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Exactly. If it's supposed to be a religion - then it needs dogmatic fundamental truths it can base on. But still they seem to have one: "There is no god". Is it a "religion"? I think it's a very confusing argument over words and just like many of such arguments it leads nowhere. But when I think about ideas like converting other people to atheism I start shivering...
What is religion anyway? If I define it as "cult", then it's obviously not a religion.

But then you must pick which definition of cult you will use. One of them means "religion".

And since a technical definition for religion lacks, do you want to see the closest thing we have in Anthropology?

I had a religious studies major try to jump on my case, just so he could call Atheism a form of Christianity. "Well, which religion are they denying?" All of them! "Naw uh, just the one they came from, most of that was Christianity!" Uhm, okay Mark, you do understand that by not finding another religion, they deny those too, right? "Naw Uh! But....."

I can understand that he's in the same culture and all, so that may have some bearing on the topic, but over here, we try to be a melting pot of different cultures. So don't be surprised when people turn into New Agers that believe everything they hear, or Atheists that brush religion off.

And as a counter example to the football - Zero! It literally describes nothing, yet it manages to be a number.

And someone please define religion? Anthropologist Clifford Geertz wrote this:


This definition has been criticized for being to broad. However, it's not "a society's symbolic worship of itself" nor "a belief in spirits". Those definitions are useless now, even to the field that coined them.

You wanna know what's worse? There's an anthropological definition that doesn't take belief into account at all, noticing how western that concept is. Instead, it looks at actions. Very few people in our culture would be a different religion then...

Merriam-Webster

Main Entry: faith
Pronunciation: ˈfāth
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural faiths ˈfāths, sometimes ˈfāthz
Etymology: Middle English feith, from Anglo-French feid, fei, from Latin fides; akin to Latin fidere to trust — more at bide
Date: 13th century
1 a : allegiance to duty or a person : loyalty b (1) : fidelity to one's promises (2) : sincerity of intentions
2 a (1) : belief and trust in and loyalty to God (2) : belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion b (1) : firm belief in something for which there is no proof (2) : complete trust
3 : something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially : a system of religious beliefs

By going with definition 2b(1) or 3 of "faith" and definition 4 of "religion" and 1a of "principle," I'd say atheism is a religion.

As principle is concerned, 1a stipulates a "comprehensive and fundamental...assumption". Lack of belief in deities is hardly comprehensive nor fundamental. Regardless, even if you were right that would only apply to hard atheism, "There are no gods", as opposed to soft atheism "I do not believe in gods" as the latter would not fall under the definition you bolded for faith, mainly "firm belief in something for which there is no proof". There's a difference between belief and lack of belief, otherwise me simply not believing that I have a million dollars would be a religion.

Only under one of the many definitions. Definition's 1 and 2 fit pretty-much all religions. So yes, they're still technically cults, popular malignment of the word or no.

Yes, and besides; morality is relative.

One word response.

Taoism.