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Listening to atheists describe their belief system as "not believing in anything" is simply comical.

They passionately and religiously defend their beliefs as any other world view. Changing the word from belief to theory doesn't make something fact from hypothetical.

Some of the most indoctrinated children are children of atheists. It is impossible to say they don't indoctrinate their children if they taught their children to speak. As their children didn't have a choice over which language they would grow up speaking, so their children don't have a choice over which religion they will grow up believing.

Please note, Atheists usually don't think about theists. They usually think about specific types of theists called Christian, Muslim, Jew, Pantheists.... The same connection with each person's core set of beliefs needs to be addressed with the atheist as there is a whole spectrim of beliefs once they profess no belief in gods as Chicky: Atheist Cupcake notes.

These believes need to be recognized in atheists as they are with theist for a fair analysis of the question. These are the beliefs atheists say they don't have.

Robert Abuse: You believe what you believe. Saying that a certain number of people have to gather in one place and make a profession before it can be called a religion is to admit that you don't know how to define religion. You can be your own denomination of Atheism which can change directions as often as you change your mind about what you believe in. Religion isn't necessarily a fixed set of beliefs as established religions like LDS have changed radically in the last 100 years....yet you would recognize them as a religion.

***I am sorry, yes my beliefs do affect my view of the world, but they are my beliefs, I do not have a building dedicated to them.

So what about Plan Parenthood buildings killing infants according to atheists beliefs with my tax payer dollars? More infants die in America at the hands of those Americans who promised not to do harm than of soldiers who promised to rise their lives to defend our country for the freedom of others during a war.

And yes, the Democrats who had the same information as the President voted for the war and its funding.

Well, a belief is anything someone believes, be it true or false. Believe it or not, there are people that believe that the earth is flat. (The Flat Earth Society) This is their "belief." Thus, anyone who does not believe in a god is an atheist and this IS one of their beliefs and a part of their belief system...end of story. As for the "beauty and Truth" of your individual belief system, you are seriously misguided. I have heard that many people on acid experience an extremely beautiful displays of color and intense emotional experiences with profound results. Tat does not make what they are doing right nor is it something I have any interest in trying. It certainly doesn’t make their actions or their belief that their actions are ok...the truth. Your bible or the Quran or whatever holly book you subscribe too may bring you some form of comfort and you may find some beauty in it's pages, but that does NOT make it all peaches and it certainly does NOT make it true or the TRUTH. This absurd idea that everyone's beliefs should be accepted as truth is assigning. If you CHOOSE to belief a lie, that is your prerogative and I have no right to prevent you from believing what you want. But just as I scoff at the acidheads and pot heads and alcoholics for waiting their lives and the adults that can’t differentiate between science fiction and reality and spend countless hours a day playing video games for the same reason, so too do I feel about people that would put faith in such an antiquated and ridiculous notion as god. ~~

OK, I am an atheist.

You are assuming that there is a system involved in atheism...

...so.

Please tell me what I believe in.

Edit:

I am sorry, yes my beliefs do affect my view of the world, but they are my beliefs, I do not have a building dedicated to them and stand there haranguing my audience to believe in what I believe on pain of some post demise eternal torture.

Where you come from maybe it is the custom to believe in some religion or other. Where I come from we gave that nonsense up years ago.

When the President of the USA said `god told me to invade Iraq` my beliefs were, yet again, confirmed.

Edit 2: "...A disbelief in superman or gizmo or hating a hobby doesn't impact the way you live at all. It creates nothing else, no system and no other opinions. A disbelief in God does.."

No, it doesn`t.. Tell me just what system my disbelief in any gods has created. ?

My opinion on god is the same as my opinion on Popeye the Sailor Man, it is just a fictional character from a book.

If I introduced you to the Great and powerful god Gizmo, and you chose not to believe it, would that be a belief system on your part? If you had never heard of a god, would it make a belief system that one doesn't exist?

It is more proper, I think, to say that I don't ACCEPT that there is or ever was a god. It's the natural state of birth, until someone introduces you to the subject, you have no feelings about it either way. That's the way I treat it. It has nothing to do with a belief system....

