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Originally Posted by levite
You don't have to have a bible, or an organization, or unified beliefs, or anything else. When I say atheism is a religious belief, I don't mean that there's some sort of Church of Nuh-Uh that atheists belong to. I mean that the belief that the rationalist paradigm (or the nihilist paradigm, or the humanist paradigm, or whatever foundation a person's atheism happens to be built on. I am just going with rationalism because that seems popular) is, essentially, the only authentic and effective means of engaging the universe and attempting to discover truths valuable to human beings...is a belief. It is a belief that you and I would both agree works spectacularly well for scientific endeavors. You and I would differ on its efficacy for matters spiritual. But there is nothing any more inherently true about the notion of rationalism's authenticity or effectiveness in matters spiritual than there is about any religion's authenticity or effectiveness.
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Ah but the scientific matter of which you speak are something objective. You and I, of different philosophies, can look at the same factual evidence regarding natural phenomena and come to the same, reasoned conclusion. We both understand that evidence points to evolution to explain why the planet isn't overrun by just one kind of microorganism. We both understand that gravity is what keeps us from flying off into space. These are basically universal. If people don't believe them it's for one of two reasons:
1) They have evidence that contradicts our conclusions (awesome!)
2) They're nuts.
Science isn't really subjective. It's something that can be universally known without personal opinion. It's factual. Religion, spirituality, and philosophy aren't. They're about subjective interpretation, which is fine, but one should recognize the difference between gravity and Jesus.
Atheism may have different philosophies, but it usually boils down to things that aren't subjective. My atheism isn't a belief. My secular humanism is, but that comes later.