* <<F4A.1138>> Atheism is not a religion

(Facebook discussion)

The first sentence of that Wikipedia article isn't a complete
definition of religion; that's why there's a note. The Definitions
section of the article contains the important points, which were left
out.  Religion isn't merely a system of beliefs; it's a system of
beliefs regarding sacredness, divinity, spirituality, &c..

With regards to Mr. Powell's statement that "denial is not proof" --
of course it's not.  Who ever said it was?  The onus is on the deist
to prove the existence of their god(s) and not on the atheist to
disprove them.  Religions provide positive assertions: there is a
heaven, there is a hell, we have immortal souls, there is a god, and
so-on.  The rejection of assertions for which there is no proof and
for which there likely cannot be proof does not constitute a
religion.  Jesse's Santa Claus/Tooth Fairy argument exemplifies this
perfectly: you don't reject the reality of these things because your
of your religion, you reject them because you've no reason to believe
them.

Atheists come in all sorts, as do the faithful.  There are atheist
zealots, certainly, and I do think it's fair to say that for some
people their atheism is tantamount to a religion.  But, I think the
quiet majority of atheists, those of us who tick "non-religious" on
our census forms, are de facto atheists.  We're simply not religious.
We don't have a desire or need to believe in the supernatural, the
metaphysical, the spiritual, and we reject assertions of the reality
of these things because they're inconsistent with our own experience.

Saying that an empty container is full of emptiness makes a kind of
poetic sense, but the container is still empty.  An observer may
imagine the container filled with their concept of emptiness, but
that's in the observer's mind.  The container is empty.

With regards to evolution as religion: balderdash.  I presume the
"religion" of evolution is inclusive of abiogenesis, and that's
really the big point of contention, but evolutionary theory makes no
claims about the sacred, the divine, the spirit, and so-on, and fails
to qualify as a religion on that point. There is nothing in
evolutionary theory that says the mechanism of evolution (including
abiogenesis) cannot be guided by the hand of god.

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Excerpted from:

PUBLIC NOTES (F)
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©2015 Adam C. Moore (LÆMEUR) <[email protected]>