Is atheism a religion?

o7An appeals court recently ruled on a case involving a prison

inmate attempting to hold a study group on atheism and humanism. The

court ruled that the Waupun Correctional Institution in Wisconsin

violated James Kaufman’s 1st Amendment rights when it refused to

allow the group to meet. In the opinion, a judge cited the U.S.

Supreme Court’s recognition of atheism as being equivalent to a

“religion,” even though the dictionary defines it as “disbelief or

denial in the existence of God or gods.” Should atheism be treated as

a religion?f7

A true atheist is one who is willing to face the full consequences

of what it means to say there is no God. Given some of what we treat

as religion, this is a significant commitment. The bottom line is

that “ ... many an atheist is a believer without knowing it. You can

sincerely believe there is no God and live as though there is. You

can sincerely believe there is a God and live as though there isn’t.

So it goes ... “ writes Frederick Buechner in “Wishful Thinking.”

Sometimes atheism isn’t bad fun: I do what seems right to me and

you do what seems right to you, and if we come into conflict with

each other, society has human judges to invoke human laws and

arbitrate between us. To say there is no God is to say that there are

no absolute standards, no divine judge, no cosmic law, only “the rule

of thumb.”

Other times, there is that feeling we get in the pit of our

stomach that there must be an absolute good by which some act can be

denounced as absolutely evil. So, the problem of good is a major

stumbling block for atheism as a religion, just as the problem of

evil is a major stumbling block for religious faith. Both must learn

how to live with their doubts.

Buechner uses laughter as the example to distinguish faith in God

from faith in no-God: The laughter of faith in God is like

100-year-old Abraham’s laughter when God says his 90-year-old wife is

in a family way (Genesis 17:17).

The laughter of faith in no-God is heard in Sartre’s story “The

Wall”: A man is threatened with death if he doesn’t betray the

whereabouts of his friend to the enemy. The man refuses to do this

and sends the enemy on a wild goose chase to the place he feels

certain his friend isn’t. By chance it turns out to be the very place

where his friend is. The friend is captured and executed and the man

is given his freedom. Sartre ends the story by saying the man laughed

till he cried.

All laughter is welcome in prison, but which laughter is

religious?

(THE VERY REV’D CANON)

PETER D. HAYNES

Saint Michael & All Angels

Episcopal Church

Corona del Mar

Henny Youngman said that he once wanted to become an atheist but

gave up because they have no holidays.

If a person does not celebrate sanctified times, if he does not

believe in the existence of a transcendent being who responds to

prayer, intervenes in human life, is the source of salvation and who

has prepared a beatific place in the afterlife, can he be termed

“religious?”

If one denies the beginningless succession of contingent beings,

or ultimate eschatology, is he religious? If one accepts that man is

the measure of all things and reason is the standard by which to

judge right and wrong, is he religious?

Can one not say that Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Jainism,

Ethical Culture, and Humanism represent an atheistic religious

tradition? Can the definition of “religion” be broadened to include

atheists, or does that inclusion stretch the meaning of faith beyond

recognition?

Thomas Jefferson counseled, “Question with boldness even the

existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of

the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.” Was he near to

the religious sense, then?

Is atheism the total absence of religion? I believe atheism can be

rightly termed a religion just as black, which is the absence of

color, is conventionally deemed to be a color.

Religion is not necessarily predicated on belief in a supreme

being, but on a philosophy of life that responds to mystery and on a

quest to determine one’s place in existence. A religion need not be

defined by rituals performed, holy days observed, or scriptures read.

Religion is not limited to traditions that include trinities,

angels, miracles, prayer books, clergy, hymns and sanctuaries of

stone, or to belief in the six days of creation, an authoritarian

deity or commandments carved on tablets.

Atheism can be, as for Santayana, “true piety toward the

universe.” Pious awe toward creation and a sense of belonging in the

world, even absent the conviction that the universe has a soul, is a

profound expression of religiosity. Through a naturalistic

spirituality, one can believe in only the materiality of the universe

and still hold reverent feelings for it.

Theistic religion says God exists. There is no functional

difference, though, between the position of some theists that says,

“I believe there is a God, that this God created the universe, and

that this God has withdrawn to leave creation to unfold as it will,”

and the position of atheists that counters, “I do not believe in the

existence of a God.”

Belief that God exists and yet is unrelated to our world is

existentially no different from atheism. Imagine that I am a theist,

certain of God’s existence, but that I deny any personal relationship

between God and me or the world. I might as well say that God does

not exist. In short, believing in God does not make one religious.

God and religion are not synonymous and Godless religion is not an

oxymoron.

Theism is an aspect of religiosity, seen by many as pivotal but by

others as dispensable. There are people who, through reason, have

come to deny the objective reality of a supernatural God, who believe

in a self-existent universe rather than a self-existent God. Their

denial still leaves room for a great deal of belief, faith, and

reverence about morality, meaning, and destiny.

I am more concerned over the many who profess faith but are, in

reality, crypto-atheists: They keep a strict difference between the

God they worship and the gods they serve.

