“If religion is, as many define it, a belief system to explain our existence on earth, how we should conduct ourselves while on earth, and where we go when we die, then atheism is, by definition, a religion.”[1]
That’s not from a hardcore Christian trying to annoy atheists by telling them that they’re actually religious. It’s from Janna Seliger, an atheist writer.
And she’s not alone. “A person’s religion is the sum total of his beliefs about God and the supernatural. ATHEISM IS THE RELIGION WHICH SAYS THERE IS NO GOD,”[2] writes Reverend Bill McGinnis, who runs an online ministry. Another minister, Brandon Cox of Grace Hills Church in Bentonville, Arkansas, offers more detail. “No gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven, no hell. Those are statements about what someone believes does not exist. Then, there is only the natural world. That’s a statement of what one does believe. So the message competes with other religious messages and affirms an alternative system of beliefs.” He concludes, “Sounds like a religion.”[3]
Many unbelievers don’t buy it.
“No matter how you define religion,” says onetime Church of Christ evangelical minister John Loftus, author of the book Why I Became an Atheist: A Former Preacher Rejects Christianity, “it must include supernatural forces or beings, and atheists deny them.”[4] The importance of the supernatural -- or the lack of it -- is key, according to Jeff Randall, an Advisory Board member of the skeptic and freethinker group Center for Inquiry: “If you remove the supernatural aspect of [a] religion, then ANY club or ground would be a religion [including the] religion of Democrats or Republicans.”[5]
Religions are generally a bundle of beliefs -- God created the universe, he pays attention to prayer, there’s life after death, the Bible is sacred, thou shalt honor thy father and mother, and so on -- that can cover every aspect of life and thought. Here are some experts on whether atheism fits that definition.
• Russell Blackford, co-editor of the collection 50 Voices of Disbelief: Why We Are Atheists, says that unlike a religion, atheism “is not . . . a comprehensive worldview: it is merely the absence of belief in gods.”[6]
• “[Atheism] no more forms an entire religion than [does] monotheism or the belief that prayer influences God,” says atheist writer Charles Johnson.[7]
• And Dominick Cancilla, who blogs at the website iamanatheist.com, agrees: “Atheism is the lack of belief in a deity and nothing more. If it is a set of beliefs, it is an empty set.”[8]
One of the most popular versions of this viewpoint comes from anthropologist David Eller in his book Atheism Advanced: Further Thoughts of a Freethinker: “If atheism is a religion, then not collecting stamps is a hobby.”[9]
[1] Janna Seliger, “The Devout Atheist,” undated, http://www.buzzle.com/articles/the-devout-atheist.html
[2] Bill McGinnis, “Atheism is the Religion Which Says There is No God,” undated, http://patriot.net/~bmcgin/atheismsays.txt
[3] Brandon A. Cox, “The Religion of Atheism,” Brandon A. Cox website, undated, http://www.brandonacox.com/culture/the-religion-of-atheism/
[4] John W. Loftus, “Is Atheism a Religion?”, Debunking Christianity website, May 20, 2009, http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/2009/05/is-atheism-religion.html
[5] Jeff Randall, “Is Atheism a (Religion/Faith/Belief System/etc)?”, Thinking Critically website, May 3, 2011, http://thinking-critically.com/2011/05/03/is-atheism-a-religionfaithbelief-systemetc/
[6] Russell Blackford, “Is Atheism a Religion?”, Ask the Atheists website, June 15, 2007, http://www.asktheatheists.com/questions/10-is-atheism-a-religion/
[7] Charles W. Johnson, “The #atheism FAQ for Atheists,” July 14, 1998, http://www.eskimo.com/~cwj2/chan-atheism/athafaq.html
[8] Dominick Cancilla, “Tract #16: Is Atheism a Religion?”, I Am an Atheist website, undated, http://www.iamanatheist.com/blog/tracts/tract-16-is-atheism-a-religion/
[9] David Eller, Atheism Advanced: Further Thoughts of a Freethinker, American Atheist Press, 2007, page xvi, http://www.amazon.com/dp/1578840023?tag=wwwdebunkingc-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=1578840023&adid=0CC267Z0NVMC3RJ9NZQ8&
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