Why do religious people desperately want to class Atheism as a religion?

[Jenny A]

It's a tactic.  The argument goes something like this:

Atheism is a religion in that it is a worldview and a belief that no God's exist.  Atheists claim that it is simply a lack of belief in the existence of any God and then Theists will define it as believing there are no Gods.

Honestly, both definitions are correct in my opinion, but for a theists to argue that Atheism is a religion it is important for them to classify atheism as a belief.  Because then they can use the common quip, "Oh I thought you believed it to be true?"  It's a word game honestly.  Do i believe Atheism is a religion?  By the definition of religion, no.  Is Atheism a belief system?  No (system being the qualifier).  Is Atheism a belief?  That can be argued.

Dead on.   Religion is a belief.  Atheism can be a belief or a default position of not proven.

The annoying idea to me is either that you can or should choose to believe without evidence even if the belief is that there isn't a god.  If you choose to believe rather than rely on evidence, you ought to realize that that is what you are doing.