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Atheists! Say Hi! :)
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Hey! I'm an atheist (just to make sure we are on the same page). I'm also pretty new to Buddhism, but I am jumping right in and loving it. I'm not sure at what point I will consider myself an actual 'Buddhist' or 'Atheistic Buddhist' or whatever, but that isn't really the point of this post. I'm just curious how many of you are also Atheists interested in pursuing a type of religion with no fake Gods, no brain washing, and actual scientific facts to back it up. I personally was a hardcore Christian for about 17 years of my life. I've been an Atheist for another few years (though I continued to believe in souls or rebirth). And when everything got rough in my life, I started to search for something... to make me happy. Buddhism is the solution I arrived at. Can anyone else relate?
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Hello! I too am atheistic!
Here is the definition of atheism from dictionary.com.
a·the·ism
–noun
1.
the doctrine or belief that there is no god.
2.
disbelief in the existence of a supreme being or beings.
I do not believe in the existence of gods or supreme beings (or heavens or hells, just because I believe a god would have to be running the place and get people there). But I have kept the belief that we have some form of a soul that lives on after we die. After doing a lot of research I was uncertain about ghosts actually existing and I decided that people that experienced heaven or hell in near-death experiences were probably having some kinds of extreme dreams with their bodies in states where they actually expected to die. But I was surprised to find numerous reports of children remembering past lives and some adults with dreams or visions of pasts lives. These past lives involve things that the people couldn't possibly know about, but turn out to be true facts after they do research. So, I believe that reincarnation is a common part of nature and so are souls (no gods involved).
Thanks. And Woo!
1. Why should you, humans in general, have a soul? Isn't this like thinking you're cursed though not believing in magic or witches?
2. Do all other life forms also have souls? If not, why not?
3. At which point did this soul come to be, or did it somehow exist before birth?
4. If no divine authority, what happens to the soul upon death of the body?
Ah hell those questions aren't even right. I think you an see how they arose though; the soul has always been the mark upon man, his assurance of eternal life, by his creator. It's what made him special and linked him to something otherworldly, making humans "better" than the world they live in. Giving them the right to be the masters of "inferior" life. (One of many ways it has been taken in the past, I don't mean this is "the" way or to offend.)
Or something.
I don't believe in a personal God, and while I could accept some of the more philosophical definitions of "God," I still wouldn't want to use that word to describe it. When you use that word to describe a concept, you automatically anthropomorphise it in the minds of most people listening, and people tend to conflate the definition you're using with ones that other people use, so even if you just mean "the ground of being" people will tend to think that you believe that thing also created the universe, answers prayers, and wants you to behave a certain way. It gets messy unless you and the people you are talking to have the time and interest to work out the specifics. That usually doesn't happen on the internet.
Okay, that rambled quite a bit. I'll stop now.
sincerely john
Doubt and sabotage of our faith give rise to struggle; dukkha.
As a faithless skeptic of ludicrous delusions, we deny that which others can not prove.
Threats and ostracism give rise to bitter resentment; dukkha.
As a humbled contemplative of convictions unwarranted, we admit we don't know.
Tough lessons lead to the less traveled paths.
Yeaaaah, well don't ask why I bothered writing that; I'm no artist. Just something about this thread and having gone the Christianity->Atheist->Agnostic/(practitioner of Buddhism) route struck a reflective chord.
........
Mmm very unique opinions John, as long as you are aware they aren't shared by actual "Buddhism" as it is taught (at least in Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana). Only perhaps so far as to either ambiguously or openly profess of devas and other such transient beings that have their own problems and can not solve ours.
It's quite possible to be both Christian and Buddhist, to a certain degree, but if we start mashing them together we're ending up with something untenable that is not at all consistent with itself and only serves to obfuscate the purpose and methods that are "of suffering and the cessation of suffering". Can we not leave Buddhism largely as it's meant to be... useful?
I'm a nontheist.
I really don't give a damn one way or the other whether a supreme being exists or not.
I never give it any thought.
