Buddhism--

Despite its faith in supernatural phenomenon like reincarnation, many atheists seem to be okay with Buddhism.

The dashes are because Buddhism is 8 characters long.

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Oh, and FIRST!!!11!1!111one

G'day Nulono, welcome to the Forums :-)

So, how about yourself? Are you atheist, agnostic or theist? What's your personal views on Buddhism? As for myself, I'd have to say that the claims made by Buddhists are just as irrational and nonsensical as all these other claims made by other religions. Just another set of nonsense piety, without a single shred of evidence in support.

Something Buddhism does have in its favour, in comparison to, say, monotheistic belief's; is the absents of a sadistic doctrine to poison minds with. You don't have Buddhists killing each other over interpretations of a bronze age manuscript. Buddhism also doesn't try to corrode some of our most treasured moral and ethical value's we hold as a society. But then again one could bring up Sri Lanka as an example as to the harm it can potentially cause, and I'm debunked. But for all obvious reasons, Buddhism is far less parasitic in comparison to other belief systems.

Whether I classify Buddhism as a religion or not is another thing. But I think the reasons above are along the lines of why outspoken atheists don't tend to focus on attacking Buddhism.

Your thoughts?

I think I would call myself an antitheist.

I think the spirituality that Buddhism promotes is a beautiful, beautiful thing, and it even seems more realistic in some ways than other major religions...

But that's just me.

I'm a Secular Humanist.

.:-Imagine-:.

Hi Imagine, welcome to the Truth-Saves.com forums!

Secular Humanist hey... So, does that mean your religious or non-religious? As theists, can also be 'secular'. :-)

My main study of religion has been on the Abrahamic religions, mainly Christianity. Give us a little intro into what parts of the Buddhist belief system that you are attracted too.

Cheers,
Clint

As far as Buddhism goes, I have a huge appreciation for the meditative, tolerant, and enlightened approach taken by the followers I have met.

Hah, I'm far from religious--anti-religion, to be honest.

There are aspects of all sorts of things that I find good in, but still...deep down I know that if I could get rid of it in one fell swoop, all religion would be gone. But that's just me!

:]

.:-Imagine-:.

Nulono wrote:Despite its faith in supernatural phenomenon like reincarnation, many atheists seem to be okay with Buddhism.

Although I am religious, and therefore biased on the matter, I think that atheists might be a little more understanding of Buddhism because it has no real "personal god". Perhaps this non-theistic religion, as I understand it to be for the most part, is more tolerable because of the incompatibility of the concept of deity with the life of an atheist. In the deity's stead, there are humanistic principles, that many secular humanists practice.

One thing I don't like about Buddhism / Hinduism, is that they belittle other life forms, they belittle the rest of the animal kingdom as 'lesser' species. If you live a bad or immoral life this time, you'll be reincarnated as another animal, whether it be, rat, dog, as a form of 'punishment' (I use this word tentatively), and so forth.

I personally think its quite crude and diminishes the complexity and beauty of other organism. But apart from that and other simple misconceptions of reality, I feel its a vast improvement on abrahamic religions. - that'd probably be a general and common atheistic view on Buddhism.

Clint wrote:I personally think its quite crude and diminishes the complexity and beauty of other organism.

Not necessarily. Apart from being "better" or "worse", we can't deny that, compared to all other animals, we lead a life of incredible safety, freedom and comfort. Being reborn as an animal means a life without a bed, a car and an internet connection. That's punishment enough.[/quote]

Clint wrote:I personally think its quite crude and diminishes the complexity and beauty of other organism. But apart from that and other simple misconceptions of reality, I feel its a vast improvement on abrahamic religions. - that'd probably be a general and common atheistic view on Buddhism.

I agree with you and Niels. <--- I finally spelt it rite! Anyways, I agree with Niels on the practical advantages of being human, which he listed. However, I do share your aggravation with people who view themselves as intrinsically superior to other species in the Animal Kingdom. Intelligence isn't something to base intrinsic superiority on. As far as complexity goes, we are relatively shitty creatures, I would say. From an evolutionary perspective, we suck in various ways, with the exception of advantageous communication, problem solving, and collective coordination. As Richard Dawkins put it, fish are more "complex" and efficient than humans. Genetically, we have relatively small genomes, and only use 2% of that DNA. Contrarily, bacteria uses 90% of its DNA. Much more efficient than humans...

With that said, I still feel Buddhism is a huge improvement from Abrahamic religions, in principle and especially practice.

I think being reincarnated into another animal as punishment could be more of a negative thing in the sense of fear. Think about the things we, as humans, do to animals and how terrifying that could be to become an animal in that scenario.

I mean, they don't condemn you to be a deep-sea angler or something. Haha, it's something close to man's heart!

(Or...Um, maybe closer to his stomach... Yeah...)


I do highly respect that general idea of cherishing nature, peace, and a deep connection with surroundings as Buddhism often promotes.