ToughDiamond wrote:
Atheism and all the other related -isms are called religion by some
Ahh yes. There was some controversy with the recent census in my country on the which question "What is your religion?" If you pick "no religion" that's treated as atheism but if you pick "Other - atheism" that's treated as a religion. So choosing atheism increases the total number of "religious" people according to the census results, which is then used to increase funding for religious services.
ToughDiamond wrote:
In practical terms of choosing, then if you accept it's a religion then you could be open to criticism from some theists that you're demonstrating faith (in there being no supernatural entities) while simultaneously assuming that any other kind of faith can be correct, ergo you're a hypocrite.
That makes sense but when some of the Christians on Facebook start saying "You atheists have faith!" stripped of the context of "before you (or more likely a completely different atheist) said faith is bad yet you are now demonstrating faith so you're a hypocrite" it just sounds like they're insulting faith as a general concept, which sounds strange coming from a Christian.
They do the same thing with the term "religion". They'll say "atheism is a religion". Even if atheism is something to be taken on faith, that alone doesn't make it a religion. Atheism doesn't have any ceremonies.
If you point out that they have a religion to (Christianity) some of them will say "I'm not religious. Only false versions of Christianity are religions but my church (the true church) is not a religion". This allows them to say with a straight face that all religions are bad.
ToughDiamond wrote:
But you might be able to live with that. It also looks as if you'll be on the right side of history, part of a group that's growing while the others are in decline. And if you're young enough you might live to see the day when you're in a majority, though the downside is that groups in decline can get pretty vicious towards the other side (I suppose it's a kind of moral panic), so you might do well to keep your head down.
That would be the death throes.
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The days are long, but the years are short