Atheism is just another religion... I bet
you've never heard that one before? Materialism
is the atheistic worldview, the Big Bang and
evolution is atheism's creation story, Harris,
Hitchens, Dawkins and Dennett are atheism's
prophets, and Darwin is the atheist messiah!
Oh... and atheists have faith that there isn't
a god too! By do they, really? Is atheism
really a religion? In response to the assertion
that atheism is a religion, many atheists
reply with either Bill Maher's famous retort...
that "atheism is a religion like abstinence
is a sex position", or the more classical
and potentially less offensive reply, that
"atheism is a religion like not collecting
stamps is a hobby." And both of these replies
hit back hard, often putting an end to the
argument then and there... Pfft, no, I'm kidding
of course, the argument doesn't end there,
ever... The conversation may then go in countless
directions, but if you’re conversing with
an educated apologist, he or she will generally
reply with a statement along the lines of,
"non stamp collectors don't go around mocking
stamp collectors, writing books and creating
websites dedicated to non stamp collecting.”
Which to fair, isn't a terrible point. However,
and as The Skeptico blog post, titled “Atheism
is Not a Religion”, wonderfully articulates,
“If stamp collectors demanded that people
who don’t collect stamps obey their stamp
collecting rules, started wars with groups
who collected slightly different types of
stamps, denied non-stamp collectors rights
or discriminated against them, bullied them
in school, claimed you had to collect stamps
to be a suitable person to run for public
office, tried to get stamp collecting taught
in schools as science in opposition to real
science, demanded that people be killed for
printing cartoons that made fun of stamp collectors,
claimed that non-stamp collectors lacked moral
judgment”, and ostracised non-stamp collectors
simply because they don’t collect stamps,
then non-stamp collectors would indeed repudiate
such nonsense by creating a movement - a voice
– that would have to unite under the name
of “non-stamp collectors”, because that
is the only thing they all share in common.
What’s more is that eventually the non-stamp
collectors would have to form active organisations
to represent them and oppose such oppression,
in much the same way that atheists have had
to form organisations such as the American
Atheists and The British Humanist Association…
which are just that… organisations and associations…
not religions. But I’m getting way ahead
of myself… to really assess whether or not
atheism can be legitimately called a religion
we first need to clearly define what a religion
is, and in doing this, emphasis what all religions
have in common. From there, we’ll be able
to clearly define atheism and see if it too
possesses the same commonalities. The problem
however, is that there are literally hundreds
of definitions of the word “religion”.
Many people define it to be “a belief in
a god or a group of gods”, which suits theistic
religions just fine (because that’s actually
the definition of theism, not religion), but
it fails to incorporate religions that don’t
believe in a god, such as some sects of Buddhism.
While on the other hand, many define religion
to be, “a pursuit or interest followed with
great devotion”, which does indeed incorporate
all theistic and non-theistic religions…
but it’s such a vague definition that it
also incorporates organisations, enterprises,
associations, charities, sports, and virtually
anything that can be considered to a hobby
or be obsessed over… making it a meaningless
definition. In fact, in realisation of how
difficult religion is to define, Hent de Vries,
in his collection of essays titled ‘Religion:
Beyond a Concept’, ended up settling with
the definition being, “a semantic black
hole”, and if I’m honest, I have to concur.
However, there is indeed a definition that
incorporates all of the major religions and
in doing so reveals the commonalties that
they all share. The following definition incorporates
Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism,
Sikhism, and Norse Paganism. Religion is,
“a set of beliefs concerning the cause,
nature, and purpose of the universe, esp.
when considered as the creation of a superhuman
agency or agencies, usually involving devotional
and ritual observances, and often containing
a moral code governing the conduct of human
affairs”. And as for the commonalities that
all of these major religions have… and more
importantly, what organisations, enterprises,
associations, charities, sports, and hobbies
do not… They all prescribe a supernatural
worldview; dictate humanity’s ultimate role
and purpose; have a creation story; prescribe
rules & regulations; have sacred texts, objects
and/or locations; have prophets, and; require
faith. So now that we have clarified what
the definition of a religion is, and more
importantly, emphasised what commonalities
they all share, let’s now define what atheism
is and see if it too shares these commonalities.
The word “atheism” is derived from ancient
Greek, where the prefix “a” means “without”,
and “theos’ means god. Hence, atheism
literally means ‘without god’ or ‘godless’.
