[Marguerite]

I agree with most of the things stated before me. Atheism is not a religion for the reasons people have already stated. I won't argue this further considering people have said what I wanted to say on that front.

I'll argue this from a different angle. I've certainly known many, many more atheists who are upfront, passionate and outspoken about their beliefs (or disbeliefs) than any theists I've ever met. Though I don't believe atheism is a religion, it can certainly present itself like religion in some people, merely for the fact that it is an understanding or belief of the world which some people are very adament and enthusiastic about. I don't believe in religion in public schools, just like I don't believe in publics school endorsing political parties or political ideologies. And yes, I would have a problem if teachers and administraters in the education system started pushing atheistic ideas and started to tell children that God was not real or something to that effect.

But they're not. That would be considered just as illegal and unnacceptable as pushing religious ideas. State schools cannot be described as atheist. Atheism is not just an absense of religion but a rejection of Gods and religion. Schools merely avoid involving themselves in matters of faith, they don't outright claim faith is a falsehood. Secularism is a much more apt description, which he also accused of being a religion, however, I don't even see how that could be argued. That's even further away from religion than atheism is.

Oh, and back to the argument about atheism being or not being a religion religion, I think people who spend a lot of time on boards like this and talking about similar things out in the world (whether they're theists or atheists) seem to think all atheists are as passionate and outspoken about their beliefs as the people I mentioned earlier. But that isn't true. Most people who are atheists don't care about religion or non-religion and couldn't ever be bothered to involve themselves in arguments like this; it would probably bore them to tears (like I'm sure it would with a lot of theists). Most atheists just don't believe in God and that's the extent of it- without the arguments, strong opinions on religion or adamancy of their stance. So while in some people atheism might have commonalities with religion, in others, it couldn't be futher apart.