Atheism, a religion?

You hear it all the time : “Atheism is just like other religions, it has its own rules and code of ethics. ”

This popular misconception (or maybe misrepresentation? ) of atheism has forced me to write this post.

To start with, one needs to understand that to be an atheist all you have to do is to not believe in the existence of a personal deity that cares about every single trivial detail of your life, and that’s all. We have no holy books that preaches hatred towards homosexuals and demands subjugation of half of our society. We make no sacrifices to holy paedophiles with funny hats , who shamelessly ask for tax exemptions and donations all the time. We play no sacred games that involves blood.

Moreover , if one is to base a system of politics on Islam for example. One would know that the thieves must be punished by chopping their hands off, or the rape of girls as young as 9 must be allowed under the name of marriage ,since these are all parts of this barbaric, violent, homophobic, anti-Semitic and intolerant death cult. Or if one is to allow the venom of Catholicism to poison the education system, one would know for a fact that fear of hell and eternal punishment needs to be heavily emphasised upon.

The question is inventible, if atheism is an ideology , a religion or a school of thought, then what principles does it have? Does it affect our societies in the same way as theistic dogma?

What is also of importance is the false accusations that are made based on the assumption that atheism is an ideology. The most common accusation is to try to demonstrate that crimes that has been committed by Stalin, Hitler and Kim Jong-il are the consequences of atheism. The very basic assumption underlying such an absurd, but sadly popular, accusation is that atheism is an ideology that leads to corruption of societies, although this is false but there is far too much evidence to deny the contrary.