Just out of curiosity, how many of you guys consider yourself to be an atheist (I use the term 'atheist' very loosely. It could just mean that you don't really consider yourself to be a practicing Hindu anymore and don't think you want/need to belong to any particular religion)?

On a similar note, I want to study what exactly we hindus believe. Which books would you guys recommend (it would be nice if they were online)? I, like most of you, was raised a Hindu and grew up watching Mahabharat, listening to Swosthani, going to temples, praying to god when I needed to pass exams and donating money and laddu at a temple after I got the US visa  but I never really took the time to understand what we Hindus believe in.

More links:

Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E9JMWbylMA

Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69WVzOJaLYo&feature=related

 

Some say Buddhism is an atheistic religion.  What say you?

Buddhism is considered a religion with atheistic view in the sense that it says, even if there is a god it does not matter because it is you who have to achieve your own salvation through your own deeds.

https://www.youtube.com/user/richarddawkinsdotnet?blend=1&ob=4

https://www.youtube.com/user/richarddawkinsdotnet?blend=1&ob=4#p/a/f/2/eMSwQJr-mhc

Stop preaching about jesus here!!!!1

To the one who thinks Einstein was a person of faith, that is a lie.

 [1879-1955]
German born American threoretical physicist
 From a correspondence between Ensign Guy H. Raner and Albert
Einstein in 1945 and 1949. Einstein responds to the accusation that he
was converted by a Jesuit priest:

"I have never talked to a Jesuit prest in my life. I am astonished by
the audacity to tell such lies about me. From the viewpoint of a Jesuit
priest I am, of course, and have always been an atheist."

The current concept of 'religion' as an amalgamation of spirituality and ethnic traditions (as well as political affairs in case of Islam), which is in line with the ideas of Abrahmic traditions, has probably wrongly been the central idea in our approach to world belief systems. It provides a very narrow perspective on belief systems and has been the reason for so much death and destruction in the past and the present. Probably it is the most evil thing to have occured to humankind.

It's certainly difficult for many of us to approach and explain our belief patterns in that perspective and so 'athiesm' needs to be qualified as well.  I personally prefer to see spirituality and ethnic/cultural activities separately, and for me the latter are mostly  inconsequential to be associated with 'atheism/non-atheism' though most people, notably the neo-converts and proselysers, would certainly not agree. I find most of the teachings in the Bhagvad Gita etc. fascinating and think that their 'high-level' interpretations can hardly be contested.

jneutron, u should have probably checked your sources before posting. You certainly don't know anything about atheism, secularism and other.

Have you heard of Shiva Sena, Bajarang dasta, or Buddhist waging war and serving Hirohito's army????  so much for your ahimsa and non-violence.
Check your facts, everything you have posted here is questionable.

Buddhist scholars say there is no justification for war in Buddhist teaching.
Yet there is historic
documentation that in 621 CE monks from the Shaolin
Temple of China fought in a battle that helped establish the Tang Dynasty.
In centuries past, the heads of Tibetan
Buddhist schools formed strategic alliances with Mongol warlords and reaped
benefits from the warlords' victories.

The links between Zen
Buddhism and samurai warrior culture were partly responsible for the
shocking collusion of Zen and Japanese militarism in the 1930s and 1940s.

can u provide proof of any scripture (veda, upanishad, tripitaka, dhammapad) which tells its followers to incite violence?

you can though provide scripture from islamic texts  which calls for violence against non-muslims

for the secularists - mass-murder or genocide is passage to bring about thier communist state (eg. Mao's China)

jneutron can you define secularism?? and tell me where it is written that you should carry on genocide??

All religions are  dogmatic beliefs so I don't see any difference. Believe in evidence and facts, that sounds more reasonable to me.

Tell me about Mahasur Sangram,  Mahabharat, Ramayana where Bali is killed by deception.

secularism can be substituted by communism. no need to bother on definitions for now.

i gave a counter example for your buddhist example.  its a little complex for hinduism as there is a mish-mash of different ideas but for the sake of the discussion, you wont be able to find any scripture in buddhists text

Nepal is a secular state, so is India, and America was founded on that principle so I don't know that you know anything about secularism or you just have an agenda.
Do you know in Buddhism they believe in Demi-Gods and they refer to animals as inferior beings??

just because the label for nepal/india is secular state doesnt mean it is secular as majority of people are not atheists

also america was founded as a Masonic state not Christian nor secular. the founding fathers were free-masons, which I beleive you have no knowledge of.

Read this and you will know what Im talking about: http://www.henrymakow.com/the_united_states_is_a_masonic.html

with regards to your Buddhism inquiry demi-gods are the equivalents for Asura for hindus, Angels/fallen angles for Christians, jinnis / genies for muslims and Titans for Greeks

and it is self evident animals are inferior beings as they have not made computers or cars like us.


Tthe universe comes into existence dependent upon the actions/karma of its inhabitants. Buddhists posit neither an
ultimate beginning or final end to the universe, but see the universe as
something in flux, passing in and out of existence, parallel to an
infinite number of other universes doing the same thing.

Man you don't know what secularism means. Secular means separation of Church and state that is the founding principle in Declaration of Independence.

your talking about George Holyoake's definition. it is true declaration of independence had separation but the kind of religion the founding fathers belonged to was freemasonry. nowdays, secularism is just a soft term for communism. thats why i said they can be used interchangeably as this will be the founding principles or religion for the communists / Illuminati

The word "Hindu" doesn't exist in Vedic scriptures. It was coined by the Muslims when they were trying to refer to the people in the other side of the river Sindhu in India, but they couldn't pronounce the letter S correctly. The actual religion is called Sanatana Dharma, or "Eternal Codes for living". Many modern "Hindus" don't know about it or they don't care, but our Vedic civilization is very scientific.

Sanatana Dharma was polluted in course of time, and now people have no idea about anything, they just donate laddus or pray for some material profit, like you. That is due to lack of spiritual knowledge.

Bhagavad-gita is the summary of entire Vedic knowledge or Sanatana Dharma. It says that the identity of a person is different than his/her body. The real identity of anyone is the soul, a minute spiritual spark inside the body that is eternal and doesn't die when the body dies. Such soul is present in every living entity, be it plants, animals or humans. So when a person dies, according only the body is changed, just like we change clothes when its worn out. Kinda like "deha ra aatma" poem in Class 9 or something.

Specially Chapter 2 Verse 13 says:

"As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to
youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A
sober person is not bewildered by such a change."

Source: http://vedabase.net/bg/2/13/en

Krishna further explains the nature of the soul in verses 20 and 24

"For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not
come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being.
He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when
the body is slain."

"This individual soul is unbreakable and insoluble, and can be neither
burned nor dried. He is everlasting, present everywhere, unchangeable,
immovable and eternally the same."

Source: http://vedabase.net/bg/2/24/en

Hope it helped! BTW I am not an atheist. :)

???

Yes indeed!! Thanks god, I'm an atheist!!!

Of the 6 billion people in the world

1%  are hardcore fanatics
10% are very religious
80% identify with a certain religion but do not actually practice
8%  don't know/don't care
1%  are hardcore atheists