Margaret Atwood claims atheism is a religion

[bennyboy]

When did you become such an irrascible rouge?

I am not makeup!  

Oh, you meant rogue.

Aw c'mon man, the joke's not funny if you spell it out!

[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...

[Cato]

Godfuckingdamnit, I hate it when people spell it Santa Clause. The "e" ain't there on the proper name, fucking Christ.

Nothing personal, TJ, just a pet fucking peeve.

Not Santa Claus the person, Santa Clause 'the clause'. See fine red print. 

[Metis]

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...

Would you say that Theosophy, Buddhism, Shamanism and Wicca are not religions then? They all (some exceptions within Buddhism) have a very strong supernatural edge and yet have no concept of any deity/deities

[QuarkDriven]

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...

Would you say that Theosophy, Buddhism, Shamanism and Wicca are not religions then? They all (some exceptions within Buddhism) have a very strong supernatural edge and yet have no concept of any deity/deities

I would say those are religions... I'm not too well versed on most of the above, but I can speak for Shamanism a bit.. at least shamanism in the sense of santeria... they do have a gods and saints that they pray to and perform rituals for.. i've been to one of the parties/celebrations for someone "becoming" a santera... they're assigned saints (i forget how) and they do things for them... wear certain colors, celebrate their saints birthdays, give offerings and pray to... i would call that a religion...

[robvalue]

I think a belief system graduates to being a religion when it stops having anything to do with reality.

[Metis]

Would you say that Theosophy, Buddhism, Shamanism and Wicca are not religions then? They all (some exceptions within Buddhism) have a very strong supernatural edge and yet have no concept of any deity/deities

I would say those are religions... I'm not too well versed on most of the above, but I can speak for Shamanism a bit.. at least shamanism in the sense of santeria... they do have a gods and saints that they pray to and perform rituals for.. I've been to one of the parties/celebrations for someone "becoming" a santera... they're assigned saints (i forget how) and they do things for them... wear certain colors, celebrate their saints birthdays, give offerings and pray to... i would call that a religion...

True, I was thinking more of Korean and Native American Shamanism there, Santeria does have deities of a sort but no supreme God-head which most modern day polytheistic religions do. Santeria is an indigenous/tribal religion but not really what we could call shamanistic in the sense of controlling spiritual forces like a magician devoid of any God figure.

I personally would describe any system, cultural or philosophical that can direct a human beings actions by directing it to refer to its precepts, thinking and way of viewing the world and not their own intuition a religion. This might sound not applicable to Athieism but Atheism does undoubtedly influence peoples actions; for one Atheists do tend to ascribe a far higher value to human life than say Muslims who relish the thought of martyrdom. Athiests generally also have a far stronger sense of  loyalty to kin than fanatical Catholics (as opposed to the mainstream 99% in the west), who are taught they must cast out unbelievers and heretics and their first loyalty is to the Roman Catholic Church, not their children or spouse.

There are a myriad of other examples such as rights ascribed to animals but as curious as it might sound, non belief in a sense would fit this definition of Religion. Because they don't believe Allah wants them to die in his name, they've far less motivation to blow up a bus full of people. Because they don't believe their God wants them to purge their lives of all sin, they're far less likely to kick their LGBT son or daughter out just on principle. In this sense the lack of belief is itself a world view, because there is nothing added to the equation when rationalizing ones environment aside from culture, the individual operates very differently from one who has inserted another modifier like Horus or El Cantare .

Of course there's many other definitions too, that's just the one I like to use because it incorporates almost every system I've encountered so far as well as focuses upon my research interests.