Another way to approach that issue is this… Is theism a religion? If so, what are its holy scriptures and its doctrines, its sacraments and its liturgy? No, theism is not a religion, and neither is atheism. Those are both the same kind of philosophical position about the question of whether or not any gods exist, just opposite in their philosophical position about that question of existence. Most religious people who claim that atheism is a religion will never have heard the terms theist, theistic, or theism, or if they have, will not have given them much thought. They’re anti-atheist bigots. Most of them are conservatives who believe that no atheist could possibly be a real conservative, or a moral person for that matter.
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Have you experienced anti-atheist bigotry personally? If so where and when?
How old were you when your thinking brought you to atheism? Or did you come from an atheist family?
If your family was religious, how did they react individually to your difference of opinion?
(You might have told us this before, but it bears repeating. Of course if you’d rather not answer these questions, I’d perfectly understand.)
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Good point that theism is not a religion, therefore atheism can’t be one, either.
Marxism, on the other hand, although always paired with atheism, is a belief system akin to a religion - a belief in “pie in the sky”.
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Yes! Succinctly and excellently expressed by you, Liz!
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That’s right. So Marxism would be an example of an atheistic religion, or quasi-religion. Some other ideology or quasi-religious philosophy that incorporated atheism as part of its doctrine would similarly qualify as an atheistic quasi-religion. There is also the case of Buddhism, which in its purer philosophical form is often considered to be an atheistic religion, although it admits of transmigrating souls. Jainism is similar in that sense, and is somewhat older than Buddhism.
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What I’ve noticed is that there are some people who are hostile to the mention of atheism or disbelief or irreligion, as if an atheist is by definition an enemy of the people as well as of God. Others take a smug attitude of amusement rather than hostility. I haven’t often experienced these things personally, because I don’t easily reveal my atheism or even so much as indicate skepticism. But I have more often witnessed those two reactions as a third party.
I’m especially annoyed when fellow conservatives speak as if conservatism is founded upon Christianity, or presupposes Christian faith. “This nation needs to return to God”. Those types will also tend to speak of the “atheistic regimes” of our adversaries like China, etc. (But what about Iran?) See, to me, that’s also a kind of bigotry. Yet those same people will bring on conservative atheist guests like Heather Mac Donald or Raheem Kassam and be perfectly friendly. I suspect Raheem at some point had had enough of Steve Bannon’s religiosity, and left his job as War Room’s co-host to concentrate on his own website, The National Pulse. (Raheem defended the reputation of Hitch last December when Bannon asked, hadn’t Hitchens had a death bed conversion? as Larry Alex Taunton had suggested in The Faith of Christopher Hitchens.)
My parents were Catholic but not especially religious; the least religious of their four-couple ‘Greatest Generation’ WWII Veterans circle of close friends (whose kids called each other ‘cousins’). I think I get my philosophical genes from my father, who was essentially a pantheist, though only seldom talkative about it. I developed my own doubts fairly early on, and by 16 or 18 was well on the way to confirmed atheist, which set in definitively over the next few years. (My political maturity came only a handful of years after my atheism had set in.) My family knows I’m an atheist, and most of us are politically conservative. They don’t give me a hard time about not being religious, though we seldom talk about that. When we do, some tend to react with impatience and annoyance. I assess that as indicating bigotry of a kind. One of my brothers, whom I’m closest to, tells me that “it takes more faith to be an atheist” etc., though he is not very conventionally religious himself, and can discuss this topic with somewhat better toleration. He is often as annoyed as I am with the religious right (“the Christians” as he calls them). His 42-year old son is my Godchild, and somewhat ironically, a conservative atheist.
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Thanks, Zerothruster. It’s always interesting to hear how someone from a believing family came to disbelief.
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Who’s your unwanted like-thinker here?
No one in particular. I am just generally conservative to libertarian in my outlook and I strongly suspect many of the regular readers of The Epoch Times share my beliefs to varying degrees.
Most openly self-declaring atheists ARE on the other side. Leftists.
True but that does not mean most atheists are leftist. All I can honestly say on the subject is there is not enough evidence to decide.
Unfortunately most humanists are Leftists. Will they ever notice how inhumane Leftism is, do you think?
Dunno. I am an engineer by training and temperament and I have a hard time understanding how a person can choose to give his “feelings” precedence over his mind. Feelings should be support for my reasoning mind, not the other way around.
