-ism, -ist or a -ist?

[Raymott]

I didn't call it a religion. I said that "None" should be an option on questionnaires. If I were calling it a religion, I would say that "Atheism" should be listed as an option.

No, you didn't say "Atheism is a religion", I'll grant you that. The implication came over several posts.
You did say, "As an atheist, I don't care ..." in #11, and then in #15 you wrote, "PS - You do not need to apologise for not wishing to disclose your religion. It is of no interest or relevance. I only gave mine because ..."
From this, I deduced that you were saying that you had given your religion above, and that this religion was atheism. Many atheists active on more relevant websites would prefer "I only mentioned my lack of religion ..." to "I only gave mine (religion, atheism) because ..."
I apologise if I misunderstood you. And I don't want to make a big point of it here, because even though whether a lack of religion could be described as a religion might be on topic here, such discussions tend to become inflammatory.

 

[emsr2d2]

There seems to be a lack of consistency even between atheists as to whether it is a "belief system" (ie "I believe there is definitely no god") or a "lack of belief" (ie I do not believe in any god).

You're right though that I should not have said "I only gave mine ...", indicating that I see atheism as a religion. I don't.