Atheism. Is it a religion?

Corvus Corax

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There are times when atheism seems like a religion. It would have me believe things that science can't prove.

For instance, one of the great prophets of atheism, Dawkins, says there is no god.
He wants me to believe that just as much as a Christian wants me to believe in Jesus.

To me, atheism is a secular religion, it has its leaders, it's gospels, it's tenets of faith.

Personally, I don't believe it. I do not have faith in it anymore than I have faith in any other religion.

What do other people think?
 

Red Sky at Morning

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There are times when atheism seems like a religion. It would have me believe things that science can't prove.

For instance, one of the great prophets of atheism, Dawkins, says there is no god.
He wants me to believe that just as much as a Christian wants me to believe in Jesus.

To me, atheism is a secular religion, it has its leaders, it's gospels, it's tenets of faith.

Personally, I don't believe it. I do not have faith in it anymore than I have faith in any other religion.

What do other people think?
I think you are dead on! Atheism requires at least as much (and arguably more) faith than theism.

The argument that anything that you want to believe must be inherantly suspect reminds me of Freud's 'wish fulfillment' which is aptly countered by CS Lewis, I think in his book ' The Pilgrims Regress' in the chapter about Giant Dispair (just trying to tempt you to read it!)
 

TonyVanDam

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There are times when atheism seems like a religion. It would have me believe things that science can't prove.

For instance, one of the great prophets of atheism, Dawkins, says there is no god.
He wants me to believe that just as much as a Christian wants me to believe in Jesus.

To me, atheism is a secular religion, it has its leaders, it's gospels, it's tenets of faith.

Personally, I don't believe it. I do not have faith in it anymore than I have faith in any other religion.

What do other people think?
I think you need to get a dictionary and learn prefixes & root words a little better.
An atheist is a person who has no beliefs in any deity, let alone Yahweh, Satan, and/or whoever. This fact alone makes it impossible for atheism to be a religion in itself.
 

Red Sky at Morning

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I think you need to get a dictionary and learn prefixes & root words a little better.
An atheist is a person who has no beliefs in any deity, let alone Yahweh, Satan, and/or whoever. This fact alone makes it impossible for atheism to be a religion in itself.
An atheist asserts an unprovable negative, without access to all the facts. As atheism is untestable it steps beyond our human reach and states confidently that out in vastness of space and time there is not, or ever could or shall be a trancendent being.

To scientifically prove atheism one would require the attributes of God (philosophically interesting!)

Looks like atheism takes faith to me...
 

Corvus Corax

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I think you need to get a dictionary and learn prefixes & root words a little better.
An atheist is a person who has no beliefs in any deity, let alone Yahweh, Satan, and/or whoever. This fact alone makes it impossible for atheism to be a religion in itself.
Well, if my grammer failed me, I'm sorry.

However, my point was that atheism is a belief system. It expects me to believe certain things and disbelieve others for which there is no real proof.

Like radiocarbon dates. They are spouted like they are the word of God himself. Yet every few years they recalibrate the curve and rewrite all the dates.
Essentially it's nonsense. It's a best guess scenario. Yet everything from time team up treats it like gospel.

Because we all need to believe in the great god science.
 

Red Sky at Morning

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I think you need to get a dictionary and learn prefixes & root words a little better.
An atheist is a person who has no beliefs in any deity, let alone Yahweh, Satan, and/or whoever. This fact alone makes it impossible for atheism to be a religion in itself.
I think what you meant was that you were an agnostic when it comes to God?
 

&&&

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Not sure about Atheism exactly, but Progressivism is most definitely a religion, and most Progs are Atheists vice versa.
 

Loki

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There are times when atheism seems like a religion. It would have me believe things that science can't prove.

For instance, one of the great prophets of atheism, Dawkins, says there is no god.
He wants me to believe that just as much as a Christian wants me to believe in Jesus.

To me, atheism is a secular religion, it has its leaders, it's gospels, it's tenets of faith.

Personally, I don't believe it. I do not have faith in it anymore than I have faith in any other religion.

What do other people think?
The problem is that "atheism" is just the word for not believing in god(s). Some atheists may form something similar to a religion, a secular religion as you put it, but other atheists simply aren't convinced that god(s) exist and have no interest in that secular religion stuff. Some atheists (I was one of these sort of) don't even know who Richard Dawkins is. When I considered myself an atheist it wasn't because a famous person like Dawkins or anyone else told me that God didn't exist, it was because the idea of God didn't make sense to me. I'd rationally come to the conclusion that the Biblical version of God (the only one I really understood/knew about at the time) wasn't a real thing. I didn't know who Dawkins was until I was in my twenties.
 

Corvus Corax

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Dawkins goes on TV and takes animals apart to prove that God doesn't exist.

He is literally angry that people still believe in God after he has proved that he doesn't exist.

Like you I came to my own conclusions years ago, and even though I may agree with Mr Dawkins in principal, I object strenuously to being told what to believe.
By anyone.
 

Loki

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Sure. Perhaps it would make sense to call the type of atheist that worships Dawkins a Dawkinite, or Dawkinist, or something like that. But my main point was that atheism in and of itself isn't religious, even if it does take faith, it's simply the absence of belief in deities. That doesn't mean that some atheists don't form a secular religion of sorts, just that being an atheist doesn't make you a part of that group.
 

Karlysymon

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There are times when atheism seems like a religion. It would have me believe things that science can't prove.

For instance, one of the great prophets of atheism, Dawkins, says there is no god.
He wants me to believe that just as much as a Christian wants me to believe in Jesus.

To me, atheism is a secular religion, it has its leaders, it's gospels, it's tenets of faith.

Personally, I don't believe it. I do not have faith in it anymore than I have faith in any other religion.

What do other people think?
A significant philosophical paradox intrinsic to atheism. Authors Ron Carlson and Ed Decker explain this intrinsic paradox:
It is philosophically
impossible to be an
atheist, since to be an
atheist you must have
infinite knowledge in
order to know absolutely that there is no God. But to have infinite knowledge,
you would have to be God
yourself. It’s hard to be God yourself and an atheist at the same time! ................................................
In order to be philosophically consistent, the atheist must
eventually conclude that he/she is a god
 

Haich

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There are times when atheism seems like a religion. It would have me believe things that science can't prove.

For instance, one of the great prophets of atheism, Dawkins, says there is no god.
He wants me to believe that just as much as a Christian wants me to believe in Jesus.

To me, atheism is a secular religion, it has its leaders, it's gospels, it's tenets of faith.

Personally, I don't believe it. I do not have faith in it anymore than I have faith in any other religion.

What do other people think?
You're right it kind of is a religion in its own way. To have that sort of conviction (that there is no God) requires belief and faith.
 

Corvus Corax

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I just don't like being told what to believe.
I think people can believe whatever they want, or what ever they feel is true.

I think JWs have every right to believe in their religion.
I just get annoyed when they knock on my door and tell me I have to believe it too.

I feel the same about militant atheists like Dawkins.
It annoys me.
 
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