and while you think you're being funny and clever, you're really behaving like this

yeah? Let's name a religion (again, including atheism) that isn't popularly depicted as feeling oppressed while actively attempting to oppress other religions

If atheism is a religion then off is a TV channel, dumbass.

I fucking giggled at your analogy, friend.

Why thank you. :D

well, atheism is a "set of religious beliefs" despite not being an "organized religion." It really depends on where you're drawing the line

Definition of Atheism: The theory or belief that God does not exist.

"Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values."

The belief that "God does not exist" is shared amongst atheists, and the practice of "not celebrating religious holidays" is a cultural system shared amongst atheists. They share the cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews of someone who believes humanity evolved from nothing and have that moral values are self-taught and not god-given. They are essentially a religion.

Then what do you call someone without a religion? That's what atheism is.

I always thought Buddism was kind of left alone. You never hear any Buddhists trying to debate people into converting, and you can't really oppress them because they don't want anything that you could take away. Or else they just don't react at all so it's like the oppression doesn't even matter--like that time they all set themselves on fire and just meditated. While on fucking fire.

I would never consider Buddhism a religion. It's more of a philosophy like Taoism. There is no deity in Buddhism anyways. No set "way" (they are always adapting their philosophy with the current era and sciences). They're philosophy is basically to not get into any dogmatic disputes over ANYTHING, and to find ultimate happiness with less. Detachment from material possessions.

That's true, although I also think you could kind of consider it a religion because they do believe in some form of an afterlife and eternal soul. I believe some sects also believe in reincarnation. Having a creator or supreme deity figure is what most people think qualifies a religion as such, but I think the technical definition is "a set of beliefs concerning the nature of the world usually including a set of specific morals and values."

I just hate that the word religion puts such a biased viewpoint in me. I hate dogmatic people, who are usually involved in some type of organized religion. The Buddha told his "students" to not believe what he says but to seek out his words with experiential truth. It's like the one religion that says "Find your own path to enlightenment."
There are many ways to reach enlightenment (which is the deeper goal of every religion [the superficial goal would be control which is prominent in any religion that likes to convert]) like selfless practices (charity), meditation, spirit journeys, alchemy, etc.. in affect I do not think the idea of a world religion or major religions is a good thing because no matter what, people are going to experience conflicting views because we all live in different cultures, backgrounds, families and individual bodies. This different perspective of a common religion will most certainly cause quarrels and ultimately separation (different sects), which will then lead to violence and discrimination, as well as a false "righteous stance" which enables them to be right because what they are arguing over is the truth of the ABSOLUTE, period.
Religion should be destroyed. There should only be a philosophy, not a dogma. People should not be fed the contradicting information that God is not real through science class in the study of evolution, as well as the "fact" that going to the house of god every sabbath day is making you a better person. People just need to start thinking for themselves instead of blindly following what one said and then defending that stand-point as if god himself said it. All religions say the same thing anyways, just with different names and metaphors, all basing themselves off of astrology/sun worship and magick.

In my opinion though, a lot of the flaws you've listed have come about because of our nature as human beings, not because of religion. Even if you don't believe in something such as original sin, it's pretty obvious that humans are highly imperfect. Whether you choose to believe Jesus, Muhammad, or whoever, I'm sure that most of those prophets never told any of their followers that you should persecute and kill those who do not believe what you do. We humans decided to start doing that on our own because of our own flaws--our desires and greed and megalomania. Any prophet that DID advocate such things is obviously no true teacher of religion.

Buddhism, Hinduism, all those ancient religions including the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Norse, etc

The hindus have fought wars before, though they don't have the same popular depiction of being "opressed." I'll give you buddhism. But the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians? Is that a joke? 80% of the wars prior to christianity were fought over the Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians thinking that their religion was better than the rest and that the rest were trying to prevent them from worship, so they had to go take over and tell their citizens the "correct belief system."

you said popularly depicted, not what happened in reality

"300" is a pretty popular depiction

and you are part of those SOME atheist who judge millions of people based on the mistakes of a few ones

Atheists don't believe in religion. :l

"#500 to #494 - amsel ONLINE (0 minutes ago)
well, atheism is a "set of religious beliefs" despite not being an "organized religion." It really depends on where you're drawing the line "

Learn to read, "set of religious beliefs" means a belief that is about religion. So you can believe what you want about religion, and what you will, is called a religious. Believe a few things makes it a set of beliefs. Choosing to not follow any religion and believing god doesn't exist therefore CAN be a set of religious beliefs AND define you as an atheist, but does NOT define you as religious. Go retake 7th grade english.

saying you're "not religious" is like saying you're agnostic; you don't care about religion, you have better things to do than think about it. Saying you're atheist is saying you passionately care in the knowledge of god not existing. I see where some people can say a religion needs to be an "organized religion" as defined by law, and atheism is not that in any way, but it is definitely a religious belief system.

So basically you are throwing out the very definition of religion to justify your argument? True, religion doesn't necessarily have to be organized as Catholicism is, but religion needs a god figure, wether it be a man in the clouds or the earth you walk upon. You can stop saying that atheism is a religious belief system -I agree with you there- but how does that religious belief system make atheism a religion, and how does that make atheists religious?

read the post I made earlier in these purple lines. A religion doesn't necessarily have to be organized, and no part of the definition of religion says it has to pertain to a god figure. For example, Buddhism doesn't believe in a god figure. A religion is just a shared system of beliefs, practices, and cultural traditions relating to spirituality and morality.

Arguably Buddhism is not a religion, rather a philosophy. 'Atheism is a set of beliefs about a higher power' where the higher power doesn't exist.

>shared system of beliefs : nothing specific in common, rather what they don't have in common
>practices : nothing in common, but again, rather what they don't have in common
>cultural traditions relating to spirituality and morality : surprise! nothing really in common! Atheism has nothing to do with spirituality and the morality of an atheist is not governed by atheism so morality is not necessarily the same for every atheist.

Atheists don't really have anything in common except nothing; literally nothing since they believe there is no god, they believe in nothing. They don't believe in anything, but nothing.

and specifically BELIEVING IN nothing is different from not believing in anything. They believe that there is no god, and have a strong opinion that there is no god. A person who is "not religious" is someone who doesn't believe in anything because he/she doesn't care and thinks he/she has something better to do. This is more agnostic than atheist.

it's not just "shared system of beliefs, shared practices, and shared cultural traditions," it's all those things with relation to spirituality. Atheists share the belief that god is not real, share the practice of not worshipping god, and share the cultural tradition of refusing to take place in religious ceremonies.

Atheism: A theory that God does not exist.

I guess you're going to tell me that off is a TV channel too now.

just read the other post, I'm not really gonna keep posting everything twice for you lol

That's exactly what you did.

the only thing I posted twice was the one where I literally commented the name and timestamp from my previous post lol. Pay a little attention next time. Shit man.

Well as far as I know, atheist isn't a religion, since people who are atheist don't believe in an all-powerful being.

athiesm is a self defeating belief system that says that there cannot be a higher power, and does not include belief in a higher power, also religion is a system of beliefs and does not need to include a higher power, ec. buddhism