Mageth

Jainism, a syncretistic religion that contains many elements similar to Hinduism and Buddhism, does not have a "god".

Perhaps you should specify what you mean by "religious beliefs".

Stiletto One

The case of Buddhism is really interesting, because it was a sectarian splinter group from Hinduism...but anyway, that's OT.

chrysalis

The term I was presented with was "religious atheists". I can only assume what that means.
My best guess would be something along the lines of professing a devout acknowledgement of a spiritual world that doesn't include any gods. I'm not sure what is the difference is between having religious beliefs and having spiritual beliefs.

wade-w

It is difficult to speak of a "Buddhist Cosmology" on a coherent fashion. Buddhism is far more fractured into varying sects than Christianity or other western beliefs, many of which bear almost no resemblance to each other. The major division is into what is called "Mahayana" and "Hinayana". Yes, some sects have a hell, complete with demons, and they also have various named Buddhas and Bodhisatvas which can seem to be analogous to gods and saints. This cosmology is more common in the Hinayana sects; most Mahayana sects consider this to be metaphor only, and in no way a reflection of reality. Hinayana is more prevalent in Tibet and SE Asia, while Mahayana is found mostly in China and Japan. Zen is a Mahayana sect, for example. There are exceptions to this; Amidha was a sect that was very popular during Japan's medieval period, and does have deities and demons, etc.

According to most Mahayana Buddhist sects, a Buddha is a human who has acheived Enlightenment, thus allowing that person to escape the cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth (the "wheel of karma"), and all humans have the potential to become a Buddha. Acheiving this state is the purpose of practicing Buddhism. A Boddhisatva is a person who could achieve this state at any time, but chooses to continue to be reborn in order to facilitate other people's enlightenment.

Taoism is another religion that comes complete with a cosmology that includes a pantheon of gods and demons, etc. Yet again, this is generally thought to be pure metaphor, and IIRC, the Book of the Tao never once mentions this cosmology.

breezanne

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/76/story_7665_1.html

Here is a place where you can take a survey and see what organized "religion" or "lack of religion" is most closely aligned with your own personal opinions/views.

Just for fun.

froggy

I just came back from there after filling all questions faithfully and truthfully, but it said I am a Mahayana Buddhism, err how does this work. The Islam I am belong to is no: 15. Look like I am the no: 1 enemy of the catholics or anything Bible, beware!

1. Mahayana Buddhism (100%)
2. Neo-Pagan (97%)
3. Hinduism (93%)
4. Unitarian Universalism (91%)
5. New Age (91%)
6. Liberal Quakers (86%)
7. Scientology (86%)
8. New Thought (86%)
9. Jainism (85%)
10. Orthodox Judaism (78%)
11. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (76%)
12. Bahá'ê Faith (73%)
13. Reform Judaism (73%)
14. Theravada Buddhism (73%)
15. Islam (71%)
16. Orthodox Quaker (62%)
17. Sikhism (61%)
18. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (60%)
19. Taoism (57%)
20. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (50%)
21. Secular Humanism (49%)
22. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (45%)
23. Jehovah's Witness (45%)
24. Seventh Day Adventist (43%)
25. Nontheist (33%)
26. Eastern Orthodox (30%)
27. Roman Catholic (30%)

Stiletto One

1. Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2. Secular Humanism (93%)
3. Liberal Quakers (84%)
4. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (82%)
5. Theravada Buddhism (78%)
6. Neo-Pagan (68%)
7. Nontheist (68%)
8. New Age (53%)
9. Taoism (50%)
10. Bahá'�* Faith (50%)
11. Mahayana Buddhism (49%)
12. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (47%)
13. Reform Judaism (45%)
14. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (44%)
15. Sikhism (43%)
16. Orthodox Quaker (37%)
17. Jainism (35%)
18. New Thought (35%)
19. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (34%)
20. Jehovah's Witness (33%)
21. Scientology (30%)
22. Hinduism (29%)
23. Orthodox Judaism (18%)
24. Seventh Day Adventist (18%)
25. Eastern Orthodox (16%)
26. Islam (16%)
27. Roman Catholic (16%)

Interesting; I consider myself more of a SecHum than a UU, but I guess they're pretty compatible. My only beef with UU is the religious component; ditto certain variants of Buddhism.

Kalkin

That's just wierd, if you're a practicing Muslim. Maybe you're a follower of Sufism? From my very limited knowledge of Sufism, it's kind of similar to Buddhism, and quite likely wouldn't be taken into account in that test. Yes, no?

exmormon

I guess it's pretty easy to make this system think you have much in common with a belief system. I'm not a unitarian, and I'm adamantly opposed to some of the groups on here like LDS, conservative/protestant xian, JW, which i supposedly have over 30% compatibility with. I'm an atheist, yet it gave me a higher score for liberal xians than nontheists. I guess it's because i like the ideas of compassion, tolerance, peace, equality, etc. that some atheists disagree with but that liberal xians like.

I would stick neo-pagan as the first one on the list after the nonreligious ones, because i kind of toyed with that once and would have liked to believe some of that stuff if it were scientifically defensible.

To answer the OP, I think that spiritual belief is compatible w/ atheism. Some atheists consider themselves spiritual in the sense that they cultivate their psychological health and experience a sense of awe and wonder and appreciation for beauty. I tried at first to call myself spiritual for those reasons, but I got tired of all the disclaimers ("I'm not implying anything metaphysical, dammit!!") I felt compelled to issue. 'Spiritual' is a word with too much baggage.

Also, one can believe (though not with sound justification) in souls, metaphysical energy, afterlives, etc., without believing that there's one or more super-powerful beings running it all.


1. Secular Humanism (100%)
2. Unitarian Universalism (100%)
3. Liberal Quakers (87%)
4. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (83%)
5. Nontheist (75%)
6. Theravada Buddhism (68%)
7. Neo-Pagan (64%)
8. Bah�'� Faith (51%)
9. New Age (48%)
10. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (47%)
11. Taoism (46%)
12. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (44%)
13. Reform Judaism (42%)
14. Orthodox Quaker (38%)
15. Mahayana Buddhism (37%)
16. New Thought (34%)
17. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (33%)
18. Jehovah's Witness (32%)
19. Sikhism (29%)
20. Scientology (29%)
21. Jainism (23%)
22. Seventh Day Adventist (18%)
23. Hinduism (14%)
24. Eastern Orthodox (14%)
25. Islam (14%)
26. Orthodox Judaism (14%)
27. Roman Catholic (14%)

laca

Atheism is a religion that BELEIVES that gods or a God do not exist.
There is one contradiction in this because it is not logical to say that something what you are talking about does not exist ( on any level ).
Because of this some people think that is more correct to say that atheism is actually a religion that DENIES gods or God's existence.