Well, anyone who thinks atheism is a religion is uninformed at best.
Uninformed of what information? The grand high proclamation from the non-God that Atheism is not a religion?
An absence of theistic belief. According to the academic definition and the definition used by mots atheists themselves. This is becoming a childish loop. Atheism is not a belief. It contains no beliefs. It’s the absence of one specific belief. It contains no characteristics of religion whatsover.
Does Buddhism really not have a supernatural element?
Reading this: Buddhist cosmology - Wikipedia
it seems to be full of fantasy shadowy realms populated by devas (angel deities) which are overseen by Brahma (the creator God).
Actually Buddhism seems shit to me. This is the desired end result when one has achieved perfection:
I don’t want to be freed from greed, hate and delusion. They are strong emotions but the stronger emotions are what make us human. I don’t wanna be a robot.
Especially hate. Man, I would really miss hate if it went. And delusion - I quite enjoy a bit of that from time to time.
Perfection, the ultimate goal of Buddhism, is this:
So, greed, aversion, delusion, ignorance, craving and ego. I want all of them. I’m craving a kebab right now. And I need my ego, it’s the only thing that keeps me going.
No necessary ones, no. There are lots of popular supernatural beliefs within Buddhism, but none of them are required to be a Buddhist.
It depends on the school of Buddhism you’re talking about and it depends on the Buddhist. See my link in post #60 on Theravada Buddhism.
I have addressed this previously. Your insistence on facts that can’t be established is just one of the characteristics you share with the religiulous.
You were in error. I am correcting you.
Atheism asserts no facts. It declines to assert a fact.
Even your link talks about rebirth which all sounds a bit sci-fi to me since there’s no evidence whatsoever that there is a soul that leaves your body on death:
Your link still has echoes of the wiki page I linked to:
There’s them cravings again. And my link includes Theravada Buddhists - it details what’s in the most early scriptures.
You don’t have to believe in karma to be a Buddhist. Supernatural beliefs of any kind are neither required nor prohibited. They’re kind of beside the point. You can even be a Christian and be a Buddhist.
Then Atheists don’t assert that there is no God?
If you want to continue to prove that that your contention is incorrect we should do this in the other thread, unless you believe this applies to Communism as well.
It is not required that you believe them but they are there nonetheless. Buddhism tells you to focus on the now but it still has a recommended supernatural background.
And rebirth is by definition a supernatural belief.
Must be that mots sect of Atheists that you belong to. The rest seem to disagree.
Did you not read what came right before what you quoted?:
“No transmigration of individual souls” should have been enough for you to conclude “there’s no evidence whatsoever that there is a soul that leaves your body on death” wasn’t a comment relevant to what you read on the page I linked to. From the wiki article on Buddhist Rebirth:
Lots of good articles on buddhanet.net. See these:
http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/reincarnation.htm
http://www.buddhanet.net/ans73.htm
So? That has nothing to do with supernatural beliefs.
It is fairer to say that in Buddhism the gods are beside the point – a clear distinction with Hinduism. “Yoga” means “yoking” – i.e., linking the devotee’s soul to God. To a Buddhist, the gods are in pretty much the same fix you are and you won’t get enlightenment by praying to them.
And yet, somehow this has continued for several days. Take this hijack into a new thread about atheism and religion or let it go.
But they are still Gods ie supernatural.
And what about this strikes you as being non-supernatural?
A mind state arises and somehow passes into other people when you die?