Atheistic religions

[Brian37]

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.

[FatAndFaithless]

There are a handful of religions that don't have a belief in a god (some forms of Buddhism for example), but that doesn't any of their other claims about reality any more believable.  If they want to make assertions about how the world works and what exists in reality, they need to provide evidence...which they haven't been able to do.

Do all atheistic religions have ridiculous claims?

Well, I haven't yet seen a religion that doesn't make ridiculous claims, whether atheistic or not.  If you can find a religion that doesn't include unfalsifiable claims about reality, then I'm all ears.  There are plenty of schools of philosophy, ethics, etc that don't include a god belief, but those aren't religions.

[vorlon13]

Do we include scammy religions where the poohbahs running the show have not the slightest belief in the crappola they are foisting on to their compulsively gullible followers ?


Obviously, I'm thinking of concentrated bullshit like Mormonism and the 700 Club.

[Jesster]

If a religion doesn't include a god belief, that doesn't automatically get it off the hook for me. On top of being an atheist, I am also a skeptic. Actually, my skepticism is far more important to me than my atheism, since it is the reason for it in the first place. Anyone who makes big claims about reality has to back them up to me all the same.

[mordant]

If a religion doesn't include a god belief, that doesn't automatically get it off the hook for me. On top of being an atheist, I am also a skeptic. Actually, my skepticism is far more important to me than my atheism, since it is the reason for it in the first place. Anyone who makes big claims about reality has to back them up to me all the same.

You're almost certainly an atheist BECAUSE your'e a skeptic.

Religion that lacks a central deity is a special sub-classification that causes us difficulty because we're so used to associating religion with the worship of a deity. But ... I'm not aware of a non-theistic religion that doesn't believe in some form of the supernatural, some form of discarnate spirits even if they aren't gods, and who don't have some kind of special priest class or monastic order to preserve the esoteric knowledge on which the religion is based. With all the attendant ritual, mysticism and ceremony. They are still trying to gin up belief in asserted capital-T Truth via ritual and tradition. That there's not a conventional overtly defined deity at the center of it, almost doesn't matter.

I guess if nothing else it demonstrates that god isn't as indispensable as god-worshippers want to make him -- even for religion.

[Astonished]

If a religion doesn't include a god belief, that doesn't automatically get it off the hook for me. On top of being an atheist, I am also a skeptic. Actually, my skepticism is far more important to me than my atheism, since it is the reason for it in the first place. Anyone who makes big claims about reality has to back them up to me all the same.

This is why it irks me when atheism is used as a blanket label when rational skeptics are by and large the ones who'll be making a stir. Large portions of the wider atheist community can succumb to woo and superstition so they're not exactly part of the 'club' doing good works against rampant irrationality, as futile as it seems most of the time. Atheism also just has that stigma attached to it when the religious practically spit when they say the word, so on top of 'rational skeptic' probably confusing them since they'll probably be ignorant of what it even means, it won't automatically have the same exact response.

But what about Scientology? Isn't that not god-based, even though there are spirits?

[zebo-the-fat]

If a "religion" can provide testable evidence that it's claims are true then I will look at it, hasn't happened yet.
Atheistic religion is like the sport of not playing golf

[mordant]

But what about Scientology? Isn't that not god-based, even though there are spirits?

Sort of. It is called the "Eighth Dynamic" and vaguely defined. It seems almost tacked on as an afterthought, to keep the atheist cooties off.

[ComradeMeow]

I know many here have no concept of religion, but yes there are such things as atheistic religions.

There is Satanism, Paganism, and certain schools of thought in Satana Dharma like the Mimamsa school who deny both gods, reincarnation and spirits. These are 100% naturalistic philosophies and even Atheistic Hinduism is reemerging in mainstream Hindu thought. Many strides in secular Buddhism which deny reincarnation and other supernaturalistic effects is also a thing. Shintoism in Japan has become primarily naturalistic and focuses on ritualistic rights.

You even have people like myself who are just pagans yet deny all aspects of the supernatural so yes we do exist. Hence my bickering about religion and its usage of woo.

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I would also like to add that gods just like vampires are not real but can hold as much meaning to a person as they like. Gods are great for ritual and storytelling, but they are not great for explaining the world around us. Leave that to the sciences and competent people who are doing the work gods don't do. I still have a lengthy journal of pagan prayers to Minerva and al-Kutbay but even when I wrote them I had no belief in their existence. I used it purely for poetic purposes and named the journal "The Adorations" and I used it for expressing opinions I held about wisdom and primarily moral philosophy.

Point being though, do not throw everything into the same pot because even Yahweh is a great metaphor of a bad parent.

[Lek]

I'm not sue how it would work, but one can be an atheist and be a hindu.