The following abstract does not represent my views:
"Atheists often claim that their belief is not a religion. This allows them to propagate their beliefs in settings where other religions are banned, but this should not be so. (...) The dichotomy that Atheists try to create between science and religion is false. The conflict is between interpretations of science coming from different religious worldviews.
Atheism shouldn’t be taught or enforced in settings where other religions are banned and shouldn’t be favoured by laws which imply a religiously neutral government."
(Smartt, D. (05/04/2010), "Atheism: A religion", http://creation.com/atheism-a-religion)
The article states that atheism has six of the seven attributes of a religion (defined by Ninian Smart);
it is narrative (evolution is a story that leads to atheism), experiential (it requires faith in abiogenesis), social (atheists convert religious people to atheism via teaching evolution), doctrinal (Secular Humanism is a doctrine of atheism), ethical (it gives moral guidelines, which are derived from other religions) and material (nature is treated as divine).
And there is more. One of the comments (again, not my views):
"They [atheists] use circular reasoning, bait and switch tactics, and the 'pot calling the kettle black' routine. I myself used to believe in evolution until I went for higher education and I noticed problems in the theories that were largely ignored. (...) They believe in God but they hate him obscenely. I think this is the root of all of atheism." (sic)
(the text between square brackets is added by me)
It does seem that Mr. Smartt has made some errors in his article. What do you think?
"Atheists often claim that their belief is not a religion. This allows them to propagate their beliefs in settings where other religions are banned, but this should not be so. (...) The dichotomy that Atheists try to create between science and religion is false. The conflict is between interpretations of science coming from different religious worldviews.
Atheism shouldn’t be taught or enforced in settings where other religions are banned and shouldn’t be favoured by laws which imply a religiously neutral government."
(Smartt, D. (05/04/2010), "Atheism: A religion", http://creation.com/atheism-a-religion)
The article states that atheism has six of the seven attributes of a religion (defined by Ninian Smart);
it is narrative (evolution is a story that leads to atheism), experiential (it requires faith in abiogenesis), social (atheists convert religious people to atheism via teaching evolution), doctrinal (Secular Humanism is a doctrine of atheism), ethical (it gives moral guidelines, which are derived from other religions) and material (nature is treated as divine).
And there is more. One of the comments (again, not my views):
"They [atheists] use circular reasoning, bait and switch tactics, and the 'pot calling the kettle black' routine. I myself used to believe in evolution until I went for higher education and I noticed problems in the theories that were largely ignored. (...) They believe in God but they hate him obscenely. I think this is the root of all of atheism." (sic)
(the text between square brackets is added by me)
It does seem that Mr. Smartt has made some errors in his article. What do you think?
