(April 24, 2009 at 4:34 pm)MetalVampire Wrote: I would have thought that Atheism is the compleat opposite of a religion. When you think about it isnt religion a belief, like, i's beleiving that theres a god, or gods or anything, and its beleiving how things work and how things are done, and following the rules of a religion how whatever gods in that religion have said so,(in my mind it makes sense:S). Anyway, Atheism is like the compleat opposite of it, it's not beleiving in any religions, or following a certain way of life, its just being compleatly yourself, how you want to be and not beleiving any of it.... i may have just confused myself something rotton but i hope it makes sense. hehe xI disagree. I think non-religion is the opposite of religion, but whilst most atheists are non-religious, some aren't. Atheism is a disbelief in gods, and some Buddhists have atheistic beliefs whilst subscribing to a specific religious doctrine, as with Scientology, which as far as I am aware does not hold theistic beliefs meaning an atheist could easily be a member.
Religion is defined as a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe. (Bolded words are key). A single belief cannot be a religion, but a collection of them can. Thus atheism and theism are not religions, since they are single beliefs/disbeliefs, although they can both be aspects of religions.
Now atheists do have certain beliefs about the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe. For me, the cause is the Big Bang, the nature is that of non-intelligent complexity, and the purpose is non existent. However this is not a set of beliefs. Each of these beliefs is singular and I don't count them together. For a theistic religion, the three beliefs would be combined (i.e God caused the universe, he created the nature, and it exists for his purpose). The set of beliefs is linked by the "God".
