To the Non Believers.

[Azakel]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — You better watch out. There is a new combatant in the Christmas wars.
Ads proclaiming, "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake," will appear on Washington, D.C., buses starting next week and running through December. The American Humanist Association unveiled the provocative $40,000 holiday ad campaign Tuesday.


'Why Believe in a God?' Ad Campaign Launches on D.C. Buses - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com

Wow what a religion. Acting like the Catholics taking pagan holidays and traditions, perverting them and making them their own. I bet if I look hard I can find some parallel with other religions. Oh wait no god means no religion I forgot. BS!

Hmm, strong with ignorance this one is.
Get over yourself, you've been shown to be wrong in this matter, it's but just to give up. You surely don't know what you are talking about.

 

[dogsgod]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — You better watch out. There is a new combatant in the Christmas wars.
Ads proclaiming, "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake," will appear on Washington, D.C., buses starting next week and running through December. The American Humanist Association unveiled the provocative $40,000 holiday ad campaign Tuesday.


'Why Believe in a God?' Ad Campaign Launches on D.C. Buses - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com

Wow what a religion. Acting like the Catholics taking pagan holidays and traditions, perverting them and making them their own. I bet if I look hard I can find some parallel with other religions. Oh wait no god means no religion I forgot. BS!

You sound annoyed by it all.

 

[Amill]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — You better watch out. There is a new combatant in the Christmas wars.
Ads proclaiming, "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake," will appear on Washington, D.C., buses starting next week and running through December. The American Humanist Association unveiled the provocative $40,000 holiday ad campaign Tuesday.


'Why Believe in a God?' Ad Campaign Launches on D.C. Buses - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com

Wow what a religion. Acting like the Catholics taking pagan holidays and traditions, perverting them and making them their own. I bet if I look hard I can find some parallel with other religions. Oh wait no god means no religion I forgot. BS!

So your definition of religion is what exactly? Any group with some structure that shares an idea or opinion?

 

[nrg]

It seems we need look at those who have responded with such zeal in defense of their religion. I wonder what kind of pattern could be established about their faith if we go back over their posts in their statistics.

I really don't see the need for it. We're all here because we want to present a case for what we believe in on equal terms and voice our opinions if we think someone else uses bad reasoning. Why can't we just do that instead of finding patterns in certain demographics? It seems totally irrelevant from the questions we discuss.

Could be fun and when I get time I may do that because there is just too much denial by some here. Must be a fact they are trying to cover up just like they deny that Atheists are historically more dangerous than believers.

How is that relevant to anything we discuss?

Let's say absolutely every atheist in the world will be a serial killer, just for the sake of the argument. How does that undermine the reasoning they used to come to the conclusion about the propability of God?

 

[S-word]

So your definition of religion is what exactly? Any group with some structure that shares an idea or opinion?

The universal Dictionary defines "Religion," As Any objective pursued with zeal and conscientious devotion. Even a stamp collector can make a religion of his hobby. Even so, I believe that I have read somewhere that the courts in America made the definition that atheism is a religion? Have you read the doctrines and philosophies put forward in the forums of the organised athesist movement, or should I say, "Religion"?

 

[Wotan]

"Even a stamp collector can make a religion of his hobby"

So how does the non-stamp collector do so?

 

[dogsgod]

The universal Dictionary defines "Religion," As Any objective pursued with zeal and conscientious devotion. Even a stamp collector can make a religion of his hobby. Even so, I believe that I have read somewhere that the courts in America made the definition that atheism is a religion? Have you read the doctrines and philosophies put forward in the forums of the organised athesist movement, or should I say, "Religion"?

No, I haven't read them.

 

[S-word]

No, I haven't read them.

Well now my young foul mouthed friend, Quoted by dogsgod; I don't give a pink and puckered rat's *** whether you believe in gods or not. I think you should, and BTW you should also check up on the definition of "Athism," as defined by the Americian court. I'm off for three days and will have no access to a computer untill Thurdsay evening when i will return to this debate.

 

[Archer]

WOW some of you athiests sound like weak minded and ignorant Christians

You can't prove Atheism (for many, not all) is not a religion. I think it is for those with the zeal to protest and deny until you seem like a kid caught with his hand caught in the cookie jar swearing that it was not in the jar to avoid punishment. You guys some cheese to go with that whine? Should I call the WHAAAAAAAmbulance?

 

[Amill]

The universal Dictionary defines "Religion," As Any objective pursued with zeal and conscientious devotion. Even a stamp collector can make a religion of his hobby. Even so, I believe that I have read somewhere that the courts in America made the definition that atheism is a religion? Have you read the doctrines and philosophies put forward in the forums of the organised athesist movement, or should I say, "Religion"?

So then stamp collecting is a religion? And no I haven't read any atheist doctrines.

 

[dogsgod]

We can't prove that not stamp collecting is not a religion, so it must be a religion, so sayeth the Lord.

 

[Breathe]

We can't prove that not stamp collecting is not a religion, so it must be a religion, so sayeth the Lord.

Amen.

 

[Madhuri]

WOW some of you athiests sound like weak minded and ignorant Christians

You can't prove Atheism (for many, not all) is not a religion. I think it is for those with the zeal to protest and deny until you seem like a kid caught with his hand caught in the cookie jar swearing that it was not in the jar to avoid punishment. You guys some cheese to go with that whine? Should I call the WHAAAAAAAmbulance?

Atheism isn't a religion just as theism isn't a religion. This really isn't very difficult to grasp...

 

[Archer]

This website is about religion—but what is religion? The question is not easy to answer. As St. Augustine said of time, most of us know perfectly well what religion is - until someone asks us to define it.​

The groups, practices and systems that we identify as "religions" are so diverse (not all religions refer to God or gods, not all religions are concerned with morals, not all religions have beliefs about the afterlife...) that it is no easy task to bring them all under one simple definition.​

Of course, this difficulty has not stopped people from attempting to define religion. The definitions are quite wide-ranging: some emphasize the personal, others the social; some the beliefs, others the uses; some the structures, others the functions; some the private, others the public; some the mundane, others the transcendent; some the truth, others the illusion. 1 In many cases, a person's definition of religion is actually a definition of his or her own religion.​

But while no one definition of religion can completely sum up what religion is, they all tell us something about religion and perhaps bring us closer to an understanding of what we mean when we talk about "religion." Thus a selection of definitions and quotes addressing the question "What is religion?" are provided below as a backdrop to the rest of this website.​

"Religion: A general term used... to designate all concepts concerning the belief in god(s) and goddess(es) as well as other spiritual beings or transcendental ultimate concerns."
—Penguin Dictionary of Religions (1997).​

"Religion: Relation of human beings to God or the gods or to whatever they consider sacred or, in some cases, merely supernatural."
—Britannica Concise Encyclopedia (online, 2006)​

"Religion: Human beings' relation to that which they regard as holy, sacred, spiritual, or divine."
—Encyclopædia Britannica (online, 2006)​

"Religion: (2) a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices; (4) a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith."
—Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (online, 2006)​

"The religious response is a response to experience and is coloured by the wish to provide a wider context for a fragile, short and turbulent life."
—Philip Rousseau, The Early Christian Centuries (2002), p. 4.​

"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opiate of the people."
—Karl Marx​

"Religion is the human attitude towards a sacred order that includes within it all being—human or otherwise—i.e., belief in a cosmos, the meaning of which both includes and transcends man."
—Peter Berger​

"Viewed systematically, religion can be differentiated from other culturally constituted institutions by virtue only of its reference to superhuman beings."
—Melford Spiro​

"Religion is what the individual does with his own solitariness."
—A.N. Whitehead​

"...for limited purposes only, let me define religion as a set of symbolic forms and acts which relate man to the ultimate conditions of his existence."
—R.N. Bellah​

"Religion is the daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to ignorance the nature of the Unknowable."
—Ambrose Bierce​

"A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them."
—Emile Durkheim​

"One's religion is whatever he is most interested in."
—J.M. Barrie, The Twelve-Pound Look (1910)​

"Religion consists in a set of things which the average man thinks he believes and wishes he was certain of."
—Mark Twain​

"Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires."
—Sigmund Freud, New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis​

"Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet."
—Napoleon Bonaparte​

"We go into religion in order to feel warmer in our hearts, more connected to others, more connected to something greater and to have a sense of peace."
—Goldie Hawn, Beliefnet interview​

"Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence; it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines."
—Bertrand Russell​

"Religions are the great fairy tales of conscience."
—George Santayana​

"Religion is all bunk."
— Thomas Edison​

"To be religious is to have one's attention fixed on God and on one's neighbour in relation to God."
—C.S. Lewis, "Lilies that Fester" in The Twentieth Century (April 1955).​

"Pure religion and undefiled before God the Father is this: To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."
—James 1:27, New Testament​

"Religion is to do right. It is to love, it is to serve, it is to think, it is to be humble."
—Ralph Waldo Emerson​

"Religion itself is nothing else but Love to God and Man. He that lives in Love lives in God, says the Beloved Disciple: And to be sure a Man can live no where better."
—William Penn​

"Religion, whatever it is, is a man's total reaction upon life."
—William James​

"Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; Unbelief, in denying them."
—Ralph Waldo Emerson​

References

"Introduction." John Bowker, Oxford Concise Dictionary of World Religions (2000).

What is Religion? Definitions and Quotes - ReligionFacts

 

[Archer]

Atheism isn't a religion just as theism isn't a religion. This really isn't very difficult to grasp...

I agree about theism but Atheism is very much a religion for many.