RABBI MARK S. MILLER

Temple Bat Yahm

Newport Beach

Atheism and humanism are not religions. They are philosophies that

strive to comprehend the world of human experience using the human

mind as a resource.

The question that follows is, “How can you not use the human mind

as a resource to comprehend the world?” Even a religious person would

have to admit that you must use your mind to understand the

supernatural nature attributed to the idea of God or gods.

So what’s it going to be, a human mind trying to comprehend the

human experience or a divine mind seeking to expand the human mind so

it can comprehend the magnificence of infinite creation?

What if our mind was simply an extension of God’s intelligence? Is

God supposed to be natural, supernatural or abnormal? What if God was

a natural goodness available to anyone who could practice being good?

What if, as Plato believed, we were all variations of a perfect human

ideal experiencing life at the level of what we knew about goodness?

I think any discussion about the nature of life, religious or

nonreligious, could prove to be useful if it explored the human

experience with the purpose of trying to improve behavior, control

instincts, and broaden our sense of well being.

Why wouldn’t we call it a religious experience if a prisoner -- as

a result of such a discussion -- decided to change his way of life

and lose their motivation for crime?

Are there not enough examples of religiously motivated brutality

to convince us that we must all have this discussion if we are to

free ourselves from the prison of inhumanity, misunderstanding and

supernatural egocentric people who believe that domination is the

answer to individual or global concerns?

SENIOR PASTOR

JAMES TURRELL

Center for Spiritual Discovery

Costa Mesa

Atheism is truly I-theism. Agnosticism says, “I don’t know if

there are divine beings.” Atheism says, “There are no divine beings.”

If you ask an atheist whether it’s possible that a divine being

exists in another dimension, place, universe, time, in a way he or

she can’t comprehend, the only way the atheist could “know” that

divine beings don’t exist in those other areas is to claim to be some

sort of deity.

To be intellectually honest, the best they can claim is to be an

agnostic and say, “I don’t know.” In light of that, they claim to

“know” there is no God, and thus atheism becomes I-theism.

Supreme Court precedent has recognized atheism as equivalent to a

“religion” in 1st Amendment cases. Even the claim to be atheist is a

theological statement. Though it is a claim against the existence of

the divine, it does so in the negative, using the Greek root word

“theo” (meaning god).

If this were about a checkers club, we would not be having this

discussion. It would be so obvious. We are having this discussion

because, whether they like it or not, atheism is -- by its nature --

a theological position on the existence of divine beings. That

theological position influences the lifestyle and practice of its

adherents and, as such, does qualify for treatment as a religion.

SENIOR ASSOCIATE

PASTOR RIC OLSEN

Harbor Trinity

Costa Mesa

I think a group of men in prison who want to study atheism and

humanism should be allowed to meet.

Alfred North Whitehead defined religion as “what a man does with

his solitariness,” and Paul Tillich described faith as each person’s

“ultimate concern” expressed by his or her choices and actions. These

men are studying their disbelief in the existence of God, and they

should be free to pursue their spiritual path as they see it.

Belief in God is not essential to the definition of religion. The

nontheistic religious traditions of the world -- for example,

Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism -- offer teachings about supreme

beings that are different from the theistic traditions, such as

Judaism Christianity and Islam.

In Zen, belief or disbelief in God is not considered an essential

part of our doctrine or practice. Many Zen practitioners are

Buddhist, some are Roman Catholic, and others are Jewish, while some

are atheists and others are not.

Often, Zen is considered atheistic or not a religion at all, but

these boxes don’t really fit. In the study of comparative religion,

six dimensions can be explored: ritualistic, experiential, mythic

(narrative), doctrinal, ethical and institutional. These are better

criteria for understanding religion.

Humanism focuses on the dignity of the individual human person and

the value of rational thought.

Humanism can be found within religious traditions, for example, in

Christian or Jewish humanism.

It can also be viewed as separate from religious traditions, in

the case of secular humanism, and it can also stand in opposition to

religion.

There are humanist groups and organizations that include many of

the dimensions that characterize religious traditions, and federal

courts have ruled that humanism may be viewed as a religion within

the meaning of 1st Amendment protections.

The back-story here is about overcrowded prisons. There is an

unconscionable lack of funding for essential rehabilitative programs,

and most extra activities involving staff, security and space are

impossible.

Religious freedom is protected, so religious groups will be

allowed to meet, at least sporadically.

The group gathering to discuss atheism and humanism will need to

be deemed a “religious” group, if they are to meet at all.

The prison administration preferred to consider them an “activity”

group (for example, like a group that meets to build model ships or

to make greeting cards) and then deny their request to meet.

In the prisons where I have taught and where we have offered Zen

meditation, access to the chapel has been difficult. The space is

booked by many religious groups, it is overseen by the staff

chaplains, and it is often used for administrative nonreligious

programs.

The group is right to insist upon the same consideration that is

given to Christian, Muslim and Native American prisoners to pursue

their interests in atheism and humanism.

REV. DR. DEBORAH BARRETT

Zen Center

of Orange County

Costa Mesa