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gungadin09 -> RE: Court Rules: Atheism is a Religion (10/12/2011 2:53:34 AM)
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FUCK!!!!! My post got erased. Let's try this again.
quote:
ORIGINAL: SpanishMatMaster
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.
Exactly. That is why not having an opinion whether god exists... is not a "religious belief".
Therefore, Atheism, as it being lack of belief...
Atheism is NOT a lack of belief. It is the belief that god does not exist. Whether you believe that god exists or you believe that he does not, in either case, you are still believing SOMETHING. In other words, you're having faith that something is so, even you can't prove it. That's called "believing", and what you have faith in is called your "belief".
2. Therefore, Atheism... cannot be considered, nor a religious belief, nor a religion. BTW in Spanish, this is no the case, in Spanish Atheism is a belief...
i hate to break this to you, but it is in English too.
3. By the other side, strong Atheism (that is, the belief that there is no God)...
Just so you know, this is what the rest of us are referring to when we simply say "atheism".
is a belief related to religion. Does it make it a "religious belief"? Possibly.
Not possibly. Definitely.
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.
No. A religious belief is a belief about religion, just as a political belief is a belief about politics, and a scientific belief is a belief about science. Unless you're claiming that all three of those terms are "open to discussion", it makes no sense to claim the first is. Do you have any doubt that the term "political belief" means a belief (any belief) about politics?
4. Religion is not the same as religious belief. They are not synonims.
True. Please see post #68 for my opinion on which of those two the courts MEANT.
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.
i will happily concede that atheism is NOT a religion, at least not in the strict sense of the word. It is, however, a religious belief.
7. From the legal point of view, it can be positive to call it a religion...
Yes. From the legal point of view, the court is interpreting the 1st Amendment, which says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." In this context, they are interpreting the term "religion" in the broader sense of "religious belief", which includes atheism.
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.
Obviously any belief can be right or wrong.
pam
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