Reply #35: There is no atheist "arbitrary moral bedrock." Didn't say there was.

[Occam Bandage]

These people, however, do have one: secular humanism, which is compatible with but not identical to atheism, and which is as arbitrary as any other code of ethics. In this case, adherence to secular humanism is the cultural marker that signifies group membership.

"Humans socializing does not equal religion as I define it."
Nor as I.

How do you define religion? Is it only by their primary real-world activities?
I think religions are a subset of self-replicating memetic constructs, which in particular have evolved to transmit themselves from generation to generation, and which ensure a symbiotic existence with their human "hosts" by nestling into the natural intersection between the human desires for social belonging and for moral purpose.

Whether a divinity is invoked seems beside the point.