Nichiren Shoshu? That’s mostly BS. It was a big deal decades ago. I imagine there are remnants still around, but, yeah, it’s basically The Secret with borrowed Buddhist trappings. They were very aggresive about recruiting people about as much as fundy evangelicals were.
Yes, it was in fact decades ago this happened. Because I’m old. It’s funny how all this stuff fits together. My freshman year, I was new to atheism, reading a lot of Nietzsche, and very into existentialism. That made me start thinking about what religion if any I wanted to have. I thought Buddhism seemed pretty low key and I didn’t want anything dogmatic like my old Evangelical days. So I was experimenting with different sects of Buddhism and that’s where I encountered Nichiren.
I ended up Zen-leaning, but lately I’ve been looking at broadening my horizons through insight meditation.
But underpinning all of this belief is the deeply existentialist foundation that I’m just doing what brings my life meaning. It’s not the same kind of dogma or sense of certainty that I had as a Christian. It’s more like, “Hey, this is really working for me right now.”
I’m not even particularly attached to the idea of myself as an atheist. I really think I am just an existentialist and my atheism and my Buddhism are just structures I built to give my life meaning.
I was raised atheist and have no trouble whatsoever understanding the concept. I also think that atheists do have a belief system. Everyone has one. Some atheists underestimate how much overlap there is between their beliefs and those of theists. But that is really a different thread entirely.
I wouldn’t know what my belief system is. Honestly.
I once had a private Facebook discussion with a pastor, who, incidentally, had been my greatest high school crush. Anyway, he was trying to understand trans issues (so he said) from an atheist point of view, I think, but at some point when I was talking about compassion, he said something like, “But don’t you believe in Darwin and survival of the fittest?” And I was like, “Uh, that’s a factual belief, not a moral one. The science of evolution has nothing to do with how we should live our lives.” He was just stymied by the whole thing. “Well then how do you make moral decisions?”
I did my best, but he learned nothing, turned out to be a flaming misogynist (of the “benevolent” sort) and a transphobe and I blocked him. I never knew him well in high school, just pined after him. Hilariously he looks very similar to my husband and they actually met one night and it was super embarrassing. Obviously I ended up with the better version.
I’d say you’re in the majority. The large majority.
But if I don’t know my own belief system. doesn’t it follow that I haven’t any? I’m not dumb, and I know myself very well. I’m very introspective.
I think the point is that if you think you have a belief system you have a belief system, and if you don’t think you have a belief system that is your belief system.
And bald is a hair color, and not collecting stamps is a hobby.
To be honest there isn’t a hell of a lot of difference between my values as an evangelical and my values now. Even at my worst, I thought homophobia was bullshit. I liked helping people then, I like helping people now. I wasn’t old enough to realize I was liberal, but I was a liberal. I’ve always thought killing was wrong, still do.
Belief systems are largely a product of culture, though we seem to be evolutionarily programmed toward certain moral frameworks. (Very good book about this is Moral Minds by Marc Hauser.) Almost every person born on earth values justice and fairness and life. The issue is that what certain cultures value can be ranked differently depending on the context. So killing is wrong in every culture, but for some people, bodily autonomy is more important, or justice is more important, or family cohesion is more important. There are always exceptions and caveats.
But your moral framework as a human being is likely to be very similar to the one in the culture in which you were raised, though the content of your beliefs might change.
And morals are largely a product of evolution, not a personal choice.
Right. Which kinda sorta makes it a religion. Of sorts.
For some, yes.
But others KNOW (without evidence, in other words, they have a strong faith) that all faiths and religions are bogus, that there are no gods, and it is their duty is to ridicule and attack all faiths or anyone with faith. In other words they proletize their belief system. A simple lack of belief in Gods is more agnosticism, where you have no faith, but are willing to accept others do.
Right. Once their belief turns into that sort of proselytizing, it becomes a sort of religion.
Non-Religious is not atheism.
Religion in Germany - Wikipedia.
43% of Germans are not affiliated. That doesnt mean they are not religious, or have faith or are atheists. In 2017, a survey conducted by Pew Research Center found that 71% of German adult population consider themselves Christians when asking about their current religion (irrespective of whether they are officially members of a particular Christian church). The same survey shows that most of Christians in Germany are non-practicing (defined as people who identify as Christians, but attend church services no more than a few times per year).
Besides Atheist there is also agnosticism, and deism.
Thats being agnostic.
Militant atheists do have a belief- that there can not be a god, and that antone with faith or a religion is a fool, and that all religions are cons. And thus they must convert those fools to atheism by attacking religion and showing them the error of their ways. In other words, they have turned a simple lack of belief into a belief system.
They are. But in the USA and on this board it is “okay” to “punch up” in your bigotry, but not “punch down”. So saying bad things about old white men is acceptable, but not about young black women. To me, it is still bigotry and wrong. So, it is “Okay” to attack Christians, but not so much Jews, and Muslims is right out- because that is “punching down”. A serious atheist would be forced to admit that Jews, Muslims, Buddhists etc are just as foolish and deluded as Christians. However, since they dont want to be thought of as bigots, they only “punch up”, becuase that sort of bigotry is somehow acceptable.
It is perfectly acceptable to not believe in a god. It is not acceptable to attack and denigrate those who do. Sure, Attack some of their practices “I dont like them knocking on my door” “Those right wing evangelical Christians who are pushing trump are wrong”.- but not the simple fact they have faith.
