Atheism is a Religion

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by Starman

Atheism is a philosophical category, while Christianity is a theological category,
but atheism is not and organized group like Christianity.
There are lots of different types of atheist, and I guess one can also say
there are lots of different types of Christian.

Yes, this. I was going to say atheism is a simple belief system - philosophy is a good word, also.
There really are diff types of atheists, I have learned from being on forums~!
But, a religion?


PureEvil - What 'fate' will both have? Thanks.

Originally Posted by hallow

I always wondered, why follow only one belief system? Why follow any set of beliefs? Once you begin to follow you only limit how much you will grow by how others tell you what to believe,.... what they want you believe and there truths. have to find and follow your own. I will never disregard what others believe, they may have a piece of your puzzle. But that puzzle is massive. Your soul is individual to you and personal. It's not text book/one size fits all.

Yes, all quite true.
Yet I would suppose that if one drifts about the ocean alone in a life boat for long enough, even a ship of fools becomes a welcome sight.

.

[hallow]

Originally Posted by ketzer

Yes, all quite true.
Yet I would suppose that if one drifts about the ocean alone in a life boat for long enough, even a ship of fools becomes a welcome sight.

.

those fools may have a piece of that puzzle in one form or another. In All honesty, people are only going to believe what they choose to believe, I am no different. When it comes to something like spiritual growth it's all you as a individual it's not or shouldn't be a group thing.

[Godspark]

Originally Posted by NoOne

If you look at the etymology, Atheist technically means someone who doesn't believe in Zeus. That's pretty much the entire world population.

If you expand the meaning of the latin word "Deus" to mean all deities, not just the Greek storm god, then it signifies someone who doesn't believe in or worship deities in general, which is again, a pretty large chunk of the world's population, especially in the West and in actual fact encompasses most Jews and Christians, who believe in some sort of vague original creator who brought the universe into being, but not in any literal deities.

Animist a polite way of saying pagan/wiccan?

[Godspark]

Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

Clarification on Hindus. Advaita Vedanta would say deities apparently exist but ultimately do not exist. That is they are just appearances - name, form and function - of and within Sat-Chit-Ananda which is the impersonal Ineffable. In other words dieties are no different than us in that respect and Heavens no different that objective reality in a similar respect.

Sounds like Jung... archetypes

Originally Posted by hallow

those fools may have a piece of that puzzle in one form or another. In All honesty, people are only going to believe what they choose to believe, I am no different. When it comes to something like spiritual growth it's all you as a individual it's not or shouldn't be a group thing.

They may indeed have some wisdom.

"Wisdom that a wise man attempts to impart always sounds like foolishness to someone else." Hermann Hesse - Siddhartha

And the Sufis talk about the wisdom of the idiots. Which always makes me blush a bit, whether I have the right to or not.

To be honest, looking at my track record, I am not the best at discerning between the wisdom of fools and the plain old foolishness of fools. Both have an appeal, and I seem to enjoy both. Even if it is just a crazy old ship of foolish fools, I expect the thing to do is to climb onboard for a time and try to have a foolhardy time sailing the high seas for a spell. Maybe as a pirate or a polar explorer. Just keep one eye open in case it sinks so you can abandon ship before it and you go under. Then you will just find yourself back in a lifeboat again, where you started.

Perhaps, to reach whatever destination one is seeking, it takes both time alone in a life boat, as well as time aboard a ship or two, whether they be filled with fools, pirates, polar explorers, spice traders, or the royal navy. Let Captain Ron be your skipper, why not!

I would however recommend avoiding the holiday cruise ships, they are floating death traps with overflowing toilets. Shiver me timbers, it is much better to go out by being forced to walk the plank!

Originally Posted by Godspark

Sounds like Jung... archetypes

Not exactly. Here's my understanding of the Advaita perspective.

If one is particularly virtuous however not yet Enlightened when the body dies one will potentially go to a Heaven. It's not escaping rebirth, just postponing it for uncounted millennia until that appearance too is dissolved in a kind of Great Recycling where all apparent manifestations dissolve leaving only the Unmanifest, the Absolute. The cycle then repeats as it always has because it's infinite and without beginning or end.

To be honest who knows for sure? After all It is Ineffable, but if one does subscribe to non-dualism it's One without a second and that includes Gods. That being said if the Ineffable can appear as people and planets and galaxies and universes it can surely appear as Gods in Heavens too.

[Miss Hepburn]

This is always my thinking: an acupuncturist should explain acupuncture.
So I asked an atheist buddy of mine -
could you explain why atheism isn't a religion?


"Glad to. But it would be useful to first know why the person thinks it Is a religion.
We need a definition before we can say that atheism doesn't fit it.
But I don't want to seem evasive so maybe this would help.

A religion has a god or quasi -god (like Karma or Thetans) belief.
Atheism does not.
Religions tend to have faith -based Dogmas expounded in Holy books and backed up by Faith.
The nearest that atheism has to Dogma is the reliance on the validity of science and logical reasoning that we all use, religious or not.

That we have spokespersons, literature and meetings also applies to sporting -clubs, business and wargaming groups.
But nobody says that makes them religions (unless 'religion' becomes so broad that it becomes meaningless)
so it doesn't make atheism a religion either.

Of course theism has to force a 'belief' on atheism in that we are supposed to claim that a god doesn't exist.
Apart from the atheist position being agnostic rather than gnostic- denialist, the rejection of a supernatural claim makes us no more a religion than those who reject Bigfoot,
Astrology or gods from outer space , even if the rejection of that particular supernatural claim happens to be a god."

Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

Clarification on Hindus. Advaita Vedanta would say deities apparently exist but ultimately do not exist. That is they are just appearances - name, form and function - of and within Sat-Chit-Ananda which is the impersonal Ineffable. In other words dieties are no different than us in that respect and Heavens no different that objective reality in a similar respect.

They sound a lot like mermaids and sea monsters.....except those just exist.

Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

If one is particularly virtuous however not yet Enlightened when the body dies one will potentially go to a Heaven. It's not escaping rebirth, just postponing it for uncounted millennia until that appearance too is dissolved in a kind of Great Recycling where all apparent manifestations dissolve leaving only the Unmanifest, the Absolute. The cycle then repeats as it always has because it's infinite and without beginning or end.

That first part sounds complicated. I don't suppose there is a manual or rule book somewhere.