Atheism is not a religion

[Donray]

A federal court in Canada has ruled that the self-titled "Church of Atheism" isn't a religion and can't be treated like one for tax purposes.

https://www.foxnews.com/world/canada-ch ... ble-status

So can all the Christians stop with atheism is a religion?????

[Divine Insight]

Atheists clearly don't have faith in a higher power such as God, they don't worship God, and don't have a comprehensive system of faith and worship.

Tcg

In general I agree with the essence of what you are saying. Unfortunately in today's world semantics are meaningless. (i.e. words have become extremely ill-defined and have succumbed to mere subjective opinion.)

It basically comes down to opinionated legal arguments and the lawyers who can twist the meanings of words the best will often win their case.

For example, if I were the lawyer for this atheist and you had just presented the above claim, I could argue to the court the following:

Atheists do have faith in a higher power. They have faith in the consistency of nature and the laws of physics. They do worship nature. Keep in mind that worship simply means to love or revere and many atheists love and revere nature.

Do they have a comprehensive system of faith and worship? Absolutely. It's called the scientific method and it has proven it's credibility for hundreds of years.

~~~~~

I'll be the first to grant you that these court proceedings are indeed going to boil down to an argument of semantics. But in the end, that's how the law actually works.

Notice, that in your claim you never said that the God needed to be an intelligent conscious entity.

In fact, if we demand that the God must be intelligent then Christian theology would be in a world of trouble anyway.

[Tcg]

Do they have a comprehensive system of faith and worship? Absolutely. It's called the scientific method and it has proven it's credibility for hundreds of years.

You are suggesting that the scientific method is a system of faith and worship?

Do you worship the scientific method?


Tcg

[Wootah]

[Replying to post 7 by Tcg]

This is the no true scotsman fallacy. Essentially you are saying he can't be an atheist and call atheism a religion.

[Divine Insight]

Do they have a comprehensive system of faith and worship? Absolutely. It's called the scientific method and it has proven it's credibility for hundreds of years.

You are suggesting that the scientific method is a system of faith and worship?

Do you worship the scientific method?


Tcg

No. I was arguing that an atheist could worship nature, and science could be their dogma.

By the way, I'm not personally arguing that atheism should be a religion. I'm just saying that in today's tribal climate where truth and facts no longer matter any argument can be made for anything. Especially in terms of making laws or settling legal issues.

[Tcg]

[Replying to post 7 by Tcg]

This is the no true scotsman fallacy. Essentially you are saying he can't be an atheist and call atheism a religion.

Nope. I pointed out the fallacy of your universal claim about all atheists based on the actions of one man. Additionally, his case was about one organization, "The Church of Atheism of Central Canada", not about atheism. He hasn't claimed atheism is a religion. If you review carefully, you'll also note that I made no claims as to whether he is an atheist or not.

Your accusation fails utterly. If you intend to address what I have said, you'll need to address these points rather than ignore or misrepresent them as you have done so far.


Tcg

[Bust Nak]

Actually you proved that the atheists think it should be a religion and a judge said it wasn't on taxation grounds.

Hold on. One does not have to believe atheism to be a religion to believe that an atheistic organisation should be grated a tax free status as if it was religious organisation. That's how it is in the US, atheism is given the same protection as religions for the purposes of the law.

As for the debate topic, atheism being granted the same status as religions in the US didn't help make atheism a religion, why would atheism not being granted the same status as religions in Canada stop atheism from being labelled a religion?

[Menotu]

[Replying to post 1 by Donray]

So can all the Christians stop with atheism is a religion?????

Christians should stop doing a lot of things and start doing a lot of other things. But it's in vogue to make make that statement for some people. Just like saying evolution is a religion. But I suppose someone, somewhere could try to make it a religion at some point. After all, nothing was a religion at one time.

[Gracchus]

To qualify as tax-exempt, an organization should have to open its books and finances to public scrutiny. The salaries and wages paid to its employees should also be a matter of public record. A given percentage of its income should be demonstrated to be charitable. And it should be able to lease, but not own real estate.