What's My Faith?

I have been emailing back and forth with an officer of our campus Muslim group. I was recommended a site for learning more about Islam, so I went and noticed they offered free literature. I love free literature -- reading from paper is always more enjoyable than reading from a screen. :-)

They had over a dozen pieces of literature to choose from, so I chose all of them. It asked some questions about me and, while filling them out, I came across a troubling question:

I was going to select "atheist" until I saw the question: "My faith is." I had to leave it blank and hope it wouldn't require it, or else I would have gone without.

Atheism isn't my faith anymore than skepticism is my gris gris. Perhaps atheism is my view on faith, but definitely not my faith. It's pedantry, but I think it's justified pedantry to make an issue out of it. The distinction is a clear one.

If you ask me what my religious views are, I would say "atheist." If you ask me what my religion is, I would say "none."



Well... most of the time, anyway.