with continuing with this person, at least not online, I'll encounter this person again (he's in my best friend's wedding) and I really appreciate the link.

I've grown up around differing religeous folks, some of the conventional types and some that just ascribe to the 'greater truth' so i just take the approach that chances are,i will not/ever convence anyone, best I can do is state where my position is.

I really appreciate youre response Richard Ewald...It was highly insightful!

-cheers

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Permalink Reply by Richard ∑wald on February 21, 2012 at 9:17am

I'm curious if he even knows what the Deist definition of "god" is?

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Permalink Reply by david on February 22, 2012 at 1:37am

yeah I tried to gewt him to qhuantify that and of course he couldn't lol...

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Permalink Reply by Tyler Holmstrom on February 21, 2012 at 3:52pm

Atheism is a religion the same way abstinence is a sex position.

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Permalink Reply by david on February 22, 2012 at 1:38am

lol >>

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Permalink Reply by Aria Royce on March 9, 2012 at 10:49pm

What is religion?

Atheism isn't a religion. Don't piss its name like that.

Atheism is what an ideal human should mainly pursuit.

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Permalink Reply by Aria Royce on March 9, 2012 at 10:55pm

What is religion?

Atheism isn't a religion. Don't piss its name like that.

Atheism is what an ideal human should mainly pursuit.

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Permalink Reply by Richard ∑wald on March 9, 2012 at 11:35pm

Atheism is a position, Religion is an ideology, …. Theism isn't a religion either.

Many Buddhists, some Hindus and many other religious adherences don't involve a "god(s)" belief, so one can be a Buddhist and an atheist.

They're different metrics...

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Permalink Reply by Madhukar Kulkarni on March 10, 2012 at 12:02am

Aria Royce

Atheism is what an ideal human should mainly pursuit

I wholeheartedly support this view.

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Permalink Reply by Richard ∑wald on March 10, 2012 at 2:04am

"Atheism is what an ideal human should mainly pursuit" ~ Aria

"I wholeheartedly support this view." ~ MADHUKAR

I wholeheartedly support this view.

What's your description of "Ideal Human"?

MADHUKAR KULKARNI ?

Aria Royce ?

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Permalink Reply by Michael OL on March 10, 2012 at 12:37am

This question keeps coming up over and over again! I assert that what makes a religion a religion, is not faith or group identity or following a creed, but worship. If you worship something or some one, that is your religion. If you merely "believe" in some hypothesis, be it god or whatever else, without the unrestrained adoration that is worship, then your activity is not a religion.

Atheism denies the existence of an object of worship - any object of worship. And therefore atheism can not be a religion, even if somehow atheists got together and established a charter of moral principles and lived in a convent according to those principles.

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Permalink Reply by David Layton on March 10, 2012 at 1:05am

Clearly we are all pretty much in agreement here. Your friend is making a category confusion. His definition of religion is so weak and overly general that just about anything qualifies. This is the "water-tight" argument that appears to be unassailable because it appears to account for everything. Such arguments are vulnerable to the reductio ad absurdum. Just start rattling off all the things that would be a "religion" if this guy's definition were right. Dodger fan? That's a religion. Like horror movies? That's a religion? Eat hamburgers once a week? That's a religion. Go to bathroom whenever you feel the urge (i.e. "worship" at the porcelain altar)? That's a religion. All of it is "religion" by this guy's definition. Clearly, he has no real idea of what a religion is.