orpheus last chant

i am atheist towards the christian muslim and mozaic god...but i really haven't studied the other types of belief....i have no way to do this and a trip o the book store (to see some eastern books) made me

yeah.... and i don't want to read some guy's interpretation (who's authority i have no knowledge of) of an iterpretation 600 years old of the vedas.... neah

so please could anyone spare some time and recommend some really good sites , and if i can find the original material online (for example the vedas in txt. like the gutemberg project provides)

i didn't name anything because i thought i'd be telling somehting stupid if i said the religion of buddhism (i heard that buddha did not consider himself as being god)

Toto

A decent place to start would be www.beliefnet.com - there is a directory of sacred texts here

You should be aware that most eastern religions do not glorify a text the way the Abrahamic religions do. You can be a Buddhist without believing in any god. In fact, most religion outside of Christianity is not based on a belief, but on practice.

Jet Grind

If you are skeptical toward the Judeo-Christian/Islamic god, (note that I used "skeptical" instead of "atheistic", seeing as tto be an atheist you must be skeptical toward the existence of all gods), then you won't find much interesting about other gods. They all have several things in common. 1.) They are all supernatural figures with paternal traits and 2.) there is no evidence for any of them. So I would suggest that you refrain from wasting your time.

leyline

orpheus last chant

although reading books isn't a bad idea, i agree with toto's comments about the eastern difference in reverence for scripts and the emphasis on practice. With regards to looking stupid which is understandable in a text based culture, the buddhist's by contrast have a deep respect for the beginner's mind. They are very wary of conceptual understanding taking over. Have you considered wandering into a group and having a chat with people after listening and getting a vibe from their practice?

orpheus last chant

i asked for sites and texts on the net because there are no buddhists or other i know of who are in my country (Being 90 percent christian) and i am wary to waste my time (like i said before) on non valuable texts (like readin the short version of a good book ... crap!)

i feel a little strange in calling myself atheist...to the christian god yes...i see no room for him, yet i still search for material about it, people keep questioning me, or judgeing me by my lack of beliefs...and looking like a confused thinker and shakey on the facts....no thanks.

i read most of the library on infidels , but it's mostly towards christianity...

i do wonder if people could call god, a non-all powerful, non-omnibenevolent non-omniscient nonexisting everywhere and outside everything being... when i was a kid i had a very active imagination.... i used to think gods were the next to perfect humans... not necesarily imortal...but as good as it can be...
some optimistical view of our future

monkey mind

Two sites I find extremely valuable to buddhist writings is. www.buddhanet.net for mahayana writings and http://www.accesstoinsight.org/ for theravedan writings. Can't help you with Hindu resources though...

Incidently, here is a list from buddhanet of buddhist communities in bulgaria and romania

http://www.buddhanet.net/euro_dir/eur_eer1.htm

leyline

i see your problem if you are surrounded by high levels of christianity.

Of course there are various schools for all religions, including buddhism, and the texts and their interpretation vary accordingly. Another key problem is translation from the original too. I have read different 'translations' of eastern texts that say exactly the opposite. This isn't just a problem of language either. It is conceptual as well because many of these religions challenge materialism and cause and effect.

I would just dive in man and not get too hung up about it. eg. The Zen teachings aspire to "being of no abiding place". Which is to say not to become attached to any one thing......... including 'authentic' texts like the bible or "not wasting your time".

Meditation after all is a complete waste of time! ( joke )

hinduwoman

I can only repeat what others have said: Eastern religions do not place such great importance on scriptures.
Even the Vedas Orientalists made so much fuss about were not really important to the practising Hindu, except to some who accepted them as the Supreme scripture.

For a quick overview I suggest you go to: www.hindunet.org/quickintro/hindudharma

And even then some other interpretations of the same are left out.

Hinduism is very fluid. I am not even sure it can be called a theology in the same way Semitic religions can be. Hinduism does not even have a word for religion or theology.