On religion

[merlinofchaos]

"Atheism is a religion like not collecting stamps is a hobby."

I forget the proper attribution for this quote, but I recently saw it on someone's blog. There's a common feeling amongst people in general that "atheism" is not a religion, because the very word means "without religion", and the above quote is often used to explain why this position makes perfect sense.

As many analogies turn out to be, it is a terribly false analogy for at least on good reason: Scope. The two items being compared are simply in a different scope. To compare what I mean by scope, take these two phrases where the items compared are within the same scope:

"Being not Christian is a religion like not collecting stamps is a hobby."

Or to go the other direction

"Being an atheist is a religion like not having any hobbies is a hobby.

Both of those two phrases are in the same scope. Funny, when you rebalance the scope, neither phrase makes it quite as ridiculous to equate atheism with a religion. In one case, we are picking one instance of the greater whole (Christianity being one religion, collecting stamps being one hobby). In the other case we're eschewing the whole of either religion or having hobbies.

Let's take a different comparison, using the same root a--

"Being an atheist is is a religion like being asexual is a sexuality"

Compare, for example: There are broad categories of religion. monotheism, for example, includes religions with just one God (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, primarily). Polytheism includes religions with multiple Gods: Hinduism, Paganism, etc. Atheism includes religions with no gods.Which includes, uh. Atheism. Except it's not a religion. See, atheism doesn't mean "no religion" it means "No gods".

Similarly, we have heterosexual (attracted to members of the opposite sex), homosexual (teh gay), bisexual (loose and/or can't decide) (equates to agnostic, kind of), and asexual (attracted to no one, especially you). While a bit strange, I wouldn't exactly say that being asexual isn't a sexuality.

Finally, Webster's dictionary defines atheism thusly:
a : a disbelief in the existence of deity b : the doctrine that there is no deity

Webster defines religion thusly:
1 a : the state of a religious <a nun in her 20th year of religion> b (1) : the service and worship of God or the supernatural (2) : commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance
2 : a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices
3 archaic : scrupulous conformity : CONSCIENTIOUSNESS
4 : a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith

Take defintion 2: atheism is certainly a system of beliefs, though there are rarely practices associated with it. Take definition 4: Atheism is often a cause or a principle, and there are folks out there who practice atheism with some ardor.

Finally, let's look up religious, shall we?
1 : relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity <a religious person> <religious attitudes>
2 : of, relating to, or devoted to religious beliefs or observances <joined a religious order>
3 a : scrupulously and conscientiously faithful b : FERVENT, ZEALOUS

...a faithful devotion to an acknowledge ultimate reality...

Doesn't that describe atheism to a tee? Atheists take it on faith that God doesn't exist. The ultimate reality of an atheist is that people are born, they live their lives, they grow old and they die, and when they are done, they have passed from this world and are gone, existing only in the memories of those they have left behind. This reality is extremely difficult for some human beings to accept. So difficult, in fact, that if you choose to believe in any deity or extranatural force that can be labelled relgion, there is a special place for you. Your religion gets respect.

But if you choose not to believe, if your personal belief system accepts the evidence of what we can observe, document, reproduce and predict, then that doctrine that you believe in? It has no special status whatsoever. It's perfectly ok to mock your choice of belief system, to ridicule you publically, because that isn't disrespecting your religion. Because you have no religion to disrespect, see. Only people who believe in things they cannot see, have faith in the existence of a force they read about in a book (even one written by L. Ron Hubbard) get to have their beliefs treated respectfully.

Maybe I'll take up not collecting stamps.