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In regards to the "Atheism is a belief" mini-argument: I would suggest that the word belief implies faith, and Atheism isn't based of faith or even a lack of it. Atheism is based of the garnering of evidence and the willingness to interpret such evidence to the full extent possible, even if such an extent leads to places you would rather not go.
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True, but that doesn't conflict with the concept of belief. You can garner as much evidence as you like, but you'll never fully understand how the universe works. Even theoretical physicists don't know everything. If you start asking 'Why?' questions - Why is the sky blue? Why does light scatter? Why do photons have properties of both particles and waves? etc - eventually you'll get to the point where the answer is currently unknown. More research will probably answer those questions, but that will simply raise more.
Also, there seems to be a strange trend in this thread of people suggesting that religion only exists because people are brainwashed as kids. Given the number of people who are 'Born again' - and not just in to Christianity - that's simply not true. I've known quite a few intelligent, educated people who asked themselves difficult 'Why?' questions and found answers in religion. Whilst I don't particularl agree with them, I respect their decisions.
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But saying that atheism is a religious belief just kinda offends me, because I have no interest in religion in terms of beliefs x__x Its non-existant in that regard.
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Okay, but I think we're disagreeing over definitions rather than philosophy here. I'm not saying that atheism being a religious belief means that atheism is a religion. Personally, I'd suggest that the concept of religion goes well beyond the belief (or lack of belief) in a God. It's more to do with the rituals, ethics and lifestyle of its practicers. In that sense, many people who believe in Jesus as a God are not actually religious, because they don't actually live their lives in any sort of Christian way. On the other hand, Bhuddists don't believe in a God but are definitely religious.
So, basically, I'm saying that atheism is a belief but not a religion.
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I'd quite like to be Jewish, minus the God part. Beards, hats, witty banter on tap, good music and a hundred different rolled dough products.
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Right, I'll call the mohel and we'll get you circumsized immediately.
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I suppose the culture is intertwined with the religion, must be hard to be Jewish but not believe in God which is fundamental to well, being a member of a religion. ;D
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Not really, it's surprisingly common. Being Jewish is technically a religious thing, but there's a culture that has built up around it. There's lots of different levels/streams of Judaism and there's a fair few cultural/non-practicing/atheist (like me) Jews out there.