2007-11-03 09:57:13 · 13 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
hesed=i did like your answer
but you compared buddhists to christians
and i was asking about buddhist/atheists?
other than that,you made an excellent point and i agree!btw,i dont like christians(sorry)i find them to be the meanest hypocrites!!
2007-11-03 15:00:59 · update #1
atheists tend to be materialists; they don't believe in anything beyond the physical world.
buddhists don't believe in a creator god per se, but they do subscribe to a whole set of gods and demons and other spiritual as well as physical beings.
2007-11-03 10:11:07 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Im not an expert on Buddhism by any means. But, it sounds like you've already made the conclusion that Buddhism and Atheism are the same or are similar.
I have recently come to believe that Christians have some things to learn from Buddhists. Here's what I'm trying to say:
Buddhism is not exactly atheistic. Buddhism does not presume to know so much whether there is a God or not. Personally, I see it more as "humility" than "atheism". If a Buddhist does believe in God, he does not assume to know everything about God. What is important to a Buddhist is not whether or not he can "define" God. What is important to a Buddhist is living in peace and harmony with what life is and what he or she encounters in life. To the Buddhist, if God can be seen or understood, he can be seen in what exists (much like Psalm 19- "the heavens declare the glory of God").
This is what I think Christians can learn from Buddhists- Instead of being so hung up on trying to "define" God or presume that we "know Him" we should focus more on acting out what we believe the essence of God to be (i.e. "God is love." Are we loving? God is merciful. Are we merciful, etc.). When we do this we are trying to respond in what we call "Christ-likeness" to what life throws at us. When that becomes a primary focus in our lives, we are not a whole lot different from a Buddhist. Check out the Buddhist virtues sometime. You'll be simply amazed how similar they are to the Christian "fruit of the Spirit."
Love, joy and peace!
2007-11-03 10:20:52 · answer #2 · answered by Hesed 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Um, what's the difference between camels and puppies? They are not at all the same. Buddhism encompasses the teachings of Buddha Siddhartha (sp?). It teaches meditation, karma, reincarnation, and striving to achieve a perfected state.
Atheism is not so much a belief as a disbelief. Atheists do not believe in a god. An atheist could participate in meditation, or believe in karma. From what I understand, an athiest can pretty much practice buddhism. I could be wrong - I'm neither Buddhist nor atheist.
Buddhism is a practice, atheism is a belief.
2007-11-03 10:07:46 · answer #3 · answered by Katie Short, Atheati Princess 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Besides the common believe that there is no supreme God who created this world, here are two key differences that atheism may not necessarily embraced:
1. Buddhism teaches re-incarnation in the 6 destinations (heaven, human, asura, animal, ghost, hell). Your own karma (action) determine where you will be in future lives -- not by your believe in any supreme God. Heaven is not eternity. They just have much much longer life compared to human. They still die one day. Re-incarnation is an endless cycle till one achieves Buddhism Sainthood.
2. Buddhism teaches the wisdom of non-self (Sainthood) to eliminate the root cause of re-incarnation.
The above two points, in fact, are the key differences between Buddhism and any other religions/believes.
2007-11-03 13:05:19 · answer #4 · answered by Prajna 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Buddhists follow the 4 Noble Truths, The Eightfold Path, the 5 Precepts and other teachings of Buddha. However many Buddhists do not worship a god, so they are also atheists.
2007-11-03 10:01:24 · answer #5 · answered by Pangloss (Ancora Imparo) AFA 7 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Well, Buddhism is an actual religion based from India, where as an Atheist is someone who completely does not believe in god or a faith.
2007-11-03 10:00:40 · answer #6 · answered by Joel P 1 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Buddhism is atheistic. Without a divinity, there is no soul per se. Buddhism pertains only to the self. There is nothing for the self to connect to (spiritually speaking) aside from the material world, from which Buddhism seeks complete detachment.
2007-11-03 10:03:28 · answer #7 · answered by thundercatt9 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
actually the relationship between electrons fron the singularity part of the universe to the farthest reaches of our universe, are woven into tightly bonded wakeful count number, making up the "international you have your ft positioned on" merely positioned there is not any distance, time, disconnected bond, meaning there is not any distinction, count number of attitude out of your relative place to corresponding mentally spawn matrix which you're experience and notice all around your complete latest being of introduction
2016-10-03 06:42:24 · answer #8 · answered by syverson 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Buddhism, by its nature is atheistic, that is it does not require a belief in God. Atheism is just the lack of belief in God. One way to look at it is all mothers are women, but not all women are mothers
2007-11-03 10:00:43 · answer #9 · answered by in a handbasket 6 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Buddhism is a religion. Atheism is not.
2007-11-03 10:07:10 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