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
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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.
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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.
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