A well-liked U-U minister in San Francisco about 30 years ago said "Unitarianism is for people who have not yet kicked the church habit."
On another occasion he said he wanted to move the lectern from one side to the other, and moved it one inch each week. The congregation laughed.
Atheism is this; atheism is that.
However we define it, we become atheists when we acknowledge blue-green algae (aka pond scum) as our ancestors.
Surely there's a Greek-language term for absence of belief. Does anyone know it?
BTW, have you acknowledged our ancestors?
did you mean APISTIA?
'Atheism is a religion' is a mantra that the hard of thinking use.
Because they cannot imagine not worshipping something.
Every one else they fought always appear to worship other gods.
They are used to that....that is an 'enemy ' they can fight because that is what xianity does....gatecrash a party, eradicate worship for other gods and goddesses, and place their tatty icon on the empty plinth!
They know the language and the mind set behind god worship...they know how it works....and traditionally it is always another religion they have to conquer and convert to their brand of god worship..
All of their 'enemies' have been other religions and other gods and high priests ...
Atheism is just another enemy that is growing but unlike other 'religions' which fell and disintegrated after the xian spin and war machine did its thing.... it is actually challenging the xian position in society...
The xian head honchos have absolutely no idea how to fight Atheism because there is no form or structure to it...unlike their own organization or even past threats they were faced with....they are frightened...because it is biting back and actually winning....and it has no central organ or command centre to vanquish...it is like fighting smoke.
They tell the sheeple the only thing they can think of...'it is another religion ....gird your loins for battle!'
It is desperate and hysterical leadership, they are rather worried...they know it could be the greatest challenge yet,
But the troops have to be told something... so like they always do in such situations they lie to bring a little comfort to the cattle to placate their questions....and cos the cattle are aware that other religions fall eventually...it is what the history books tells them...that calms them.
The head honchos have to buy time, that is the only thing they can do!
But sooner rather then later the truth will dawn on them...they will not be happy jeebus sunbeams cos they will realise their own leaders have lied to them...badly!
Like I've stated on another discussion... I'm a third generation atheist, but I do not practice any form of atheism. I profoundly disagree with the word atheism because it contains no true meaning, and represents no one. An atheist is a person free of godly/spiritual thoughts and concepts and beliefs... but atheism... meh. A empty meaningless word not worth its weight in alphabets!
The most perfect refutation of this I've ever heard was by Sam Harris:
"Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make when in the presence of religious dogma."
A religion is theistic, whether it be poly-theistic or mono-theistic. These words mean to believe in many or one deity of some sort or other. A-Theism means exactly what it is supposed to. "A" = "Non." Like, for instance, "A-Moral." So, what this misguided friend of yours is saying, is that an a-moral person is quite very moral, indeed. But how can he explain away the a-sexual insects who truly have no gender? That's a tough one.
Religions are not necessarily theistic, a religion is any set of dogmas a group of people cling to without evidence, whether their are celestial gods or not does not matter.