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Post #1238012

Author
Mrebo
Parent topic
Politics 2: Electric Boogaloo
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1238012/action/topic#1238012
Date created
4-Sep-2018, 1:35 AM

moviefreakedmind said:

Calling atheism a religion is stupid. Theism is not a religion either. Most religions are obviously theistic, and few are atheistic, but lacking a belief in a god or gods is in no way a religious stance.

You’re at least somewhat wrong. Atheism has been been treated as religion by the courts. The courts don’t really want to decide what exactly what constitutes a religion but they have said that beliefs concerning a deity (pro or con) are protected as free exercise of religion. You’re right in the sense that even the courts have not declared atheism itself to be a religion.

In a case where prisoners claimed a religious right to have an atheist study group, the court wrote:

The Supreme Court has said that a religion, for purposes of the First Amendment, is distinct from a “way of life,” even if that way of life is inspired by philosophical beliefs or other secular concerns.

A religion need not be based on a belief in the existence of a supreme being (or beings, for polytheistic faiths), nor must it be a mainstream faith.

Without venturing too far into the realm of the philosophical, we have suggested in the past that when a person sincerely holds beliefs dealing with issues of “ultimate concern” that for her occupy a “place parallel to that filled by God in traditionally religious persons,” those beliefs represent her religion.

We have already indicated that atheism may be considered, in this specialized sense, a religion. (“If we think of religion as taking a position on divinity, then atheism is indeed a form of religion.”).

I’m not sure if I agree with all that or not. A whole lot of things can be asserted as religion under that analysis that may not belong. And yet, it provides protections for people to pursue beliefs concerning matters that are in the religious realm.

[Promise I’ll be more “out of pocket” soon.]