Hmm. I was talking to Mike about religion tonight, and you know what, I think I really have come to that point where I can look at myself and what I believe and how I live my life and say that I'm actually atheist
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I think I've also changed a lot in terms of social/religious views in the past year, too. I'm not atheist, but I'm definitely non-religious...meaning I don't NOT believe in God, but I'm just relatively disinterested in religion in general. We will discuss this in detail later.
Yeah, I used to think I was just being non-religious/disinterested, but it sort of dawned on me last night that I'm actually pretty atheist at this point.
See, the thing is...atheism is a religion just like any other religion. And atheists get mad when they hear this, but it's true. Atheism is a religion, and adherents of this religion believe that God doesn't exist
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Well, if we're calling anything that someone believes as a religion, then yes, atheism would also be one. But when *I* think of the word "religion" it has all sorts of connotations to me, and I think much of Western society/America/whatever has similar connotations. Religion to me involves rules and structure and basically humanity's attempt to control that which it cannot control. All of my experiences with religion (which, as I'm sure you know, are limited to Christianity anyway, so this is clearly biased) have been that it detracts from the core beliefs rather than adding to it - it makes things less personal, more community-oriented, less meaningful, more ritualistic, etc. I think that what I have now - basically a belief that there is no god - is more a belief than a religion, at least in my mind, simply because there aren't any of those ritualistic/structural things that go along with my belief
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I very much agree with you. Religion is a loaded word, and simply calling it a belief in something is throwing the term around too lightly, I think. For example, I believe that tacos are very yummy and possibly the best food in the world, but that isn't a religion...it's a belief. Religion is a set of beliefs that come with rituals, community, etc...a simple belief in something being true or false definitely doesn't qualify it as a religion.
But religion has no concrete meaning at all. I guess it has a dictionary definition, but "religion" means different things to different people.
For instance, my mom considers herself Hindu. You say that religion is a set of beliefs that come with rituals/community, etc. But my mom shares almost NO beliefs with other Hindus, she detests religious rituals, and she hasn't been to the temple in years. So your three prerequisites - a unifying set of beliefs, rituals, and community, do not apply to my mom to make her Hindu. But if you ask her if she belongs to a religion, she will say yes.
So defining religion is really hard (probably impossible), and as far as I can tell atheism is no LESS of a religion than any other religion.
Then why does she consider herself Hindu? She must share something, even if its a personal history rather than beliefs or rituals. In any case, she still considers herself Hindu because she relates most with/grew up with that particular community. (I'm guessing here? Tell me if I'm wrong.) Since she still identifies herself that way, though, I'm guessing that identification means something to her, whether its beliefs, a sense of belonging to a community, whatever.
Yeah I think that was my point. There is some identification there, but it's not the same for every person. So making an objective definition of what is a religion isn't really possible.
Maybe you think atheism isn't a religion, but some atheists (such as my friend Paul who lives across the hall) do. Also, Paul and hall rhyme. But this is irrelevant.
Likewise, some Christian fundamentalists don't consider Hinduism to be a religion, because it has no unifying holy text or Deity. But Hindus obviously consider it to be a religion.
I also have a friend who stopped being a math major because he was afraid that math would become his religion.
Religion has very different meanings to different people, and I think at its essence it's just a set of beliefs. But that's just my belief ;)
*correction: Some Hindus, such as my dad, don't consider Hinduism to be a religion, but more of a lifestyle. But others think of it as a religion. So even within a given religion there is no consensus on what constitutes a "religion".
I think, as I believe Megan said elsewhere, it really depends on the strength of the atheist beliefs as to whether or not they could even be considered a religion. Perhaps one could argue that a strong atheist belonged to an "atheist" religion
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Yeah it definitely depends on how you define religion. I wasn't saying that atheists are *religious* in exactly the same way as Christians/Muslims, etc. Just that they have a concrete belief (that God is nonexistent), and religious people do too (God is Jesus, God is Allah, etc.)...so essentially they are flip sides of the same coin.
Then there are people like me who just get confused discussing religion and have abandoned thinking about it altogether, because we don't know what to believe ^_^
As I said below, though, I don't think a belief in *nothing* and a belief in *something* can be considered beliefs equally. A belief in *something*, whether it's science or God or Allah or Existence or whatever, could potentially be considered a religion. But can a belief that there's nothing out there really be considered a religion?
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Silly religion. :P
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For instance, my mom considers herself Hindu. You say that religion is a set of beliefs that come with rituals/community, etc. But my mom shares almost NO beliefs with other Hindus, she detests religious rituals, and she hasn't been to the temple in years. So your three prerequisites - a unifying set of beliefs, rituals, and community, do not apply to my mom to make her Hindu. But if you ask her if she belongs to a religion, she will say yes.
So defining religion is really hard (probably impossible), and as far as I can tell atheism is no LESS of a religion than any other religion.
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Maybe you think atheism isn't a religion, but some atheists (such as my friend Paul who lives across the hall) do. Also, Paul and hall rhyme. But this is irrelevant.
Likewise, some Christian fundamentalists don't consider Hinduism to be a religion, because it has no unifying holy text or Deity. But Hindus obviously consider it to be a religion.
I also have a friend who stopped being a math major because he was afraid that math would become his religion.
Religion has very different meanings to different people, and I think at its essence it's just a set of beliefs. But that's just my belief ;)
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Not that the comments aren't valued/appreciated! I never say no to lots of comments.
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Then there are people like me who just get confused discussing religion and have abandoned thinking about it altogether, because we don't know what to believe ^_^
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