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Originally Posted by filtherton
And on the subject of atheism as religion, i think that there is more than one way to be an atheist. There are many who have essentially deified the scientific process- whose comfort with the world very much requires both the existence of some sort sort of innate order (a faith based position) and a mechanism capable of making absolute sense of this order (the means for humanity's salvation)- and in this sense, i think it could be argued that such folk are essentially religious. Such religiousness isn't the result of atheism, though. It more seems like a simple transposition of the common motivations for religious belief into a different framework: science.
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This makes much sense. I like this. The important difference, however, is that there is a lack of focus on the supernatural or what cannot be seen. Science focuses on what could be and then seeks to validate it. It's as though the predominantly scientific-minded (via, to some degree, atheism) picked up the torch of knowledge (and, therefore, the authority to postulate it as well) from the predominantly religious-minded. What each were seeking is essentially the same, it's just that the latter have been "blessed" with the tools to better see and discover this knowledge, and, moreover, to record and archive it.
I think a movement toward atheism is a natural and necessary process that the mind needs to undergo in order to continue making sense of the universe. And I think you've described atheism wonderfully, filtherton.