Is Athiesm a Religion?

[bobhikes]

If atheism is a religion, where is the BS? You know, the "don't eat shellfish" stuff that makes no sense? All religions I know of have mounds of BS in addition to whatever wisdom they contain. So, if atheism is a religion, where's the BS? Also, where are the churches?

Federal ruling says it is

Attorney: 'Height of Idiocy' for Court to Declare Atheism a Religion

By Allie Martin
August 23, 2005

(AgapePress) - A federal appeals court has sided with a Wisconsin prison inmate who claimed his constitutional rights were violated with officials would not allow him to create a study group for atheists.

In it ruling, the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Wisconsin prison officials were mistaken when they did not recognize atheism as a religion. The court stated that atheism is inmate's religion and that the group he wished to start "was religious in nature even though it expressly rejects a belief in a supreme being."

They don't call it a church but I would and they are popping up all over

All non-superstitious people are welcome to attend all of our meeting events. You do not need to be a member.
Regular Sunday Meetings

We have a weekly meeting an discussion group where atheists can interact with each-other. You can join us, Sunday mornings from 11:00am - 12:30pm. Cafe Express, 3418 North Lamar Blvd at 35th. [Map]. Parking is in the rear. You do not need to be a member to come.

Once a month (usually the second Sunday of the month) we have a lecture at the Austin History Center that preempts our regular sunday meetings. See below for more about lectures. Be sure to check the calendar for the lecture date.

Monthly Lectures

We do not hold regular meetings on a Sunday when there is a lecture. The ACA Lecture Series is usually held the second Sunday of the month at the Austin History Center (AHC), but check the lectures page or calendar to be sure. Lectures start at 12:15pm. They are free and open to the public. The Austin History Center is located at the intersection of 9th and Guadalupe downtown [Google Map].

Meet-up after The Atheist Experience

The cast and crew of The Atheist Experience TV show meet up after after a live show, Sundays around 6:00pm. Check The Atheist Experience web site for details, including whether there is a live show that Sunday. Note that this is not an official ACA meeting, but atheist and atheist-friendly people are welcome to participate.

Board Meetings

The first Sunday of every month (usually) the Board of Directors meets at the ACA Library at 1pm. Check the calendar for the actual date, time, and location. Members are encouraged to participate, but they may not vote on board resolutions. Members may request agenda items by contacting the President and Vice President with a request. Anyone who did not arrange to be on the agenda by the Friday before the meeting may still request items, subject to a majority vote of the Board during the meeting. Non-members may attend board meetings with permission.

 

[Father Heathen]

1.) Evolution has an unsurmountable mountain of evidence that supports it.

2.) Theism and evolution are not incompatable.

3.) If atheism is a religion, then not collecting stamps is a hobby.

 

[bobhikes]

1.) Evolution has an unsurmountable mountain of evidence that supports it.

2.) Theism and evolution are not incompatable.

3.) If atheism is a religion, then not collecting stamps is a hobby.

If you were not doing anything organized with atheism Like posting Bill Boards, Making weekly meeting places, building monuments, Getting Federal court rulings, Arguing against other religions you don't thing are proper, debating in Religious forums you might have a case but well Atheists do everything religions do with just an absence of God. Buddhism, Taoism and I think Luciferism are religions that do not require God. Show me the differences.


edit: In thinking about just like in Taoism the focus is on the Tao not any teacher. Atheism the main focus is rational thinking.

 

[Revoltingest]

Federal ruling says it is

Didn't we just do this identical topic here a few months ago?
Anyway, your post illustrates that there are multiple definitions for the word "religion". The OP was comparing atheism to "religion" in the sense that we heathens have prophets & dogma. This is, of course, wrong. The fact that some atheists are vocal, does not mean that they speak for anyone else. We have no dogma either....we share only the singular trait of disbelief in gods.
The legal use of "religion" (different from the philosophical use) is about adapting centuries of existing legal code regarding religion to a new (for the courts) phenomenon of non-religious people seeking rights & privileges previously afforded only to believers. (Note: The legal system is rife with arcane definitions of many common words.)
Atheism & religion can function as counterparts for people, eg, both consider the "42 question" (life, the universe & everything), both might want to gather for fellowship. So atheism (for some claimants) can function like religion in this limited way regarding the law.

It reminds me of the old joke....which weighs more, a pound of feathers or a pound of gold?
As we all know, a pound of feathers weighs more. This is because there are many different definitions of the word, "pound", & context determines which applies. (Feathers would use the common avoirdupois pound, & precious metals would use the lighter troy pound.)

 

[LuisDantas]

Rationalism is not atheism, though.

As for the Federal Ruling, that is just law. Granting legal treatment of some kind or another is just political decision. It says basically nothing about reality.

 

[LuisDantas]

Come to think of the OP again, I think it says a lot about how careless some faiths have been with their own purpose and public image. It is too sad that many of the more influential religions are also the most misguided.

 

[LuisDantas]

Don't equate Adapation to evolution, they are 2 different and discrete words

In biology, adaptation might well have been a more appropriate choice. I have reason to believe you are misusing "evolution" when you refer to the biological idea. Would you like to give us your constrasting understandings of the two concepts?

 

[ArtieE]

If you were not doing anything organized with atheism Like posting Bill Boards, Making weekly meeting places, building monuments, Getting Federal court rulings, Arguing against other religions you don't thing are proper, debating in Religious forums you might have a case but well Atheists do everything religions do with just an absence of God. Buddhism, Taoism and I think Luciferism are religions that do not require God. Show me the differences.

