greentwiga writes:
Taoism is a religion that clearly has no God.
Um, yes they do. Taoists may not perform animal and human sacrifice to the tao, but they do worship it in one form or other. The tao may not be a clearly defined horny man in the sky that watches you masturbate like the christian god, but it is a deity nonetheless. Their refusal to call the tao a god doesn't mean it's not a god.
There are forms of Buddhism that don't have a God.
Again, while many buddhists refuse to describe the buddha as a god, if you've studied buddhism long enough you will have come to realize that buddha after becoming enlightened IS A GOD. If it quacks like a duck...
It is an interesting contrast between Eastern and Western definitions of Religion. When People teach Feng Shui or Yoga in Government settings, they are teaching religion according to the Eastern definition, but according to the courts using the western definition, they are not.
I've been involved in the debate before. They are all religions. And each religion have a set of philosophies (doctrine) that define their religion.
Western cultures seem to be more comfortable with deities that like to watch people masturbate while eastern deities tend to have better things to worry about.
Yes, I have read their Holy Books and have extensive experience with these believers.
Well, me too. You know what I concluded after having read their books? I concluded that I was even more confused than before. Why? Because there are certain eastern concepts that simply don't translate well to western language. Here is an example of what I mean.
In college there was a time when I was very interested in different religions. I went around and actually interviewed people of differrent religions and asked them to compare their religion to what their view of other cultures (or something like that, been a long time). There were 2 criticisms that I heard that I still remember to this day. 1 criticism was made by a christian toward buddhism. The christian said that he thought buddhism was a fake religion because according to the buddhists themselves the buddha never ressurected like jesus christ. The other criticism was made by a taoist toward christianity. He said that no matter what happens, christians will always be seperated from their god, while taoists could potentially become one with the tao.
The reason I brought these things up is because you're doing exactly the same thing as these people. Before I go on, ask yourself one question. What was wrong with these criticisms?
Here is what's wrong. The christian made the criticism based on the perspective of a christian. Buddhists don't give a rat's ass about ressurection. They care more about enlightenment. Christianity's central theme seems to be the afterlife and the ressurection. And being a closed minded person, the person who made that criticism couldn't see past his own doctrine.
The taoist made the criticism based on the perspective of a taoist. I don't claim to truly understand everything about taoism, but I do know that they view the tao more like a substance that inhibits everything... or something like that. But to a christian, god is suppose to be a seperate being from the universe. The taoist made the criticism because he couldn't see christianity outside of his perspective.
And here you are claiming that atheism is a religion because you can't actually understand a point of view outside of religious dogma. This is the typical problem I run into when I explain atheism to religionists. You guys can't seem to understand the concept of absence of faith. You have faith in your god that likes to watch people masturbate and you can't seem to understand that we lack that faith. It's not that we have faith your god doesn't exist, it's that we don't have faith your god exists.
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