 

[ImmortalFlame]

This website is about religion—but what is religion? The question is not easy to answer. As St. Augustine said of time, most of us know perfectly well what religion is - until someone asks us to define it.​

The groups, practices and systems that we identify as "religions" are so diverse (not all religions refer to God or gods, not all religions are concerned with morals, not all religions have beliefs about the afterlife...) that it is no easy task to bring them all under one simple definition.​

Of course, this difficulty has not stopped people from attempting to define religion. The definitions are quite wide-ranging: some emphasize the personal, others the social; some the beliefs, others the uses; some the structures, others the functions; some the private, others the public; some the mundane, others the transcendent; some the truth, others the illusion. 1 In many cases, a person's definition of religion is actually a definition of his or her own religion.​

But while no one definition of religion can completely sum up what religion is, they all tell us something about religion and perhaps bring us closer to an understanding of what we mean when we talk about "religion." Thus a selection of definitions and quotes addressing the question "What is religion?" are provided below as a backdrop to the rest of this website.​

"Religion: A general term used... to designate all concepts concerning the belief in god(s) and goddess(es) as well as other spiritual beings or transcendental ultimate concerns."
—Penguin Dictionary of Religions (1997).​

"Religion: Relation of human beings to God or the gods or to whatever they consider sacred or, in some cases, merely supernatural."
—Britannica Concise Encyclopedia (online, 2006)​

"Religion: Human beings' relation to that which they regard as holy, sacred, spiritual, or divine."
—Encyclopædia Britannica (online, 2006)​

"Religion: (2) a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices; (4) a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith."
—Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (online, 2006)​

"The religious response is a response to experience and is coloured by the wish to provide a wider context for a fragile, short and turbulent life."
—Philip Rousseau, The Early Christian Centuries (2002), p. 4.​

"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opiate of the people."
—Karl Marx​

"Religion is the human attitude towards a sacred order that includes within it all being—human or otherwise—i.e., belief in a cosmos, the meaning of which both includes and transcends man."
—Peter Berger​

"Viewed systematically, religion can be differentiated from other culturally constituted institutions by virtue only of its reference to superhuman beings."
—Melford Spiro​

"Religion is what the individual does with his own solitariness."
—A.N. Whitehead​

"...for limited purposes only, let me define religion as a set of symbolic forms and acts which relate man to the ultimate conditions of his existence."
—R.N. Bellah​

"Religion is the daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to ignorance the nature of the Unknowable."
—Ambrose Bierce​

"A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them."
—Emile Durkheim​

"One's religion is whatever he is most interested in."
—J.M. Barrie, The Twelve-Pound Look (1910)​

"Religion consists in a set of things which the average man thinks he believes and wishes he was certain of."
—Mark Twain​

"Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires."
—Sigmund Freud, New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis​

"Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet."
—Napoleon Bonaparte​

"We go into religion in order to feel warmer in our hearts, more connected to others, more connected to something greater and to have a sense of peace."
—Goldie Hawn, Beliefnet interview​

"Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence; it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines."
—Bertrand Russell​

"Religions are the great fairy tales of conscience."
—George Santayana​

"Religion is all bunk."
— Thomas Edison​

"To be religious is to have one's attention fixed on God and on one's neighbour in relation to God."
—C.S. Lewis, "Lilies that Fester" in The Twentieth Century (April 1955).​

"Pure religion and undefiled before God the Father is this: To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."
—James 1:27, New Testament​

"Religion is to do right. It is to love, it is to serve, it is to think, it is to be humble."
—Ralph Waldo Emerson​

"Religion itself is nothing else but Love to God and Man. He that lives in Love lives in God, says the Beloved Disciple: And to be sure a Man can live no where better."
—William Penn​

"Religion, whatever it is, is a man's total reaction upon life."
—William James​

"Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; Unbelief, in denying them."
—Ralph Waldo Emerson​

References

"Introduction." John Bowker, Oxford Concise Dictionary of World Religions (2000).

What is Religion? Definitions and Quotes - ReligionFacts

Check the same websites index of world Religions.

Oh look! See what's not on there?

In fact, on the same website's "Big Religion Chart" it includes atheism, but contains the following statement:

"Inclusion of a group on this list does not mean that the group is a "religion" per se (note that atheism is listed) or a "true religion" or that one group is just as much a religion as another group."

Well done, you've used a website that does not define atheism as a religion.

 

[Archer]

Check the same websites index of world Religions.

Oh look! See what's not on there?

And you wont because there would be too much crying from the Atheist faithful.

 

[ImmortalFlame]

And you wont because there would be too much crying from the Atheist faithful.

The website distinctly says that it does not regard atheism as a religion. End of.

 

[Sirktas]

I agree about theism but Atheism is very much a religion for many.

Perhaps more like a way of life.

 

[Archer]

Check the same websites index of world Religions.

Oh look! See what's not on there?

In fact, on the same website's "Big Religion Chart" it includes atheism, but contains the following statement:

"Inclusion of a group on this list does not mean that the group is a "religion" per se (note that atheism is listed) or a "true religion" or that one group is just as much a religion as another group."

Well done, you've used a website that does not define atheism as a religion.

And I say it is, just as Atheists claim there is no God, I claim many of them are religious zealots trying to stamp out every other world view that competes with theirs, ya know what they accuse the religious of doing.