It seems to be getting more common to find theists - usually Christians - insisting that atheism is a religion. This assertion isn't compatible with standard definitions of either atheism or religion. No one looked up the two terms in a dictionary and made a casual connection between them; in fact, it's arguable that insisting on a connection does violence to both concepts.

Poch writes:

There is nothing of religion that is associated with Atheism. We have no dogmas, no rituals, no gods, no priests, no worship, no prayer, no holy places, no churches, temples, no synagogues, and no miracles. Any dictionary or encyclopedia will tell you that religion is a system of attitudes, practices, rites, ceremonies and beliefs by means of which individuals or the community put themselves in relation to a god or to a supernatural world, and from which the religious person derives a set of values by which to judge events in the natural world.

It isn't actually a requirement that a religion involve belief in gods or the supernatural — it's very common, but a few religions like Scientology, Raelians, and Ethical Culture lack it. At the same time, though, Poch is emphasizing something which many people (especially those who insist that atheism is a religion) forget: religion is a very complex cultural phenomenon which can't be reduced to a single tag line.

People who call atheism a religion do so on the basis of saying that it's a "faith" or that people are "devoted" to it, as if that's all it takes to be a religion. This isn't just wrong, it's absurd — no serious adherent of a religion like Christianity or Islam would claim that the only thing which distinguishes their belief system as a religion from non-religious ideologies is that it's a "faith" or that they are "devoted" to it.

Serious religious believers recognize that a great deal goes into making up their religion and their religious lives: "attitudes, practices, rites, ceremonies and beliefs." Why do people ignore all of this in order to call atheism a religion? Perhaps because there is something at work here besides a mundane, casual observation like saying "this table is red." It's likely that they are only doing it to score rhetorical points in order to portray something usually associated with criticism of religion as a religion itself. This would mean, though, that this assertion can't be part of any substantive, serious discussion.

 

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