If you shave your head- as some do- bald is a hair style.
I took an Eastern Religions class in college, and my impression was that original Buddhism was inherently atheistic. And pretty cool, though I didn’t buy the reincarnation stuff. Later variants accumulated what seemed to pass for gods. But you can be an atheist and believe in reincarnation - there is no contradiction there.
In over 20 years here I don’t remember any anti-Shinto or even anti-Buddhist sentiment from atheists. Some Buddhists do terrible things, but not driven by Buddhism, as far as I can tell.
I wouldn’t say the sentiment was rampant, just that Buddhist beliefs have generally been treated with as much respect by atheists as they would treat any other religion. There are a minority of vocal atheists who are jerks to everyone who does not so identify.
The issue with Buddhism is that the range of beliefs and practices is so diverse there are over 10,000 texts that could plausibly be called Buddhist. In many parts of the world, Buddhist beliefs evolved alongside cultural beliefs in ancestors and local gods. The only thing I can confidently generalize about is that the vast majority of Buddhists believe in the four noble truths. I was attracted to Zen because it seemed pretty simple to me. Not a lot of dogma. Irreverence and good humor. No requirement to believe or not believe in a God or gods.
I took a course in Buddhism, and there are many flavors of Buddhism. But yes, many of them are fully compatible with atheism. In fact, the Buddhists who believe in gods mostly do so in addition to believing in Buddhism, just as you can believe in Christianity and also believe in unicorns.
Serious question, do you believe in pink unicorns? Do you have any evidence to back your belief?
Agnostic or Deist. But more a philosophy than a religion.
I play Dungeons and Dragons. So yes, and yes. 
But at best I am a doubting Christian. More of an agnostic. I believe Jesus was a real person- but I doubt he was the Son of God. I believe The Teachings of Jesus are a valid and worthwhile philosophical belief. I doubt they are truly divinely inspired. I accept that is is possible there are beings that are so powerful and beyond our understanding that we would call them “Gods”, but I doubt that any are real here on Earth. I believe that there could possibly be some sort of afterlife- but I doubt if any one has any idea of what it really is- if indeed there is one- which is unlikely. But I am not gonna say I KNOW there are no Gods or no Afterlife. Just that those appear highly doubtful. My wind is open, not closed.
I have been discussing atheism online since 1976, and I’ve run into exactly one atheist who claimed to know there are no gods anywhere. And he was an idiot. Being fairly sure there are no gods as described by humans is different. Clearly the god of a deist is unfalsifiable, and we know that. Martin Gardner was a deist, but I suspect most atheists respect him.
BTW atheism and agnosticism are orthogonal. Most I know consider themselves to be agnostic atheists.
So, Democrats and Republicans practice a form of religion?
You seem to be confusing being against a belief system and being against a person. As an old white male I don’t consider attacks on sexism and racism attacks on me. Now some (but definitely not all) Christians are so embedded in their belief that they hear attacks on fundamentalism, say, as attacks on them. But I do hear a lot of “we’re poor Christians, you’re oppressing us by allowing gays to marry” and that sort of stuff.
BTW I’ve heard plenty of things about Islam being incorrect about the world when Islamic callers call into atheist shows.
Now, thinking Shintoism is incorrect is not being anti-Shinto in any meaningful way, and my thinking deism is incorrect (by Ockham’s Razor) is not being anti-deist. I never tell a deist they are wrong - how could I? I just say I don’t believe in it. And, since I’ve never met a deist yet who wants to limit my life due to what they think their god wants, I’m happy to live and let live.
Numbers about affiliation or nominally denominations doesn’t give a good picture about faith or spirituality, as belonging to a denomination is an administrative matter in Germany (mostly for tax matters. Yes, church tax is a thing in Germany), just as leaving your church is an administrative act (of course with a fee of €30), so many people who don’t give a rat’s ass about religion are still nominally religious, if only out of apathy. So there are many nominal Christian Germans who are atheists, as well as religious people who are unaffiliated. But fortunately, the EKD, the official Protestant Church of Germany published a new survey just a few weeks ago that asked for the real religious affiliation in Germany, across all the population, and came up with a result that shocked both Protestants and Catholics. Here’s an article I’ll quote from, unfortunately only in German:
The crucial quote is this:
My translation:
Also from the article:
That’s the hard truth for religionists in Germany, and I’m glad about it.
That is not that same as being atheist.
Well, Buddhism makes statements about how the world works, so maybe more than just a philosophy.
But, how do you define agnostic? I strongly suspect that Jesus was a real person also. It’s not a particularly extraordinary claim, and there are certain stories that make better sense as a way of making a person who did fulfill some of the prophecies (like being from Bethlehem) meet them.
You can tie yourself in knots, but you won’t convince me that Germany isn’t on a spiraling religious decline. Just ask any pastor here (of the few they still could recruit).
My son-in-law is German, and this fits what I’ve learned from him perfectly. My daughter reported that his step father was very concerned that my wife and I were rabidly religious, being from the US and all. She laughed.
She taught in a German school for two years, and was amazed that religious services happened at school. She got both Catholic and Protestant holidays off, which worked for her. And IIRC there are limitations on getting married outside of a church - you can do it, but it can’t be fancy. They got married in the US because they had more freedom.
Correct me if I’m wrong about that.