[ExI] Tolerance

[Emlyn]

2009/12/11  <jameschoate at austin.rr.com>:
> ---- Damien Broderick <thespike at satx.rr.com> wrote:
>> On 12/10/2009 9:44 AM, jameschoate at austin.rr.com wrote:
>>
>> > ---- Ben Zaiboc:
>> >> >  Wishes people would stop thinking that atheism is just another religion.
>>
>> > Ben is seriously confused on this point, and he's not alone.
>>
>> Yes, because surely it's obvious that not believing in unicorns is just
>> another way of believing in unicorns. Oh, wait.
>
> You, and most others, confuse two different things here. The issue is 'faith' not unicorns. Whether the unicorns exist is irrelevant to the question of faith.
>
> http://www.waythingsare.com/news/what/religion/a-pantheist-s-manifesto.htm
>
> Atheism, like science, are religions and philosophies. The only difference is the axioms you put your faith in.

This idea that atheism is just another religion is beginning to shit
me. It's wrong.

Atheism has no shared culture, ritual, tradition.
It doesn't even have metaphysical belief, it has a lack of
metaphysical belief. Unless you think that not believing in Santa
Claus is a religion, you cannot also call not believing in
supernatural entities a religion.

Science is probably rightly called a world view or philosophy.
Materialism, or a naturalistic world view, similar. But Atheism?
There's just not enough to it, to call it a philosophy, let alone a
religion.

-- 
Emlyn

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