church of atheism

You won't upset anyone with your question, but the replies from atheists on here are going to deny the 'religion' tag. Most of us prefer to do our own thing. We don't congregate to make rules and set dogma. The only thing we have in common, often, in fact, is being 'without religion.'

"Most of us?"

That's rather presumptuous.

I agree with Edgarblythe (just call me "void of belief"). I'll also nod that many of us here previously at a2k agree with him, and maybe most, but the numbers may change with the new forum folks.

Dear Void of Belief

You actually presume to join edgar and speak for most A2K members?

And if you are right, so what?

This forum is hardly the crucible of truth.

I also agree with edgar. Many of us atheists will remember the battles with frankapisa who accused atheists of of holding " a belief system" equivalent to that of religion. Unfortunately, he decided he couldn't handle the demolition squad and left .

No, not most a2k members, most a2k atheists, and I said maybe re the "most". "most atheists here (to fore)" have seemed to me to not treat it as a kind of religion, but my observations may yield to my own bias, thus the maybe.

Laughs. I miss Frank, though he used to drive me crazy.

The Greek "Atheos" translates to "without God" not 'without religion.'
Atheism is not a religion; it abandons the idea of God(s).

I don't believe in religion, but I don't necessarily live by a 'not-believing-in-religion' rulebook.
Just, take it easy and never give up being cynical. While they may contradict, those are my only rules.

pretty much my thoughts on the matter

Say it how you will; most atheists are without religion. They are without gods by definition. Most of us prefer to go our own way, rather than make up ideologies and rules for some stupid group movement.

Well, you were posting this on an atheist forum. So it's likely that similar relationships were formed and events occurred within that community that also occur in religious communities. Communities have a tendency to self-select for character attributes and world-views outside of what is advertised. Perhaps this community had a shared ideology, as communities tend to do, while atheism itself still doesn't? (though I think an argument can be made that atheistic communities as a whole behave similarly to theistic communities as a whole, it's more plausible to explain as a single community)

We come together as often to discuss animals, or recipes. Nobody accuses us of making a religion of that. Besides, a forum like this is not the same as formally coming together to form an organization. It is randomly composed of people who don't really know each other, in the main. I think atheists in general would prefer to avoid all the attention. I find that most of us on a2k are responding to attacks against the right to be an atheist, rather than asserting some vision that might be construed as church-like.

Of course atheism is a religion...they even have a church:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziIwuhWLNtA

amen

There are many Atheists who hold strong religious beliefs.

I define religious beliefs as things that are accepted as a universal truth even though they are not supported by testable "facts".

Putting people into boxes is always problematic. It is certainly possible to be without religious beliefs even though you don't believe in any God. But, I have found that a great number of Atheists accept quite a bit on faith.

That isn't the definition of a religious belief.

That argument is the way they attempt to keep atheists in the fold. They can't accept the fact that a person can be without the sort of faith associated with religious belief. It is a guess-which-cup the pea is hidden under maneuver, with the pea deftly hidden in the huxter's palm.

Well, perhaps your group would be characterized as not-religious. Though, honestly, coming up with a good definition of "religion" is fairly difficult, especially if we start looking at "religion" on a world scale. Outside of the scope of the metaphysical, religion serves as a gathering point for similarly valued peoples. I'm fairly certain that the majority of theists care more about the social relationships (such as the discussion of animals and recipes) than whether or not God is a trinity in one or not. Of course, this is just my own anecdotal prejudice, so don't take that too seriously.

From the outside-looking-in, it does seem fair to characterize some atheist communities as acting in a similar manner as religious communities, though. Online haunts may be different, as they tend to be more eclectic in nature than "real-space" communities -- but I've been part of atheist groups. I thought it was rather nice not having to deal with Christian assumptions in moral discussions. In that sense, it operated in a way similar to religious institutions.

Further, atheists have a line of books that one can purchase to explore the concepts of the atheist community. They don't all agree with one another, but neither do the theist books. Instead, they share similar assumptions/axioms/what-have-you. Generally, atheists operate as naturalists metaphysically, and believe that science works as a means towards approximating truth better than any other method. (that's not something you can say of all classically-considered religions) Again, this is anecdotal, so I'm open to new information as that is the weakest form of information collection. It's just a trend I've noticed. A hypothesis I've generated. I wouldn't say that atheism is a religion in the same way that, say, Mormonism is a religion, but more in line with liberal Catholic communities that treat the Bible like a big, old book of poems.