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|pages=104, 117
|pages=104, 117
|isbn=0-87808-423-1
|isbn=0-87808-423-1
|url=http://books.google.com/books?ei=-zCYUNfxFMvmtQbx_IGwCQ&id=QjYQAQAAIAAJ
|url=https://books.google.com/books?ei=-zCYUNfxFMvmtQbx_IGwCQ&id=QjYQAQAAIAAJ
}}</ref> Wilhelm Busch, member of Confessing Church during the era of [[Nazism]], maintained that religions are human attempts to find [[God]] and they all have this in common: they have all gone astray in the fog and have not been able to discover God. The Jewish prophet Isaiah, according to Busch, understood that God is a hidden God, and that is why Isaiah cried out: ''"We cannot reach you. Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down."'' Busch perceived as amazing thing that God "heard that cry [and] tore through the blanket of fog and came down to us - in the person of Jesus Christ", thus "Jesus reveals God to us".<ref name="Busch">{{cite book |author=Wilhelm Busch |title=Jesus Our Destiny |publisher=Inter Publishing Services |year=2001 |pages=11 |isbn=0-86347-024-6 |url=http://bitflow.dyndns.org/english/WilhelmBusch/Jesus_Our_Destiny_2007.doc}}</ref> This view is often summarized by saying that "''Religions are men’s unsuccessful attempts to reach God, Christ [or Christianity] is God’s successful attempt to reach men''."<ref>{{cite web |title=Inspirational Quotes |url=http://jesusalive.cc/quotes.htm |accessdate=31 Jul 2018}}</ref> Some versions of [[Bible]] (e.g. Contemporary English Version, GOD's WORD Translation, Good News Translation, Slovak Lutheran Translation) translate the Hebrew word חֻקּ֥וֹת (Transliteration: ''chuqqah'', meaning: ''statute, of special ritual laws, figurative of a firmly established custom'') from Jeremiah Chapter 10 as "religion"; and then Bible claims such religions of nations are "worthless" (or, meaningless vanity) and compares them to idols "like scarecrows in a cucumber field". Then, further in verse 5, people are advised: "''Don’t be afraid of them because they can do no harm, nor can they do any good''."<ref>{{cite web |title=Jeremiah 10:3 |url=https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+10%3A3&version=GNT |accessdate=31 Jul 2018}}</ref>
}}</ref> Wilhelm Busch, member of Confessing Church during the era of [[Nazism]], maintained that religions are human attempts to find [[God]] and they all have this in common: they have all gone astray in the fog and have not been able to discover God. The Jewish prophet Isaiah, according to Busch, understood that God is a hidden God, and that is why Isaiah cried out: ''"We cannot reach you. Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down."'' Busch perceived as amazing thing that God "heard that cry [and] tore through the blanket of fog and came down to us - in the person of Jesus Christ", thus "Jesus reveals God to us".<ref name="Busch">{{cite book |author=Wilhelm Busch |title=Jesus Our Destiny |publisher=Inter Publishing Services |year=2001 |pages=11 |isbn=0-86347-024-6 |url=http://bitflow.dyndns.org/english/WilhelmBusch/Jesus_Our_Destiny_2007.doc}}</ref> This view is often summarized by saying that "''Religions are men’s unsuccessful attempts to reach God, Christ [or Christianity] is God’s successful attempt to reach men''."<ref>{{cite web |title=Inspirational Quotes |url=http://jesusalive.cc/quotes.htm |accessdate=31 Jul 2018}}</ref> Some versions of [[Bible]] (e.g. Contemporary English Version, GOD's WORD Translation, Good News Translation, Slovak Lutheran Translation) translate the Hebrew word חֻקּ֥וֹת (Transliteration: ''chuqqah'', meaning: ''statute, of special ritual laws, figurative of a firmly established custom'') from Jeremiah Chapter 10 as "religion"; and then Bible claims such religions of nations are "worthless" (or, meaningless vanity) and compares them to idols "like scarecrows in a cucumber field". Then, further in verse 5, people are advised: "''Don’t be afraid of them because they can do no harm, nor can they do any good''."<ref>{{cite web |title=Jeremiah 10:3 |url=https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+10%3A3&version=GNT |accessdate=31 Jul 2018}}</ref>
