Hi!!!

[edingerofthree]

Hi everyone my name is DiAnna but pronouced as Deanna; I am a young age of 34. I am a single mother of two wonderful children, a girl of 11 and a boy of 9. I am currently back in college but I am taking my courses online through the University of Phoenix. The college experience I am having now through online schooling seem to be more difficult because it is not a traditional classroom. Although the work is in depth and you somewhat teach yourself, I am hanging in there with a GPA of 3.45.

In this semester I am taking a humanities course that covers religions of the world. For my final project I am required to write a 2000-2500 word in length "world religions report". I am suppose to pick a religion other than mine, of which I still don't know what mine is, and do research, compare and contrast to other religions, and interview with someone of the religion I pick. The "religion" or group that I have picked for my report is Atheism.

I am now looking for a volunteer to conduct my interview with; the interview isn't much but it only has to cover ten or more questions that I ask. Three of the questions are already wrote for me to ask, the other seven I have to come up with. The questions are listed below:

 1. What are the important holidays and traditions of the Atheist religion?
 2. How has the Atheist religion shaped your life?
 3. What are the challenges, if any, to practicing the Atheist religion?
 4. What are the main beliefs of Atheism?
 5. Did you originally choose to be Atheist or did you convert to Atheism?
 6. How are you spiritual?
 7. Have you or someone else that you know that is an Atheist ever been discriminated againist due to practicing Atheism?
 8. Why did you choose to be an Atheist?
 9. Did you grow up in a non-religious household?
10. What do you believe is an Atheists role in the natural environment? In other words, do you believe people should use the Earth and its natural resources it provides as we are currently using them?
11. Do people who consider themselves Atheists gather to celebrate like other religions do?

Thank you very much in advance if you volunteer to help me with this. The only other thing I would need is your first name and state or country you are from.

Thanks again,
Dee

[Whitney]

Hi Dee, welcome to the forum.

Atheist isn't a religion...or as the saying goes; atheist is a religion like bald is a hair color.

This is what religion means:  http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/religion

An atheist is someone who doesn't believe in a god...that's the end of what it means to be an atheist.

So, while one of us could answer your questions, a lot of the answers would be related to how those questions are not applicable to being an atheist.  I don't know if that would work for your report or not.  It would be like asking someone to answer the questions just as a theist...they couldn't answer most of them because just being a theist isn't really a religion either.

[Tanker]

Hello and welcome to the forum. As Whitney stated Atheism isn't a religion an as such has no dogma or rules. So the answer to each of those question would be subjective and would be different to each person. Each person cold only answer for themselves and therefor would not give an overview of how all, or even most, atheists would answer.

FYI since you are doing your questions on a "religion" other then your own I have to conclude you are not an atheist. Free Thinker is a discriptive term most commonly ascribed to Atheists here is the deffinition from dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Free%20thinker
 
freeâ‹...thinkâ‹...erâ€,â€,/ˈfriˈθɪŋkÉ™r/  Show Spelled Pronunciation [free-thing-ker]  Show IPA
Use Freethinker in a Sentence
â€"noun a person who forms opinions on the basis of reason, independent of authority or tradition, esp. a person whose religious opinions differ from established belief.
Origin:
1685â€"95; free + thinker

Related forms:

freethinking, adjective, noun

Synonyms:
skeptic, agnostic; atheist.

[Heretical Rants]

While atheism is not a religion, there are atheistic religions such as Buddhism and Taoism (no god).

However, in the context of this forum, atheism is like checking "none" in the religion box.

[Tom62]

Welcome to the forum, Dee. Whitney and Tanker already made it clear that Atheism is not a religion. We don't pray to the almighty Darwin nor gather together in a church to perform weird rituals or burn Bibles. We are a mixed bag of people, who only have in common that we don't believe in the man made God(s).

[Ihateyoumike]

Hi everyone my name is DiAnna but pronouced as Deanna

Hello DiAnna pronounced Deanna. Welcome to the forum.

 

1. What are the important holidays and traditions of the Atheist religion?

April Fools
 

2. How has the Atheist religion shaped your life?

Well, I've believed in god less since becoming an atheist.
 

3. What are the challenges, if any, to practicing the Atheist religion?

It sucks knowing there's so much to be learned, and not enough time to learn it. [sarcasm]Too bad there isn't someone to just give me the answers, even if they aren't correct I could believe them using faith, that'd be so much easier....[/sarcasm]
 

4. What are the main beliefs of Atheism?

That there is no god. Shouldn't this one be obvious....?

5. Did you originally choose to be Atheist or did you convert to Atheism?

Technically, you could say that I am a "convert" from catholicism. However, I choose to think of it as I was always atheist, I just didn't know it because I was indoctrinated into a system which brainwashes children with their beliefs.

