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 Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 12:22 am
FreeArsenal Lucky~9~Lives FreeArsenal The reason I call atheism a religion... because it's a stance and it's still a belief. So are Marxism, vegetarianism, and thinking Susan Boyle should've won the X Factor. Religion - a set of beliefs and practices claimed to lead primarily to spiritual fulfillmentAtheism - lack of belief in the existence of transcendent creator personalities Thus, atheism is not a religion. Problem. Spiritual here is used as an adjective: Quote: spiritual Adjective 1. relating to a person's beliefs as opposed to his or her physical or material needs2. relating to religious beliefs 3. one's spiritual home the place where one feels one belongs Notation number 1. Marxism, Vegetarianism could therefore be considered spiritual, and therefore also religions. Marxism claims to lead primarily to socio-economic betterment; vegetarianism in itself does not claim to lead to spiritual fulfillment, but some people turn it into a religion. Read 'spiritual fulfillment' as 'salvation (of ones immortal soul)', 'enlightnement', etc.
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Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 5:59 am
Theism isn't a religion, so how on earth could a lack of theism be a religion?
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Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 8:48 am
Rilian Sharp Theism isn't a religion, so how on earth could a lack of theism be a religion? Theism is not a religion. Atheism is the opposite of theism. Therefore, atheism is not not a religion. - 3nodding
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Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 11:26 am
Lucky~9~Lives Rilian Sharp Theism isn't a religion, so how on earth could a lack of theism be a religion? Theism is not a religion. Atheism is the opposite of theism. Therefore, atheism is not not a religion. - 3nodding That only works if you are assuming that theism=~religion. But that's not the case. What we mean is that theism is an element of the set of things that are not religions. The negation of theism could still be in that same set, and it is.
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Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 2:20 pm
Rilian Sharp Lucky~9~Lives Rilian Sharp Theism isn't a religion, so how on earth could a lack of theism be a religion? Theism is not a religion. Atheism is the opposite of theism. Therefore, atheism is not not a religion. - 3nodding That only works if you are assuming that theism=~religion. But that's not the case. What we mean is that theism is an element of the set of things that are not religions. The negation of theism could still be in that same set, and it is.
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Posted: Sat Aug 22, 2009 2:57 am
FreeArsenal Lucky~9~Lives FreeArsenal The reason I call atheism a religion... because it's a stance and it's still a belief. So are Marxism, vegetarianism, and thinking Susan Boyle should've won the X Factor. Religion - a set of beliefs and practices claimed to lead primarily to spiritual fulfillmentAtheism - lack of belief in the existence of transcendent creator personalities Thus, atheism is not a religion. Problem. Spiritual here is used as an adjective: Quote: spiritual Adjective 1. relating to a person's beliefs as opposed to his or her physical or material needs2. relating to religious beliefs 3. one's spiritual home the place where one feels one belongs Notation number 1. Marxism, Vegetarianism could therefore be considered spiritual, and therefore also religions. Stop this war of definitions. At best all you'll get is a stand still. Seriously. You're asking to stop a war of definitions when the whole point of this topic is to define what is Atheism? I laugh: Ha. razz I'd debate this further but clearly Luck~9 has this in the bag. Religion is an organized belief with a set of standards and a moral code. There is not a religion that doesn't have a moral code or a prescribed way to live your life. Therefore Atheism is not a religion because it doesn't fall under the definition of religion. As it's been said you can be in Atheist in a religion (Like Buddhism), but you can also be Theistic in a religion (Like Buddhism). There is, from my knowledge, only one Atheistic Religion (That is a religion that denies the existence of god(s) and maintains a moral code) and that is Humanism. Heres the wiki for those of you who need to read up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanism
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Posted: Sat Aug 22, 2009 5:09 am
I'd classify it more as a philosophy than a religion. Just like Epicureanism or hedonism.
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Posted: Sat Aug 22, 2009 5:15 am
almisami I'd classify it more as a philosophy than a religion. Just like Epicureanism or hedonism. Soo, what is the philosophy?
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Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2009 3:37 pm
I actually went over this in my World Religions class. Here is the "official" scholarly definition of religion that is used:
"Religion is any set of beliefs and practices which express a person's ultimate concern, his or her unique approach to the Ground of Being, around which that person orients his or her life." Paul Tillich.
According to that definition, it would seem that it includes Atheism since it does not mention God or gods; a higher power, force, spirit, being; or a spiritual belief system. It's merely defined as what is your ultimate concern, and what do you base your life around.
Not sure if I agree with that, though, since it would seem that then, technically, everyone has multiple religions.
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Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2009 3:44 pm
comfortably_dumb I actually went over this in my World Religions class. Here is the "official" scholarly definition of religion that is used: "Religion is any set of beliefs and practices which express a person's ultimate concern, his or her unique approach to the Ground of Being, around which that person orients his or her life." Paul Tillich. According to that definition, it would seem that it includes Atheism since it does not mention God or gods; a higher power, force, spirit, being; or a spiritual belief system. It's merely defined as what is your ultimate concern, and what do you base your life around. Not all atheists base their lives around their lack of belief in deities - indeed, some are not even aware they are atheists.
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Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2009 8:10 pm
Lucky~9~Lives comfortably_dumb I actually went over this in my World Religions class. Here is the "official" scholarly definition of religion that is used: "Religion is any set of beliefs and practices which express a person's ultimate concern, his or her unique approach to the Ground of Being, around which that person orients his or her life." Paul Tillich. According to that definition, it would seem that it includes Atheism since it does not mention God or gods; a higher power, force, spirit, being; or a spiritual belief system. It's merely defined as what is your ultimate concern, and what do you base your life around. Not all atheists base their lives around their lack of belief in deities - indeed, some are not even aware they are atheists. Okay fineeee. But what about the ones that do? Is it a religion for them, then?
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Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 5:24 am
comfortably_dumb Lucky~9~Lives comfortably_dumb I actually went over this in my World Religions class. Here is the "official" scholarly definition of religion that is used: "Religion is any set of beliefs and practices which express a person's ultimate concern, his or her unique approach to the Ground of Being, around which that person orients his or her life." Paul Tillich. According to that definition, it would seem that it includes Atheism since it does not mention God or gods; a higher power, force, spirit, being; or a spiritual belief system. It's merely defined as what is your ultimate concern, and what do you base your life around. Not all atheists base their lives around their lack of belief in deities - indeed, some are not even aware they are atheists. Okay fineeee. But what about the ones that do? Is it a religion for them, then? The atheists that treat atheism as a religion? Sure, why not.
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Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 5:19 pm
I'm atheist. lol
And no, I don't consider my "godly angst" to be a religion.
^_^
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Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 5:23 pm
Don't see how it could be.
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Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2009 4:19 pm
Shadows-shine I don't think it's a religion. I like the way my sociology (sp?) teacher put when I was in high school. He said that there is no way any one can be athiest, because they are always believing in some thing, or making some thing some sort of god. So they would be thiest in a sense. That is just strictly his opinion on the matter, but I agree with it, because I can see what he is trying to say. I just joined, so sorry for responding expo de facto, but I disagree with your teacher. Arguments like this seem to stress that theism is innate, and that is going to need proof. Also, if this idea has credibility that would mean that (for example) an Atheist who is highly tech savvy and jokingly considers his computer as God really looks at his computer as god. But, he is being told how he sees his computer because of your teacher's theory.
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