belief, comparative-religionsA large number of conversations, when it comes to Atheism, seem to be directly aimed at differences, and focus mostly on Judaeo/Christian belief systems. Which makes me wonder - are there theist belief systems out there which are close to the Atheist view of reality?
Since its inception, some branches of Buddhism have incorporated a lot of the theistic mysticism of Hinduism. But at the root of Buddhism is a belief system that does without gods of any sort. Were it not for widespread belief in rebirth, Buddhism could be considered a purely philosophical world view. In any case, “pure” (I think Zen) Buddism is normally considered an atheistic faith.
By definiton atheism is the lack of belief in god, and theism is the belief in god…Not a whole lot of overlap.
Plenty of atheists will opine on relgious issues, but it’s not in any way part of a core “belief system” and I’d call into question the idea that atheism could even be said to have a belief system outside of the obvious “there is no god” thing.
Umm… wow. Hard to say. I think I see what you want to know, but also @Satanicpuppy has a solid point as well. Maybe someone who is a Deist would be closest? I believe they think that a god started the universe up and just stepped out of the picture… so effectively no god interacting now. Either that or maybe Buddhism without the karma/reincarnation part. Anyone have any other ideas?
As I read your question you appear to be asking for examples of where atheistic thought parallels examples of religious thought. As such I will try to answer that question.
To begin with, rational thought is not exclusive to Atheism. Many of the most important works of rational thought were done in the vein of religious study, but were as rigorous as any scientific text of their time. Kant and St. Augustine were prolific writers in this regard. The difference might be akin to Mathemeticians viewing all physical sciences as applied science: Atheists are studying pure reason, whereas the religious seek understanding of some intangible through reason.
Much of Eastern thought is easily compared to Atheistic views. Buddhism can shun all of its theistic conceptions and still be considered a religion. It may discard the Buddha among the Three Jewels, yet still have meaning from the Dharma (his writings, but here viewed secularly) and the Sangha (the community of people who ascribe to the practices). A definition of religion needn’t necessarily include anything supernatural. On the other hand, the Christian concept of religions (which I assume most of us are conditioned to refernce) assumes as much, but as a social construction religions are just a phenomena where a bunch of people all agree to agree on something and derive rituals around that. It doesnt take much to go from religion to cult to citizen (of a country) in the sense of them all being social constructions.
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