Antireligion is defined as opposition to religion, religious beliefs, and religious institutions. This definition makes antireligion distinct from both atheism and theism. It's possible to be a theist who is pro- or antireligion and it's possible to be an atheist who is pro- or antireligion. Sometimes, though, the definition of antireligion is expanded to include opposition to supernatural beliefs generally; this is more compatible with atheism than with theism and especially with critical atheism and new atheism.
Antireligion is similar to anti-clericialism, but whereas anti-clericalism is focused primarily on religious institutions and their power in society, antireligion is focused on religion generally regardless of how much power it does or does not have. It's possible to be anticlerical but not antireligious, but someone who is antireligious would almost certainly be anticlerical. The only way for antireligion to not be anticlerical is if the religion being opposed has no clergy or institutions, which is unlikely at best.
But Hollywood should not be pigeonholed as antireligion, the proof being Robert Duvall's Academy Award-nominated Best PictureThe Apostle(1997)...
- The Encyclopedia of Religion, Communication, and Media, ed by Daniel A.Stout
I suggest that it would make more sense to claim that neutrality towards religion excludes antireligion rather than nonreligion. That is to say, if secu- larity is a form of neutrality towards religion, then it must logically itself be nonreligious, but not necessarily antireligious in the sense of being hostile towards religion. This would be true of the U.S. Constitution...
- Timothy Fitzgerald, Discourse on civility and barbarity: a critical history of religion and related categories
