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Believers Ask... Why Do Many Atheists Say That Atheism Isn't A Religion?

9/20/07

A lot of believers seem to assume that atheism is just another belief system like any religion. But atheists as a group don't adhere to any system of beliefs. We don't, for instance, have a Bible or a "higher power" like God to call our own. If you put a large group of atheists into a room, you'd find that they have a wide variety of beliefs about life, morality, and everything else. There is no code or collection of beliefs that define atheists as a group. We share only one thing in common: the fact that we don't believe in any gods. Anyone who assigns qualities to atheists beyond that standard is assuming too much. The word "atheist" describes a person who doesn't believe in any gods and that's it. Anything more than that and you're really describing a limited group of atheists who don't represent atheists as a whole.

Still, I can understand why people would make this mistake. One problem is that English speakers tend to stretch the meanings of words so that their definitions get expanded over time. Some might say that Trekkies (hard core Star Trek fans) are religious about their favorite TV show. But no matter how devoted these fans get, Star Trek is not a real religion. It's interesting to note that Star Trek is closer to being a religion than is atheism, though. Star Trek does advocate a limited number of moral beliefs and behaviors, whereas atheism leaves that and all other decisions to the atheist. Like I said earlier, there is no code or special worldview between atheists.

This fudging on the definition of words has caused a number of problems when atheists and believers try to communicate. There are only a handful of well known atheists (contrary to what some people claim) and those atheists tend to use the language as precisely as they can. They are doing this for the sake of clarity, but most people are used to applying the broader and sometimes metaphorical meanings to these words in every day speech. It would be easier for these atheists to find other words, but there aren't any in most cases. At least, none that most people would be familiar with. Personally, I think any word that needs further explanation whenever it is used in a sentence is probably not very useful to anyone. But unless we plan on learning a new language or inventing new words that everyone can agree to, this is pretty much what we're stuck with.

Some atheists are actually believers in an atheistic religion (some forms of Buddhism are atheistic, for instance) but all that is required to be an atheist is that you not believe in any gods. You don't even have to disbelieve in any gods. You simply have to be unconvinced that any exist.

-the Atheist Geek-