Atheism as a religion
by James on Jun.04, 2010, under Rant
Of all of the worlds religions, the one that I find the most bizarre is Atheism. The reason for this is that the adherents of this religion claim that, in fact, they practice no religion. This is truly baffling, while I don’t claim to be the most religious person, from my own experience Atheism has all the hallmarks of religion.
- They all share a common belief system, that there are no gods.
- They try to convert those who don’t believe as they do.
- Failing the above, they ridicule and or otherwise hostile to “nonbelievers”.
- They have their own televangelists (i.e. Richard Dawkins).
- They have their own “churches” and gatherings.
Now many Atheists will tell you that belief in religion is merely an atavistic compulsion that they have evolved beyond but it is apparent to all that observe them that they have formed their own religion around not having a religion.
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June 6th, 2010 on 08:54
Atheism is of course not a religion and it is truly ignorant for you to think that it is. I’m commenting because I doubt you really want to stay ignorant. It’s as if you are saying to someone who doesn’t collect stamps that they really are a stamp collector. It’s like telling someone completely bald they have brown hair.
June 6th, 2010 on 21:49
And yet, it bears all the hallmarks of one. Like any religion it is a world view that people subscribe to. Like religion, once they become believers, they seek to surround themselves with others of a like mind, express the superiority of their view, and convert or belittle those who do not agree with them.
While they certainly do not express a faith in any form of higher being, they behave in a manner consistent with those who do.
June 8th, 2010 on 22:13
Wow, I rarely call people out for their view points, but HFL you obviously didn’t read anymore than the title of James’ post.
You succeed in demonstrating the same close mindedness that atheists often blame religious devotes of having. You call the poster “truly ignorant” but add the caveat that you only point it out since you doubt he wants to stay ignorant (to your point of view). You skipped #2 and went right to #3.
You then fail to explain anything other than two anecdotal examples which fail to enlighten anything other than the dangers of miss classification of stamp collectors and bald people. The first one is simply boolean since you either do or don’t collect stamps. The second, genetically a brown haired person can also be bald they just don’t demonstrate the trait for brown hair anymore.
Now not to let James off the hook here…
I would argue that Atheism isn’t a religion so to speak, but that religions and atheism are both forms of organized belief structures. Which are all susceptible to the list of character traits James listed. To me this means Atheists aren’t as greatly evolved as they like to think they are.
The only organized belief structure I’ve personally observed that has not tried to push their beliefs onto others is Wicca. So I’d like to congratulate both mainstream religions and atheism for being shown up by a bunch of earth loving tree huggers.
June 8th, 2010 on 22:22
Congratulations, you’re the first person to hit it on the head. Most of the Atheists have just been calling me stupid or issuing death threats.
Religious fanatics, really.
July 2nd, 2010 on 03:29
Interesting about the subscribers to Wicca. I don’t know any, but tree-hugging hippies love nothing better than force their beliefs on others.
June 8th, 2010 on 23:15
Well to be fair, to a scientifically enlightened person being too stupid (ignorant) to understand a concept would be the greatest suffering. So basically that sounds like the atheist equivalent of telling you, you’re going to hell.
Finding these comparisons is fun :)