how can people claim that atheism is not a religion?

Your problem is the definition of religion. It speaks of FAITH which is something a non-believer does not have. There is no atheist pope. There is no atheist priest. There is no atheist church. There is no atheist organization of ANY kind. So, HOW can you claim a non-belief or lack of a belief system is a religion? Your "Miriam Webster includes this" is bogus because it is not a prime definition or even a secondary definition, but an OBSCURE use, and really falls down because it includes the word FAITH. Atheists have NO faith, THAT is the problem with this obscure definition, the square peg you are trying to fit into the round hole. By the way, I do NOT hang around R&S. I see these questions on the home page. The questions that idiots post trying to bait others who do not believe as they do, find ME... You are no exception, so you can NOT lump ME in with the "pack of dogs" you refer to just because I choose to NOT believe as YOU do. YOU use the words, "ardor and faith", NOT ME. I do not have "ardor and faith" at all. I am simply a non-believer. It is religion that makes the claim that there IS a god. I challenge that claim. I take it as seriously as a charge of murder and I ask for the same level of consideration, using evidence to back the claim. Something MORE than just your word, a smoking gun. So just show me that smoking gun that backs this claim and proves the existence of your god. I make NO claim about god, yours or anyone else's. I do not say a god is impossible. What I DO say is I see no evidence that supports YOUR claim. For all I know, there MIGHT be a god or a god-equivalent out there somewhere in the infinite vastness of the cosmos.

Not a believe since they KNOW there are no such things as gods!

Why are you so ignorant of what an atheist is?!

More to the point if you do not know what an atheist is why are you so intolerant, hate filled, bigoted and persecuting towards them?!

ATHEIST - someone who does not believe in a God – any God – not just the Christian one. But that does not mean they do not hold strong moral or religious beliefs! They can follow any religion that does not have a god and there are a lot of those!

Like BUDDHISM – Religious teaching from Buddha and his followers that by destroying greed, hatred and delusion (the cause of all suffering) man can attain perfect enlightenment!

Where do you think christianity got it's ideas of a soul and afterlife from for goodness sake?

They stole it from the pagan tribes and peoples which existed hundreds and thousands of years before christianity!

From the stone age through vikings, Egyptians, Maoris, Aborigines, American Indians and especially the chinese, they all had elaborate funerals and grave goods to speed the soul into the next life with comfort!

Add christians and muslims together and they amount to just under a third of the world population the majority of the rest is made up of atheists and religions without gods!! So they are in the majority here!

As far as I can see, Atheists, as a whole, do not practice any common ritual, nor do they congregate or act upon any common event or location. They do not adhere to any common leader. There is no written dogma of Atheism. A-Theism, by definition, is the LACK of any faith in any deity what-so-ever, no matter what Webster mis-printed.

Atheists only common bond is that they do not believe in any god, outside that, they have nothing in common.

Atheists, as a whole, have no single set of beliefs regarding life, death, nature or purpose for the universe.

Atheists have no written narratives, symbols or traditions.

In all aspects, atheism is the exact opposite of religion.

Yeah yeah, it is a religion. We just say it isn't, at every opportunity and to anyone that will listen, because we know that if you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth. Also, it annoys theists. Unfortunately there are so many different angles of attack for theists to show that our claim is ridiculous. What do we do? We slink away from such rebuttals, we never admit we were made to look stupid, we boast to our friends about how we 'won a debate' against a theist and we carry on repeating the lie verbatim to anyone that believes it until the next smart alec theist proves us wrong.

Erm, sound familiar at all?

Atheism is not a cause, as we are not fighting for anything based on our atheism, it is not a principal by any definition, and the only shared belief that we all have is the disbelief in any gods or goddesses. Therefore it is not a system of beliefs either. Atheism is not a religion by any definition.

Lastly, this is a section for discussing religion, not a club house for the religious.

Now go ahead, and ignore everything I said as all you will pay attention to is the high fives from your fundie buddies.

<<Atheism, Agnosticism, Theism, Deism, are no longer religions, they are ideals of those that could or could no longer be non secular. >> they are "international-perspectives" from which our expertise of fact is equipped. The theist builds upon the uncomplicated concept that "God is" with theology this is expressed as "faith" which informs (or could tell) their expertise and interaction with the international. The atheists builds upon the uncomplicated concept of "God isn't" with own understandings which tell them as to have interaction with and understand the international. I disagree there is not any dogma in atheism. the backside dogma is "there is not any God or gods." very virtually all atheists carry to a naturalistic expertise such as Carl Sagan's "The universe is all this is became or ever would be." they are very virtually often occurring in claiming the organic/fabric international is all that there is interior the set ordinary as "fact". development upon this expertise is the concept that technological understanding can (a minimum of doubtlessly) locate and/or define each thing approximately fact. maximum human beings do no longer circulate the greater effective step "below" faith to the point of worldwide-view via fact the main uncomplicated set of ideals we've. As maximum human beings take "faith" to be the uncomplicated point, this is the interest maximum used to describe the uncomplicated point of expertise fact. whilst that's mentioned that atheism is a "faith" what's meant is that that's a concept gadget equipped on a sequence of components of understanding that are no longer all verifiable. the main uncomplicated expertise you've gotten of fact is what it reason is. this is the point being addressed as quickly as we talk approximately theism or atheism. To the theist that reason is God and fact relies in God. To the atheist that reason is a few thing else and fact relies in that some thing. An atheist replies to the proposition "God exits?" as a detrimental. (returned, a dogma) in case you're an agnostic the respond is "i don't be conscious of."

I dont believe in unicorns. So thats a region then?

Its very tiresome to see people just babble about how a lack of belief in something can be a religion. Especially when there own dictionary quote states a belief is required.

Also for the record (whilst we are here)

Evolution is nothing to do with atheism.

Big Bang is nothing to do with atheism.

Old earth is nothing to so with atheism.

Why do you people have to be told the same things over and over again? What will it take to crowbar this into your skulls?

Dictionary.com defines religion as organized worship. Atheists have no organized worship and have no dogma to follow. Atheists don't believe in the same things, the only commonality is a disbelief in god. That's it.

Atheists are welcome around R&S because it's NOT a forum for the religious and spiritual. It IS a place to discuss religion and spirituality. One does not need to hold a belief in order to answer questions here. If so, I kindly ask you Christians to stay out of questions for pagans since you don't seem to know crap about us.

"...a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith."

There are no beliefs in atheism.

There is no faith among atheists in atheism.

There is no cause or principle in atheism.

Some atheists have "ardor," but that's all you've got.

So clearly, it's not a religion.

Is not playing soccer a sport (or a religion)? Nope.

Same thing here.

Peace.

There is no dogma, there is no doctrine (I find Dawkins to be a bit of a jerk), there is no collection plate, there is NO atheist "religion". Atheism is a lack of belief in "gods" and NOTHING MORE!!! There are pro- life and pro-choice atheists, Democrat atheists, Republican atheists. It's a single non-belief. Not collecting stamps isn't a hobby and atheism isn't a religion.

This is where the debate is, pal. If you can't take the heat, LEAVE!