Is Atheism a religion as say...Theravada Buddhism?

[Tiberius]

The only leverage you'll get out of me on this point is regarding the "New Atheists" who certainly act like a religion, but I don't believe can be truthfully classified as one.

Since when did a religion need gods to be a religion? While it is true that the more 'popular' religions contain gods, i honestly can't see how they would be so different within a religion if the gods were substituted with "some kind of spiritual force" or other supernatural things. Perhaps a religion would be better defined as a belief in a supernatural controlling power?

Erm...where in that quote did I say religions needed God to be a religion? I didn't. In fact I said earlier in my post that atheism and theism are "core beliefs" of several religions, but not religions themselves. Religions are defined as a set of beliefs about the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, usually containing some form of ritualistic worship, and often having some sort of moral code.

Atheists, as people who do not believe in God, do not have any group beliefs in the cause, nature, or purpose of the universe. I'm sure most atheists do believe in science, but the difference between them and other "believers" is that a belief in science is not dogmatic in atheism. In other words, you do not have to believe in science to be an atheist.

Defining core beliefs of a religion is easy. Take belief X. If people have to believe in X in order to be a member of religion Y, then X is a core belief of religion Y. Repeat for all beliefs you can think up.

For instance:

Belief: Jesus is the Son of God.
Do you have to believe this to be a Christian? Yes. Ergo, believing that Jesus is the Son of God is a core belief of Christianity.

Belief: The universe is 13.7 billion years old.
Do you have to believe this to be an atheist? No. Ergo, believing the universe is 13.7 billion years old is not a core belief of atheism.

Christianity, as a religion, has many different core beliefs. Atheism, has one (the disbelief in gods). This is why I believe atheism fails the first criterion for being a religion...it doesn't have a set of beliefs attached to it, far less a set of beliefs pertaining to the nature, cause, and purpose of the universe.

Christianity on the other hand, holds that God created the universe. It has devotional ritual worship (prayer, church, etc), and it has a set of moral codes. Not all Christians have to do the worship, or follow the moral codes, but it is a religion because of these factors. The minimal way of being a Christian (which I think our fr0d0 is a prime example of) is to believe in God, believe that Jesus was the Son of God, and believe that the Bible is the word of God.