Origin of Life Fairness in Public Schools, Inc.

(2) "Atheism is, among other things, a school of thought that takes a position on religion, the existence and importance of a supreme being, and a code of ethics. As such we are satisfied it qualifies as Kaufman's religion for purposes of the First Amendment claims he is attempting to raise".

[above quotes in Kaufman v. McCaughtry 2005, (1) read 2nd paragraph of page 4, (2) see bottom paragraph of page 5]

The definitions beg the question, "What are the issues of ultimate concern"? Issues of ultimate concern are the three issues that all religions have in common.

1. A faith belief about deity.
2. A faith belief in untested theories about how human life and the world came to be.
3. A faith belief in what happens when you die.

A person with faith belief in all three areas has belief in a religion, be it named or unnamed, organized or unorganized, atheist or theist. A person with a faith belief in only one or two of the three listed areas has some religious beliefs, but is not a member of a complete system of religious belief....."religion".

Religions include a code of ethics (guideline of human behavior, morality). One court recognized Atheist religion, "Secular Humanists", have a written code of ethics. Other unorganized and unnamed varieties of Atheist religion have a code of ethics, but are individualized to the person. Every living person has an unspoken code of ethics they operate by inside them, whether they publicly commit to following some written ethical code or not.

Rituals, devotion, additional theologies beyond the core three, or lack of any of these, all add to the variety of religion.

Those persons who cannot bring themselves to accept that "atheism is a religion" in the same manner as "theism", but with almost all of its divisions and denominations unorganized and unnamed, should consider the dilemma Atheists are in.