The World's Largest Coalition of Nontheists and Nontheist Communities!

If Atheism is a Religion, Then...

We've all heard this before: that atheism is a religion or a belief, sometimes with the aside that it takes more faith to be an atheist than to be a believer. Sure, the logic is warped (big surprise!), but that isn't my point here.

What I want to do with this post is gather the classic comebacks we have employed to pull believers' pants down about this whole atheism-as-belief BS. Such as - If Atheism is a religion then:

Bald is a hair color
Not collecting stamps is a hobby
Your birthday suit is clothing

You get the idea. So, what can we add to this list? The more, the merrier!

Tags: atheism, belief, religion

1 member likes this

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Michael OL on February 12, 2012 at 9:14pm

Beyond the cleverness and pithy retorts, we can say this: the fundamental idea of religion isn't faith per se, but worship of an identified and personalized being - that, is the god-figure. Faith that I'm a swell guy or that tomorrow I'll win the lottery - well, that's also a sort of faith, but it is not a religion, because there is no centralized object of worship. Even a strong and abiding faith that sustains us in moments of emotional vulnerability isn't necessarily a religion. For it to be a religion, there must be an object of worship, and a general and vague recourse to "the great unknown", or to "fate", is not worship.

Permalink Reply by Michael OL on February 14, 2012 at 10:18pm

Your point is well-noted. Theravada Buddhism, in large measure, in fact is NOT a religion, precisely because there is no personified object of worship. Certainly, there is a "religious fervor" of devotion to some metaphysical cause, and we can argue whether this devotion is any less sincere (or less generously, any less fanatical!) than that in the Abrahamic religions. But I would opine that this form of Buddhism is not a religion per se.

Likewise with the various "religions" where people congregate to chant, to follow rituals and so forth, but where there is no god-figure serving as receptacle of their fealty.

To be sure, the lack of an object of worship does not make the associated creed somehow worthy of endorsement or rational in its principles. But it is precisely the worship of a god-figure that gives religion is religiousity - namely, the surrender of self-affirmation and self-respect in favor of some abstract being.

Another good example is Communism, as practiced in mid-20th century totalitarian countries. Devotion to Communist principles, whatever those may be, was fanatical indeed. The ritual, the grotesqueness and obsequiousness was not any less outrageous than in American evangelical Protestantism. But however lovely the "great leader" may have been, he was not worshiped as a supernatural being. And therefore it wasn't a religion.

Permalink Reply by Clarence Dember on February 12, 2012 at 10:18pm