6. How are you spiritual?

Are we talking about spiritual as in the supernatural? The answer is: I'm not.

7. Have you or someone else that you know that is an Atheist ever been discriminated againist due to practicing Atheism?

Nope. But other than on this board and with my brother, I tend to keep it to myself.
 

8. Why did you choose to be an Atheist?

A better question would be: Why did I choose to not believe in a god? It's easy to find the answer to that question. All it takes is some basic knowledge of science, an open mind, and some common sense.
 

9. Did you grow up in a non-religious household?

Nope. Was forced to go to catholic church every Sunday.

10. What do you believe is an Atheists role in the natural environment? In other words, do you believe people should use the Earth and its natural resources it provides as we are currently using them?

First off, too broad of a question. Secondly, atheism has nothing to do with anything but not believing in a supernatural deity.

11. Do people who consider themselves Atheists gather to celebrate like other religions do?

Does the Nobel Prize ceremony count?  

[quizlixx]

I will be referring to atheism as a mindset instead of a religion, since it is.
 

1. What are the important holidays and traditions of the Atheist religion?

It differs from person to person. I celebrate my birthday and arbor day, none specific to the mindset of atheism.
 

2. How has the Atheist religion shaped your life?

I have become more open minded and more acceptant of other beliefs and cultures
 

3. What are the challenges, if any, to practicing the Atheist religion?

Discrimination from religious people.
 

4. What are the main beliefs of Atheism?

We believe there aren't any supernatural beings.
 

5. Did you originally choose to be Atheist or did you convert to Atheism?

Well, you don't really "convert", you more or less just lose your belief. I lost my methodist belief.
 

6. How are you spiritual?

I'm not.
 

7. Have you or someone else that you know that is an Atheist ever been discriminated against due to practicing Atheism?

Yes, i have had friends that refuse to talk to me because of what i don't believe. I have also been accused of "tempting" christians,in the sense that i'm trying to get them to experience a different viewpoint. Also, when most people find out that i don't share their belief, they tend to shun me, or act like i'm not there, some even throw a nasty remark here and there.
 

8. Why did you choose to be an Atheist?

I didn't "choose" to be an atheist, when you realize there isn't a god, it's not a choice. I would describe it more of an epiphany.
 

9. Did you grow up in a non-religious household?

I grew up in a presbyterian household, i later converted to methodism.
 

10. What do you believe is an Atheists role in the natural environment? In other words, do you believe people should use the Earth and its natural resources it provides as we are currently using them?

I don't know enough on the subject to give a valid opinion.
 

11. Do people who consider themselves Atheists gather to celebrate like other religions do?

Not that i know of, some of us organize discussion groups, but other than that, we don't have any holidays to celebrate.

Oh, and welcome to the forum!

[edingerofthree]

Thank you all for your replies they are very appreciated. I myself do not have a "religion" yet and this is why I put myself as a free thinker of sort. One belief that I do have is that no one will really know until we die. I just couldn't really imagine getting up in the morning and going to church every Sunday to worship or celebrate something that we don't really know is "real". I do feel that there is something that keeps everything running so to speak but I doubt it is one great being. I know that people have claimed to have had religious experiences and visions of somesort BUT are they really visions and experiences or plays on our imagination from what we have been taught???  Dee

[edingerofthree]

Hi Tanker

I do not have a "religion" of my own. So therefore right now I am not anything other than freethinking. My views on the world are not what has already been wrote or thought. And part of the definition of Free thinker from what you listed below is: "a person who forms opinions on the basis of reason, independent of authority or tradition, esp. a person whose religious opinions differ from established belief."

Thanks again for the reply
Dee

Hello and welcome to the forum. As Whitney stated Atheism isn't a religion an as such has no dogma or rules. So the answer to each of those question would be subjective and would be different to each person. Each person cold only answer for themselves and therefor would not give an overview of how all, or even most, atheists would answer.

FYI since you are doing your questions on a "religion" other then your own I have to conclude you are not an atheist. Free Thinker is a discriptive term most commonly ascribed to Atheists here is the deffinition from dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Free%20thinker
 
freeâ‹...thinkâ‹...erâ€,â€,/ˈfriˈθɪŋkÉ™r/  Show Spelled Pronunciation [free-thing-ker]  Show IPA
Use Freethinker in a Sentence
â€"noun a person who forms opinions on the basis of reason, independent of authority or tradition, esp. a person whose religious opinions differ from established belief.
Origin:
1685â€"95; free + thinker

Related forms:

freethinking, adjective, noun

Synonyms:
skeptic, agnostic; atheist.