Doreen,
Notice in my response to you I said atheists and atheist organizations could fall under one of those definitions. To say all atheists are religious is problematic, since many simply lack a belief in God. But that there are atheists who do in fact have a set of beliefs, often including negative beliefs about religions and a belief there is no God - as two examples, I do not think the issue is clear.
The problem is only using parts or pieces of the broader definition to the exclusion of it's full definition.
This is why we define and catergorize things. What I am suggesting is that it is the wrong word in this instance.
That is why you can refer to something as "religious like" or "like a religion" in a sentence to describe the behaviors or the actions of a secular organization, but you wouldn't say it "is" a religion or "is" religious.
The definition separates out an organization that worships god or gods or higher power from those that do not.
If the OP had said:
Do some atheist organizations behave like a religion ?
There would be no issues with the phrasing of the question itself.
Here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion
Etymology
Religion (from O.Fr. religion "religious community," from L. religionem (nom. religio) "respect for what is sacred, reverence for the gods,"[3] "obligation, the bond between man and the gods"[4]) is derived from the Latin religiō, the ultimate origins of which are obscure. One possibility is derivation from a reduplicated *le-ligare, an interpretation traced to Cicero connecting lego "read", i.e. re (again) + lego in the sense of "choose", "go over again" or "consider carefully". Modern scholars such as Tom Harpur and Joseph Campbell favor the derivation from ligare "bind, connect", probably from a prefixed re-ligare, i.e. re (again) + ligare or "to reconnect," which was made prominent by St. Augustine, following the interpretation of Lactantius.[5][6] However, the French scholar Daniel Dubuisson notes that relying on this etymology "tends to minimize or cancel out the role of history"; he notes that Augustine gave a lengthy definition of religio that sets it quite apart from the modern word "religion".[7]
Thus:
"Religion is the belief in and worship of a god or gods, or in general a set of beliefs explaining the existence of and giving meaning to the universe, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.[1]
Aspects of religion include narrative, symbolism, beliefs, and practices that are supposed to give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life. Whether the meaning centers on a deity or deities, or an ultimate truth, religion is commonly identified by the practitioner's prayer, ritual, meditation, music and art, among other things, and is often interwoven with society and politics. It may focus on specific supernatural, metaphysical, and moral claims about reality (the cosmos and human nature) which may yield a set of religious laws and ethics and a particular lifestyle. Religion also encompasses ancestral or cultural traditions, writings, history, and mythology, as well as personal faith and religious experience. The development of religion has taken many forms in various cultures, with continental differences.
The term "religion" refers both to the personal practices related to communal faith and to group rituals and communication stemming from shared conviction. "Religion" is sometimes used interchangeably with "faith" or "belief system",[2] but it is more socially defined than personal convictions, and it entails specific behaviors, respectively.
Religion is often described as a communal system for the coherence of belief focusing on a system of thought, unseen being, person, or object, that is considered to be supernatural, sacred, divine, or of the highest truth.
Moral codes, practices, values, institutions, tradition, rituals, and scriptures are often traditionally associated with the core belief, and these may have some overlap with concepts in secular philosophy. Religion is also often described as a "way of life" or a life stance"
My bold from our previous posts, touches on what you are seeing as a definition. When really it is just some common elements.
So I think it's pretty clear that calling atheism or any secular organization a religion is wrong.
For the Buddhists I guess it depends on the individual and whether they believe in a higher power of some kind or not, because if they believe that Buddhism supports that, I suppose to that individual it is a religion.
