Religions are hard to define, as mentioned in the article, but a deity is absolutely not a requirement no matter how you slice it. Zen Buddhism, Jainism, and Scientology are all great examples of religious with no deity.

But for the sake of discussion, let’s walk through.

So political parties are religions, right?

Not yet. There’s a good argument to be made that they’re more than they used to be, though.

Neo-NAZIism is a religion, right?

White Supremacy is a religion, right?

Not by our criteria, I don’t think so.

Atheism is a religion, right?

There’s a wide array of beliefs that fall under the atheism umbrella, and atheists are a very diverse group. I do think there are some of them who are inching that way, but I wouldn’t call them “a religion” yet. The ones who intersect with Social Justice (as in “Atheism plus”) may fall under a different umbrella though.

Social Justice is a religion, right?

I think social justice fits basically all the criteria, in spades, and is also absolutely acting like it. Hence the article.

Should we be separating God and Godless religions?

No.

How about the NRA, NAACP, the Antidefamation League, ACLU…

For what it’s worth, I have mixed feelings about all of the above listed organizations, some good and some bad about each, but I don’t think these organizations come remotely close to meeting the overall criteria for a religion.