Quote:
Originally Posted by Ark2
Atheism is just as much a religion as Christianity, Islam or Judaism. Not sure why some people have such a hard time with that.
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Because it's a really stupid statement, which doesn't hold up to any interesting definition of a religion.
1)
Not believing is not the same as believing. This should really be quite obvious to even the casual observer. Atheism is not "the belief that there is no god". It is "not believing that there is a god". The difference might look small, but it's really important.
Not believing in the existence of a flying spaghetti-monster is also not a religion.
Your statement is like saying that all people who are not fans of any hockey team are just a different group of hockey fans. (While those people do exist, they are the exception, not the rule.)
2) To think that not-believing in gods makes someone a part of something (a religion)
sounds quite a bit like your saying that "everyone who is not US is THEM". It sounds like you are putting so much weight in this thing that you believe in, that you consider everyone not believing in your thing to be labeled by it. That's why non-religious people sometimes take offense over this subject. What your saying sounds kind of oppressive.
It's just not nice to label people publicly, even if you happen to believe in the validity of your labels privately.
3)
To be against something is not the same as believing in a similar thing. There is a vocal group of self-identifying atheists who definitely are showing cult-like obsessive behaviour towards religion. To call them religious is basicly like saying that pacifism is just a type of warfare.
(Note: because atheism is such a loaded word, if someone asks, I call myself non-religious. It's just simpler.)