Thus the part where I explicitly chose not to use the word 'religion' and replaced it with 'dharma'. You have a dharma - it is your coherent worldview. Secular humanism, Christianity, Neopaganism and various other isms are all dharmas. I'm not equating them - they are obviously not the same. I'm grouping them. Science isn't a religion, it's a method for proposing and testing hypotheses. Atheism is a nonbelief. Yet there are people who use atheism and scientific ideas as the basis for their dharma. For them, atheism isn't a non-belief, it's their Position. Why object to a nativity scene - it's a bunch of mannequins. Because of instinctive tribalism, the need to get your slice of the pie. Considering the persecution that atheists face in the US, the formation of group identity is probably inevitable. It's a sociological process that goes far beyond the bits in your head, and it's worth studying. You can't deny that it's happening - it's all over the place, from taking down the ten commandments to prayer in school. This is not simple non-belief. It's about cultural rituals and symbols, about the 'face' of your society. Is America a Christian country? Is your answer an objective evaluation of the evidence, or a social position?
My book, a setting for fantasy role playing games based on Bantu mythology: Ubantu
