Julian Baggini - Is Atheism a New Faith?

Is atheism a belief system, a new 'faith' as it were, in the same way that atheists claim that theism is a belief system? Atheists reject this attack asserting that they are just using critical reasoning to expose irrational theism. What would make atheism is a new 'faith'?

[borderlands]

There are two kinds of atheists, instinctive atheists and lifestyle or "polemical" atheists. An instinctive atheist is someone who argues from a position of faith, to which he's fully entitled. A lifestyle atheist believes he is arguing from a position of knowledge, and that knowledge is (without exception in my experience) based on materialism. Materialism is a metaphysical belief system indistinguishable from religious belief.

[RushFan]

Atheism is to Faith as abstinence is a sexual position.

[infovy]

Either the Universe was created, or it came into being ex nihilo, or it is eternal. We currently have no way to judge which is true. So either withhold judgement as I do (that is, be agnostic) or choose to believe one of the three (that is, have faith in one despite the uncertainty). But what's should be avoided is a pretence of near certainly (as some theists have) or use dubious philosophical premises to insist one or more of the options 'irrational' (as some atheists do, as pretty much shown here). Both are motivationally suspicious, to say the least.

[shamanahaboolist]

This guy is just wrong. The bible itself defines faith as confidence in that which is expected to happen. Faith requires evidence and precedent to be distinguishable from wishful thinking.

[ricksysiphus]

I think people just overcomplicate things...scriptures are full of irrational fables like any other mythological book and the crucial weird thing is that some religions are violently exclusivist..I can't see why can i believe in a biblical or quranic fable and not believe in an egyptian or mesopotamian fable..the whole affair is about bias.

[charlesbrightman]

Consider this:
We perceive we exist, so something must exist for that to occur. How did we get here or how is it that we exist?

Possibilities:
1. An "absolute somethingness" came about from an "absolute nothingness";
(Certainly a miracle as to how that could even occur).
2. An "absolute somethingness" actually eternally existed, still exists today, and will most probably eternally exist throughout all of future eternity;
(Possibly a miracle in and of itself as to how anything at all could actually and literally eternally exist).
3. By some other means besides from "absolute nothingness" or "absolute somethingness", which is beyond my current comprehension to how that could even be;
(Possibly a miracle in and of itself, but I may never ever know for sure).

So, how did we get here or how is it that we exist?
IT'S A MIRACLE!!! OR IT IS BEYOND MY CURRENT COMPREHENSION. (Take your pick).

[sngscratcher]

The belief system (not faith) is materialism, with atheism being a logical consequence of that belief.

[cesarrodriguez]

Atheism is not a belief system. Capitalism, consumerism, liberal humanism and nationalism are belief systems and therefore religions.

[shamanahaboolist]

Robert's argumemts win here totally. They are the most logical and Julian paradoxes himself with his own reasoning.