Concerning Atheism (faith, Commandment, Biblical, Christians, Christ)

[barnabus]

Should atheism be classified as a religion, and why?

[SoliDeoGloria]

Yes, for two reasons.
1, since it has yet to be proven, buyond a shadow of a doubt to be absolute truth, it takes a degree of faith to believe in.
2, I would compare it to the notion of Christians who consider themselves, nondenominational. In trying so hard to be "nondenominational" and separating themselves from "denominationalists", they have become a denomination. In other words, if they were truly nonreligious, then why would they need to make any effort to prove it.

Sincerely,
SolideoGloria

[Jayhawker Soule]

Originally Posted by barnabus

Should atheism be classified as a religion, and why?

Define religion.

[Jayhawker Soule]

Originally Posted by SoliDeoGloria

Yes, for two reasons.

Do you believe in Pixies? No? Is that lack of belief a religious conviction?

Sloppy reasoning such as yours should not be seen beyond Jr. High School. You should be ashamed of yourself.

[Ody]

Originally Posted by Jayhawker Soule

Do you believe in Pixies? No? Is that lack of belief a religious conviction?

Sloppy reasoning such as yours should not be seen beyond Jr. High School. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Good point.

[SoliDeoGloria]

Do you believe in Pixies? No? Is that lack of belief a religious conviction?

Well, when one considers that there are those who do religiously believe that "Pixies" exist and that the first commandment of the infamous Biblical "Ten Commandments" states "You shall have no other gods before me", I would most definitely say yes to the notion that my lack of belief in "Pixies" is a religious "conviction". Speaking of which:

*** The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 ***
Conviction \Con*vic"tion\ (k[o^]n*v[i^]k"sh[u^]n), n. [L.
convictio proof: cf. F. conviction conviction (in sense 3 &
4). See {Convict}, {Convince}.]

4. The state of being convinced or convicted; strong
persuasion or belief; especially, the state of being
convicted of sin, or by one's conscience.
[1913 Webster]

To call good evil, and evil good, against the
conviction of their own consciences. --Swift.
[1913 Webster]

And did you presently fall under the power of this
conviction? --Bunyan.

Syn: {Conviction}; {persuasion}.

Usage: Conviction respects soley matters of belief or faith;
persuasion respects matters of belief or practice.
Conviction respects our most important duties;
persuasion is frequently applied to matters of
indifference. --Crabb. -- Conviction is the result of
the [operation of the] understanding; persuasion, of
the will. Conviction is a necessity of the mind,
persuasion an acquiescence of the inclination. --C. J.
Smith. -- Persuasion often induces men to act in
opposition to their conviction of duty.
[1913 Webster]

Sloppy reasoning such as yours should not be seen beyond Jr. High School. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Let me guess, your failed attempt to make, what you believed to be, a witty rhetorical rhetorical question was supposed to be high school level, right? Maybe if your vocabularical use of the word "conviction" was better than my nine year old son's attempt at it, I might be impressed.

Sincerely,
SoliDeoGloria

[Ody]

Originally Posted by SoliDeoGloria

Well, when one considers that there are those who do religiously believe that "Pixies" exist and that the first commandment of the infamous Biblical "Ten Commandments" states "You shall have no other gods before me", I would most definitely say yes to the notion that my lack of belief in "Pixies" is a religious "conviction". Speaking of which:

*** The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 ***
Conviction \Con*vic"tion\ (k[o^]n*v[i^]k"sh[u^]n), n. [L.
convictio proof: cf. F. conviction conviction (in sense 3 &
4). See {Convict}, {Convince}.]

4. The state of being convinced or convicted; strong
persuasion or belief; especially, the state of being
convicted of sin, or by one's conscience.
[1913 Webster]

To call good evil, and evil good, against the
conviction of their own consciences. --Swift.
[1913 Webster]

And did you presently fall under the power of this
conviction? --Bunyan.

Syn: {Conviction}; {persuasion}.

Usage: Conviction respects soley matters of belief or faith;
persuasion respects matters of belief or practice.
Conviction respects our most important duties;
persuasion is frequently applied to matters of
indifference. --Crabb. -- Conviction is the result of
the [operation of the] understanding; persuasion, of
the will. Conviction is a necessity of the mind,
persuasion an acquiescence of the inclination. --C. J.
Smith. -- Persuasion often induces men to act in
opposition to their conviction of duty.
[1913 Webster]



Let me guess, your failed attempt to make, what you believed to be, a witty rhetorical rhetorical question was supposed to be high school level, right? Maybe if your vocabularical use of the word "conviction" was better than my nine year old son's attempt at it, I might be impressed.

Sincerely,
SoliDeoGloria

Lets here it for talking smack when the the other party is offline...

[Hillbilly]

My uncle Ed was an atheist and he was against religion. You would had better not had told him that he was a religious man.

[standing_on_one_foot]

I still hold that belief alone does not a religion make, particularly a lack of belief. You could certainly call atheism a religious belief (being a belief about religion), but an actual religion in and of itself? I think you need more to be a religion than simply "I don't think your G-d is real." It does depend on how you define religion, but that seems to me to be stretching the definition just a bit.

I wonder why I so often come across people who want atheism to be a religion?

[Doktormartini]

Define Religion

From thefreedictionary.com:
Belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe.
If going by the true definition, then no. Because atheists don't belive in a supernatural power or powers. =o)