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I have carefully read the letter, and it is unclear what is taken directly from the State Department’s grant program and what is the opinion of the members of Congress.
Although I am naturally suspicious of anything originating in the current administration, I doubt that the proposed grant actually seeks advance “the practice and spread of atheism and humanism” as asserted by the Congressmen. Judging from the title of the grant program, it seeks to promote religious freedom including atheism and humanism.
I think we should view this against the backdrop of the persecution of atheists and other non-believers by theocratic states. I have spent time in Afghanistan, Iraq, and United Arab Emirates, and although I was insulated from persecution as an employee of the Department of Defense, I was careful to hide the fact that I am an atheist as that disclosure could have put me in danger despite my official status. Under Islamic law, a Christian or Jew (so-called “People of the Book”) can be granted second-class citizen status as a dhimmi, which provides some protection against the worst persecution. In some countries, dhimmi status may be extended to practitioners of other non-Muslim religions, but in no country can it be extended to an atheist. In many Muslim countries, atheism is a crime punishable by death.
Before I judge the merit of this grant program, I would have to know which NGO(s) would receive the funds, and what, specifically, they would do with them. If the program would in any way attempt to spread atheism, and especially if it tried to spread any sort of collectivism (Marxism, communism, any form of socialism), then I would oppose. If the message, though, would be, “Hey, don’t torture and kill atheist and humanists”, then I would view its goals favorably.
Even if the program is completely innocuous and aimed solely at encouraging religious freedom and an end to persecution, I am opposed to spending US tax dollars on anything which doesn’t directly benefit the US. So, sorry atheists of Iran, Syria, etc., I sympathize with your plight but we’re not the world’s purse. This is your fight, stand up and fight it.
Atheism does not equal Marxism, or any other form of collectivism. We are all proof of that. We are not the enemies of Christianity that most Christians insist we are, we just don’t believe what they do. It seems to me that this letter is histrionic, an unjustified reaction by those who demonize atheism and falsely equate it with the current administration’s statism and collectivism.
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@jbecker , I realize your questions were directed to @Zerothruster , but do you mind if I answer also?
I come from a very religious protestant family. We attended both Methodist and Babtist churches when I was young. My father openly professed religion, but some subtle hints have led me to believe that he was not, perhaps, as strong in his belief as he professed. My mom was and is a very devout believer. She knows I am an atheist, yet we have a very close and loving relationship based on mutual respect.
I have been an atheist ever since I was able to think for myself and form my own opinions. Of course I attended church regularly, but I never took it very seriously even as a young child. I think I just always assumed that religion was something people claimed to believe for reasons of tradition, much like they’d claim to believe in Santa or the Easter Bunny. At some point, I realized that people actually did believe all of that stuff, and that realization was somewhat shocking. Seriously? Supposedly sane adults actually believe this stuff!? I don’t think there was ever a time in my life when I actually believed in the existence of a god, and I self-identified as an atheist from the age of about 12 or so, maybe a bit earlier.
My mother was (and is) a registered Republican, and has always held very conservative views. My father, and his father and grandfather before him, were Democrats, but this was before that party had been completely dominated by the far left. If you were to judge not by his voting record but by his views on the issues, he was a staunch conservative by today’s standards. I have always held conservative views, even before I recognized them as such.
Almost all of my family and friends are religious to some extent, many of them deeply religious. Most of my close friends know that I am an atheist, but by the time they learned that they knew me well enough to respect me.
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Thank you for that, Billy. I enjoyed reading it.
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I envy you people that figure things out so easily.
It took me fifty years! Guess I’m just “special”… 
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You are special, Liz. In a very good way.
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Thanks! That helps!
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Billy, I had very much the same impressions as you describe in your reply – and the same objection to spending time and money on an issue that does not concern the national security interests of America. This does seem like an instance of what I have called anti-atheist bigotry on the part of those congressmen, the knee-jerk reaction pre-judging all atheists as leftists, etc. It also occurred to me that there may have been a genuine humanitarian intent to help protect infidels and heretics in countries that practice one kind or another of religious persecution. (But that’s not our problem.) // On the other hand, what if the CIA (in its pro-American Cold War glory days) had used that kind of program to help destabilize a despotic regime like Iran, or perhaps Saudi Arabia? I could view that kind of thing more favorably.
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I agree wholeheartedly. In that case, the program would directly benefit the US. 
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