Quote:
Originally Posted by photon
Anyway, I think part of it was Buddhists don't have a deity but are a religion.
I don't know enough about Buddhism to comment on what they believe or don't believe, but I'll accept they don't believe in god/s so that makes them atheists by the definition of the word. They may be a lot of other things as well, being an atheist and being a member of a religion are not mutually exclusive; I know Christians who are atheists.
And Buddhism is more than the lack of something, there are a common set of beliefs and such for a Buddhist.
Atheism has nothing like that, there are no tenants, no shared beliefs, no sacred texts, no common history, nothing that would be required to define it as a religion.
EDIT: If it is, where do I read to get the central tenants for atheism?
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There may not be a codified set of beliefs, but that set of shared beliefs is there. The Internet is helping to codify this belief set for you, making that system of belief more and more defined. Your "faith" is in it's infancy, but it is there, and all those things you claimed as being missing are there.
To start, the central tenants of Atheism can be found in many youtube videos - some of which are likely to pop up in this thread. Christopher Hitchens, in all his angry glory, has done more to codify what it means to be an Atheist than anyone else, ironically lending many (anti?)religious texts to the new cause. The writings and videos of Richard Dawkins is another source for what could be considered Atheist gospels.
Wikipedia calls these people New Atheists. One thing is clear to me and to others as well - these people are not acting the same way that old fashioned "atheists" act. They act in ways that are much more akin to a faith based community than to a lack of faith.