Atheism is NOT a Religion
For some reason, Christians often claim that atheism is a religion just like Christianity. I see this as their attempt to bring people of reason into the mud with them. Clearly religion is starting to get a bad reputation and being reasonable, skeptical, and doubtful or ridiculous claims are all traits, which are starting to be viewed more and more as positive. People are starting to wake up from the nightmare of religion and society is starting to question what was once thought to be unquestionable.
As a result, many Christians feel the need to lower disbelief to the level of belief. This tactic alone shows that even Christians see religion as a bad thing. They are unintentionally attacking themselves by claiming that atheism is just as religious as they are. What kind of insult is that? If someone tries to insult you by claiming that you are just like they are, is that an insult to them?
As for the claim itself, it is just as ridiculous as most other Christian claims. For starters, atheism is a lack of belief, not a belief in and of itself. So their argument seems to be that a lack of belief is a belief in and of itself. In that sense, atheism is a religion. The most common atheist rebuttal is that while collecting stamps is a hobby, would not collecting stamps also be considered a hubby by the Christian reasoning? Of course it wouldn’t. If believing in Jesus were a religion, would not believing in Jesus also be a religion? I don’t really think so. Taken to the logical conclusion, the Christian who makes this assertion would have to admit to having an infinite number of religions. Not only would we all have a religion for every God we don’t believe in, but we would also have a religion for every idea we don’t believe in.
At this point these particular Christians will assert that atheism is a religion because we hold meetings and fight for causes. This too is a ridiculous claim. There are many organizations in the world that hold meetings and fight for causes. Are they religions too? The National Rifle Association holds meetings and they fight for a cause, are they are religion? The NAACP is an organization too. They fight against discrimination. So is being black a religion? The fact is that Freethought/atheist organizations are similar to the NAACP in that we fight against discrimination. We meet and organize mainly around that issue. We also talk about education, science, and equal rights because those are issues under attack by Christians and Christian groups. But they are also under attack by other theistic religions and so we talk about those religions too.
Atheists don’t have any religious beliefs. What does it mean to have a religious belief? For starters, the origin of the world “Religious” comes from the Latin word “religare” meaning to restrain or tie back. It was later modified to mean a supernatural restraint. As it turns out, religion has as a matter of historical fact “restrained” human progress. What it has come to mean today is the service and worship of a God, Gods, or the supernatural and a commitment or devotion to faith or observance. Basically, to be a religious, one must believe stuff and worship something supernatural. Having rituals and devotion to that belief is also somewhat of a prerequisite. Prayer is a ritual and a show of devotion. People don’t pray to change God’s mind (because he has a divine plan). They pray to show devotion and to let God know that they are thinking about him (even though God is supposed to know everything). The point here is that lack of worship and devotion to a supernatural is not a religion.
A few Christians even told me that atheist groups file for tax-exemption under the 501c3 tax code for religious groups. This is half true, which is at least better than most Christian claims, which tend to be not true at all. The 501c3 provision is a big tent provision. Here is the legalize:
501(c)3 – Religious, Educational, Charitable, Scientific, Literary, Testing for Public Safety, to Foster National or International Amateur Sports Competition, or Prevention of Cruelty to Children or Animals Organizations
So according to these Christians, international amateur sports competitions must also be a religion. Who would have thought? Atheist groups tend to be educational groups putting on lectures, speakers, and educating the public about the discrimination of non-theists and about the facts concerning the claims made by theist religions. We are charitable, scientific, and even literary. Some like Richard Dawkins may even argue that we are trying to prevent cruelty to Children who are indoctrinated at birth into one religion or another and taught to guilt and fear.
Clearly, there is no valid reason to classify atheism as a religion and in attempting to do so, all Christians accomplish is to prove just how dirty a word religion actually is. Their attack seems to be more of an attack on themselves than it is an attack on atheists. But far be it for reason and rational thought to get in the way of a make-believe story. It has never stopped Christians from believing the ridiculous before, so I don’t expect it with stop them now. 
Filed under: Atheism NOT Religion, Religion, Uncategorized
