(July 19, 2017 at 8:46 am)ignoramus Wrote: You mean some type of woo ... I'd say yes. Religion is an industry, not a hobby. moola, churches and rules!
Die, I know this could be a translation thing but "while atheism is the denial of this belief" (in God) implies we are suppressing our belief which is the opposite to what we really think.
Atheists are not suppressing or denying any beliefs in God, we simply don't have these affirmative beliefs.
Of course, but again even with Buddhism, Jainism, Shintoism all are still rooted in mythology and legend and that part of the world has it's own superstition and they also believe in evil spirits and the spirits of their ancestors and that to me is really no different than belief in a god because both are claims of things beyond nature.
And if anyone studies the history of that part of the world those nations too, have had their wars and violence and even today still all have prisons just like the west.
On my trip to Japan with my X wife back in 2000, the day before we left her family took me to a history museum in Yokahama. It depicted their history of conflicts, but also depictions of their ideas of the underworld if you did bad and reward in the spirit world if you did good, and also associated that to the national success, kinda like when Americans say "God bless our Troops". You don't have to have a god for a religion to influence national politics.
