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Is atheism a religion?

People often ask me whether or not atheism is a religion. Digressing slightly, this question is often used by *some* theists to criticise non-believers.

This accusation that atheism is a religion often makes me chuckle to myself. The theists who ask this question must feel that if atheism is a faith, atheists would then somehow have no reason to critisize other religions or faiths.

With this in mind, IF atheism was a religion, atheism would then have exactly the same right to be taught in schools alongside such religions as Islam and Chrisitanity - which I very much doubt some theists would be happy with!

However, atheism is not a religion; and whilst I do not like to spend too much time on the subject as it's a no brainer, and doesn't deserve such attention; but as you've landed on this page, you must be genuinely interested in finding out whether atheism is or isn't a religion, so I feel obliged to discuss the subject.

Why atheism is not a religion

There are various reasons atheism is not considered a religion, these are as follow:

The definition of the word "religion"

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the word "religion" is defined as the following:

With the above definition in mind, some theists usually play on the argument that because God cannot be disproved, it takes belief to disbelive in God - making atheism fall under the "religion" definition above as disbelieving in God then comes a system of belief.

With this argument in mind, I can't help wonder, that if I do not believe in Santa Claus, does Santa Claus then become a religion? (This can also be directly applied to the Flying Spagetti Monster, or even my imaginary friend - making my doctors wrong!)

It's a completely illogical argument; and what's more, my belief is logic, and if logic is my god in the eyes of theists who use such an argument to justify their irrational beliefs in an invisible man in the sky, then the argument still falls short.

Atheism and "Ism"

In religious context, when people talk about the prefix "ism", they are referring to the "doctrine, system or practice" type of ism, such as conservatism, pacifism, socialism, feminism or communism. The "ism" suffix of atheism is not considered to be in the same group as the aforementioned "ism" groups. The suffix "ism" also means "quality, conditions or state" such as heroism, metabolism or astigmatism. Do you consider metabolism or heroism to be a doctrine or practice? - No, neither do I.

Not every word with the prefix "ism" is a doctrine, system or type of practice or faith.

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