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Lack of belief is not belief. That's how that works.
I think back to August 1957 when I was inducted into the army infantry at Ft. Jackson, SC. There was no place on the form one had to complete and sign for not believing in a religion. As best I can recall there was Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Church of God, Jewish, etc. but no place to select non belief. That's one reason the number of atheists and agnostics have grown in modern times. Now folks have the option to choose other than Judeo/Christian faiths. 'Course the times I'm talking about there were "White" and "Colored" water fountains, rest rooms, etc. and back seats in busses, balconies in theatres and no Blacks served in restaurants anywhere in the southern United States.
Ancient god worship will finally go the same route as did segregation...thanks to the Internet.
I think back to August 1957 when I was inducted into the Army infantry at Ft. Jackson, SC. There was no place on the form one had to complete and sign for not believing in a religion. As best I can recall there was Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Church of God, etc. but no place to select non belief. That's one reason the number of atheists and agnostics have grown in modern times. Now folks have the option to choose other than Christian faiths. 'Course the times I'm talking about there were "White" and "Colored" water fountains, rest rooms, etc. and back seats in busses, balconies in theatres and no Blacks served in restaurants anywhere in the southern United States.
Ancient god worship will finally go the same route as did segregation...thanks to the Internet.
When I was in, I was able to put "No Rel Pref"--standing for "no religious preference".
Religion is nothing more than an organized set of values to help determine how people should live, a type of moral framework.
If those two "philosophies" can be defined in that way, then they are also religions. Religion does not require the worship of any sort of god or demigod.
Uh, no philosophy is philosophy and religion is religion, and contrary to your erroneous beliefs, religion does require the worship of a deity.
I act more ethically and morally than 99% of chrisitans, but the fact that I have a particular moral framework in which I operate does not equate to a religion.
Religion has a belief in an after-life, a deity, an eschatology, a set of scriptures and many other things.
It isn't a lack of belief. It's belief in the negative.
Which makes it belief.
You're wrong, clear and simple.
To assert that something exists when there is no evidence for that claim requires belief. To reject something that has no evidence requires no belief. If nothing's there, there's no faith needed to assert that point. You don't believe there's no Paul Bunyan. You simply reject any claims that he's real.
That's why religious people are commonly referred to as believers while atheists are frequently called nonbelievers.
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