Or in other words, atheism is a single position
held in regard to a single question – it’s
not even an ideology… let alone a religion…
and we’ll prove this is just a second. However,
and this brings us comfortably to the heart
of the confusion, because there are now many
ideologies, organizations and associations
which include ‘atheism’ in their name,
the word atheism can now be used to refer
to the ideology of one or many of these specific
groups rather than to just the original use
of the word. But alas, and to stay on track,
the argument is that atheism is a religion,
not that the many atheistic ideologies, organizations
and associations are religions, and so before
we delve further into the many atheistic groups,
let’s first prove that the only commonality
that all atheists necessarily share is a lack
of belief in deities. Now I would say let’s
start with the supernatural worldview, but
atheists aren’t characterised as having
a supernatural worldview at all… rather,
they’re characterised as all having a materialistic
worldview. So, don’t all atheists have a
materialistic worldview? The answer is no,
they don’t. There are thousands of “spiritual”
groups that’ don’t believe in a god or
gods, including many sects of Buddhism, that
believe that phenomena such as consciousness
is the results of non-material and often supernatural
forces, and hence, not all atheists share
the same worldview. Okay, what about humanity’s
ultimate role and purpose? All atheists believe
that humanity’s ultimate purpose in life
is to reproduce and to survive as a species
- right? But again, no… to provide just
one example, the majority of nihalists (people
who believe life is meaningless and pointless
and would prefer for all life to go extinct)
are actually atheist. Hence, not all atheists
believe in the same purpose of life. What
about a creation story? Don’t all atheists
believe in the big bang and evolution? Nope…
While most atheists accept the evidence for
the big bang and evolution, many don’t.
For example, there are many conspiracy theorists
that don’t believe in a god or gods but
are certain that humanity is the product of
super-intelligent aliens, rather than the
product of evolution by natural selection
[pothead]. Hence, not all atheists accept
the big bang and evolution. What about rules
and regulations? Don’t all atheists believe
in equal rights, euthanasia and abortion?
Again, no. These subjects are heavily debated
by among atheists. For example, Matt Dillahunty
and Kristine krushalniski are both atheist
activists who happen to woefully disagree
with one-another on the subject of abortion.
Okay, but what about sacred texts, objects
and/or locations? Don’t all atheists venerate
God is Not Great? Nope. In fact, many atheists
dislike God is Not Great and dislike “the
atheist movement” all together – such
as Noam Chomsky. But what about the atheist
prophets? All atheists worship Hitchens, Harris,
Dawkins and Dennett, don’t they? Well, by
extension of many atheists disliking the atheist
movement as a whole, the answer is most certainly
not. Furthermore, atheists who do appreciate
these men, including myself, don’t think
of them as prophets, but rather as people
who’re championing a worthy cause. If Sam
Harris is a prophet of atheism then Woody
Harrelson is a prophet of vegetarianism. And
finally, we come to faith. All atheists have
faith in there not being a god, surely? But
once again, no… most atheists are agnostic,
to varying degrees, and are simply not convinced
that the claim of theism has met its Burden
of Proof. If not being convinced of theism
requires faith, then so does not being convinced
of the Kraken’s existence! But don’t get
me started on the definition of faith… really,
don’t. Anyhow, as demonstrated, atheism
really is a single position held in regard
to a single question, and hence, it’s not
even an ideology… let alone a religion.
But now that we’ve clarified that atheism
isn’t a religion, the real question can
be asked… can the many atheist groups and
ideologies, such as humanism and secularism,
be accurately called religions? After all,
the likes of Catholicism and Shi'ism are considered
to be ideologies as well as religions, so
why isn’t this also the case for humanism
and secularism? Well, just as all Christians
are theists, but not all theists are Christians,
the same can be said for ideologies and religions
– while all religions are ideologies, not
all ideologies are religions. Humanism and
secularism are ideologies in the same way
that vegetarianism and libertarianism are
ideologies. They are a collection of ideas
and values that form the basis of an economic
and/or political theory and policy, and unlike
religions, they don’t require a belief in
the supernatural, have a creation story, have
prophets, or require faith. The only way one
can categorise Humanism and secularism as
religions, is to use a definition of religion
that also categorises other organisations,
enterprises, associations, ideologies, and
hobbies as a religion too. Hence, the many
atheistic groups are also not religions…
So, to recap, atheism is not a religion because:
It doesn’t prescribe a worldview; It doesn’t
dictate humanity’s ultimate role and purpose;
It doesn’t have a creation story; It doesn’t
prescribe rules & regulation; It doesn’t
have sacred texts, objects and/or locations;
It doesn’t have prophets, and; It doesn’t
require faith. As always, thank you kindly
for the view, and as for last week’s giveaway,
the winner is Kathryn Mercier. Congrats (and
I hope I pronounced that correctly) Please
contact me on the back end of my channel and
I’ll be sure to send you your reward. Until
next time my fellow apes, remember to practice
your atheistic religion! Worship God is Not
Great, pray to Darwin, and subscribe to your
atheist preachers!
