I posted a joke the other day about atheism and objective morality. Most of the people who responded recognized the humor and reacted appropriately. However some people tried to turn it into a debate. As expected, one of atheism's favorite talking points was brought up. How many wars has atheism started? There are various versions of this argument, but they all boil down to trying to prove that religion is more violent than atheism. Now I am not here today to get into that debate. I might address the violent atheism topic in a later post if I feel like it. Today I am here to talk about why that debate is inaccurate to begin with. I will be discussing the question: “is atheism a religion?”
I can hear the gears in some people’s heads grinding to a halt now, some in confusion and some out of surprise that a question with such an obvious answer has even been asked. After all, isn’t the whole point of atheism to be nonreligious? Well, it is actually not that cut and dry when you begin examining things.
There is a popular defense among Christian circles to point out that atheism is also a religion. This assertion unsurprisingly stirs up much debate. There are two main reasons people disagree with this statement. Either they debate out of an honest desire to discuss whether or not the point is accurate, or they debate out of a sense of defending their own beliefs from even a hint of religious veneer. I will admit I have made the ‘atheism is a religion’ comment in the past. However, this defense, like the earlier mentioned debate, is also technically wrong. Now that I have everyone thoroughly confused as to whether I am saying atheism is a religion or isn’t, I am going to go with a hard neither.
Before we get into this discussion, we have to deal with an issue of definition. We can’t say whether atheism is a religion or isn’t, unless we know what we mean when we say religion. If you go to Google and search for a definition of religion, you get three answers.
The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.
A particular system of faith and worship.
A pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance.
Looking at those three definitions, atheism definitely doesn’t fit the first one. The literal meaning of the word atheism is ‘without god.’ The second definition is also not a great fit, though it doesn’t include the necessity of a deity. However, atheism could fit under the third definition.
Let’s look at a few more definitions and see what we can discover. Webster gives us this.
The service and worship of God or the supernatural
commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance
a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices
archaic : scrupulous conformity : CONSCIENTIOUSNESS
a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith
One of the biggest reasons people claim that atheism is not a religion is the overwhelming assumption that all religions deal with the supernatural. Atheism may literally mean without god, but its expansive meaning is the absence of any sort of supernatural being or force. So if religion must necessarily include the supernatural, then atheism cannot be a religion.
An examination of world religions destroys this preconception. Yes many religions have a supernatural aspect, but there are several branches of well known religions (including Buddhism and, surprisingly, Judaism) which have refined their system of beliefs down to pure philosophy to the exclusion of supernatural elements.
I think it is time to finalize a definition here. There are two books that I think have done a good job of defining what a religion is. These books are ‘Understanding World Religions in 15 Minutes a Day,’ and ‘The Compact Guide to World Religions.’ Though they both come about it from different angles, they end up with very similar definitions that can be condensed as such: A religion is a system of beliefs that seeks to answer the ultimate questions. This is a simple definition that we can work with, and it fits well with the previously mentioned definitions.
Now I am going to define a second part, a religious belief. As I will be using it, a religious belief is a belief that can be combined with other religious beliefs to form a religion. If a religion is a system of answering the ultimate questions, a religious belief is the answer to a single one of those questions.
So what are these ultimate questions? As set out by the previously mentioned books, these questions deal with things such as the nature of reality and man’s relation to it. Is there a single god? Are there multiple gods? Are there no gods? Does the supernatural exist? How did the universe form? Is mankind special or simply another animal? Is there an afterlife? There are many questions that can be included in this list, but they all fall under the umbrella of ‘Ultimate Questions.’
So after a long road, I will answer the question that is my focus of this piece. Atheism is not a religion, nor is not not a religion. Atheism is a religious belief. There are several religions which include variations of atheism, but atheism itself is not enough to be a religion.
To round this out, I am going to throw in two more definitions that I believe are important. These are Personal Religion, and Corporate Religion. A person’s Personal Religion is the sum total of their religious beliefs. Corporate Religion is the group practice of people with similar religious beliefs. Since everyone has their own beliefs on how to answer the ultimate questions, everyone has a personal religion, but this is not the case for corporate religion.
Now I know there are some of you reading this who are going to disagree with my conclusions, so I will throw out one more example in favor of what I am saying. In 2005 the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals claimed in the case Kaufman v. McCaughtry that atheism met the requirements for protection under the religious clause of the First Amendment.
About the Author:
Stephen Mayo lives in Montana with his wife, daughter, corgi, and three cats.
You can keep in touch with him on Facebook and Twitter. Find more on his podcast A Side of Mayo. If you enjoyed reading this consider buying him a coffee or supporting him on Patreon.