I love religion!

[Lilith_86]

If you think religion is wonderful, why are you an atheist?

Probably for the same reason I am not a Jedi- no matter how much he wishes it were true he can't make it so. And I actually can see what he means. There are definitely some positive aspects to religion; it's kind of like the facebook before internet. The original social networking. Obviously not all church members are good people (nor are all atheists), but there are many church funded and spearheaded projects which do good.

Don't we all wish we were Jedi's? I sure as hell do. lol

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Just found something interesting the topic of Buddhism and whether it actually is (or is not) an actual religion.
My current encyclopedia is a little out of date, so I'm assuming that the information has been changed, but according to Collier's Encyclopedia (copyrighted 1991 by MacMillan Educational Company - volume 4)...

Buddhism is the great oriental religion founded by Gautama Buddha, who lived and taught in India in the sixth century B.C.
All Buddhists trace their faith to the Buddha and revere his person.
Nearly all types of Buddhism include monastic orders whose members serve as teachers and clergy to the lay community. However, beyond these common features the numerous sects of modern Buddhism exhibit great variety in their belief and practices.
In it's oldest surviving form known as Theravada or Hinayana, Buddhism is primarily a spiritual philosophy and system of ethics. It places little or no emphasis on deities, teaching that the goal of the faithful is to achieve nirvana, a blissful state of insight and release from the bonds of the self, the world, and an endless round of births, deaths, and rebirth in successive lives. The state of spiritual perfection is achieved through the practice of humility, generosity, mercy, abstention from violence, and, above all self-control.
The latter forms of Buddhism, known as Mahayana, however often worship a pantheon of divine buddhas and future Buddhas. Some have elaborate hierarchies of demons as well. Several varieties of Mahayana Buddhism promise the worshiper a real paradise rather than a perfected spiritual state. Several sects stress faith more strongly than works. One sect seeks to induce in the believer a jarring, intuitive, non-rational insight into true reality. . .

And it continues with the history of Buddhism and the different types etc, but I thought that this extract was somewhat relevant and quite insightful.