Why Atheism should not be considered a religion.

The idea that Atheism is a religion has been right wing propaganda for awhile now. This same propaganda has also said that Christianity is not a religion but a philosophy has also been making the rounds. While most anti-theist will call bull shit on these talking points rightfully so it sometimes hard to articulate why. The reason why Christianity can't be a philosophy it has only one genesis. Someone who has never been exposed to Christianity will all a sudden make up a religion about a guy who died on a cross for our sins in the Roman Empire in the year 0 AD. They will never come up with the complicated rules and sometimes contradictory rules laid down by the New Testament or the Old Testament. While the theory or quasi theory of Atheism has made come up in different cultures all throughout history. From Aristotle play Clouds, to the Chinese philosopher Wang Chong, to ancient tribes in Africa, to the East Indian sect Carvaka even the Old Testament writes about Atheist in a negative way, of course(Psalm 14 1-3). The idea of Atheism is much older than Christianity and will be around a lot longer than it.