I Have Something to Say

@softspokenman Hear hear!

@softspokenman Yup, exactly! If you can't distinguish between right and wrong, you don't lack religion... you lack empathy

@SW-User The book is to control those unable to think for themselves.

@SW-User, Not that any Christians have ever Murdered any non-believers, for their own good, violating their own 6th commandment.

@bobby1975 at this point, it is essentially a religion. More the belief that theistic beliefs are wrong than simply a lack of belief. And with how often they try to convert others, and/or put down those who disagree, its no surprise that people see it that way.
The main different being that most athiests work alone at those tasks.
Hell, some groups of atheists even congregate to discuss similar beliefs, or lack there of.

@TestingLimitations

1. there's no proof that gods exist
2. there's no proof that gods don't exist
3. there's no compelling necessity to even postulate the existence of gods
4. therefore I have no gods

Where in there do you find 'belief that theistic beliefs are wrong'?

Incidentally, were I trying to 'convert others'. to [i]what[/i] would I be trying to convert them? What dogma, creed, or manifesto would I be pushing?

So, never mind how you choose to see it. The fact is, you can have all the superstition-based beliefs you want - I simply don't care

@TestingLimitations
]
On what grounds do you denote atheism as a religion, because the ones you've used are flawed:

Thinking theistic beliefs are wrong (whether "wrong" as in factually wrong or "wrong" morally wrong") in addition to their lacking belief... that doesn't really make something a religion; that many people who hold belief one hold another relative but not intrinsic belief. You can be atheist and not think religion is bad, be complacent about it and think that religion is fine it you don't force it upon anyone and don't hurt anyone. And some just think it's believing in something unfalsifiable and on faith is unnecessary, stupid, harmful or/and wrong (in both ways).

Oh. And I'm sure many people assume atheism and atheist are religious because of the suffixes, but many people of your religion are to blame as they are the ones perpetuate the idea that atheism is a religion to falsely equivocate the fallacies and flaws of religion to atheism, since you can't deny those problems. If you can't raise your own standards, you lower another's.

That they try to "convert" you? I think we both know you're using a word, dishonestly, that conotates religion to associate it with atheism, but I digress. When you make a claim, you open yourself to challenge and critism. Whether that comes out of wanting to change your mind (or wanting to "convert" you), actually know your reasons for believing, show flaws in your reasoning, make fun of you or feel self superior, none of those make atheism a religion. And I have no doubt that there are many atheists that put down theists for shitty reasons, especially on the internet. But I think you know many theists put down atheists in the same way, (assholes are everywhere, theist or not) with the addition of having the politicization, cultural embedment, and laws (albeit unconstitutional and immoral) on your side. Plus the internal threat of damnation, loss of immortality or paradise and external threats of ostracization and from powerful figures that has kept and still fosters complacency and non inquiry in people and in turn, leaders, cultures, governments etc. It's a bad cycle. And not to mention the 100s and 1000s of years that theists put down other theists; questioning of your religion isn't new. It just that when the question comes from an atheist point of view, it's coming from an idea making only one response to a claim and doesn't have the same equally flawed foundation and unsupported claims for you to point to and redirect.

The fact that atheists gather and discuss atheism makes it a religion is absurd. Under that notion, fans of books, sports, music etc., subculture, or associations and committees pertaining to different fields of study are religions. Though religion often involves gathering, it's not the only qualifier for something to be literally synonymous with religion