Just because theism isn't necessarily required for all religions, that doesn't mean that atheism=a religion. That does not follow. Because if there are non-theistic religions that doesn't mean that they're religions because they're non theistic. As Adrian said, theism isn't always a central tenet of religions.
Atheism itself is nothing more than non-belief in God - but that doesn't mean that if you take a bunch of atheists who believe in an afterlife, souls, spirits even - etc, etc. - that they are either non-religious or they're not atheists (despite the fact that they must be if they don't believe in deities).
Paganism for instance, is a religion - but not all Pagans literally believe in deities, certainly not - some of them just personify nature as "God(s)" and they believe in an afterlife, etc..
EvF
Atheism itself is nothing more than non-belief in God - but that doesn't mean that if you take a bunch of atheists who believe in an afterlife, souls, spirits even - etc, etc. - that they are either non-religious or they're not atheists (despite the fact that they must be if they don't believe in deities).
Paganism for instance, is a religion - but not all Pagans literally believe in deities, certainly not - some of them just personify nature as "God(s)" and they believe in an afterlife, etc..
EvF
