[Cheese]

Originally Posted by HockeyPuck

Sure you do... Atheism is just as much a religion as Islam, Buddism, and Christianity...

These religions believe there is a God or gods, etc., and those that live by these religions live their lives being accountable to their deity....

Atheists do the same thing, except they believe that there is no God and therefore live their lives not being accountable to any deity...

Atheism as a religion?

It seems odd for a follower of a faith to try to attack atheism by saying it is also a faith. I think the reasoning is that if atheism is a faith or religion, then atheists have no cause to criticise other faiths or religions. One flaw in this argument is that if atheism were indeed a religion, then theists would have no reason to criticise atheism being taught in schools as part of religious education, or even the setting up of atheist-run schools alongside Baptist, Catholic and Muslim schools.

Atheism, by definition, is the absence of theism. If you cannot say "I believe in a Deity/God/Supreme Being" then you are an atheist. If you are not a theist, then you are an atheist.