There is no such thing as "neutrality", or non-religion. Atheism is indeed a religion or worldview. It is our unofficial state religion, in fact, if recent court rulings on the Ten Commandments, sodomy, and partial-birth abortion are any indication. It has gotten a free ride on the religion train for far too long.
Does this mean atheist buildings in Wisconsin will be tax-exempt?
Moral Absolutes Ping.
Interesting court decision and very interesting discussion on the thread.
Some said this could "level the playing field". The other day someone posted a few dictionary defitions of religion, one of the 4 included any philosophy or world view that one believed in and followed. So according to that definition, atheist (especially for the avowed, public atheists) would be a religion.
It's about time that the "separation of church and state" myth is put to rest.
Freepmail me if you want on/off this pinglist.
This ought to be interesting. Bump for later reading.
a. Disbelief in or denial of the existence of God or gods.
b. The doctrine that there is no God or gods.
c. Godlessness; immorality.
How does it work to have a religion without a god?
To declare, "I believe that there is no God" is undoubtedly an act of faith.
You're 100% correct, and something I've always said, myself; atheism is, indeed, a belief system, i.e., a religion.
There are only two religions.
Atheism is merely one of the "belief systems" among thousands in the man-centered religion catagory.
//SARCASM OFF
While I agree that Atheism is a religion, I disagree with your statement above. Agnosticism is "neutrality" and, unlike atheism, doesn't claim to know that there is or is not a God.
Like light and darkness they go hand in hand.
When the courts recognize secularism as a religion, then that will be huge, in my opinion.
Atheism, as an actively practiced belief system that is as certain that there is no God as the Pope is certain that there is a God, is a belief system held by a rather small set of people (fair notice - I am one of those Atheists, though a rather odd one.)
Secularism, as the lack of an actively practiced belief system, that is twisted by the left and the ACLU into the right not to be offended by any overt expression of someone else's belief system, is widely held by those on the left. Secularism puts too much 'faith' in them, the government and other large institutions, to achieve that false hope of a Heaven on Earth.
The ACLU and its leftist friends has turned the "no establishment of religion" clause in the Constitution into the claim that "secularism - the absence of any overt belief system" must be the established State Religion.
It will be a minor twist of the logic to lump the few outspoken Atheists in with the Catholics, Lutherans, Jews, Methodists, Episcopalians, and what have you.
Indeed, this is a dangerous court decision for us on the Right, as it will be twisted by the Left into the claim that they are "being fair and impartial - even Atheists are prohibited from public expression of their belief system."
While those on the right may well label the left as Atheists with a broad stroke, those on the left will easily be able to twist that label into referring to a minor and ignorable (in their view) group, along with all the traditional Christian and Jewish religions.
Such a twist may well not sell to those who are traditionally religious and conservative, but it will sound quite reasonable to the base of the Left. This is a typical example of words meaning different things to different people.
Once secularism (and its cousins socialism, Marxism and communism) are recognized as religions, then the establishment clause can be understood as prohibiting the government from establishing secularism as the state religion. It is the religion of secularism that is now the established state religion, driving out all other signs of religion such as crosses, prayers and the Ten Commandments from public spaces.
"When it comes to the origin of life on this earth, there are only two possibilities: creation or spontaneous generation(evolution). There is no third way. Spontaneous generation was disproved 100 years ago, but that leads us only to one other conclusion: that of supernatural creation. We cannot accept that on philosophical grounds (personal reasons); therefore, we choose to believe in the impossible: that life arose spontaneously by chance.
(George Wald, winner of the 1967 Nobel Peace Prize in Science)
Yes! Atheism has been getting a free ride from the govt. and the Libs.... what now?
OMG the aethiests are gonna FREAK! LOL.
secular humanism was judged a religion 40 years ago. so?
The court may as well rule that black is white or that 2+2=5. Idiots.
Wonderful. Does this mean that the next time Michael Newdow or one of his kind attempt to get a cross removed from some public place, we can tell him to quit imposing his religious views on the rest of us?
Payback sucks, don't it?
Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters
This is a new low, even for the courts. What are they going to recognize next? How about Nihilism? I know, Egocentrism -- the worship of self. Adherents will be allowed to masterbate at ritualistic intervals since they have yet to figure out a way to **** themselves.
I can hear "them" now screaming like little scared puppies.
"Oh the injustice of it all!"
"Those evil RELIGIOUS b@stards sitting up there in their old rightwinged boy clubs manipulating it all through Karl Rove and run by Chaney through Rumsfields agents as part of the neocon religious right's plot to turn America into a theology......blah...blah....blah....."
SSSSSWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!