SpanishMatMaster
Posts: 967
Joined: 9/28/2011 Status: offline
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Well... I have read the posts until here (excepting some like the OP - hidden). I would like to propose a consensus. 1. The lack of belief is not a belief. It is a lack, not a belief. It is not "the opposite" (the opposite of a lack is a presence, not a belief), it is another category of things. A belief is a specific kind of mental process. A lack is a specific kind of status. Therefore, Atheism, as it being lack of belief, is not a religious belief, it is a status over religious beliefs. 2. Therefore, Atheism as a whole (including both strong and weak, positive and Agnosticism of any kinds, including acognoscitivism) cannot be considered, nor a religious belief, nor a religion. BTW in Spanish, this is no the case, in Spanish Atheism is a belief (strong Atheism in English, see below). 3. By the other side, strong Atheism (that is, the belief that there is no God) is a belief related to religion. Does it make it a "religious belief"? Possibly. Open to discussion, for me. Partially a matter of language... a pie made by a French is automatically a French pie? a bridge over a river is a river bridge? I think that Atheism works like the first, but the discussion on why (added connotations or meanings though the combination) is highly subjective. 4. Religion is not the same as religious belief. They are not synonims. 5. A religion is caracterized by many aspects: Beliefs about the supernatural; cosmology; theology; rituals; priest hierarchy and morality. I may be loosing some. A religion does not have to have ALL of these, but the less it has, the less of a religion it is. Consider here daoism, buddism, deism, which "score" differently in all these aspects. 6. Even if strong Atheism were a religious belief, it would not be a religion, as it has only one, of ony one of the aspects. It has no morality, cosmology, rituals, hierarchy or belief on the supernatural (nor does it exclude any). It only has one single point on theology: There is no God. This is not enough to qualify as religion. 7. From the legal point of view, it can be positive to call it a religion ("can" does not mean that it actually does - I am not sure on that). Same as for the legal point of view, it can be positive to consider a gay contract of sexual love and mutual care a matrimony (marriage), even if there is no "mater" ("mother"). 8. Both strong Atheism as any other belief, can be right or wrong, rational or not, justified or not. This does not change the previous points. I hope many can agree on all this. Best regards.
< Message edited by SpanishMatMaster -- 10/11/2011 10:47:03 PM >
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