* '''Formal definition''': "The service and worship of [[God]] or the [[supernatural]];"<ref>[http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=religion "Religion"] in Merriam Webster dictionary.</ref> Under this definition, [[atheism]], [[agnosticism]], and [[secular humanism]] are not "religions.".<ref>Religious Groups Participating in Religious Congregations & Membership Study 2000. [http://www.thearda.com/mapsReports/reports/alldenoms.asp]</ref>
* '''Formal definition''': "The service and worship of [[God]] or the [[supernatural]];"<ref>[http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=religion "Religion"] in Merriam Webster dictionary.</ref> Under this definition, [[atheism]], [[agnosticism]], and [[secular humanism]] are not "religions.".<ref>Religious Groups Participating in Religious Congregations & Membership Study 2000. [http://www.thearda.com/mapsReports/reports/alldenoms.asp]</ref>
* '''Functional definition''': "A cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith"<ref>[http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=religion "Religion"] in Merriam Webster dictionary.</ref> By this definition, non-theistic belief systems such as [[atheism]], [[humanism]], and [[agnosticism]] could be considered religions. Indeed, the Supreme Court of the [[United States of America]] has acknowledged that "religion" does not need to include a belief in a god or gods, and included Secular Humanism as an example of a non-theistic religion.<ref>"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, and others.". [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=367&invol=488#t11 Torcaso v. Watkins, (1961)]</ref><ref>"A federal court of appeals ruled ... Wisconsin prison officials violated an inmate's rights because they did not treat [[atheism]] as a religion." [http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45874 Court rules atheism a religion] WorldNet Daily</ref> In 2014, Afghan citizen has been granted asylum in Britain on religious grounds because he declared himself to be an atheist.<ref>{{cite web |title=Afghan Atheist Wins Asylum In Britain On Religious Grounds |publisher=DPA |url=http://www.rferl.org/content/uk-afghanistan-asylum-atheism-religion/25229702.html |accessdate=14 January 2014 |quote=...The legal team submitted the case to the Home Office under the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, which aims to protect people from persecution on the grounds of race, religion, nationality, political opinions, or membership in a particular social group.}}</ref> When in 1917 atheistic [[Bolshevik]] [[Soviet]] in [[Petrograd]] organized 'colossal demonstration' to 'illustrate the international solidarity of working classes,' visiting [[British]] [[Labour Party|Labour]] [[MP]] Morgan Philips Price described it as 'not merely a labour' or 'an international demonstration,' but also as 'really a great religious festival, in which the whole human race was invited to commemorate the brotherhood of man.'<ref name="HRappaport2016">{{cite book |title=Caught in the Revolution: Petrograd 1917 |author=Hellen Rappaport |publisher=Windmill books |place=Great Britain |year=2016 |chapter=9 Bolsheviki! It Sounds 'Like All that the World Fears' |pages=171–2 |isbn=978-00995-92426 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Ao-GCwAAQBAJ}}</ref>
* '''Functional definition''': "A cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith"<ref>[http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=religion "Religion"] in Merriam Webster dictionary.</ref> By this definition, non-theistic belief systems such as [[atheism]], [[humanism]], and [[agnosticism]] could be considered religions. Indeed, the Supreme Court of the [[United States of America]] has acknowledged that "religion" does not need to include a belief in a god or gods, and included Secular Humanism as an example of a non-theistic religion.<ref>"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, and others.". [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=367&invol=488#t11 Torcaso v. Watkins, (1961)]</ref><ref>"A federal court of appeals ruled ... Wisconsin prison officials violated an inmate's rights because they did not treat [[atheism]] as a religion." [http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45874 Court rules atheism a religion] WorldNet Daily</ref> In 2014, Afghan citizen has been granted asylum in Britain on religious grounds because he declared himself to be an atheist.