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Atheism as a Religion: An Introduction to the World's Least Understood Faith Paperback – July 6, 2014

by Mike Dobbins (Author)
2.5 2.5 out of 5 stars 9 ratings
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The rise of confrontational atheism has led many non-believers to assert that religion should ‘disappear’ or be ‘extinguished.’ Little are atheists aware that in the process of embracing and expressing their atheism, rather than ‘extinguish’ religion, they have created their own. Many atheists have moved beyond the dictionary definition and are naturally and predictably attempting to fill the religious void left from abandoning their theistic tradition by replacing it with an atheist alternative. With the passion of devoted religious adherents, the atheist faithful celebrate and defend atheist creeds, mythology, and superstitions. Employing the discipline of Anthropology, new atheist critic Mike Dobbins demonstrates how modern atheism has all the characteristics that compose a religion: emotional, social, material, ethical, ritual, doctrinal, and narrative. Like the religions of other cultures, atheism has a cherished worldview, a creation myth, prophecies and revelations, magical thinking, revered leaders, sacred doctrines, esteemed ethics, induces specific emotions, and most recently, formed its own international atheist church, The Sunday Assembly. Moreover, The United States Supreme Court has ruled atheism is a religion and atheist organizations are quick to agree when it is to their advantage. Atheism As A Religion provides a long overdue introduction to the faith of the Godless. The religion of atheism requires thoughtful and deliberate consideration by all people, believer and unbeliever alike. While not all atheists are religious, religious atheism is gaining in popularity and having a greater influence in politics, the media, and Western civilization. As ever more atheists begin to take their religion seriously, it’s time everyone else did too."
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  1. Print length
    164 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    July 6, 2014
  4. Dimensions
    5 x 0.35 x 8 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    1494812444
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1494812447
  7. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mike Dobbins is the author of The Case Against Atheism: The Failure of Disbelief and a critic of the 'new' atheism. His articles have been published in The Christian Post and Killing The Buddha. He has a Masters degree in Special Education and is a licensed special education teacher. He and his wife reside in the suburbs of Chicago. You can follow him on Twitter @EndNewAtheism, the Facebook group The Case Against Atheism, or his website www.TheCaseAgainstAtheism.com. He also recommends people of all faith join the FFAF, The Freedom From Atheism Foundation https: //www.facebook.com/FFAF.International.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (July 6, 2014)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 164 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1494812444
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1494812447
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.9 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.35 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    2.5 2.5 out of 5 stars 9 ratings

Customer reviews

2.5 out of 5 stars
2.5 out of 5
9 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Robert
1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed
Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2024
Verified Purchase
Based on the title I was expecting an objective view on the subject... it is not. Read the description carefully. The author is 100% against atheism. Should be subtitled "A Christian's view on Atheism". Also, for what it's worth, the book is definitely in need of proper editing. I didn't realize it was self-published until after I received it. Not that you can't find a well written self-published book, but generally speaking it's a red flag.
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William Meyer
4.0 out of 5 stars Realistic discussion of atheism as faith
Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2015
Verified Purchase
It has been apparent for several years that there are atheists who simply do not believe there is a God, and others, for whom atheism has become a crusade. It is these latter types about whom the author writes. It is one thing to profess God does not exist; quite another to insist that others accept your belief. And atheism is, despite counter claims, a belief: these people are no more able to prove their assertions than are believers. Atheism is a faith, pure and simple.

Dobbins makes his case clearly. That said, one might criticize the nature of his research, especially that part which rests on discussion with people online. Who knows, after all, who is on the other end of such discussions? Still, given the nature of atheism, there really is little opportunity for qualifying research.

The book itself needs badly to be proof-read. The errors in grammar, punctuation, and simple typos, detract from an otherwise solid piece of writing. Sadly, this seems to be the way of the world in our age.
4 people found this helpful
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Mike Mara
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and thought provoking
Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2014
I enjoyed reading Dobbins' book. I think he makes a rational and well reasoned argument as to how the new, or as he terms it "salvation," athiesm should be considered a reigion. Dobbins goes through a step by step process of how anthropologically "salvation athiesm" qualifies as a religion. I may not agree with everything Dobbins has to say, but I found the book to be interesting and thought provoking.
4 people found this helpful
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Amanda
1.0 out of 5 stars An atheist would be good to ask
Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2014
The author has done little to no research on the topic he's writing about. I can only guess it's his obvious biases and not intentionally for propaganda, but I have my doubts. If you want to learn about an atheist's position, don't look to Mr.Dobbins because he clearly doesn't know much about it. An atheist would be good to ask. Most would be happy to explain their position in a kind manner.
8 people found this helpful
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Dr. Pete
1.0 out of 5 stars Cover should read "I don't know what I'm talking about" and save some type
Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2014
When you can't get past the cover without showing that you are fundamentally ignorant of the topic you're discussing, you might have a problem. While I do find it amusing that religious people try to demean and insult things by calling them "religions," this rag simply perpetuates the ignorance of the difference between faith and rational, evidence-based critical thinking. Congratulations to the author for destroying his own credibility with the cover and continuing from there.
One person found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars I thought this book was excellent. I used to be an atheist myself during ...
Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2014
I thought this book was excellent.

I used to be an atheist myself during my time at university and I always felt the dictionary definition of atheism was outdated and little misleading.

