Is athiesm protected under the fisrt amendment

Thanks to my opponent for inviting me to debate this topic with him. Let's get to it. Atheism is as fully protected under the first amendment of the constitution as much as Christianity, Islam, or Judaism. CASE LAW Reed v. Great Lakes Cos., 330 F.3d 931, 934 (7th Cir. 2003) "The First Amendment, in order to be effective in protecting all beliefs must guarantee the freedom to hold no religious belief." "We have already indicated that atheism may be considered, in this specialized sense, a religion. If we think of religion as taking a position on divinity, then atheism is indeed a form of religion." "However, the U.S. Supreme Court and several other federal courts have recognized atheism as equivalent to a "religion" for purposes of the First Amendment." http://thelawschoolguys.com... Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U.S. 38 (1985) "When the underlying principle has been examined in the crucible of litigation, the Court has unambiguously concluded that the individual freedom of conscience protected by the First Amendment embraces the right to select any religious faith or none at all." http://www.firstamendmentschools.org... Kaufman v. McCaughtry, 419 F.3d 678, 682 (7th Cir. 2005) "The court stated that 'Atheism is, among other things, a school of thought that takes a position on religion, the existence and importance of a supreme being, and a code of ethics. As such, we are satisfied that it qualifies as Kaufman"s religion for purposes of the First Amendment'." http://caselaw.findlaw.com... McCreary County, Ky. v. American Civil Liberties Union of Ky., 545 U.S. 844, 125 S.Ct. 2722, 162 L.Ed.2d 729 (2005) "The Establishment Clause itself says only that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion," but the Court understands the reference to religion to include what it often calls 'nonreligion'." http://www.oyez.org... Secular Humanism Case "Just as the Establishment Clause protects Christian or Muslim prisoners who wish to hold a discussion group where they promote belief in God, so it also protects Secular Humanists or atheists who want to promote the opposite view." "The same legal principles that protect Secular Humanists and conventional religious believers also protect atheists." "It does not matter whether atheism, Secular Humanism, or any other belief system that takes positions on religious issues is actually a 'religion' or not." "As First Amendment scholar Doug Laycock puts it, "the Religion Clauses [of the Amendment] should protect freedom of belief about religion, not just beliefs in religion'." http://www.washingtonpost.com... http://www.atheist-community.org... http://law.justia.com... http://atheistsoffloridainc.org... Conclusion Listed above are several examples of the supreme court, federal district courts, circuit courts, and more ruling that atheism is unarguably protected under the 1st amendment of the United States constitution. Regardless of what we may consider a religion or if something should be considered a religion is irrelevant; the only relevant factor is what is recognized by federal legislation. This is irrefutable evidence that supports my claim: The United States government has ruled that atheism is protected under the 1st amendment. Thanks for reading!