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HappySqurriel on 21 July 2011
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Rath said:


1) 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.

2) 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.


1) Being that there are religions (like Christianity) where not observing dogma or rituals doesn't change the fact that you're following the religion as long as you maintain a handful of core beliefs, and you can believe most of the dogma and follow all of the rituals and are not following the religion as long as you don't maintain a handful of core beliefs, I don't think you can say that dogma or rituals are a requirement of religion

2 Simply understanding the definitions of what Atheism is tells you that you must maintain the belief that there is no god

a·the·ism
   [ey-thee-iz-uhm] Show IPA
–noun
1. the doctrine or belief that there is no god.
2. disbelief in the existence of a supreme being or beings.

Agnosticism is closer to what you describe because most agnostics (like myself) accept that it is unlikely that the existance of god will be proven, and the premises surrounding the existance of god make it impossible to prove its non-existance, and choose not to live our lives free from the belief in the existance or non-existance of god.

ag·nos·ti·cism
   [ag-nos-tuh-siz-uhm] Show IPA
–noun

1.the doctrine or belief of an agnostic.
2.an intellectual doctrine or attitude affirming the uncertainty of all claims to ultimate knowledge.

 

Being that agnosticism could accurately be described as the "lack of belief in god" and not the "belief in the non-existence of god" is why agnosticism could be seen as the freedom from religion while atheism is still a religion. You can see this in the difference in how agnostics and atheists interact with the world. Unlike atheists, agnostics don't try to evangelize people and you’re not likely to see billboards trying to push people to an agnostic worldview. Agnostics tend not to be in conflict with other groups because they accept that no one can know what the truth is, while Atheist groups are constantly in conflict with organized religious groups (primarily christianity) because they assume they're correct and the organized religions are wrong.