I consider myself ignostic, I'm not religious in any way and I am a critical thinker. After observing them for a while I came up with the conclusion that some of them were more dedicated to atheism than the average religious people.
Actually, I counted the number of posts related to atheism and religion in 24 hours today (not a busy day by the way) and there were 49 posts (mostly links and many were by the same users) directly linked to religion or atheism. Atheists often criticize religious people for being dedicated to something not real and being manipulated but this behavior is also seen in atheist people.
Even though I didn't had 100 people that had Christian or Catholic as their religious view, I am pretty sure that I would never see so much post about religion and atheism even by those religious people. The average Americans are not spending to much time dealing with religion questions. In fact, they don't question themselves quite often on this topic nor try to find scientific evidences for their beliefs. They don't read the bible everyday nor pray every day. On the other hand, atheists will spend much more time into thinking rationally, finding bugs to religion and ultimately become very informed about religions resulting into practicing.
This rise many questions regarding if atheism should be considered a religion itself. It is clear that both world share beliefs, integrity, symbols (the cross VS the red ''A'') and it is affecting their life.
It is true that some religions in other countries such as Islam will require more dedication but do they think more about religion than atheists? I don't think so. The Baylor University Institute for Studies of Religion conducted a survey and it goes like this...
In fact, only 19% of American Christians are Active Christians. Those are the one who will go to church and read the bible on a regular basis. They have rituals and pray a lot.
- ''20 percent are referred to as Professing Christians. They also are committed to "accepting Christ as Savior and Lord" as the key to being a Christian, but focus more on personal relationships with God and Jesus than on church, Bible reading or evangelizing.
- 16 percent fall into a category named Liturgical Christians. They are predominantly Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, or Orthodox. They are regular churchgoers, have a high level of spiritual activity and recognize the authority of the church.
- 24 percent are considered Private Christians. They own a Bible but don't tend to read it. Only about one-third attend church at all. They believe in God and in doing good things, but not necessarily within a church context. This was the largest and youngest segment. Almost none are church leaders.
- 21 percent in the research are called Cultural Christians. These do not view Jesus as essential to salvation. They exhibit little outward religious behavior or attitudes. They favor a universality theology that sees many ways to God. Yet, they clearly consider themselves to be Christians.''
So now I ask to myself, in all the proclaimed atheists, how many of them who are ''Active Atheists'' known as Explicit Atheists?
''It is difficult to quantify the number of atheists in the world. Respondents to religious-belief polls may define "atheism" differently or draw different distinctions between atheism, non-religious beliefs, and non-theistic religious and spiritual beliefs.[109] A Hindu atheist would declare oneself as a Hindu, although also being an atheist at the same time.[110] A 2005 survey published in Encyclopædia Britannica found that the non-religious made up about 11.9% of the world's population, and atheists about 2.3%. This figure did not include those who follow atheistic religions, such as some Buddhists.[8] A November–December 2006 poll published in the Financial Times gives rates for the United States and five European countries. It found that Americans are more likely than Europeans to report belief in any form of god or supreme being (73%). Of the European adults surveyed, Italians are the most likely to express this belief (62%) and the French the least likely (27%). In France, 32% declared themselves atheists, and an additional 32% declared themselves agnostic.[111] An official European Union survey provides corresponding figures: 18% of the EU population do not believe in a god; 27% affirm the existence of some "spirit or life force", while 52% affirm belief in a specific god. The proportion of believers rises to 65% among those who had left school by age 15; survey respondents who considered themselves to be from a strict family background were more likely to believe in god than those who felt their upbringing lacked firm rules.[112]''
So we can roughly say that 27% are agnostic or atheism in the United States. This give rise to the question: how many of them are Active Atheists/Positive Atheists/Explicit Atheists. I have no data for this but on the about 100 atheist people I added on my Facebook account I can say that there are more than 20% which the number for Active Christians too and it might be more than that.
You can believe in God or in the Universe but it doesn't chance the fact that you can become part of a movement involving integrity.
Of course atheists don't believe in God but we can see different patterns close to those of religions emerging from atheism. It is good to inform the world about critical thinking but is atheism is becoming a pseudo-religion?
The psychological aspect of this question is that people need drives. Some will find this drive into religion and other into atheism etc... People back in the days and also still today were driven by religions. It worked great until global awareness became more prominent. Now people many people are driven by science and atheism. We replace bad understanding of the world around us with good understanding of the world around us. The transition is extremely slow but the results are relatively the same.
''If you have a particular faith or religion, that is good. But you can survive without it.''
-Dalai Lama
Jean-Sebastien B. Miousse
References:
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian#In_the_United_States_and_Canada
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism
I know it is pretty bad to have wikipedia as references but since this is only a blog and not an article, why not.
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