g comments on Fake Morality - Less Wrong

46 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 08 November 2007 09:32PM

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Comment author: g 14 November 2007 04:34:00AM 1 point [-]

It's a religious view, obviously, in the sense that it's an opinion about a subject generally classified as religious. As to whether it's "a religion", equally obviously that depends on your definition since "religion" is so flexible a word, but it seems to me that you have to bend it a long way before classifying atheism as a "religion" starts making any sense. Atheism lacks, for instance, belief in superior spiritual beings; ritual observances; a code of conduct [note: that doesn't mean that individual atheists have no morals]; a clearly delineated class of people authorized to conduct rituals, pronounce on doctrinal matters, tell others what to do, etc.; places specially dedicated to atheistic activities; a non-trivial body of doctrine one's supposed to accept. Can you give, let's say, two examples of things generally regarded as religions that don't have at least three of those six features?