<ref>{{cite web |title=Afghan Atheist Wins Asylum In Britain On Religious Grounds |publisher=DPA |url=http://www.rferl.org/content/uk-afghanistan-asylum-atheism-religion/25229702.html |accessdate=14 January 2014 |quote=...The legal team submitted the case to the Home Office under the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, which aims to protect people from persecution on the grounds of race, religion, nationality, political opinions, or membership in a particular social group.}}</ref> When in 1917 atheistic [[Bolshevik]] [[Soviet]] in [[Petrograd]] organized 'colossal demonstration' to 'illustrate the international solidarity of working classes,' visiting [[British]] [[Labour Party|Labour]] [[MP]] Morgan Philips Price described it as 'not merely a labour' or 'an international demonstration,' but also as 'really a great religious festival, in which the whole human race was invited to commemorate the brotherhood of man.'<ref name="HRappaport2016">{{cite book |title=Caught in the Revolution: Petrograd 1917 |author=Hellen Rappaport |publisher=Windmill books |place=Great Britain |year=2016 |chapter=9 Bolsheviki! It Sounds 'Like All that the World Fears' |pages=171–2 |isbn=978-00995-92426 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ao-GCwAAQBAJ}}</ref>
**'''Mathematics as religion.''' Based on [[Gödel]]'s Second Incompleteness Theorem, [[John Lennox]] explains that if a religion is something whose foundations are based on faith, then [[mathematics]] is the only religion that can prove its status as a religion.<ref name="LENNOX">{{cite book
**'''Mathematics as religion.''' Based on [[Gödel]]'s Second Incompleteness Theorem, [[John Lennox]] explains that if a religion is something whose foundations are based on faith, then [[mathematics]] is the only religion that can prove its status as a religion.<ref name="LENNOX">{{cite book
|author=John C. Lennox
|author=John C. Lennox
|year=2009
|year=2009
|pages=53
|pages=53
|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=yiTvBXHZwpwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=God%27s+undertaker&hl=sk&sa=X&ei=jj7-UeHxNorb4QSV2oHICg&redir_esc=y#v=snippet&q=%22only%20religion%22&f=false
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yiTvBXHZwpwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=God%27s+undertaker&hl=sk&sa=X&ei=jj7-UeHxNorb4QSV2oHICg&redir_esc=y#v=snippet&q=%22only%20religion%22&f=false
|isbn=978-0-7459-5371-7
|isbn=978-0-7459-5371-7
|quote=He proved that one of the statements that cannot be proved in a sufficiently strong formal system is the consistency of the system itself...we can only believe...}}</ref>
|quote=He proved that one of the statements that cannot be proved in a sufficiently strong formal system is the consistency of the system itself...we can only believe...}}</ref>
== Ninian Smart's scheme for determining what is a religion ==
== Ninian Smart's scheme for determining what is a religion ==
Roderick Ninian Smart, a Scottish writer and professor, defined a seven-part scheme of understanding both religious and secular worldviews.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=14j2UrLCi64C&pg=PA130&lpg=PA130&dq=ninian+smart+narrative&source=bl&ots=Hq3WwG_mVT&sig=j-8FpwSdqohURYodSdcl46erSJY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=FgybT6zxIc-_gAe864X6Dg&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=ninian%20smart%20narrative&f=false Dimensions of the Sacred, page 2]</ref> These can be understood as narrative, experiential, social, ethical, doctrinal, ritual and material.
Roderick Ninian Smart, a Scottish writer and professor, defined a seven-part scheme of understanding both religious and secular worldviews.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=14j2UrLCi64C&pg=PA130&lpg=PA130&dq=ninian+smart+narrative&source=bl&ots=Hq3WwG_mVT&sig=j-8FpwSdqohURYodSdcl46erSJY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=FgybT6zxIc-_gAe864X6Dg&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=ninian%20smart%20narrative&f=false Dimensions of the Sacred, page 2]</ref> These can be understood as narrative, experiential, social, ethical, doctrinal, ritual and material.
