Apophenia, I think I worded some of my posts wrong, which led to a misunderstanding. For me, 'higher power' meant any force that was not naturlistic. That did not mean that I regarded any belief in a non-naturalistic power as a deity-belief. I think I'll stick with 'non-naturalistic power' instead.
What I tried to come up with was a component which set atheism apart from actual religions. If I would have said 'we don't believe in any gods', the reply would have been 'Well Buddhists don't believe in gods either, Buddhism is a religion, so atheism can be a religion too'. I wanted to prevent that, so instead of mentioning a god, I tried to describe the belief in the exsistence of non-naturalistic forces.
By the way, I do not think of atheism as a religion. However, in my opinon groups of new atheists display behavior which resembles religious behavior.
I hope I managed to clarify myself in this post.
What I tried to come up with was a component which set atheism apart from actual religions. If I would have said 'we don't believe in any gods', the reply would have been 'Well Buddhists don't believe in gods either, Buddhism is a religion, so atheism can be a religion too'. I wanted to prevent that, so instead of mentioning a god, I tried to describe the belief in the exsistence of non-naturalistic forces.
By the way, I do not think of atheism as a religion. However, in my opinon groups of new atheists display behavior which resembles religious behavior.
I hope I managed to clarify myself in this post.
When I was a Christian, I was annoyed with dogmatic condescending Christians. Now that I'm an atheist, I'm annoyed with dogmatic condescending atheists. Just goes to prove that people are the same, regardless of what they do or don't believe.
