Margaret Atwood claims atheism is a religion

[QuarkDriven]

Atheism is a religion the same way the vacant lot next door is a McDonalds.

It's certainly not a religion in the conventional sense, but I do think she is trying to raise a valid point but is using the wrong words or rather using them in an unfamiliar way to express herself.

Religion of course is a very vague term, it can encompass everything from a belief to a series of traditions or rituals totally devoid of belief in any supernatural realm. Timothy Fitzgerald's book The Ideology of Religious Studies is a very good exploration of this, one I very much recommend.

Wouldn't this be the culture? traditions and rituals devoid of belief in any supernatural realm? Religion is the belief of a diety, whichever one it is they believe in... Culture is just relative to where you are geographically located... yes, the two can be mixed into one, but religion and culture are two different things...