HappySqurriel said:
Religion requires the irrational belief in something in the absence of evidence or proof ... It is impossible to provide evidence for or proof of the non-existance of anything (including a god) therefore Atheism is inherantly a religion based on the irrational belief in the non-existance of god without evidence or proof. Being non-religious implies that you're agnostic, but (you're correct) being agnostic does not necessarily mean you're non-religious.
As for my comment on the rise of fascism in Germany, I didn't imply that the surpression of rights drove the rise of the Nazi party or even that they were the main factors but only someone who was ignorant to history would claim that these laws didn't contribute to their rise to power. You can not surpress resentment to a group of people by making it illegal because it eliminates open debate, and in the absense of open debate you ensure that people will only hear one side of an issue; and that can be the horribly slanted view that you were trying to ban in the first place. Beyond that, a government being afraid of the citizens is called liberty, citizens being afraid of their government is called tyrany, and by disarming your people and creating laws to silence them you eliminate the "tools" the public has to "harm" a government. |
That may be something religion requires - it is not however the definition of religion. Atheism is not a religion as it has no dogma or rituals.
Also I (and many others) would argue that atheism does not require an active disbelief in a god, just a lack of belief in one. It can be a passive position with no active beliefs.
As for disarming people taking away tools to 'harm' the government - recent history (the Autumn of Nations and the Arab Spring) has shown that uprisings of unarmed peaceful protestors in huge numbers can topple a government. Armed uprisings don't seem to be any more succesful.
Also can you link to some backing of your claims from a respected historian that gun control and hate-speech laws contributed significantly to the rise of the Nazi party?