Atheists insist that they are not religious. When you challenge them as to the validity of that claim, they will always fall back on the following point as being the reason: ‘They don’t believe in God’. Let’s look at this claim because whether they realise it or not, I am going to show you why they are religious. Sounds crazy? Read on.
Notice the word ‘believe’ in that claim, ‘I don’t believe in God’. This is a statement of faith because even though they have no proof that there is no God and the universe was not created, they trust that this is the case. Notice my previous sentence has the word ‘trust’ in it. Faith is trust. Faith is confidence. Faith is the evidence of things not seen. So even though they have no proof, they trust and are confident that there is no God. This is a good reason that demonstrates that Atheists are religious and Atheism is actually a belief system or religion.
But I hear you say that, they don’t believe in God, isn’t that the point? Okay, if that is your stance, then why is Buddhism a religion. Most Buddhists don’t believe in God either. They are mostly Atheist and who would deny that Buddhism is a religion. Like Atheists, they have trust that there is no God, and yet they are strangely called religious even despite this fact.
Okay, so now that we know that not believing in God is really the same as believing that there is no God, we can see it is a belief. But is Atheism a religion like Buddhism? I think I can hear you say that Buddhists believe in spirit beings and Atheists do not. Okay I hear ya. So let’s make a fair comparison on this point.
Let’s first define what a spirit being is. It is essentially a life form that exists beyond our 3-dimensional space. A being that inhabits a higher dimension. Hence why the term Heaven is considered higher than Earth and not higher physically So what do Atheists believe? Well they usually accept mainstream scientific facts and theories including: Evolution, a high probability that life exists on other planets, and a reasonable probability that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe. They also are open to the existence of higher dimensions as mathematicians have equations explaining it and physicists can accept the possibility of higher dimensions based in the fact that we have not seen any limit to the universe yet .
Okay, this certainly doesn’t define all Atheists and Buddhists, but it certainly represents a many of them. So let’s recap. We have a Buddhist who doesn’t believe in God, believes in spirit life forms, and higher dimensions where these life forms inhabit. We also have Atheists who don’t believe in God, believe in physical life forms even on other planets, and believe in higher dimensions.
So what is the difference? Is it not that one believes that life forms occupy lower and higher dimensions while the other believes that life forms only inhabit the physical universe (three dimensional)? Is this the absolute difference to a religious person and a non-religious person? Because if that is the case, I say there is no difference and hence either both are religious or both are not religious.
If you think that Buddhists are religious because they believe in something and Atheists are not because they do not believe, then you are mistaken. Believing in nothing and believing that everything came from nothing is not the same thing. The latter is a belief and the former is a clueless stance. This also leaves them with two ridiculous options as to how the universe came to be. Either it came from absolutely nothing, or it has always existed in some form. Either option is a faith based belief and straight away we can see that if nothing precedes everything, even the universe, then there would be nothing now. Also, if you believe that the cause of the universe is non-intelligent, non-living, and has always been or has always existed in some form, then ask yourself why the source doesn’t possess the attributes it caused. The only valid explanation as to how the universe and life came to be is that the cause is infinite, intelligent, conscious, and possess that which you see in its product the universe, namely life, intelligence, love, design, etc.
Finally, you may have heard how religion causes wars and for that reason among others it is bad. I agree. Yet what does this really mean. Do Buddhists cause wars because they are religious? Do Atheists cause wars? Well the answer is that they do indeed cause wars whether or not they consider themselves religious or not. One major tenet of Atheism is the belief in Evolution. This theory has been used and is the justification for a number of wars and ethnic cleansing events around the world. The idea that a superior group of humans has the right or ability to take over the ecosystem of so called lower forms of human is permissible in the Theory of Evolution. This is not just an opinion, but is also the reality of history regarding many major conflicts in human history that were rooted in the idea that one group of people were racially superior due to being the most evolved humans. They have even justified their genocide by saying that the target group for annihilation are closer to primitive apes. Such conflicts have been the biggest in human history regarding loss of life.
So, if you have read this far and still claim that Buddhism is a religion and Atheism is not, then feel free to give your reasons in the comments below. Perhaps you can make an argument based on rituals or something like that. But rituals has little to do with the existence of God. For now, it is certain that Atheism is a belief system that requires faith or trust. As to it being a religion, what are your thoughts?