English Pastor Daniel Smartt defines atheism as a religion, using Ninian Smart's seven dimensions of worldview as a list of criteria. It is not necessary in Smartt's model for every one of these to be present in order for something to be a religion.<ref>[http://www.helium.com/items/1227784-atheism-religion-naturalism-morally-relative "Atheism vs Religion"], Daniel Smartt</ref>
English Pastor Daniel Smartt defines atheism as a religion, using Ninian Smart's seven dimensions of worldview as a list of criteria. It is not necessary in Smartt's model for every one of these to be present in order for something to be a religion.<ref>[http://www.helium.com/items/1227784-atheism-religion-naturalism-morally-relative "Atheism vs Religion"], Daniel Smartt</ref>
See also: [[Atheism is a religion]]
See also: [[Atheism is a religion]]
[[File:Sanderson Jones.jpg|thumbnail|right|220px|The [[British atheism|British atheist]] Sanderson Jones is a founder of the Sunday Assembly atheist church movement.<ref>[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/06/atheist-church-split_n_4550456.html Atheist Church Split: Sunday Assembly And Godless Revival's 'Denominational Chasm'], Huffington Post, 2014</ref> ]]
[[File:Sanderson Jones.jpg|thumbnail|right|220px|The [[British atheism|British atheist]] Sanderson Jones is a founder of the Sunday Assembly atheist church movement.<ref>[https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/06/atheist-church-split_n_4550456.html Atheist Church Split: Sunday Assembly And Godless Revival's 'Denominational Chasm'], Huffington Post, 2014</ref> ]]
[[Atheism is a religion]] and this has implications in terms of the disciplines of religion, philosophy, [[Christian apologetics]] and law.<ref>[http://creation.com/atheism-a-religion Is Atheism a religion?] by Daniel Smartt, Published: 4 May 2010(GMT+10)</ref> In addition, although many atheists deny that [[Atheist worldview|atheism is a worldview]], atheists commonly share a [[Atheism and beliefs|number of beliefs]] such as [[Naturalism (philosophy)|naturalism]], [[Evolution|belief in evolution]] and [[Origin of life|abiogenesis]].<ref>
[[Atheism is a religion]] and this has implications in terms of the disciplines of religion, philosophy, [[Christian apologetics]] and law.<ref>[http://creation.com/atheism-a-religion Is Atheism a religion?] by Daniel Smartt, Published: 4 May 2010(GMT+10)</ref> In addition, although many atheists deny that [[Atheist worldview|atheism is a worldview]], atheists commonly share a [[Atheism and beliefs|number of beliefs]] such as [[Naturalism (philosophy)|naturalism]], [[Evolution|belief in evolution]] and [[Origin of life|abiogenesis]].<ref>
*[http://carm.org/atheism-worldview Is atheism a worldview?] by Matt Slick of [[CARM]]
*[http://carm.org/atheism-worldview Is atheism a worldview?] by Matt Slick of [[CARM]]
In 2013, a trend of atheist churches began and atheist church services were reported on in the ''[[New York Times]]'', '' [[The Blaze]]'' and other major news outlets.<ref>
In 2013, a trend of atheist churches began and atheist church services were reported on in the ''[[New York Times]]'', '' [[The Blaze]]'' and other major news outlets.<ref>
*[http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/24/us/in-the-bible-belt-offering-atheists-a-spiritual-home.html?_r=0 In the Bible belt offering atheists a spiritual home - NY Times, 6/24/2013]
*[https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/24/us/in-the-bible-belt-offering-atheists-a-spiritual-home.html?_r=0 In the Bible belt offering atheists a spiritual home - NY Times, 6/24/2013]
*[Bizarre Trend: Atheist Sunday Morning ‘Worship’ Services Are on the Rise (Minus God, of Course)]
*[Bizarre Trend: Atheist Sunday Morning ‘Worship’ Services Are on the Rise (Minus God, of Course)]
*[http://gawker.com/5973377/londons-first-atheist-church-opens-tomorrow London's First Atheist Church Opens Tomorrow]</ref>
*[http://gawker.com/5973377/londons-first-atheist-church-opens-tomorrow London's First Atheist Church Opens Tomorrow]</ref>