If you were to follow a particular religion...

[Angrboda]

Below (hidden) is what I answered a year and a half ago. I, too, ranked Theravada Buddhism first, above Catholicism (#2) and Gnostic Christianity (#3). I chose Theravada Buddhism largely for its intellectual approach. Today, I doubt I would do so. While one can debate whether the Buddha was agnostic with respect to the doctrines of Karma and Reincarnation, a position I feel little more than sophistry, I think that's being too clever by half. Regardless, my primary divergence with Buddha and Buddhism today is over the doctrine of Anatta.

To be sure, I find philosophical positions more interesting ways to carve up the world than doing so based on religious positions. As an anti-realist, eliminative materialist, sometime platonic realist and incompatibilist with regard to free will, I find my philosophical views engendering as much if not more antipathy than my religious ones. And I find the different philosophical schools of the Hellenistic and Roman periods quite compelling.

That being said, if "atheist" were a choice, that would likely be it for me. It's possible I could be diverted to other paths. I could see myself following some form of Shinto. And there's a lot of Hinduism, Tantrism, and Vajrayana Buddhism to be explored. (I've been asked by an atheist organizer and friend why I'm Hindu and not Shinto. To be sure, I was too flabbergasted by her question to know how to respond.) I could be Shinto today, and I wouldn't have to change much of anything. There is a tribe of Australian aborigines whose religion consists in reinterpreting their foundation myths through story, sort of a combination of performance art and Noh theater. I like that. Or if the Eleusinian mystery cults were still around, I think I could groove on that. And I would fold inside Confucianism like I was born there. Zurvanite Zoroastrianism, too. Though if atheism weren't open to me, I would likely follow my own path as a wild Shaman.

Or Confucian. Or Mohist. Or Han Feizi style legalist. Oh hell, I don't know.

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1. Theravada Buddhism: I tend to intellectualize my spiritual practice and I have no patience for meditation, so while the compassion aspects of Mahayana Buddhism appeal, it's the combined rational and practical aspects -- The Noble Eight-fold Path -- that appeal to me.

2. Roman Catholicism: At heart, though I have developed a somewhat non-traditional practice, I lean heavily in the direction of orthodoxy, and, I firmly believe that the apostolic tradition and the authority of tradition are necessary to provide the foundation for Christian doctrine, faith and belief. [Protestants may disagree, I don't intend here to debate them].

3. Gnostic Christianity: Largely because it deals a knock-down punch to the problem of Theodicy, but also again because gnosis / knowledge is a compelling force in my life. I would be lying if I also omitted that Gnosticism has a certain 'romantic appeal', that being in that I picture Gnostics as new-agey sorts of people [despite my dislike of new age types and their beliefs]; nonetheless, such people tend to live a Bohemian sort of existence, and that is the romantic appeal.

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