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Is Atheism a religion

I'm guessing this has been discussed before but i got into a debate with a religious (christian) friend of mine. It started with "Well, atheists don't believe in anything" and ended with him saying Atheism is just another false religion (like Hinduism in his mind). I really couldn't debate one way or another whether Atheism was a religion or not. Thoughts?

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Permalink Reply by Karl on October 20, 2011 at 3:19pm

Ok, how can some religions be atheist? BTW, I love the "bald is a hair color" responses. I'm ging to use that next time.

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Permalink Reply by Karl on October 27, 2011 at 9:17am

Sorry for the delayed response. I've been out of town. Just to get a better understanding I went to the Unitarian Universalism website. One of their seven principals is "Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.". As an Atheist I personally do not believe in some existence web. I don't think they are talking about the WWW either. Clearly, their stated belief system is way less looney than "Believing in a water walking Jewish zombie will get you whisked off to some destination resort in the sky when you die" nonsense. But my question is, given the interconnected web belief is UU an Atheist religion?

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Permalink Reply by World Walker on October 27, 2011 at 11:49am

At the Unitarian church I checked out I was asked what I believed. I answered atheist and the woman was like, "that's awesome so is my husband." And he was right there too. So I view Unitarian Universalists as being pantheistic and inclusive of non beliefs. So it's a religion that focuses on inclusion rather than one creed to me. Agnostic works but I really think UUs do not make a claim one way or another if you were setting up to argue against their position.

I didn't go back because I don't really like hanging out in that crowd when I think it would be more fitting to have "sermons" about progressive advocacy campaigns instead of how to be centered. I'm not a person who gets centered.

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Permalink Reply by Pat on October 20, 2011 at 2:26pm

Atheism is the lack of belief in a god or gods, based on lack of evidence for their existence. To repeat a quote I've often heard, "Calling Atheism a religion is like calling bald a hair color." - Don Hirschberg

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Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on October 20, 2011 at 2:29pm

If atheism is a religion, then bald is a hair color!
-- Unknown

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Permalink Reply by A3Kr0n on October 20, 2011 at 5:38pm

I'm sure you've heard all the one-liners to this question.

Atheism is a religion like not collecting stamps is a hobby.

Or not smoking could be called a habit.

Where am I? The Water Cooler? Hmmm....

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Permalink Reply by mojo5501 on October 20, 2011 at 6:06pm

How can we be a religion when we spend so much time expressing what is WRONG with religion?

I will continue to argue that atheism is not a religious world-view because of the absence of the supernatural. And what would be our rituals or customs? I suppose we should find a universally accepted definition of 'religion'. What components are essential?