The word “religion” derives from the Latin religio, meaning “to be bound to” or “to tie fast.” Believers are bound to their faiths. You can say with a reasonable degree of assurance that a religion comprises a set of beliefs, values, and practices based on the teachings of a spiritual leader, though defining the term isn't always that simple.

Charles Dickens wrote to the Reverend Frederick Layton in 1847 in answer to a query regarding his religious beliefs: “As I really do not know what orthodoxy may be, or what it may be supposed to include — a point not exactly settled, I believe, as yet, in the learned or unlearned world — I am not in a condition to say whether I deserve my lax reputation in that wise ….”

Dickens wasn't, and isn't, alone in his skeptical opinion. No single definition has been offered on the subject of the varied sets of traditions, practices, ideas, and faiths that could constitute a religion. In addition, there is little agreement on the kinds of claims that religion makes. Whether a supreme being even exists, whether a soul exists and, if so, is it immortal — one can raise skeptical questions about these matters until the cows come home. There has rarely been unanimity about the nature of the subject among scholars, partly because believers see different things in religions and because the subject itself has been so involved in controversy throughout its history.

Atheism and Theism: Are They Religions?

What constitutes a religion is a contentious matter. The question may come down to a choice of definitions. If your definition of religions involves a belief in a supreme and/or an afterlife, then nonbelief cannot be religion. But someone else might embrace a different definition of the word “religion,” which derives from the etymological definition and references the Latin religio (again, meaning “to be bound to” or “to tie fast”). In this sense of the word, nonbelief can be every bit as avid as belief.

Atheism is the view that there is no divine being, no God. This statement is the bone of contention between believers and nonbelievers. However, it is not just the existence or nonexistence of God that is disputed. For both sides of the issue know that the existence of God implies the existence of divine providence and the possibility of divine intervention in the world. Theists embrace a belief in this kind of active God. Such a God is a loving being and even answers prayers. When opponents voice an objection to this view of God, they aren't necessarily doubting the existence of God, but are disputing the being's caring nature. This opposing view isn't atheism, strictly speaking, but antitheism.

Atheism in this older sense is not just a negative answer to whether God exists. What is essential is the denial of the existence of a being who takes an interest in mankind, who intervenes in the world and is a positive force for mankind, at times changing the course of events. Antitheists deny that the world runs according to a wise and provident design. In addition, this older sense of atheism rejects the possibility that prayer makes a difference. Further, antitheists don't have the same faith that theists have in the assurance that evil doers will receive punishment in a future state.

This traditional atheism or antitheism, then, is less interested in the question of whether God exists. By contrast, it asserts that God's existence or nonexistence is secondary. Antitheists hold that there is no divine being whose existence would be relevant to a person's conduct.