Is Atheism a religion or philosophy?
Michael > May 6th, 2017, 09:52 PM
Atheism is a personal belief that there is no god or gods who made or govern or watch over the universe. It is the opposite of theism, which is all the different belief systems that assume there is a god or gods who created and watch over or govern the universe.
Neither atheism nor theism is a philosophy or a religion. They are like Conservatism and Liberalism, broad concepts that encompass what we think of as opposing political agendas or points of view. You can have several different conservative political parties involved in government and several different liberal parties.
Where the a/theism comparison diverges from political ideals is that you can have political moderates who blend ideas from both ends of the spectrum, but there is no common or middle ground between atheism and theism. Atheism could be described as anti-theism, not necessarily in the activist sense but only in the sense of rejecting the idea of a godly power in the universe.
Put another way, atheists believe in a universe without gods and theists believe in a universe with god(s). Both groups believe in something.
Many (not necessarily most) atheists object to the idea that they believe in something. I have found myself challenged by semantic arguments that insist "faith" can only be used of people who believe in a godly power, and yet that is definitely not how the word is used. Political leaders ask voters to put their faith in them, or their parties. People who prefer a democratic form of government put their faith in democracy.
Faith is not specifically associated with a belief in godly power. It's just a word that describes a very rational action, and I am pretty sure that many non-human but intelligent animals put their faith in basic concepts that have nothing to do with godly powers, such as that there will be a morning after a night, food where they look for it, and other mundane things.
So atheism is hard to define given that some atheists take offense at the idea that they are expressing a belief in anything, as they believe that "a-" means "non-belief" or "disbelief", which is not the way that prefix was supposed to work.
The words "atheist", "atheism" are thus undergoing an evolution, although it remains to be seen if that will be a successful evolution. In my opinion the semantic arguments that are used to separate atheism from belief are illogical, irrational, and completely unnecessary.
You either believe in a universe with godly power or you believe in a universe without godly power. There is nothing else to believe in, and everyone believes in something. But those beliefs are neither religions nor philosophies.