The problem with arguing over words in this manner is that each side is attempting to “win” by picking a definition that lets them shut down the other side entirely, rather than finding common meaning so they can use the linguistic token for further communication. It’s a contest of social dominance, not a search for truth. If you’ve ever tried to have an honest discussion with someone doing that you know exactly what I mean. You let them have their definition of the word and just pick a different word for the purposes of the discussion to define down to the concept you were trying to communicate, and instead of trying to understand they immediately just accuse you of trying to “weasel out” of the argument and not admit you were wrong… When they’re very obviously not even talking about the same thing you were...
Yes, there are people for whom atheism is their religion. They write in “therefore: there is no God” at the bottom of their page and anyone who offers even the slightest dissent is automatically branded insane. The very idea of God is a threat to their internal world model that they have to shut down by any means necessary rather than examine objectively. That’s not most of the atheists here, but don’t let this very biased sample from among people who actually care about thinking correctly skew your estimate about how many atheists worldwide are operating on cached memes that they’ve never actually considered for themselves.
There are also rational theists. They assign different weights to the arguments on either side than most of the people here, but they are open to actual discussion and reconsideration and don’t consider anyone questioning the existence or nature of a God or gods to be a threat. One of the supposed prime attributes of God, after all, is truth. If there is no God, then God would want you to believe that there is no God.
Stalin’s “religion” definitely wasn’t Communism. He pretty obviously didn’t believe in it himself based on his decisions and actions. His religion was his own, personal power and authority. He did, however, insist on religious-type devotion to Communism (Or, at least, the absolutely unfailing appearance of the same) among all of his underlings. And carried out frequent purges to ensure he got it.
The problem with arguing over words in this manner is that each side is attempting to “win” by picking a definition that lets them shut down the other side entirely, rather than finding common meaning so they can use the linguistic token for further communication. It’s a contest of social dominance, not a search for truth. If you’ve ever tried to have an honest discussion with someone doing that you know exactly what I mean. You let them have their definition of the word and just pick a different word for the purposes of the discussion to define down to the concept you were trying to communicate, and instead of trying to understand they immediately just accuse you of trying to “weasel out” of the argument and not admit you were wrong… When they’re very obviously not even talking about the same thing you were...
Yes, there are people for whom atheism is their religion. They write in “therefore: there is no God” at the bottom of their page and anyone who offers even the slightest dissent is automatically branded insane. The very idea of God is a threat to their internal world model that they have to shut down by any means necessary rather than examine objectively. That’s not most of the atheists here, but don’t let this very biased sample from among people who actually care about thinking correctly skew your estimate about how many atheists worldwide are operating on cached memes that they’ve never actually considered for themselves.
There are also rational theists. They assign different weights to the arguments on either side than most of the people here, but they are open to actual discussion and reconsideration and don’t consider anyone questioning the existence or nature of a God or gods to be a threat. One of the supposed prime attributes of God, after all, is truth. If there is no God, then God would want you to believe that there is no God.
Stalin’s “religion” definitely wasn’t Communism. He pretty obviously didn’t believe in it himself based on his decisions and actions. His religion was his own, personal power and authority. He did, however, insist on religious-type devotion to Communism (Or, at least, the absolutely unfailing appearance of the same) among all of his underlings. And carried out frequent purges to ensure he got it.