[S.T.D.]

bro kryonlight ,
there is no point arguing.
as buddhist , you should know that the ability , capability of every individual is different.
there are quite a handful of religions in this world.
human beings believe in one of this , and some don't believe in any.
some believers try very hard to convert others , some have rules that disallow any believer from leaving.ce
for those group that don't believe in anything , either out of stupidity or sheer ignorant , some like to comment
, criticize on any religion , often erroneously.
they claimed that they don't believe in anything. unknowingly they created their own religion - Atheism

all religion are the same ..they have rewards for you if you listen to them ..and punish you for not listening . so why should we left out any religion for fuck sake

for some fuckup reason, many people keep getting the idea that atheism is itself some sort of religion. it's an assertion which i keep hearing in religous ppl . maybe it is because these people are so caught up in their own religious beliefs that they cannot imagine any person living without religion of some sort . maybe it is due to some persistent misunderstanding of what atheism is. and maybe they just don't care that what they are saying really doesn't make any sense .


let's examine what considers to be the defining characteristics of "religion."

...a religion, with clearly defined rules, eschatology and a philosophy by which to live. religion is a means of understanding our existence.

does atheism have anything approaching "clearly defined rules?" not in the least. there is only one "rule," and that is the rule of the definition of "atheism" - not having any belief in any gods. other than that, atheists are free to do whatever they want and still be called atheists. an atheist can do and believe absolutely anything beyond gods and still fit the definition. quite the opposite of how "rules" are treated in a religion. this is one area where a misunderstanding of what atheism is probably comes into play.

does atheism have an "eschatology? eschatology is a "belief about the end of the world or the last things." now, im sure that many atheists have some sort of beliefs about how the world might end, but those beliefs sure aren't clearly defined or uniform among all of us. in fact, any beliefs about the end of the world are accidental - that is to say, they are not a necessary part of atheism. there is absolutely, positively nothing inherent in the disbelief in gods that leads one to any opinions about the end of the world. quite the opposite of how 'eschatology' is treated in a religion.

does atheism contain "...a philosophy by which to live?" atheists certainly have philosophies by which they live. a popular philosophy might be secular humanism. another might be objectivism. still another could be some form of buddhism. there is not, however, a clearly defined philosophy common to all or even most atheists. in fact, there is nothing inherent in the disbelief in god(s) which leads a person to any philosophy of life . Quite the opposite of how 'philosophy of life' is treated in a religion.

atheism means not believing in any gods. that's as far as "understanding existence" goes with atheism. other than gods, there's a lot of room for differences among atheists as to what they think about existence. thus, atheism itself is not an "understanding", but a single commonality. any two atheists might have as much in common as a Christian and a devout believer in Odin - both of whom are obviously theists. although some person's understanding of their existence might contain a principle of atheism, that atheism is not itself the means to understanding.

the belief in an objectively existing world is a common assumption, too - but the people who share it don't belong to a common religion, now do they? Besides, since many atheists don't believe that gods "exist" and, hence, aren't a part of "existence", that disbelief doesn't have to be seen as understanding "existence". i don't believe in the tooth fairy, and that disbelief isn't a means of understanding our existence, doesn't have an eschatology, and certainly has no clearly defined rules.

atheism is a disbelief, not a philosophy. my disbelief in the condom monster is not a philosophy of life - is it for anyone else? furthermore, a philosophy of life is not necessarily a religion and it doesn't necessitate that a religious belief exists in the person with the philosophy.

read the list and see how atheism fares :

1. belief in supernatural beings (gods).
2. a distinction between sacred and profane objects.
3. ritual acts focused on sacred objects.
4. a moral code believed to be sanctioned by the gods.
5. characteristically religious feelings (awe, sense of mystery, sense of guilt, adoration), which tend to be aroused in the presence of sacred objects and during the practice of ritual, and which are connected in idea with the gods.
6. prayer and other forms of communication with gods.
7. a world view, or a general picture of the world as a whole and the place of the individual therein. this picture contains some specification of an over-all purpose or point of the world and an indication of how the individual fits into it.
8. a more or less total organization of one's life based on the world view.
9. a social group bound together by the above


now start to put on your thinkin cap before you religious ppl start to say atheism is a religion again