@ Earthquake:
There exists an Atheist religion. Alright? I'm tired of saying this. First thing I ever said in this thread:
As soon as a common belief system becomes coordinated, it's a religion or a cult.
Both the first definition, which I've posted enough, and the second:a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects
Apply to the subject of the thread, organized atheists. They are of a religion. Sure, there are atheists that aren't, but some are.
Nope. If an organization of atheists actually has some belief system that makes statements about what they think the supernatural (or other facets of religion) ARE, then yes, that would be a religious organization.
However, atheists don't. They don't have a common belief system whatsoever. Even organized atheists share no belief whatsoever, just a lack of belief in some particular thing.
You statement is simply misleading. An atheist religion may be a subset of atheism, but atheism itself is not a religion. A theistic parallel: Christianity is a subset of monotheism, but monotheism is not a religion. The way you worded your statement reads similar to "Monotheism is one of the religions."
Religion: a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, esp. when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs. Yes?
Major kinds of religious beliefs, as in, concerning things in the above definition, even if it is that they are against the things in the above definition as that is still concerning things in the said definition as is the definition of a religion:
POLYTHEISTIC - - -Animism, wikka, etc
MONOTHEISTIC - -- Judaism, Islamic, etc
ATHEISTIC - - - - - Atheism. That's it.
(AGNOSTIC?)
No, there are atheistic religions. Buddhism has not necessarily any belief in a god. Hell, scientology doesn't either, and some new-age/wiccan people I know certainly have religious beliefs but without a concept of any "gods" being part of the mix.
In other words, there's no reason why a religion can't be atheistic, and examples are around. Classifying religions based on the number of gods worshipped is kind of silly. There are a hell of a lot of other factors involved, and atheistic religions are a very real possibility.
An atheist religion may be a subset of atheism, but atheism itself is not a religion.
Depending on the Atheist.
This is ridiculous. If atheism is a religion to one person but not another, then obviously something other than atheism ITSELF is making the distinction. If one person has an atheistic religion, it's because he actually HAS faith or beliefs in what he thinks is TRUE about the universe and the supernatural, in ADDITION to not having belief in a god.