I would say it’s not a religion.
But I’d also say its often a largely academic distinction.
Strongly held unfalsifiable beliefs regarding the nature of the creation of the universe and death, which people are willing to fight about.
There are people who believe in a God.
There are people who don’t believe in a God
There are people who believe there is no God.
The last two are not the same. It’s like the difference between “don’t like” and “dislike”.
That’s a mighty thin distinction between those last two, because it’s only meaningful within the context of Christianity (I’m assuming from the capitalization). One must accept God as a valid concept in order to explicitly believe that He does not exist. Are Christians people who don’t believe in the Milorganite god, or are they people who believe that there is no Milorganite god?
Christianity holds that there is only God, so it would stand to reason that they believe that there is no Milorganite god. Except, Milorganite is a brand of fertilizer, not a demonym. “Milorganite god” isn’t a valid concept, so explicitly believing that it does not exist is, well, not exactly wrong, but quite the waste of one’s time. And that’s how, for an atheist, not believing in God and believing that there is no God are pretty much the same thing.
The capitalization is purely an artifact of autocorrect.
Just because a distinction is thin doesn’t make it insignificant or unimportant, but it’s not my intention to get into a semantic argument.
I think you misunderstood my point, I agree that atheism isn’t a religion. But things can be similar yet distinct. Something can fill a similar role as religion without being religion.
I’m specifically talking about people who are beligerantly atheist. Who make it a large part of their identity, and who are eager to fight about it. An enormous part of modern religion is simply identity politics, and that is something that atheism can share with it. It’s identity politics that drives modern (non-academic) discourse around religion.
So in a practical manner, both religion and atheism can some of the most important traits when it comes to interacting with society.
I would say it’s not a religion.
But I’d also say its often a largely academic distinction.
Strongly held unfalsifiable beliefs regarding the nature of the creation of the universe and death, which people are willing to fight about.
There are people who believe in a God.
There are people who don’t believe in a God
There are people who believe there is no God.
The last two are not the same. It’s like the difference between “don’t like” and “dislike”.
That’s a mighty thin distinction between those last two, because it’s only meaningful within the context of Christianity (I’m assuming from the capitalization). One must accept God as a valid concept in order to explicitly believe that He does not exist. Are Christians people who don’t believe in the Milorganite god, or are they people who believe that there is no Milorganite god?
Christianity holds that there is only God, so it would stand to reason that they believe that there is no Milorganite god. Except, Milorganite is a brand of fertilizer, not a demonym. “Milorganite god” isn’t a valid concept, so explicitly believing that it does not exist is, well, not exactly wrong, but quite the waste of one’s time. And that’s how, for an atheist, not believing in God and believing that there is no God are pretty much the same thing.
The capitalization is purely an artifact of autocorrect.
Just because a distinction is thin doesn’t make it insignificant or unimportant, but it’s not my intention to get into a semantic argument.
I think you misunderstood my point, I agree that atheism isn’t a religion. But things can be similar yet distinct. Something can fill a similar role as religion without being religion.
I’m specifically talking about people who are beligerantly atheist. Who make it a large part of their identity, and who are eager to fight about it. An enormous part of modern religion is simply identity politics, and that is something that atheism can share with it. It’s identity politics that drives modern (non-academic) discourse around religion.
So in a practical manner, both religion and atheism can some of the most important traits when it comes to interacting with society.