Current Events > Is Atheism a religion?

(+) Yeah! (+)

It's now estimated that nearly a quarter of the developed world openly identifies a Atheist, making it the fastest growing and possibly the second or third biggest religion alongside Islam.... That is... If it IS a religion!

People have been debating it back and forth like a philosophical game of ping pong. But what does CE Think?

atheism
noun: atheism

Disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of God or gods.



Let's find out.
---

Literally by definition not a religion

clearaflagrantj posted...

Literally by definition not a religion

So what would you say to those who claim that it is a religion?
---

UnfairRepresent posted...

clearaflagrantj posted...

Literally by definition not a religion

So what would you say to those who claim that it is a religion?

"You're wrong"

Atheism is the rejection of religion.
---

UnfairRepresent posted...

So what would you say to those who claim that it is a religion?

Trolling or stupid.
---

It is when people congregate around it zealously.

So is Buddhism not a religion then?

FairyLeviathan posted...

So is Buddhism not a religion then?

AFAIK it's a belief system and not all Buddhists accept that Buddha was supernatural, just that he us the ideal being

Jeff AKA Snoopy posted...

Atheism is the rejection of religion.

No, it's simply the rejection of the existence of God. There are religions that are totally compatible with atheism, especially eastern religions like Buddhism.
---

Internet atheism is definitely a religion
---

FairyLeviathan posted...

So is Buddhism not a religion then?

It's a fucking religion, it's just not what the West is used to. There are monastic traditions, festivals, codes of conduct for living life, rituals and scripture just like any other religion. It's just you can easily strip all that away and walk with the ideology alone. Hell it's compatible with Christianity somehow.
---

There are atheistic religions like Buddhism but atheism itself isn't a religion.
---

Damn_Underscore posted...

Internet atheism is definitely a religion

And what is internet atheism?
---

Blue_Dream87 posted...

FairyLeviathan posted...

So is Buddhism not a religion then?

It's a fucking religion, it's just not what the West is used to. There are monastic traditions, festivals, codes of conduct for living life, rituals and scripture just like any other religion. It's just you can easily strip all that away and walk with the ideology alone. Hell it's compatible with Christianity somehow.

A philosophy for life is not necessarily a religion. Stoicism ain't a religion, nihilism isn't, etc.

clearaflagrantj posted...

Blue_Dream87 posted...

FairyLeviathan posted...

So is Buddhism not a religion then?

It's a fucking religion, it's just not what the West is used to. There are monastic traditions, festivals, codes of conduct for living life, rituals and scripture just like any other religion. It's just you can easily strip all that away and walk with the ideology alone. Hell it's compatible with Christianity somehow.

A philosophy for life is not necessarily a religion. Stoicism ain't a religion, nihilism isn't, etc.

Confucianism ain't a religion either it's just a dude with some pretty cool ideas

I think the ideology and conduct for living life are what make anything a religion. The traditions, festivals, etc are extra.
---

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6msGNzXkA8g" data-time="
---

creativerealms posted...

Damn_Underscore posted...

Internet atheism is definitely a religion

And what is internet atheism?

Aggressively disrespecting (not just disliking) religion
---

Atheism is a religious belief, not a religion, just like theism is a religious belief, not a religion.

creativerealms posted...

Damn_Underscore posted...

Internet atheism is definitely a religion

And what is internet atheism?

It's literally nothing.
---

clearaflagrantj posted...

Blue_Dream87 posted...

FairyLeviathan posted...

So is Buddhism not a religion then?

It's a fucking religion, it's just not what the West is used to. There are monastic traditions, festivals, codes of conduct for living life, rituals and scripture just like any other religion. It's just you can easily strip all that away and walk with the ideology alone. Hell it's compatible with Christianity somehow.

A philosophy for life is not necessarily a religion. Stoicism ain't a religion, nihilism isn't, etc.

They also aren't tied to any specific prophets, cultures, bodies of scripture, etc.

To be fair I do believe you can pluck the ideology of Buddhism and wear it like you would Nihilism, but you could also do that with anything else. Fuck it, follow the ideology of Christ because he kinda seemed like a cool dude who figured shit out, not in any divinity or codes of conduct.
---

No. It doesnt work like that. Some call Buddhism atheist since there is no obvious God or Gods to point to in the traditional sense. Not trying to debate that point here except to say that atheism isnt a religion in and of itself just like monotheism isnt a religion in and of itself as a term. But a religion can obviously be monotheistic.
---

masticatingman posted...

No. It doesnt work like that. Some call Buddhism atheist since there is no obvious God or Gods to point to in the traditional sense. Not trying to debate that point here except to say that atheism isnt a religion in and of itself just like monotheism isnt a religion in and of itself as a term. But a religion can obviously be monotheistic.

DeadSite posted...

Atheism is a religious belief, not a religion, just like theism is a religious belief, not a religion.

Atheism itself is not a religion

But there's a difference between atheism and angtheism (not a very technical word but you know what I mean)
---

LinksLiege posted...

UnfairRepresent posted...

So what would you say to those who claim that it is a religion?

Trolling or stupid.

20% of CE are trolling or stupid?
---

"Trolling or stupid"

That sort of mentality is common of angtheists. People are never mistaken, they are either idiots or trying to get a rise out of others.
---

Atheism is literally means no gods. You reject religion to call atheism your new religion? What kind of sheepish mentality it is

"Stupid" was harsh. (In some cases - in some, it's absolutely just stupidity.) Mistaken is more accurate, or ignorant.
The common saying is that atheism is a religion in the same way bald is a hair color.
---

Yep, it takes just as much faith to "know there is no God" as it does to believe in God.
---

Pillowpantz posted...