It's an Unconjecturable (as can be amply demonstrated by the posts here, and indeed, any posts/threads discussing the existence - or otherwise - of a God).
It really is of no consequence, and matters not a jot to my personal practice.
"It little matters whether Heaven exists or not; the important is to live life as if it did."
Even atheists believe something. And that's fine.
Agnostics believe that being ambiguous is ok and leave their options open, just in case. And that's fine.
Theists are all for it. And that's fine.
Me?
meh.....
It is a rare thing to say that you are strongly atheistic (i.e. gnostic atheistic), but, thanks to understanding the concepts stated in the above paragraph, I certainly feel strongly atheistic re: a Transcendent Creator; Dawkins won't even go as far as to call himself that atheistic.
Not really.
Emptiness is not even vaguely similar to the new agey concept of "oneness" and it couldnt possibly be confused for any kind of deity.
Buddhism is atheistic in that as a tradition it views the existence of a creator god as irrelevant to liberation from suffering.
When I said "to make me happy," I didn't mean it that exclusively. I'm a very happy person, but I missed the part of religion where you try to be a better person, pray or meditate, and don't worry so much about your problems because either your God has everything under control or you have controlled your mind so that your problems don't consume you. Buddhism seems like, with practice and effort, it can make some parts of life easier therefore making you happier.
That's really quite good, actually! I think I can relate to all of three.
Does that count? If it does, then, "Hello!"
I mean, "Hi!"
I agree with you and Carl. I mean, to claim one is an atheist - at least it seems to me - is to make a firm decision with finality that there is no God. But no one REALLY knows... except maybe the Christian or Sufi mystics
Yes! I totally agree! I love it when people say they are 100% sure that they are completely right about God and what happens when they die. When I say I am an atheist, I'm just saying that this is my personal guess. I wouldn't be very surprised if I was wrong about that or reincarnation or anything else related.
AND HI NIRVANA!
That is very interesting. In Orthodox Christianity, God is often defined in negative (apophatic) terms (the Divine Darkness, a no-thing, Beyond Being, etc). I've come across several Zen practitioners who believe in God, and some even use the nembetsu... or so I've been told. When I consider the very limited description the Buddha left us of Nibbana in the Pali Canon, as well as the apophatic theology of traditional Christianity, and the I AM of Advaita Vedanta, I can't help thinking that this impossible-to-conceptualize, self-existent Reality is one and the same. Some call it God. Some the Tao. Some prefer not to put a name on it. It just IS.
But I could be wrong.
I think that for westerners who convert to Buddhism, there is a stronger tendancy to be atheists.
For myself having practiced, Christianity, Hinduism (Vedanta and Vaishevism) and Buddhism (soto Zen and Shin) and also being very influenced by Carl Sagan, I've sort of touched bases with many side of the question.
In the end I definitely do not believe in the Judeo-Christian form, but I do believe in an ultimate reality which embraces all beings, and which in fact is the true nature of all beings.
As a Shin Buddhist I call it Amida Buddha but actually I think Amida is sort of like how children draw a face on the sun. It just makes it a bit easier to relate to in a personal way. Truly I think Amida is what his name says...Perfectly Awakened infinite Light and Life.
My sister is Roman Catholic but when we talk religion, we disagree on very little really. In a way it feels like we just walk on different paths that were cleared by different people before us, but which ultimately lead to the same destination.
Sadly people get very caught up in the mythology and the man made rules. The very people who do this the most are probably one of the biggest causes of almost militant Atheism. I mean the people who protest funerals for fallen soldiers with signs declaring God hates this or that sort of person, are hardly a good advertisement for faith.
But that is humans for you. Any enterprise involving people will eventually have corruption, no matter how noble the intention of said enterprise.
Anyway, I'm not sure where I fit in this thread
I don't belive in the judeo Christian God, so I guess I could say "Hi"
but you know what...I"ll say "Hi" anyway!
The face on the sun analogy is so good, I think.
And yes, people get 'stuck' on religious dogmas and doctrines, and end up mired in a thick web if ideas, often divisive ones.
That's why I enjoy this forum... not too much of that here.