[extropy-chat] Not believing in Eris is also a religion

[Eliezer Yudkowsky]

I'm always amused by people who insist that atheism is a religion.  Do I 
need a separate form of atheism for each religion I don't believe in?  Am I 
just an atheistic Jew, or also an atheistic Christian, an atheistic 
neo-pagan, and an atheistic Dionysian?  Maybe I should become an atheistic 
druid so I can tell people I don't believe in trees.

I bet you didn't even know you were an atheistic Flomnurker until I just 
now told you.  Remember, not believing in Flomnurk is also a religion. 
They have religious observances and everything - if you don't believe in 
Flomnurk, you need to salute all purple things and blow your nose twice 
before going to bed.  You also need to tithe 10% of your annual income to 
an P.O. Box in Missouri.  If you slip me fifty bucks, I'll tell you enough 
about Flomnurk that you can believe in it, so you can save your money.

It's amazing to me that I belong to an infinite number of religions by 
virtue of no one having ever conceived of them.

And a Christian, of course, would be an "atheistic atheist", because not 
believing in atheism is also a religion.  If you don't believe this, that 
makes you an atheistic atheistic atheist.

-- 
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky                          http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence