Why do you believe atheism is a religion?

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law,

Two things.

First, the definition of religion provided by the dictionary is not at all sufficient for a professional study of the topic. The second one works broadly- perhaps too broadly- but can cover almost anything, which would even allow dog training to be a religion. A study of theology or comparative religion is a much better source. Here is an other atheist writing about the topic, since people never listen to me, as I have only studied this topic for close to 10 years now, and personal opinions are far more fun than facts. http://atheism.about.com/od/religiondefinition/a/d...

Second, atheism is now a religion at least in the communal sense. Specifically, as an English phenomenon. And no, this is not some crazy man doing crazy things: http://firstchurchofatheism.com/ So, to put it simply, it has both connotations now. Of course, not many will know of this new development, and will be citing it as a religion for the wrong reasons, but there it is.

Love is the law, love under Will.

A religion is anything one devotes the most time with. It does not need be an organized effort with clergy, laity and buildings. For some their religion is sports, with ESPN as its clergy. It is part of their daily lives as much as eating meals. For others, work or accumulating piles of wealth is their religion.

Of course when any sane person looks around themselves, seeing the infinite complexity and diversity of life and objects, only to be so dull witted to think this all came about by accident while a toaster for English muffins was designed and created by a human factory--why should it come as a surprise they should believe in atheism?

Why too should it be a surprise atheists can not think of atheism as being a religion? It is just as much of a religion as greed and pleasure are along with Christendom, Hindu, Buddhists or others.

Meh. The people who say atheism is a religion are the kind of people who think their interpretation of their religious text in 100% correct and would claim to know what happens after they die all the while saying they're endowed with wisdom beyond what's conventional by the holy spirit or whatever.

You can't convince them they're wrong on anything they've decided to believe is true.

Cept perhaps by using a baseball bat.

It's not that people by and large think of it as a religion, per se, so much as that there are quite a number of atheists who are every bit as emphatic about their ideology as any "religious freak". It's the "atheist freaks", if you will, that give people that impression.

Not a religion.

It isn't, anymore that plain old theism is a religion in and of itself.

I dont. Atheism is the belief that there isnt a god or any gods. Nothing more or less.

It's not a religion.

Anyone who believes that is an idiot.

I don't but some atheists give the impression that it might be by the way they speak to people who disagree.