Why you became an atheist

@Setanta,

Quote:

It's getting tedious

yeah, I'm thinking of converting to the Moonies.

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You may already be a weiner . . . er, winner . . . that's what i meant . . . a winner.

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to elimate any concept of god for good

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@north,

north wrote:

to elimate any concept of god for good

Looks like you failed. You just referred to it.

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@Arjuna,

Actually, Arjuna, I was born an atheist. During my childhood I spent some time in catholic schools, but it all went in one ear and out the other. I didn't even believe in Santa Claus. I think this may be the case with many people, even church goers.

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@JLNobody,

One of the reasons I was open to Buddhism is that it has no god.

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@JLNobody,

I was initially attracted to Buddhism for reasons similar. Eventually, I lost interest in others' concepts of reality.

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@JLNobody,

Actually, in buddhism, one trains to become a god; to become enlightened. To question everything they see or hear and to seek truth.

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@edgarblythe,

edgarblythe wrote:

I was initially attracted to Buddhism for reasons similar. Eventually, I lost interest in others' concepts of reality.

Of course, your reality is the most "real" one...to you.

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@cicerone imposter,

Interesting, I've never heard a Buddhist refer to an enlightened colleague as a god.
Perhaps something like a "saint" (Boddhisattva or Mahasattva).

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@JLNobody,

To become enlightened is to break the chain of rebirth, I thought.

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@JLNobody,

From patheos.com.

Quote:

Paradoxically, the Buddha himself became the first "god" of Buddhism.Building on a notion from the early texts that the Buddha had an "emanation body" that could perform miraculous deeds, in some Mahayana Sutras he is portrayed as a god only pretending to be a man in order to inspire humanity.

As Mahayana Buddhism developed, many bodhisattvas ("enlightened beings") and Cosmic Buddhas emerged.The prototype of the bodhisattva in the Theravada texts is Sumedha, who was said to have become the Buddha in his last lifetime.Sumedha aspired to enlightenment, but having seen the Buddha Dipamkara, he decided that he would take the long path over many lifetimes to become a Buddha himself so that he could someday lead others to enlightenment.Until he was reborn as Gautama, and became the Buddha, he was reborn for many eons as a bodhisattva, developing the necessary "perfections" for full Buddhahood.

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Buddhism today is quite diverse. It is roughly divisible into the two broad categories of Theravada (small vessel) and Mahayana (large vessel). Theravada is the monastic form which reserves ultimate enlightenment and nirvana for monks, while Mahayana Buddhism extends this goal of enlightenment to the laity as well, that is, to non-monks. Within these categories can be found numerous branches including Tendai, Vajrayana, Nichiren, Shingon, Pure Land, Zen, and Ryobu, among others. Therefore it is important for outsiders seeking to understand Buddhism not to presume to know all the details of a particular school of Buddhism when all they have studied is classical, historic Buddhism.

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@edgarblythe,

From the site
How Stuff Works

Many Buddhists believe an individual can end the cycle of reincarnation by following the Eightfold Path, or middle way. An enlightened being embodies the directives of the Eightfold Path: correct view, correct intention, correct speech, correct action, correct livelihood, correct effort, correct mindfulness and correct concentration.

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@Arjuna,

I suppose I'm an atheist because I find religious thinking to be inherently oppressive. To define ourselves as "sinful" does little more than alienate us from our own nature, and instills a fear in ourselves, of ourselves.

Religion seems to try and contain our nature, through oppression and the development of fear, and I guess thats partly why I'm not religious, and therefore an atheist.

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@existential potential,

ep, I do not think the statistics on crime committed by those who believe in god proves your point. However, there are substantial evidence that religion cramps belief in equality for all humans.

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@cicerone imposter,

I'm not sure I understand the relevance of the first part of your post. How does crime stats relate to my post?

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@existential potential,

You wrote,

Quote:

I find religious thinking to be inherently oppressive. To define ourselves as "sinful" does little more than alienate us from our own nature, and instills a fear in ourselves, of ourselves.

How does one who is religious and has fear (in ourselves, of ourselves) go out and commit crimes?

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@cicerone imposter,

I'm not entirely sure, but it could be something to do with the fact that they probably do not believe that they are committing a crime. Another part of my point was that religious thinking instills a fear in ourselves about certain aspects of our nature, which causes us to try to oppress those aspects that we do not like.

But to your point, maybe someone who claims to be religious and commits crimes are not religious in the way that I meant, which is to say that they do not really believe in it, but they use it as a means to justify their own actions, in this case criminal acts.

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@existential potential,

It's impossible to know one's religious beliefs and how it impacts their life. Since there are many religions in the world, and many so-called adherents, they seem externally to devote some of their lifestyle to their religious belief.

Many go to their place of worship, and pray at different times of the day.

However, out of these masses are the very criminals that commit the most heinous of crimes. The US is no exception; over one-third of the US population declare themselves to be members of the biggest Christian faith that includes Catholics or some protestant religion. I've read some years ago that over 80% of Americans believe in one religion or another.

The relationship between the truly religious and someone who attends church because it's expected from family or friends are difficult to determine. When is an individual truly religious?

I believe they are the same group from which crimes are committed.

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Why you became an atheist

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