Reply To: Is Atheism considered a "worldview?"
Belle’s question was… “Is atheism a world view”. The answer is no. Atheism is not a world view. Some people might take the qualities they used to become an atheist and exagerate those qualities in their daily lives (perhaps because of the hostile environment they live in or the desire to get other people from believing in their God) but that is not an atheist world view. That is a world view with enforced qualities that led them to be atheists or keep them from reverting to a belief in God (any mixture of rational enquiry, critical thinking, secularism, personal autonomy, liberal rights … or even something completely different) with a preoccupation or obsession with religion and/or anti-religious sentiment/actions.
I would argue that at least 9 out of 10 times someone says they have an atheist world view (or when someone complains someone else has an atheist world view) they are actually describing a humanist world view. I wish that term was used more. It would help discard so much confusion.
