A Question From Atheists

[nosferatu323]

What sort of belief is one in which you believe in the existence of the Universe?

I think this thread is done. But I saw there is a lot of dissatisfaction mainly because I didn't made any attempt to justify "God is the universe" so I thought I'd write something about it. There are many pantheistic religions (means they believe god is the universe) throughout the world which are very similar in their core beliefs and differ mostly in their rituals, etc. Pantheism is not the topic of this thread and I personally don't have much to say about it, but you can easily find various formulations of this belief using the below terms which might give you some insight that what it means to consider god as the universe.

• Spinozism (A robust philosophical formulation of pantheism by a western philosopher)
  
• Buddism (The term god is not usually used in various branches of Buddism, stuff like "absolute" is used instead,)
  
• Taoism (Taosim is also quite unreligious there is no worship and stuff, which might make it more appealing for an Atheist)
  
• Vedanta (philosophical formulation of pantheism as described in the Vedas pre-Judaism stuff, first origins of religion)
  
• Kabbalah (ancient stuff, mystical interpretation of Judaism, they believe this is the "truth" of Judaism) 
  
• Sufism (mystical and pantheistic aspect of Islam, they believe this is the "turth" of Islam)
  
• I guess there are pantheistic branches in Christianity that hold similar views, so you can search for it if you are interested
  
• Hinduism in general (Most Hindu traditions hold similar views, you can check them out also)
  

Disclaimer: The above list does not claim all the mentioned items are absolutely pantheistic. I have very limited information and knowledge about some of the above items, this is just a list to help someone get started learning more about pantheism. There might be inaccuracies and mistakes in my categorization. 

My personal opinion is that one must "get involved" to make sense out of it. It requires major transition and shift in the way you see the universe and your self to start making sense. Otherwise, no matter how much your read about it, it might be nothing more than some "philosophical nonsense" as you put it.