Google Fail

[KnightFluttershy 1]

I noticed this while searching on Google Trends.

It lists atheism as a religion. A religion is defined as 'belief in, or the worship of, a god or gods'. Atheism is a religion in the same way not collecting stamps is a hobby, or not smoking is an addiction. What are Google's motives? A multi million dollar information company making an innocent mistake? Or something more?

[Meirno 550]

That is interesting, but I think my best guess would be is that they listed it under religion just to make it easier to categorize. Albeit this could be a very good discussion topic, whether or not atheism is a religion or not. Instead of defining it as anti theist, it could be defined as a belief in none?

 

shrug.jpg

 

Just my two cents.

[Galen 1,354]

 

 

That is interesting, but I think my best guess would be is that they listed it under religion just to make it easier to categorize.

 

This. Personally, I've always thought atheism as the belief that there is no deity. A belief system, regardless of what it entails, is a religion, and imo Atheism falls under that category well for me. But that's besides the point.

[Shanks 10,816]

Eh, I don't really care then again I probably wouldn't even if I actually was an atheist. Atheism is not a religion (even if some people treat it like one) because its only creed is the lack of a belief in a god but Google probably listed it as one to make it easier to categorize.

[Smarts 1,622]

I wouldn't call it a fail, honestly. If anything, I say they did that to make it easy to categorize. It's understandable to me.

[Clover Heart 978]

Often, atheism gets thrown under religion despite the fact that it is not one. However, it's related to belief in gods which most religions are about. So it's relevant to the subject of religion. If you think about "religion" as a topic rather than atheism falling under a religion, it makes a lot more sense.

[yeet 2,027]

I dunno, google has gone really down hill now.

[Sig Hoovestrong 838]

Google, what has it done now?

[SasQ 1,376]

It might be that many atheists actually behave as atheism was their religion, because they react on someone telling them there's God the same way religious people react when someone tells them there's no God. Many atheists I know would hardly cross the threshold of any church, demonstrating how badly they don't believe in God. I'd rather call them anti-theists than atheists, because a real atheist wouldn't care much about being in a church (God doesn't exist anyway, right? so what could go wrong?).

 

I wouldn't call atheism a religion either. Belief system -- yes. Religion -- no.

But try to explain people that Buddhism is not a religion either, since there's no God in Buddhism. There were several Buddhas (enlightened people) which were teaching their way of living to others interested (but not requiring them to follow it; moreover, asking them to question and verify what they say). But nevertheless, Buddhism is still considered a religion by most people, and there's a bit of truth in it, since there are people who made a religion out of it, by introducing rituals, teachings, sacred texts, doctrines etc.

 

So when anyone asks me what is my religion, I reply that I'm agnostic: I say I don't know if there's any God. I prefer to wait for more evidence for this or the other. Could this be considered religion? That's a harder question, I guess. Please check what Google says about it if you can ;-) But I don't care much about what Google says, they're no authority to me.

[Scootalove 10,689]

Some people mistake atheism as a religion which is totally not the case. Google probably just categorizes atheism as a religion, I think of it as a little mistake nothing more.

[Delernil 952]

It might be that many atheists actually behave as atheism was their religion, because they react on someone telling them there's God the same way religious people react when someone tells them there's no God. Many atheists I know would hardly cross the threshold of any church, demonstrating how badly they don't believe in God. I'd rather call them anti-theists than atheists, because a real atheist wouldn't care much about being in a church (God doesn't exist anyway, right? so what could go wrong?).

 

I wouldn't call atheism a religion either. Belief system -- yes. Religion -- no.

But try to explain people that Buddhism is not a religion either, since there's no God in Buddhism. There were several Buddhas (enlightened people) which were teaching their way of living to others interested (but not requiring them to follow it; moreover, asking them to question and verify what they say). But nevertheless, Buddhism is still considered a religion by most people, and there's a bit of truth in it, since there are people who made a religion out of it, by introducing rituals, teachings, sacred texts, doctrines etc.

 

So when anyone asks me what is my religion, I reply that I'm agnostic: I say I don't know if there's any God. I prefer to wait for more evidence for this or the other. Could this be considered religion? That's a harder question, I guess. Please check what Google says about it if you can ;-) But I don't care much about what Google says, they're no authority to me.

I'm an atheist and I can say that me and many of my atheist friends would go into a church. It's really just when they start talking about their religion. Out minds do react like religious people. We go 'That's ignorance and it hurts me.'. It's not really religion or religious people we have a problem with, it's that they speak about it like truth (which they believe it is, I'm not bashing religion.) Which makes our minds react like religious people. 'Thats not right.' It's not anti-theists. That like saying bronies are anti-anti-bronies. We just have different views and our brain acts like it's supposed to. 'Thats not right.'

 

Just us atheists are really sarcastic and can be asses. It's a thing.

[Judgement 445]

ridiculous Google. Google is my source of amusement. Ever since Google+, and the fact that they direct stupid advertisements at you, I've taken them as a joke.

[epzik8 92]

Maybe they mean it's located in their religion category, because atheism does fit in that category, despite (or perhaps because of) it being the state of not believing in any religion.

[Castle Bleck 19,359]

First YouTube, and now this?

 

Sweet Celestia, Google, you bucking suck.

[crazitaco 596]

Yeah, i have to agree with a few other here that some Atheists react very strongly to the topic of religion, pretty much on the same level of defensiveness as some religious folk. Which is kind of ironic in a way, that some atheists will "religiously" bash religion.
Anyway, it probably is just a categorization thing.

Edited January 15, 2014 by crazitaco