"Atheism is religion," they say

[greekredemption]

Athesim is, by defintion, not a religion, it is simply a lack of religion.

 

However, the mainstream atheism movement is indeed a religion.  They have extended their reason for being far beyond the remit of not believing religion and have extended it to rationality and skeptcism and such.  Supposedly.  Only for the majority their claims to such rationality are as false as religion and they just want a group that they can be a part of and engage in religious thinking about the state.  And claim intellectual superiority over the traditional religious believers.

Never more so than in the sorry case of Atheism+

[Psychophant]

@theAuger Yeah, but you forgot to mention that opposed to faith, knowledge is also a subset of truth.

 

[AnCap AllCaps]

I know this is an older/longer thread and am chiming in late. But this claim is one that is made VERY OFTEN casually by theists. And you need to be able to respond to it; to give context to why that is not correct.

 

So theists often claim one of the following, each of them are practically the same statement reworded.

 

1. Atheism is just another religion.

 

2. Atheism is the biggest religion of them all.

 

3. Atheists just "have faith" that "there is no god."

 

4. I don't have enough faith to be an atheist. (Frank Turek)

 

5. It takes more faith to be an atheist than it does to be a theist.

 

Response questions:

 

 

Responses:

 

1. Atheism is "the lack of religion." So if you asked 3 children: "What sport do you play?" child 1 says "soccer," child 2 says "basketball," and child 3 says "no sport."

 

So would you then say "no sport" is "the biggest sport of them all?"

 

2. Most religions worship a book, usually ancient, that is their doctrine, their source of guidance, the book they hold sacred. What ancient book do atheists worship?

 

3. Most religions have a deity that they worship. What deity do atheists worship?

 

4. Most religions have a day of worship, such as Saturday or Sunday. What day is the "atheist" day of worship?

 

5. Most religions have a place of worship, like a church. What is the atheist place of worship?

 

6. Most religions make claims of certainty about an afterlife. What claims of certainty do atheists propose?

 

7. Most religions make claims of certainty about "cosmic rules" for humans that they call "morality." What claims of certainty about "cosmic rules" do atheists propose.

 

8. Most religions propose an "eternal reward" and sometimes an "eternal punishment," for following "the cosmic rules." What "eternal rewards" do atheists propose?

 

9. Most religions claim "to know the mind of god," that is that they know "what god thinks and wants and how god feels and god's opinions."

Where do you see atheists claiming to know the mind of god?"

 

10. What religion does atheism most resemble?

[J. D. Stembal]

 

 

10. What religion does atheism most resemble?

 

 

I would turn it around like Stefan does in Against the Gods. Theists are mostly atheist since they typically only believe in one of the many thousands of gods worshiped in human history. Suck it up and lose the last god, so you can be free! Unfortunately, a lot of atheists have turned that last god into the State, which is just the latest incarnation of the Divine Right of Kings to rule over us.

[Lars]

Atheism is humble, religion is arrogant. What's there not to get? Relative to our scientific understanding of the universe (truth) of course.It's the difference between leaving a page blank and pretending to know the answer.

[Irwin Leonardo]

NOT COLLECTING STAMPS IS A HOBBY.

[rational_londoner]

Atheism is my philosophy.

[Ady Sheerer]

If Atheism is a religion then it should follow that there is a religion for every non existent thing that one person can imagine but cannot prove. I'm not good at math... how many do you think that is?