Theism isn't a religion so atheism cannot per definition possibly be a religion either. A theist can be a Christian or a Muslim or whatever. Christianity and Islam would be the religion, not theism. A Buddhist or a Secular Jew or a Raëlian may all be atheists but atheism isn't the religion, Buddhism and Judaism and Raëlism are the religions. A religion is defined as "a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects: the Christian religion; the Buddhist religion." Religion | Define Religion at Dictionary.com If a certain number of atheists join forces and agree on "a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices" they might be said to have formed a religion but atheism itself isn't one.

 

[bobhikes]

What the RF says. You all participate freely on the RF and I assume you read its definition for atheism.

Atheism is not necessarily synonymous with irreligion. There are religious belief systems including various branches of Buddhism including Zen,other systems such as Unitarian Universalism which do not require a belief in any deity. Members of theistic religious organizations could secretly hold atheist views, too. Additionally, a number of atheistic 'churches' have sprung up, as have religious organizations which allow atheists as members. The "pan-atheists" who call themselves Naturalistic Pantheists are one example, while Brianism is another.


Atheism according to the RF can be a religion.

 

[Revoltingest]

Atheism according to the RF can be a religion.

RF? They're just a small band of screaming bickering malcontents. (Just look at the kind of people who post there!) Any definition they come up with isn't worth a bucket of warm spit.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

I am starting to believe that Athiesm starting to be like a religion. They already have their own scholars, proselytization, and prophets(hawkins)

Hawkins?

I have to admit that I'm a devotee, but I never thought of Cheezies as a specifically godless snack.

Hawkins Cheezies

 

[Robert.Evans]

I am starting to believe that Athiesm starting to be like a religion. They already have their own scholars, proselytization, and prophets(hawkins)

Do you means Dawkins?

The Encata says:

re·li·gion

re·li·gion [ri líjjən]
(plural re·li·gions)
n
1. beliefs and worship: people's beliefs and opinions concerning the existence, nature, and worship of a deity or deities, and divine involvement in the universe and human life
2. system: an institutionalized or personal system of beliefs and practices relating to the divine
3. personal beliefs or values: a set of strongly-held beliefs, values, and attitudes that somebody lives by
4. obsession: an object, practice, cause, or activity that somebody is completely devoted to or obsessed by
The danger is that you start to make fitness a religion.

5. christianity monk's or nun's life: life as a monk or a nun, especially in the Roman Catholic Church


[12th century. Via French < Latin religion- "obligation, reverence"]


-re·lig·ion·less, , adj
get religion (informal) U.S. to stop flouting the rules, regulations, customs, and expectations of society to become a believer or join a religious organization, and, usually, start to lead a life that follows its teachings
Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Number 3 fits them I feel. It depends on how you define it. I, (this will make you laugh) don't consider myself religious, and yet I am a believer. To me, religion is an institution, like the Church for example.
But its root seems to be "to join" which might well be within the divine or whatever you believe in. Encarta has different explanation for that

 

[Revoltingest]

Number 3 fits them I feel.

#3 doesn't work. Atheism gives us no beliefs or values to live by.

 

[ArtieE]

Atheism according to the RF can be a religion.

Theism can't be a religion, atheism can't be a religion. Buddhism is a religion. How would you explain to a Buddhist that his religion isn't called Buddhism but "Atheism"?

 

[ArtieE]

Number 3 fits them I feel.

Number 3 says "3. personal beliefs or values: a set of strongly-held beliefs, values, and attitudes that somebody lives by" There is no common "set of strongly-held beliefs, values, and attitudes that" atheists live by. The only thing all atheists have in common is that they are not theists.

 

[LuisDantas]

What the RF says. You all participate freely on the RF and I assume you read its definition for atheism.

Atheism is not necessarily synonymous with irreligion. There are religious belief systems including various branches of Buddhism including Zen,other systems such as Unitarian Universalism which do not require a belief in any deity. Members of theistic religious organizations could secretly hold atheist views, too. Additionally, a number of atheistic 'churches' have sprung up, as have religious organizations which allow atheists as members. The "pan-atheists" who call themselves Naturalistic Pantheists are one example, while Brianism is another.


Atheism according to the RF can be a religion.

There is a difference between atheists being potentially religious and atheism itself being a religion.

There is also a difference between the existence of an Atheism DIR and an actual statement from RF that Atheism "is a religion". DIRs are organizational tools, and by necessity they are rather well-delimited. Reality often isn't.

 

[Robert.Evans]

Number 3 says "3. personal beliefs or values: a set of strongly-held beliefs, values, and attitudes that somebody lives by" There is no common "set of strongly-held beliefs, values, and attitudes that" atheists live by. The only thing all atheists have in common is that they are not theists.

disagree. It might differ slightly from one to another, as any religion foes. But fundamentally it is the same, with the same arguments

 

[Robert.Evans]

There are atheist who have bought a church in England because they want the 'God feeling' whithout God. haha. So they go there for a sgin-song and a cup of tea, smack each other on the back, and then presumably go home and wait to die.

 

[LuisDantas]

disagree. It might differ slightly from one to another, as any religion foes. But fundamentally it is the same, with the same arguments

It seems that many of us skipped the non-existing atheist Sunday School or something. What would those arguments be?

 

[Willamena]

Sorry. Don't think so. A "religion" is by definition something that has to do with belief in a God, having dogma/traditions/rituals, and not just scholars or "prophets." (A prophet is supposedly someone being a spokesperson for God, so do you believe atheist prophets are speaking God's will?)

Taking that definition, atheism very much "has to do with a belief in god," being that the atheist doesn't have that belief. I think it's just a case that the "prophets and scholars" are the ones who put out the dogma,* define what's tradition and concretize the rituals by formalizing them. That's precisely what the books accomplish.

*Who put the dogma out... whoot whoot