No. of Recommendations: 3
atheism (yes, atheism - practiced by most on this board - is a religion in that it has tenets of faith and elements its adherence take as Gospel).
Uhhh...no, it's not. It is the absence of faith/religion. A negation. I would argue that even people who "don't know" are atheists because faith/religion is an affirmative statement (theist/theism). Sans that affirmative statement, one is a-theist.
But I won't do a deep dive into this argument.
I do agree with much of the rest of your post, especially the European assimilation (or, more precisely, the lack thereof). It's been several years, but I do remember a story that France (specifically Paris) was taking in Muslims, and then relegating them to a sort of ghetto without much opportunity. Not sure if that was more universal in Europe as a whole.
