NooneOfConsequence wrote on Oct 13
th, 2020 at 12:10pm:
Where atheism transitions from a non-belief to a religion is when deity is replaced by humanity. When a person takes the view that "I am the highest form of being in the universe and can therefore do whatever I want" then they basically put themselves (or humanity, society, knowledge, "science", etc.) in the place of a god. That is actually the Biblical definition of satanism also. In the Genesis story of the fall of man, the serpent tells Eve that she can elevate herself to the same status as God by eating the fruit and gaining God's knowledge of good and evil.
Pure atheism as an absence of belief is not a religion, but when an atheist puts his or her self in the place of God, it becomes a religion based on that implied positive belief of oneself as the highest being in the universe. Arrogant atheist scientists do this all the time without admitting it. Satanists do this explicitly and willingly admit it.
I seriously doubt that most science-based atheists are aware of or willing to admit the similarities between their worship of knowledge and satanism's hedonistic view of mankind, but they really aren't that far apart.
Personally I just don't see this. I'm pretty familiar with the views of outspoken atheists and I cannot recall anything anything that casts humanity in a deity like state. It seems bizarre to jump from an evidence based view of reality to Satanism-esque views.
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My view on atheism & agnosticism is that they aren't very well defined. If I'm 99% sure god doesn't exist am I agnostic, atheist or both? What about 80%? 70%? Technically I'm still agnostic even with 1 in a googleplex assessment of god's existence which renders the term somewhat meaningless as a category. Meanwhile the threshold for atheism is completely arbitrary.
The interesting difference here is that the organised religious often encourage belief based on faith (or choice essentially) rather than evidence and reason, this renders agnosticism somewhat irrelevant as strength of evidence is no longer the prime driving force behind belief.