Is atheism a religion?

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Yes, the pagans had a system of virtue that crafts excellence of character. Aristotle, Plato, Socrates and others indentified a system of virtues: The Golden Mean, a concept of justice, and Socrates' pursuit of self-knowledge. Socrates believed that self-knowledge would lead to knowing what is right, (ignorance leads to evil) and only then could one be truly happy. Plato indentified the notion of the archetypes, although he never used the term. And Aristolte relied on the Golden Mean, or a balance or "moderation" in everything.

Every religion has its own system of virtue: Islamic, Hebrew, Christian, Hindu, etc. There are places where they overlap and yet, still place greater emphasis on certain virtues. For instance, Christ placed emphasis on Mercy, Generosity, and Forgiveness. Thomas Jefferson constructed his own Bible out of the Four Gospels, disregarding what he thought irrelevant (that would really drive Joac crazy), and fashioned what is known as the "Jefferson Bible." TJ believed that Christian virtue was of the highest order:

I'm not sure that I agree with everything that TJ comments on, but there are some things in that comment I agree with.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Bible

 

Chandos,
An athiest who sees the merit of and follows the righteous path that Christ laid out and holds mercy, generosity, and forgiveness in the highest regard does TJ one better. The athiest disregards the entire idea of a higher power and doesn't have to dig through a dung pile to find the diamonds.

 

Nunsbane - TJ was a deist, and did not believe in a personal god, certainly not a "Christian god." So I guess he chose the Christian virtues without being a Christian. And as I've commented before on this thread, I really don't care if atheists believe in God or not. It's really not my problem, so I don't feel the need to convince anyone of anything in that regard.

I think the points you mention are interesting though. I guess the only point I'm not clear on is what you mean by "one better" within the context of who believes which system of virtues.

 

By one better I meant that an athiest can pare down the code of conduct even further than 46 pages....thinking of it now, that makes less sense than I thought it did when I wrote it.

I also couldn't care less who believes in a god or not. I wouldn't try to sway an individual to believe one way or another. I was just curious as to why you choose to believe in God when you could just simply live the Word instead.

 

Because I do both.

 

Well, there I have it!

 

The answer to this that Christianity (and Judaism, btw, and I think Islam) teaches is simple. Living a good life, though good, isn't enough. For Christians, redemption from sin cannot be earned, it can only be accepted. Living a good and moral life should be the result of redemption, not the cause of it. The only source of redemption is from God.

After all, if you follow His laws, as laid down by His religion, and you recognize that, in the past, you've broken those laws, it is to Him you must turn to seek reconciliation.

On the other hand, if all you seek is to feel good about yourself, then go ahead.

Chandos:
I have many problems with the Jefferson Bible. First and foremost is the intentional redaction of all mentioning of the supernatural. Jefferson took the ideal of extracting Christ's teachings from the influences of outsiders, and undid it by doing so with his own influences. Far from creating a 'pure' Christ, he created a Jeffersonian christ. Not only that, but this is a hopeless christ, for there is no ressurection. The dead stay dead according to Jefferson, and the only application of his Bible is to this life. Furthermore, in redacting the supposed outside influences on the Bible, Jefferson also redacted all sense of context or setting. It's like only having the spoken lines from Oliver Twist, with no sense of who does what where inbetween them.

 

I agree. I think Jefferson was trying to distill what he thought was important in the Gospels, and not achieve a general reading of the scriptures.