My religion is atheist?
My religion is atheist?
I find it odd that when filling out a form that asked me what my religion is one of the choices is Atheist.
What now? That is the that opposite of religion.
Atheism is a religion the same way bald is a hair color.
I told a religious buddy of mine that atheism is a religion the same way "off" is a TV channel. He struggled to comprehend how that's even possible lol
Thanks; I'm stealing that!
Lol
Philosophically, that's true. But I understand putting it in the religion column for the purpose of statistics. And 'none' and 'atheist' are two different possible answers. You can have no religion but believe very fervently in a god of your own conception.
I like the idea of putting “none.” I’m gonna start doing that instead of atheist.
Wouldn't that be an agnostic?
No, agnosticism is more about the fact that God cannot be proven or disproven.
As for atheism being a religious choice: that’s exactly what it is, it’s a choice to not believe in any religion.
If you and I met on the street, and I were to ask you what your religion is, how would you answer me?
(My guess is you’d say you are an atheist. Same as that dropdown is asking you what your religion is.)
Atheism is not a religion or worldview.
Atheism is the lack of a belief in a god or God's.
Many atheists including myself adhere to the statement of simply being unconvinced that there is a God or having no credible evidence to indicate a God's existence.
Maybe the form we were filling out legitimately needed that information but typically outside of a very specific set of data. I don't see why any form would ever ask you what your religion or lack of religion might be.
Surely atheism is the belief in the lack of a god. Agnosticism is the lack of belief in a god.
Atheism is, in point if fact, a world view.
There is a world. You have a perspective on that world. The assumptions you make and the things you believe, rational and irrational, are a world view. The concept that there is (or is not) credible evidence that gods, or planets, or whatever fundamental facets of existence, imaginary or otherwise, are either a world view themselves or are deeply rooted in your world view.
Q: does your world include unicorns? A: i don't know.
The answer stems from having a world view that does not categorically include nor exclude unicorns. But more to the point, when answering questions like:
Q: what is most likely the source of existence? A: <anything you damned well please>
The answer, if actually responding to the question, is a world view, or deeply tied to a world view.
As to forms: forms are often limiting and don't include information we consider relevant, or do include information we consider irrelevant. So it goes. In any case, they would ask that information precisely because world views provide broad but effective indicators about an individual. Knowing that a large incoming group of hotel guests is Christian, for example, can be a useful metric, because you'll know that your hotel will make above-average pay-to-watch porn sales that weekend.
Atheist is not a statement about your religion at all. I'm also an atheist and my 'religion' is basically secular humanist. Yours could be none, Unitarian Universalist, Buddhist, secular humanist, or any others that are compatible.
I don't intend this to be harsh or negative but I don't know how to phrase this nicely;
Secular Humanism is a philosophy, not a religion. Religions are faith-based while philosophies are based in some logical argumentation. The muddling of religion with philosophy linguistically serves only to tarnish philosophy and lend undue credence to religion. That language is so flexible can be beneficial but it can equally be detrimental when used like this.
- I put religion in quotes to try to appease this take.
- You are being exceedingly literal and selective in your definition of religion.
- Ceding all rights to the word 'religion' to the xtian fundamentalists is not a good strategy.
- Your extreme position limits your ability to bridge with others which also limits your ability to affect change.
- I've had my 'militant atheist' phase and shared your inflexibility in the past. It wasn't healthy for me and it wasn't helpful for anyone.
Wow, I just read about secular humanism, and it seems to be pretty much exactly how I feel about things. The human race could, through science, understanding, and cooperation, solve most of the problems that we are faced with. I like that.
I never thought of that; that's interesting.
its because if it was just none christians would count it as people who are just undecided and haven't accepted jesus.
Since 'atheism' means 'without religion' it's the same as putting in "none."
imho
Depends if you define religion as 'act of worship', or 'belief aystem', I guess. Bhuddism would fail the first, but not the second.
I usually think of religion as the belief in some sort of God or religious figure whether it's the Christian God or Vishnu or Odin or whatever it seems that it's more complicated than I had considered previously.
Yes, that's fair - depends on how the definition of the survey is worded. So something like satanism wouldn't be a religion to you? I get it confused with the church of Satan, but one or the other isn't about the worship of Satan. My grasp of Buddhism is it's about a belief system, one that believes following his example that leads to a better life/ inner peace, rather than straight worship, or asking him to use divine providence to make ones life better.
Same. Goes to show how much thought and care has been put into it.
In my country we have "Konfessionslos" -> non-denominational.
There are different categories. I consider myself agnostic atheist. That pretty much means I don't really know, but all this man made stuff is horse shit.
Atheism is a choice; where I choose evidence and logic.
To me it is basically:
I don't believe in your imaginary friend; but don't feel special, I don't believe in anyone else's imaginary friend either.
I once told somebody that if you want to believe in a magic man in the sky, then go for it, but don't expect me to.
It's all a bit vague, but one could say "Atheist is a religion and Agnostic is none, because Atheists believe there is no god or afterlife" but often Agnostic is considered a type of Atheist.
People get very caught up in the definition of atheist and agnostic. It can mean very different things to different people.
Technically atheist is "without belief", and agnostic is "without knowledge".
FWIW, you can have belief in the afterlife without a belief in some type of deity. For example, some forms of shammanism don't recognize any form of deity, and instead focus on the spirits of ancestors or of the natural world, but not as a divine thing.