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I am 100% against religions, but that doesn't mean I HAVE to be an agnostic or an atheist. Why do I have to follow other people's beliefs?!
You could be a Deist. Or non-denominational, or you could simply study god yourself. I have lots of Atheist/Agnostic friends and we ALLLL have vastly different beliefs... just because you don't believe in the god myth doesn't automatically put you in a perceived category.
The problem with Buddhism is that it is still a religion. Buddha himself was an atheist and his main philosophy was living in the moment but, like most prophets, his ideas have been perverted by a group of people who established a church in order to take advantage of other people.
Remember, anyone who claims to know what happens after you die is LYING. Atheism is based on fact and science which means that it will constantly change as theories are proven and disproven.
I've always considered myself an agnostic because I'm open to the idea of a higher being being out there but I have to admit that I can't picture this higher intelligence being an old white guy with a beard on a cloud. Based on the human characteristics that have been give to god in every book of religion that claims that there is a god to begin with, I'm more enclined to believe that god was made up by the religious leaders who claim to worship him.
When I was younger I subscribed to the belief that god was probably an alien (you have to admit that it's more logical to believe in aliens that it is to believe in god) and that our ancestors couldn't make heads or tails of him or his technology so they explained it away with magic. I read a lot of books like Chariots of the Gods and the like but I ended that hobby because, as I got older I realized that, if those books were true, then our race (the human race) is completely void of imagination which we know is not a fact.
Nowadays god is more of a distant hope that lingers thanks to my conditioning as a child. But if you need a higher being to make you a more productive and happy person, more power to you.
Ever hear about what some of the Buddhist monks can do? I've heard of some of them being able to practically stop their heartbeat while being in intense prayers and some being able to heat a single spot on their hand. I saw it on the Discovery Channel once...pretty cool
Interesting discussion, although I think many of the posters are missing the point.
It's true that being an atheist does not mean you are opposed to religion. The word comes by adding an alpha privative to the word "theist". In other words, and atheist is someone who is not a theist. This may include a range, from people who assert that there is no god, to people who say it is extremely unlikely that there is a god, to people who say they don't know if there is a god or not. In my book, all these are atheists, even those who prefer to call themselves agnostics.
From my perspective it is wrong to believe in things without evidence, including god. The same principle applies to all other supernatural or spiritual entities, such as angels, the nature gods of paganism and American Indian religions, and the "souls" that many religious people believe that humans have.
In other words, as an atheist I don't believe in gods, goddesses, angels, spirits, souls, or anything of that nature.
To the extent that, as some posters have suggested, Buddhism asserts a belief not in a supreme god, but in lesser spiritual entities, or in some kindof human soul that survives the physical death of a human being and is subsequently reincarnated, I would say that if you're not going to believe in god there is no reason to believe in that.
By the same token, people who talk about spirituality, or spiritual knowledge, or of being spiritual even though they're not religious, are, in my view, talking about imaginary entities and ideas.
We have a Buddhist temple near where I live. It's weird because it's right in the middle of an industrial park, so around all these cranes, equipment, and heavy trucks is this gold-roofed tower sticking up.
I've thought about stepping in a saying Hi occasionally. I don't know why.
I lost an argument once when I said Buddhism was not a religion because it worshipped no god. In the end I had to admit that it was a religion, though it worshipped no god. I'm not even sure you can call it atheistic as it does believe in gods, but just doesn't think you can get off the wheel of rebirth by acts of faith or piety towards them. Your 'salvation' is in your own hands, though there does seem to be a belief that you can transfer good Karma into someone's account by pious deeds. Like giving money. That, in my book, is enough to make it a true, blue card - carrying, fully -paid - up religion.
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