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Re: Why don't you consider Atheism a religion? -
February 11th 2010, 04:46 PM
By your definition Lizzie, it is true that atheism is a religion. But that is a much more liberal definition of religion than most people will use, so the argument isn't other whether atheism is a religion, it's over your definition of religion. Hypothetically, if you make a definition loose enough you can say that almost anything is almost anything else. For example: if hockey is a game played on ice with sticks, than both curling and lacrosse are also hockey. See the problem?
So: it is true that atheism is a particular stance adopted by people concerning the nature of the universe and existence. And it is true that most atheists feel that it is reasonably likely that they are correct, at least as regards the nonexistence of god. But if that's enough to call something a religion, then agnosticism and deism are also religions. In fact, under that definition the only way to not be religious is to not think about the matter entirely.
The atoms that make up you and me were born in the hearts of suns many times greater than ours, and in time our atoms will once again reside amongst the stars. Life is but an idle dalliance of the cosmos, frail, and soon forgotten. We have been set adrift in an ocean whose tides we are only beginning to comprehend and with that maturity has come the realization that we are, at least for now, alone. In that loneliness, it falls to us to shine as brightly as the stars from which we came.
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