BTW, just because you don't believe in a god, doesn't mean you don't believe in anything. That's just immature thinking... and wishful thinking on the part of those trying to belittle someone that doesn't believe the way they do...

Why on earth would a non-acceptance of a god effect how I view the world??? That makes no sense... anymore than your disbelief in Gizmo effects yours...

*Edit*

Only to those that believe in a God to start with. My life has not changed because others do...

Let's flip the question around. Is theism A belief system (where theism is defined as belief in the existence of at least one god)? I think it should be obvious that the answer is no. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of different belief systems that include theism as a premise. Theism is merely one component of those various belief systems, and it may be the only component that they share.

The same is true of atheism. It is at most a component of a variety of belief systems, not a belief system in and of itself. And just as with theism, that shared atheism may be the only thing different belief systems have in common. A Stalinist Communist has little in common with a Secular Humanist. Admittedly, most modern atheistic belief systems arise in one way or another from Enlightenment thought, but that doesn't mean that they are identical.

Atheists are just rarer than theists, so people tend to lump them together where they tend to classify theists according to belief system.

Atheism is a position an individual holds on one question only: is there

a god. Answering this in the negative doesn't obligate you to hold a

position on any other subject. Atheists can and do disagree on a wide

number of political, economic, and social issues. The only thing they

share in common is a disbelief in the claims about gods. That is one of

the reasons there is no "Atheist Voting Bloc" in American politics. The

level of concensus needed to form an effective lobby simply doesn't

exist in the atheist community due to the divergence of opinion.

Edit: To your point that a lack of belief must inform other areas of my life, true enough. But what particular set of

beliefs MUST I hold as a direct consequence of my not

believing in a god? Not beliefs I have accepted on their

own merits, but what beliefs that I must hold to be logically

consistent with my lack of religious belief? I can't think of any

particular belief or set of beliefs that rise to this standard.

Ive seen people say it isn't a religion, cause its not, it is a belief, but not a system of beliefs. Atheism simply state a lack of belief in god. Atheists are like snow flakes, we are all ice but each of us is different. We all think god is a lie but some of us have religion, like wicca and Buddhism and some of us donut, some of us believe in should and other do not. Atheism only covers the god part. Just like theism is the belief in a god, each theist is different in what they believe some of you believe in the christian god, some of you have allah, you are all theists.

We rarely define a belief system by stating what we DON'T believe in.

For example, you probably don't believe that eating a diet consisting of only chocolate is healthy. But...you wouldn't define your beliefs concerning a healthy diet by this one, esoteric bit of information. As a matter of fact, it probably never occurred to you that this was part of your conscience 'belief' system until I mentioned it.

In the same manner, atheism isn't a belief system. It provides no method of reaching moral and ethical decisions, it provides no basis for determining reality, it gives no clues as to what a person who claims to be atheist DOES believe.

It's merely stating that they don't hold a particular belief. There is no 'system' involved.

Edit: As to your claim that 'it must be true if a bunch of people believe it', this is VERY flawed logic.

The Church supported the flat Earth theory, the Earth as the center of the universe, burning witches at the stake and torture (just to name a few things). The reasons for these beliefs were considered well-founded. In other words, lots of people believed that it was 'right'.

This pattern repeats throughout history, from slave ownership to raping women during times of war to the Holocaust.

Are all of these things 'right' just because a bunch of people agreed on them?

For some YES Atheism is a belief system.

For some NO Atheism is not a belief system.

For most, Atheism is a thinking system.

They believe to not believe in whatever they don't believe in.

Of course its a belief system. That is being denied too? Its sooo trendy to be an atheist. heh, kiddin kids c'mon now. ;)

If people can take the time to come up with questions to try to make people of any religion feel inferior for believing in whatever they believe in they ... 1.) are bored and 2.) are operating out of a belief system they believe in enough to try to make a point. Who cares. Everbody get over yourself :)

heh ha he hehe