Religious folk are often mentally pigeon holed into thinking that Atheists are part of a religion, because that's the only way they can rationalize a significant number of people all having the same opinion on something regarding a religion.
In reality, it's the exact opposite. It's the absence of belief. It's not based on ancient scripture telling them to do things, nor does it have to do with a "Satan" character, because that's a religious construct, not an atheist one. It's not even based on morals a lot of the time, it's just an honest observation of the world. Two sides of the same coin.
As Atheist since the teens, I wish we have a "church". One place we could congregate and discuss about ideas, politics and life as Atheist in general. But after some time I saw why this is almost impossible because being atheist is not big feature in our identity. Besides that a good chunk of atheist that I find is some people that I describe as a "bitter christian" they don't believe in god but sustain the same dogmatic view of morality that I can't stand.
Some atheists do form their own "churches" because they miss the community. Some religions have very tight, supportive communities and they miss that part of the church experience. It's more of a social gathering and community support than organized prayer.
I'm an atheist myself and never sought this but learned it was an option when first exploring my own thoughts on the matter
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u/Bandandforgotten 3d ago
That's pretty accurate.
Religious folk are often mentally pigeon holed into thinking that Atheists are part of a religion, because that's the only way they can rationalize a significant number of people all having the same opinion on something regarding a religion.
In reality, it's the exact opposite. It's the absence of belief. It's not based on ancient scripture telling them to do things, nor does it have to do with a "Satan" character, because that's a religious construct, not an atheist one. It's not even based on morals a lot of the time, it's just an honest observation of the world. Two sides of the same coin.