I found it refreshing to read about atheism from a non secular perspectivr , it certainly opened my mind a lot
4 people found this helpful
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Richard I
5.0 out of 5 stars Great if you want to understand why atheism can indeed be a religion.
Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2014
The good news is that, with this book, Mike Dobbins has made another worthy contribution to the atheism/theism debate. The bad news is that if you're an atheist who read Mike's previous book, THE CASE AGAiNST ATHEISM, and were just a little pissed off by the contents, then this book will really send you into a frenzy. Dobbins makes a solid case that for many atheist(not all, just the active/passionate/militant ones), atheism Is practiced as a religion. All of the elements common to most, if not all, of the world religions are also elements contained in the practice, lifestyle, and identity of many atheists. Now before you laugh, consider this: there actually are atheistic religions in existence right now. Certain sects of Buddhism and Hinduism are completely atheistic. So the idea of an atheistic religion is not as ridiculous as you might think. Dictionary.com and the Marrium-Webster.com contain the following definitions of religion: 1. a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith, and 2. An interest, a belief, or an activity that is very important to a person or group. Secular Humanism, an ideology promoted by many atheists, seems to fit right in with these definitions. We are seeing now the establishing of atheist "churches" around the world, and as these churches grow in number and attendance it will become more difficult for the atheist to deny that what many atheists are doing is practicing their religion.

Now the reaction from atheists shouldn't be to get defensive when confronted with the accusation that atheism can be a religion. Instead of getting defensive, the response from atheists should be, "so what? Yes, our atheism is a religion - a religion that is better than yours and one that provides a view of reality much closer to truth than the view your religion provides." And by the way, such a response would not be an example of atheist arrogance because pretty much everyone thinks their religion is closer to the truth and better than any of the other religions.

Dobbins takes every opportunity to characterize this burgeoning militant atheist religion (he calls it "salvation atheism") as something to fear if left to grow and develop on its own without guidance from the much more morally and ethically enlightened believers from the various theistic religions, who after all have a legitimate foundation for their morals whereas atheists do not. Well, we know for sure if believers have a foundation for morals it definitely is not the Bible or the Koran, so one wonders how to justify that believers have a foundation that atheists do not. I am going to go out on a limb and say something very radical: maybe atheists justify their morality based on a combination of reason and empathy. Dobbins as well as many other theists claim that atheist ethics and morals are subjective, relative, and based on feelings, so the atheists has no right to argue that one form of behavior is better than another. Well, if you don't think feelings are important, the next time you are at the grocery store and your kid points to the woman standing in front of you in the checkout line and says, "hey dad, look at how fat that lady is" don't reprimand him because after all it's just someone's feelings at stake and feelings and empathy don't really matter when you're trying to argue about proper behavior. Also, one might wonder if such a thing as objective morality even exists, since objective can be taken to mean "mind independent." If you're going to say that morality is based on god and the divine, then you are going to have to justify that claim using reason. Reason can also be used to justify why morality is possible without god. It seems that rationality is an important ingredient in moral discourse and accountability. If a chimpanzee kills his offspring, has that chimp done anything wrong? Is it morally accountable? I think not. But if a human kills its offspring has it done anything wrong? Is he or she morally accountable? I think so. What's the difference? One animal is capable of rationally reflecting on his behavior whereas the other animal is not. So it seems like maybe rationality may play a more vital role in determining morality than the role god's existence plays.

Dobbins also says that atheism is a view that ultimately leads to despair. Well, that all depends on the individual and what their emotional needs are. If you wish that there is an afterlife, maybe because you are afraid to die, and you need the Christian worldview to be true for the sake of your mental well-being, then yes maybe atheism will be too depressing for you. Why despair about a future where you cease to exist? There was a past before you were born when you didn't exist. You won't be around to contemplate your non existence. So quit despairing.

Dobbins also maintains that atheism in practice leads to a devaluing of human life. So if we all became atheists we would give less of a crap about other humans than we do now (don't deny it, this morning when you heard on the news about all the people who were tragically killed, it didn't really bother you that much). Killing and dying matters most when it's close to home because maybe on a deeper level you are thinking, "damn, that could have been me." Something to think about: Japan - 30% atheist, Middle East - damn near 100% theist. A lot of people killing other people over there in believer-rich Middle East.

Look, I think theists have a much bigger problem on their hands than the rise of militant atheism. Most everyday atheist recognize militant atheism for what it is: a bunch of angry people who are having a hard time settling the issue of god once and for all and are unable to peacefully get on with their lives until they do so. Really, theistic religions need to get together and decide whose religion is closer to the truth. It's an important matter. Their spiritual lives are at stake. Many people believe in reincarnation, which many Christians say is incompatible with Christianity. This is no small matter. Mormons believe in many gods and many universes, and that Jesus visited America. If you're a Christian and you think Mormonism is BS and that they probably won't make it into heaven because of their misguided beliefs, then shouldn't you help them? If you value their lives more than the atheist does like Dobbins says you do then you should make at least one stop by your local Mormon church to help set them right. What's this about 72 virgins in the afterlife if you die under certain circumstances? These are issues that shouldn't be ignored. There needs to be an international conversation about the differences in religion. We don't need to politely ignore these issues, pretending one religion is as valid as the other. The BS needs to be weeded out so that humanity can worship in the most accurate manner.

I gave this book five stars because I feel that Dobbins has done an excellent job demonstrating that atheism can be practiced as a faith-based religion. He has presented many facts to support his thesis, and has done so in a way that has made the book a learning experience and a pleasure to read.
4 people found this helpful
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