Richard Dawkins cured my scabies!

Ok, I've never had scabies, and I certainly don't believe that Richard Dawkins could do very much to cure them. But I think it's funny to think of him as a "Patron Saint" of Atheism.

Cory, I really have a hard time with you saying I have a certain amount of, "faith" and that drives my beliefs.  In fact, it is absolutely the contrary.  As I talked about in my very first post, it is my lack of faith that drives my atheism.  My beliefs are based on evidence, not faith.  I believe in the Big Bang origins of the universe not because it sounds good, but because of the evidence we have that caused us to come to those conclusions.
My personal philosophy is not to come up with an idea and then find evidence to prove it.  My personal philosophy is to look at the evidence and then use it to understand what is happening.  This is the polar opposite of having faith.

"Faith" and "Belief" do not mean the same thing.
"Belief" is something you think is true. and "Faith" is trusting what you think is true to be true, with our without proof.

I don't believe in God not because I have faith he doesn't exist, but because I don't see any proof of his existence.  I acknowledge that I may be wrong.  I can't disprove god's existence.  But to take an idea and then search for proof to validate those claims is a flawed process.  It causes people to filter out what information doesn't fit their idea.  I don't disbelieve in god because I want him to not exist, but because I don't see the evidence that leads me to make the conclusion that he does.

I understand that god could exist and works in ways that show no evidence.  But  I can't take lack of evidence as proof of his existence.  That is just illogical.  That is why I can't say that I have "faith".

"Bottom line - a religion is a system of beliefs that result in a call to action." You can use that definition if you would like, but I think this is far too broad.  For one, my Atheism doesn't necessarily call me to action. I may choose to act upon my dis-belief, but I know far more atheists that prefer not to say or do anything to others about it.  For another, there are far more systems of beliefs that don't have anything to do with a belief in god that result in a call for action. For example: I would not consider "Pro-Gun Rights" to be a religion.

For the record, I don't take offense to calling Atheism a religion.  I just don't agree that it is.  But like you said, it comes down to what our definition of "religion" is.  This reminds me of the Don Hirschberg quote that goes something like, "Calling Atheism a religion is like calling 'bald' a hair color."

You may believe in other "lesser gods" but if they are the gods of other religions than your own, you have to acknowledge that in most cases, there will be a conflict of interest in terms of which mythology is correct. If you believe in Yahweh AND Zeus, then you have extremely conflicting origin stories of the universe.  If one is correct then the other isn't.  You can't get around it without skewing the very understanding of who that god is.

Although I'm curious as to what logic of Richard Dawkins you think is assinine, I don't think it's relevant to this debate.  The same goes for the other famous Atheists. Although as far as Bill Maher is concerned: Anyone who makes a movie where they are belittling people of other beliefs for two hours is just a deuchebag.

"However, just as disliking Mahar or Hitchens doesn't make you less atheist, disagreeing with, say, Brigham Young on certain things doesn't make me less Christian."  I agree with you here.  Although, I wonder how you would feel if instead of you disagreeing with Mr. Young, you disagreed with Jesus.  But that's a whole different subject.

We can go back and forth about the subject of what does and doesn't constitute a religion.  Like I said, I'm not offended by it.  I just don't agree that my atheism is a religion.

You're right.  I have first amendment rights on the issue.  But my beliefs don't get tax-exempt status.

Thanks for (although not deliberately) bringing up this subject.  I feel as though I've been playing offense this entire blog and you and Dan have been playing defense.  I would love for you two to bring up debates where I have to defend my stance a little more.

Take care, and happy (belated) Thanksgiving!

-Mike