One of the legs of radical Atheism, it represent a full-blown religion that parallels each and every Christian belief, though without a god at its foundation.
Indeed dear CityCenter: Atheism indeed is "a full-blown religion that parallels each and every Christian belief."
And yet, I suspect atheism does indeed have "a god at its foundation."
So guess who that might be???
At the superficial level, the "god" is the atheist himself. He feels unconstrained to be his own lawgiver at any point in time, according to his own shifting preferences. There is no solidity in the world of an atheist; and any social world composed of atheists would likewise have no solidity and, thus, no stability.
So, where did this miscreant, atheist concept of self-divinization come from?
Simply put, I imagine the atheist inspiration is simply to follow the pattern established by Satan himself.
First, there was a Fall in Heaven; and then, there was a Fall of Man. Satan personally effected the former; and then directly facilitated the latter.
It is said that Satan is the Father of Lies.
It is also said of Satan that, prior to his utterance of the eternally self-devastating words, "non serviam," he was an archangel, a sub-ruler, of God's heavenly kingdom, along with the archangels Michael and Gabriel; and he was highly favored by God, his Creator. His name then was Lucifer, or "Prince of Light."
From what I gather, Lucifer did not take well to the news that God was about to establish a new Creation that would involve the "incarnation" of souls in matter. God hadn't even created matter yet (nor space nor time); so this was understood in the angelic realm as presaging a really big, divinely revolutionary deal. Evidently, God passed over the class of angels (who are also souls) to effect this. His purpose, instead, was to make a new spiritual creation, culminating in a new creature, Man, designated to be His Son and Steward of the new Creation.
I further gather that Lucifer was incensed at being "passed over for promotion," as it were; it would seem there was no place for him in this new Creation.
But he begged to differ: And so he told God, his Father, to "stuff it": "I will no longer serve you."
At the same time, he had been such an influence in the order of the angels that he was able to recruit a goodly part of them — something around a quarter or a third — to follow him in rebellion against the Lord.
And he promised to be the enemy of mankind forevermore. Please read the Book of Job for details.
Thus Lucifer got a new name (Satan).
I don't see a dime's worth of difference between Lucifer's Fall, and the Fall of the angels of his party, and the decision of an atheist to turn his back on God.
The Father of Lies will always try to use the Holy Scriptures, and "each and every Christian belief," by inverting them, to destroy the Faithful. He succeeds by exploiting any baseness he can find in the human person. By "baseness" I mean the propensity to sin, which all men have.
But Satan whispers into our ears: "I will transform thy baseness into personal glory, into the fulfillment of all thy dreams, even unto the status of a god: Just sign on the dotted line."
Truly, he is the Father of Lies; for he has no such power. The only power he has over us is his ability to capitalize on our self-delusions. To our eternal peril.
Thank you so very much, CityCenter, for your deeply perceptive essay/post!