Atheism is NOT a religion. It’s not even a group, or a belief. It simply means an atheist is NOT theistic, meaning they do NOT believe in God(s). Atheists don’t have religious beliefs of any sort. Atheism is lack of belief. We are also called Freethinkers, Nontheists, or even better, we don’t refer to it as all and just call ourselves Human Beings, or people.
It’s interesting to me how many people can’t accept that you can lack belief. They often make the assumption that Atheist believe there is no God(s). NO! Atheists don’t believe in God(s), meaning we can’t assert necessarily that it doesn’t exist, only that we don’t have a belief that it does.
Let me give you an example you might relate to better. At one time, you may have believed in Santa Claus. But in time you discovered, realized, that the whole Santa Claus gig was made up, and your parents were putting stuff under the tree.
Please, no offense to Jewish folks, or those of other religions. There’s probably a close analogy you can insert.
When you realized Santa was a story, you dropped the belief in a “real” Santa.
That is the way it is for many of us Atheists. At one time I believed in the Christian God and Jesus, and then I came to the conclusions that those are just stories. After having read the Bibles a few times, I must admit, really poorly written, bad stories, but that’s a whole ‘nuther article.
Back to Atheism. There is no dogma, no set of rules, and we didn’t form a religion called Atheism. That label has been attached to us, to define the people who no longer hold God(s) beliefs. As yet no one has attached a label to me for not believing in dragons, the tooth fairy, or the boogie man, but maybe that fits with Atheism too. All Atheists are non-theists, and some are anti-theists. That depends on the person.
Atheist, like everyone else, are either good because they want to be, or they are bad because they want to be. Goodness and badness come from internal understanding, or lack thereof, and from upbringing, and a host of other things, but not from external, religious text. Look in any prison and you’ll see very quickly that religious beliefs did not prevent these people from committing the crimes that landed them there.
Some famous atheists you may have heard of:
“Creationists make it sound like a ‘theory’ is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night” — Isaac Asimov
“I don’t believe in God. My god is patriotism. Teach a man to be a good citizen and you have solved the problem of life.” — Andrew Carnegie
“All thinking men are atheists.” — Ernest Hemingway
“Lighthouses are more helpful then churches.” — Benjamin Franklin
“Faith means not wanting to know what is true.”— Friedrich Nietzsche
“The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.” — George Bernard Shaw
“Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile.” — Kurt Vonnegut
“A man is accepted into a church for what he believes and he is turned out for what he knows.” — Samuel Clemens
“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.” — Edward Gibbon
“The church says the earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the church.” — Ferdinand Magellan
“Not only is there no god, but try getting a plumber on weekends.” — Woody Allen
