Atheism is a Religion

In defining a religion different people would provide different statements depending on one’s orientation of the concept. Religion is often associated with a god who is believed to have more powers than human beings and who grants people favours from his powers. Other people believe in many gods, each possessing different types of powers. The religious people either see their gods, physically in idols or in physical features or they believe he exist but cannot be seen. However, for any concept to qualify as religion there is a set of criteria that it should meet.

First, a religion has narratives which function as the basis of the faith of people in such religion. These stories explain where the world came from and the position of human being in the world. The famous religions such as Christians and Islam believe that God created the world and the human race and that human being are superior to other creations. Secondly, religion has experiences felt by those who adhere to it. People claim to be born again and redeemed from evil when converted to Christianity and others claim connection with the deity during some of the rituals and ceremonies conducted by specific religion.

Another criteria for a religion is social dimension by which, those in one religion believe that people should embrace their faith and it is the basis of the missionary activities and writing books trying to convince others of the truthfulness of one’s religious faith. Each religion also tends to refer its social lives to a source which they believe to be true such as Bible, Quran. They also have prominent people who are believed to have laid the foundation of a religion

Fourth, a religion has doctrines which mean some philosophies and beliefs about the working of its deity. Though often not specific, each religion has concepts which are believed to be advocated by the supernatural and they control the behaviours of people who subscribe to such a religion. Fifth, a religion has ethics; what is good and what is wrong. This works in line with the doctrines such that, whatever is believed to please god is always construed to be good and anything else as wrong. To some extreme cases some people sacrificed themselves or others since they believed it pleased their god or gods.

Finally, a religion has rituals and property they deem sacred. Such property would include houses, temples, caves or art. These serve to represent the presence of a god or gods or even the imagination of how god is like in the case of art. They also have rituals conducted to converts or conducted after some time with the intention of renewing the faith. The rituals could be commemoration of significant point in time in the history of the religion or a stage required for a convert to have a link with the god or gods.

Although other criteria could be highlighted, narratives, experiences, social dimension, ethics, doctrines rituals and property are the main elements that define any concept that is a religion. However, often most people would take religion on the basis of just belief which is just but an element of the entire meaning of religion.

Atheism

Atheism refers to lack of belief in any supernatural being. Some may therefore ostensibly think that atheism is not a religion. However, looking at the criteria set out for a concept to be a religion, atheism qualifies to be one.  Atheism has narratives pointing to evolution theory as origin of the life in earth. The narrative often informed by Charles Darwin theories places human being above other species of life since in the struggle for the fittest; man becomes the fittest since he has the highest level of intelligence. People have reported to be happy after becoming atheists since there is no belief of afterlife and their highest purpose of life is to be happy. Regarding social dimensions, atheists have written several books arguing the non -exists god or gods meaning they intend to convince the society that there is nothing like supernatural being. There being no deity for atheists, they beliefs are based on forces of events such as gravity, earth rotation and ocean tides among other cosmic forces. Biological explanations are preferred to belief in explaining life.

The atheism has philosophies on ethics such as utilitarianism which provide criteria of what is right and what is wrong. Since there is no standard for atheism, most atheists celebrate secular holidays such as public holidays and most recently they have been celebrating Charles Darwin anniversary. Atheism does not hold buildings and other property as sacred but they do to the living things. They place human life above all else as they believe people are the fittest in the struggle for the fittest. However they also advocate for other living things as they view killing them being tantamount to murder.

Therefore, atheism, despite its lack of belief in any supernatural being, is a religion because it has its beliefs, ethics, philosophies, narratives, social dimensions, experiences and ritual just like other religions.