Can we Trust Atheists to be Honest when they don’t Believe in Honesty?

Today’s atheists deny that their beliefs are religious. However, this wasn’t always the case:

·        ATHEIST BERTRAND RUSSELL: “The greatest danger in our day comes from new religions, communism [one expression of atheism] and Nazism. To call these religions may perhaps be objectionable both to their friends and enemies, but in fact they have all the characteristics of religions…”

·        THE FIRST HUMANIST MANIFESTO (Paul Kurtz, 1933): “Humanism [the belief that since there is no God, it’s all about humans] is a philosophical, religious, and moral point of view.”

·        ATHEIST JOHN DEWEY, WHO SIGNED THE MANIFESTO: “Here are all the elements for a religious faith that shall not be confined to sect, class or race…It remains to make it explicit and militant.”

·        THE US SUPREME COURT (Torasco v. Watkins – 1961): “Among religions in this country which do not teach what would generally be considered a belief in the existence of God are Buddhism, Taoism, Ethical Culture, Secular Humanism [atheism] and others.”

Why are atheists singing a different song today?

·        By claiming they don’t have any beliefs, they can go on the offensive, while they put out nothing they need to defend.

·        This allows them to lump all of the other religions in one indiscriminate and contemptible bag, enabling them to damn Christians along with Muslims.

·        By claiming that atheism/naturalism isn’t a religion allows them to spread their religious beliefs in public settings – ie. schools – where atheistic naturalism is now considered synonymous with science. When Christians try to do that, they are shut down with the charge, “separation church and state.” However, by denying that atheism is religious, they can sidestep this charge.