Atheism

Many pyschologists have described "atheism" as a "replacement belief system" which supplants religion.

if the belief replacement hypothesis is true, that is, if atheists espouse naturalistic beliefs, whether explicitly or implicitly, that take the place of supernatural ones, then we’d expect these beliefs to be particularly relevant, not only at the cognitive, but motivational and emotional levels....

In 2009 and 2010, Bastiaan Rutjens and his Dutch colleagues published two articles about the psychological role of belief in progress that provides support for the belief replacement hypothesis.

The very notion of‘believing in science’ is naturally open to criticism. Scientists and philosophers who claim the superiority, or even exclusivity of scientific methods and results have been accused of dogmatism, or scientism ( Stenmark 2001 ). Afer all, it is one thing to use science as a method, and another to grant it metaphysical status.

Whether or not that is true, what would be the problem if it was? The case for believing in god just isn't that strong. It doesn't take the philosophical equivalent of a rocket scientist to debunk it. A simple and direct rebuttal is perfectly adequate; sophistication is unnecessary for the task.

However, all of this is off-topic about OP of Atheism

What's the problem?

...there is certainly a split, a schism, in our ranks. I am not whining (in fact I am rather proud) when I point out that a rather loud group of my fellow atheists, generally today known as the "new atheists", loathe and detest my thinking...

unlike the new atheists, I take scholarship seriously. I have written that The God Delusion made me ashamed to be an atheist and I meant it. Trying to understand how God could need no cause, Christians claim that God exists necessarily. I have taken the effort to try to understand what that means. Dawkins and company are ignorant of such claims and positively contemptuous of those who even try to understand them, let alone believe them. Thus, like a first-year undergraduate, he can happily go around asking loudly, "What caused God?" as though he had made some momentous philosophical discovery...

I defend to the death the right of the new atheists to their views and to their right to propagate them. But that is no excuse for political stupidity.

If a rebuttal of the case for believing in gods is unsophisticated and true, that only goes to show that sophistication is unnecessary.

...they shoot their own foot, damage their own side (which happens to me mine too), making atheists look crude, aloof and condescending.

Many pyschologists have described "atheism" as a "replacement belief system" which supplants religion.

But atheism is a lack of belief in god(s). A lack of belief isn't a belief system.

The Humanism I have been discussing in this piece does bear strong similarities to conventional religion. One finds the enthusiasm of the true believer, and this encourages a set of unnerving attributes: intolerance, hero-worship, moral certainty and the self-righteous condemnation of unbelievers.

Many pyschologists have described "atheism" as a "replacement belief system" which supplants religion.

Well, if atheism is, or can be, a replacement belief system it would also be a religion, since religion involves belief.

Dawkins, Dennet, Hitchens

You're conflating Humanism with atheism.

But atheism is a lack of belief in god(s). A lack of belief isn't a belief system.

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But atheism is a lack of belief in god(s). A lack of belief isn't a belief system.

Several pages (well, more really) were just spent dealing with this claim. All the dictionaries and neutral analysts say otherwise, I'm afraid.

You are describing an agnostic, not an atheist.

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But atheism is a lack of belief in god(s). A lack of belief isn't a belief system.

Yes, you said that before. Say it a million times, if it makes you feel good. The dictionaries and philosophical experts will still deny it.

The dictionaries are all over the place on this, and the neutrality of the analysts you point to is suspect.