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Is Buddhism a Religion?

I noticed on the sign in page that there was a 'survey' asking what I was 'before' I was an atheist. One of the choices was 'Buddhist.' Not to make too fine a point of it, but Buddhism is a 'non' theistic religion. Buddhists do not believe in a God, albeit some branches do have gods, if you know what I mean. As for me I am a Buddhist, but have no 'belief' in the supernatural at all. Mind you I'm not saying that is a generalization to all Buddhists, but there are many like me who feel that Buddhism has no supernatural aspects as a condition of belief. Many, like myself, think that the Buddha was explicit in saying that even if there were gods and such they were of no significance to what he was teaching. Just an observation and why I didn't do the survey.

Tags: Buddhism, beliefs, non-diest, supernatural

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Permalink Reply by Nontheist Central on April 5, 2012 at 11:23am

I've heard lots of people say that if you're an atheist, you're not spiritual. I think that people wrongly confuse spirituality with religion. Spiritualism, to me at least, is nothing more than feeling connected with the things around you. Getting in tune with nature, as it were. We all need that feeling of connection with the things around us. Isn't that kinda what the hippie movement was about? Love and peace and connection? Tree hugging? They, I think, rejected the mainstream of spiritualism and made it their own, albeit with lots of drugs as a catalyst. You only have to listen to Neil DeGrasse Tyson talk about the universe to feel the wonder it holds. The fact that we are "star stuff" brings me a great deal of joy. Buddhism is just a spiritual philosophy, not a religious one, I think.