Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael.
There's many different denominations of religions all holding various beliefs, none being similar. Religion is used to explain the cause and purpose of the universe. Regardless of what you believe you are in a sense pertaining to some sort of religion.
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From this, I'm gathering the definition of religion you're adhering to is belief(s) that can explain the cause and purpose of the universe with or without a deity. For atheism, this definition is not met because not believing in a deity in no way explains the cause and purpose of the universe. If anything, it addresses whether deities exist within the universe but that does not fulfill the definition you provided. Therefore, according to you, atheism is not a religion.
The fact that there are many different demoninations in meaningless when determining whether one set of beliefs is a religion or not because although each demonination would have its own spin, they would all adhere to the basic beliefs of the religion (i.e. explaining the cause and purpose of the universe).