A philosophy refers to the investigation of truth. Read another way, that means philosophy refers to the finding of beliefs based on one's own rational analysis.
People have told me before that Christianity in itself isn't a religion because there are many branches of Christianity; Lutheranism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Anglicanism, etc. They referred to Christianity itself as a philosophy and that the branches themselves are religions.
Accepting this, one would then reach the natural conclusion that a religion can be based on a philosophy.
And accepting that, one could then easily reach the conclusion that atheism is merely a philosophy with a different focus; that is, lack of belief of God.
What would one then call skepticism, existentialism, and forms of nihilism? One couldn't call them religions because of the lack of belief in a godly figure. They are simply philosophies that align with another, larger philosophy.
In that case, accepting "Christianity" as a philosophy because of the lack of specific alignment with a particular branch may be a bit inaccurate. In fact, the difference between a religion and a philosophy is merely the belief in a godly figure, or many godly figures.
Questioning that, one would then likely state that a religion cannot be a philosophy because a philosophy refers to truth and holy books are typically told as the word of God when they're really written by men guessing to what God wants, and therefore most likely inaccurate.
However, there are clearly those few I established in the gay marriage thread who are in the minority, who wish to find the truth in the context of their religion, rather than rejecting it outright or going wholesale for what may be proven as false because religion > truth.
Would those people be philosophers? More specifically...
-Philosophy
--Religion
---Religious Branches
----Accepters of Religious Branch (90%)
----Questioners of Religious Branch (10%)
--Atheism
---Atheistic Branches
----Accepters of Atheistic Branch
----Questioners of Atheistic Branch
Does this seem about right? Or would "Accepters" be in a different section than "Philosophy" because they inherently don't question what is true?
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