Yep, it takes just as much faith to "know there is no God" as it does to believe in God.

Does it?
---

Atheism is an idealogy.

of course, they also have their fanatics and nutcases.
---

Doesn't matter, anyone who isn't agnostic should be declared a threat to the gene pool and be purged.

UnfairRepresent posted...

LinksLiege posted...

UnfairRepresent posted...

So what would you say to those who claim that it is a religion?

Trolling or stupid.

20% of CE are trolling or stupid?

At least 20%
---

UnfairRepresent posted...

Pillowpantz posted...

Yep, it takes just as much faith to "know there is no God" as it does to believe in God.

Does it?

Unless you've been dead overnight and came back to tell us all what happened, yes.
---

Damn_Underscore posted...

"Trolling or stupid"

That sort of mentality is common of angtheists. People are never mistaken, they are either idiots or trying to get a rise out of others.

Being mistaken on something so obvious it takes willful ignorance to get it wrong is kind of dumb

Pillowpantz posted...

Yep, it takes just as much faith to "know there is no God" as it does to believe in God.

Not only would that not make something a religion by most people's definitions, it's not even what atheism means
---

It's an opinion on religion, not a religion itself. It's like saying not watching sports is a hobby.
---

Pillowpantz posted...

UnfairRepresent posted...

Pillowpantz posted...

Yep, it takes just as much faith to "know there is no God" as it does to believe in God.

Does it?

Unless you've been dead overnight and came back to tell us all what happened, yes.

Would anyone really be surprised if Unfair came back and said this
---

Atheism is an answer to one question, do you believe in a higher being, deity's, God/gods? If your answer is no, you're an atheist. That's literally it. There's no dogma, rituals, or "way of life" to follow so no it's not a religion. Anti-theist are people who "hate" or are against religion, that tend to blame lots of the world problems on religion like that one user that was raised a muslim but is now atheist (forgot his username >_>). Gnosticism has to do with knowledge, meaning do you know if a higher being, deity, or God/gods exist? In most cases, for an atheist to be logical they would have to be agnostic about it because being an gnostic atheist is kind of a pointless position to take because you're no better than an gnostic theist.
---

another shitty UR topic...
http://bfy.tw/ILho
---

Pillowpantz posted...

Yep, it takes just as much faith to "know there is no God" as it does to believe in God.

Lmao. Is that you, Ken Hamm?
---

I go to Atheist church every Monday and praise nothing.
---

Smashingpmkns posted...

I go to Atheist church every Monday and praise nothing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNoQ5NY7Z_8" data-time="
---

Rika_Furude posted...

another shitty UR topic...
http://bfy.tw/ILho

Damn, they've changed the site quite a bit since I last saw it.

Lol no
---

FairyLeviathan posted...

So is Buddhism not a religion then?

This is actually a common misunderstanding. Nearly every mainstream form of Buddhism contains countless supernatural deities. Even the earliest forms are explicitly theistic; the gods and goddesses attend the birth of Siddhartha Gautama because they, too, are considered to be subject to the laws of Karma (albeit on a much loner scale).

Every single major branch is explicitly religious. Theravada utilized Indian Hindu deities, Mahayana used local East Asian deities, and Vajrayana has countless Tibetan deities. The earliest Sutras all contain countless references to deities, and the Tibetan Book of the Dead is basically a 300 page list of different gods.

Anyone who tells you Buddhism is atheism by definition is not very well versed in Buddhism. The idea of divorcing the message of Buddhism from it's supernatural origin is incredibly modern and basically the same as a Christian who follows the Bible and Jesus' teachings, but doesn't believe in God or anything supernatural.

As for the topic, no it's not. Whatever you want to argue it is, it's not a belief system because it's single defining feature is that it's the rejection of all other belief systesm. It's like saying that a person who isn't in a union is in the union of unionized people.

Atheism is a religion in the same way that abstinence is a sex position.
---

Interesting that no one is voting I dont know
---

Blue_Dream87 posted...

Jeff AKA Snoopy posted...

Atheism is the rejection of religion.

No, it's simply the rejection of the existence of God. There are religions that are totally compatible with atheism, especially eastern religions like Buddhism.

imo this is an open question

I actually don't think that is a good or useful definition of atheism, though, personally, I like this one more

https://www.britannica.com/topic/atheism

A central, common core of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam is the affirmation of the reality of one, and only one, God. Adherents of these faiths believe that there is a God who created the universe out of nothing and who has absolute sovereignty over all his creation; this includes, of course, human beingswho are not only utterly dependent on this creative power but also sinful and who, or so the faithful must believe, can only make adequate sense of their lives by accepting, without question, Gods ordinances for them. The varieties of atheism are numerous, but all atheists reject such a set of beliefs.

Atheism, however, casts a wider net and rejects all belief in spiritual beings, and to the extent that belief in spiritual beings is definitive of what it means for a system to be religious, atheism rejects religion. So atheism is not only a rejection of the central conceptions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; it is, as well, a rejection of the religious beliefs of such African religions as that of the Dinka and the Nuer, of the anthropomorphic gods of classical Greece and Rome, and of the transcendental conceptions of Hinduism and Buddhism. Generally atheism is a denial of God or of the gods, and if religion is defined in terms of belief in spiritual beings, then atheism is the rejection of all religious belief.

It is necessary, however, if a tolerably adequate understanding of atheism is to be achieved, to give a reading to rejection of religious belief and to come to realize how the characterization of atheism as the denial of God or the gods is inadequate.


---