Quote Originally Posted by fcman
Atheism, by definition, is the active belief that there is no god. It is therefor a belief system and thus, again by definition, a religion. Most "atheists" have no idea what atheism really is and join simply as a rebellious statement, when in fact they prove themselves to be the most ignorant (and most closed-minded) religious fanatics of them all.
For some strange reason, many people keep getting the idea that atheism is itself some sort of religion. Maybe it is because these people are so caught up in their own religious beliefs that they cannot imagine any person living without religion of some sort. Maybe it is due to some persistent misunderstanding of what atheism is. And maybe they just don't care that what they are saying really doesn't make any sense.

Most atheists do not "believe" that god does not exist. Rather, they dismiss it as a possibility due to a complete lack of evidence. Otherwise, they'd have to entertain the possibility of believing in anything and everything - which is the essential problem of agnosticism. Therefore, it does not take faith to be an atheist. If the evidence changes, then most would certainly be reasonable enough to revaluate their positions. Until then, the existence of god is simply a non-issue for them. In theory, the latter is a special case of the former. Believing X against some evidence is believing without evidence that the evidence [against] X is insufficient. Understand?

All religions have rules or certain beliefs. Lets compare them real quick:

- Does atheism have anything approaching "clearly defined rules?" Not in the least. There is only one "rule," and that is the rule of the definition of "atheism" - not having any belief in any gods.

- Does atheism have an "eschatology?" Eschatology is a "belief about the end of the world or the last things." Now, I'm sure that many atheists have some sort of beliefs about how the world might end, but those beliefs sure aren't clearly defined or uniform among all of us. In fact, any beliefs about the end of the world are accidental - that is to say, they are not a necessary part of atheism. There is absolutely, positively nothing inherent in the disbelief in gods that leads one to any opinions about the end of the world. Quite the opposite of how 'eschatology' is treated in a religion.

- Does atheism contain "a philosophy by which to live?" Atheists certainly have philosophies by which they live. Are they the same as religion ones? Highly doubt it.

As a side note, the easiest way to shut atheists up is to run them over with a tank.
Assuming you already have a tank and all the necessary tank stuff, and a place filled with self identified atheists.