There are many kinds of Atheism. I have met people to whom the very idea of God was just a weird thing they heard of once and thought was kind of cute or whatever but a matter of genuine indifference to them. On the other hand we have the parent comment which professes a strong Atheism. A little bit of analysis on it shows I think a strong emotional and philosophical attachment to the importance of their own disbelief as a system of thought and a way of life in opposition to another system.
> 100% atheism. Was raised some kind of protestant I forget which one
He forgets which one? Either he really wasn't raised in it at all or more likely he wants to emphasize his contempt for it by "forgetting" what it even was.
Religion is "absolute nonsense" and "laughable" - twice. He derives "tremendous spiritual and psychological relief" in an alternate way of looking at things.
> As an atheist I was suddenly responsible for making my own moral judgements and conclusions (I had to decide upon my own objective basis for making moral judgements)
He has developed an entirely new personal system of moral values - based on what? It's just an implicit religious system based on our current secular politics.
> forgiveness was something I had to work towards myself (as in I had to forgive myself for things, which is not easy, but is incredibly rewarding) versus simply getting it for free from some nonexistent deity. All in all, was an incredibly positive change in my life, and I do believe
He's worked some pretty uniquely Christian ethics about personal forgiveness into it too. This stuff isn't universal.
> there can be a weird sort of spirituality to 100% atheism that people don't really acknowledge.
Seems like you're overloading the word religious to mean an idea that someone holds either very strongly, has a philosophical component or believes on faith (e.g. insufficient evidence or not thoroughly examined). All of this could be true, but that's not really religion.
As defined, religion is "the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.". Nothing about a strongly held belief, even one lacking evidence, makes it religious.
