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You're using the fact that all are ideologies to attempt to smuggle in the connotations we have with "religion" and apply those to atheism and materialism. Exam
by Tenobrus 9y ago
You're using the fact that all are ideologies to attempt to smuggle in the connotations we have with "religion" and apply those to atheism and materialism. Examine those connotations directly and you'll see they don't sensically apply. For example: religion requires faith without evidence, materialism and atheism do not. Almost all religions make demands on the actions of their adherents, atheism almost by definition does not, except as in that as a category defined by lack of belief, those in that category won't believe in supernatural powers. There are legitimate semantic boundaries here, and attempting to blur them is only useful if you're trying to wage a war of connotation and emotion, not if you're trying to argue in good faith or build a good model of the world.
- ythn 9y ago> Almost all religions make demands on the actions of their adherents This is a feature, not a bug? Otherwise what's the point?
- Tenobrus 9y agoI'm not necessarily disparaging it, rather pointing out there are clear and legitimate features of the category "religion" that ideologies like atheism don't share.
- fourfaces 9y ago" religion requires faith without evidence, materialism and atheism do not." This is dogma preached by materialists, of course. The fact is that opposites are of the same nature. Theism and its opposite, atheism, are both belief systems. Neither of them is scientific. Vociferous denials notwithstanding.
- root_axis 9y agoAtheism is not a belief system (and neither is theism for that matter) it is simply a description.
- dragonwriter 9y ago> For example: religion requires faith without evidence No, it doesn't. OTOH, it does require that “evidence” be understood more broadly than just empiricism. > Almost all religions make demands on the actions of their adherents, atheism almost by definition does not Specific atheisms often do, though atheism as such (like theism as such) does not.