A study of atheism worldwide

[Arwon]

Only in certain senses of the words. And in a thread which is specifically looking at levels of religious belief and lack thereof worldwide, it's almost simple pedantry to use the terms in those ways.

 

[warpus]

Only in certain senses of the words. And in a thread which is specifically looking at levels of religious belief and lack thereof worldwide, it's almost simple pedantry to use the terms in those ways.

There is no other 'sense' of the word atheism. It means "lack of a belief in God".

If you don't believe in God, and you're buddhist, you're atheist.

 

[Arwon]

I disagree. Regardless of the literal denotative meaning, atheism can and does farily comfortably also mean "non-religious". Especially in this thread.

 

[warpus]

I disagree. Regardless of the literal denotative meaning, atheism can and does farily comfortably also mean "non-religious". Especially in this thread.

What? What dictionary are you using? I'd like to know

Atheism does not mean non-religious, at all.

 

[Arwon]

Denotative means "in dictionaries" but in the real world, people use atheism to mean "non-religious" all the time. It's technically accurate, but describing a Buddhist as atheistic sounds kinda silly. That's a result of the poverty of language, unfortunately. "Nonreligious" doesn't quite cut it either.

I'd prefer to use "superstitious" and "nonsuperstitious" instead of "religious" and "atheist" because these terms don't privilige monotheism over other kinds of religion and they don't presuppose that being religious is somehow the more credible norm (and lack of belief kinda deviant).

But that's just me.

 

[warpus]

Denotative means "in dictionaries" but in the real world, people use atheism to mean "non-religious" all the time. It's technically accurate, but describing a Buddhist as atheistic sounds kinda silly. That's a result of the poverty of language, unfortunately. "Nonreligious" doesn't quite cut it either.

I'd prefer to use "superstitious" and "nonsuperstitious" instead of "religious" and "atheist" because these terms don't privilige monotheism over other kinds of religion and they don't presuppose that being religious is somehow the more credible norm (and lack of belief kinda deviant).

But that's just me.

Whenever somebody uses 'atheist' as 'non-religious' I dismiss it as rhetoric, which it likely is... or whoever is talking to me is just slow. or hey, ignorant maybe.

But hey, some Buddhists are atheist, it doesn't sound silly to me

 

[Enkidu Warrior]

For not taking religions seriously I certainly found most of the jinja and otera of Kyoto and Nara to be well maintained Though I concede with the exception of a handful of elderly people I didn't see anyone engaged in what I'd call an act of worship at the shrines, though, certainly in the temples the monks seemed quite engaged.

Well-maintained indeed - probably something to do with that entrance fee that you and everyone else there had paid.

You'll notice for Buddhism I use the capitalized "God" so as to differentiate a creator god from any other divine being, I also say beings of veneration... but as you say, its not entirely consistent with other examples of theism nor is it a solid fit with atheism either.

Eastern cultures tend to make no distinction between Theology and Philosophy, and this is never so apparent as with Buddhism.

Buddhism is concerned largely with the internal world and therefore has little bearing on the debate we're having. If you want to (erroneously) define atheism as being opposed to religion, rather than just to theism, then fine, but you'll have to accept that Buddhism is an exception to this nomenclature, because it conflicts with neither atheism nor theism.

Buddha's (and they are numerous) are not God's by any definition. According to Buddhist scripture, we can all become Buddha's if we take the right steps and achieve enlightenment.

Theism =/= Religion

 

[Swedishguy]

1 Sweden 8,986,000 46-85% 4,133,560-7,638,100
2 Vietnam 82,690,000 81% 66,978,900
3 Denmark 5,413,000 43-80% 2,327,590-4,330,400
4 Norway 4,575,000 31-72% 1,418,250-3,294,000
5 Japan 127,333,000 64-65% 81,493,120-82,766,450
6 Czech Republic 10,246,100 54-61% 5,328,940-6,250,121
7 Finland 5,215,000 28-60% 1,460,200-3,129,000
8 France 60,424,000 43-54% 25,982,320-32,628,960
9 South Korea 48,598,000 30%-52% 14,579,400-25,270,960
10 Estonia 1,342,000 49% 657,580

Sweden number one.

 

[JZ_UK]

Sweden number one.

Staggering that its not Finland...

Well-maintained indeed - probably something to do with that entrance fee that you and everyone else there had paid.

Touché, however, some of the smaller shrines without entrance fees were not falling apart.

Theism =/= Religion

Trouble with that as I see it:

All theists can be called religious in so far as they are taking something on faith, ie; there is a god(s).

While not all religions need necessarily be overtly theistic they are not automatically dismissive of deities and, if we wish to play semantic games we can chase around looking for equivalents... Ok, in faith XYZ there might not be a creator god, but if say my soul will exist forever, I am immortal and ever-present, I therefore have godlike properties and thus become equatable with a god because theres no other comparator.

The words are far closer to mutually inclusive than mutually exclusive.

 

[bhsup]

Denotative means "in dictionaries" but in the real world, people use atheism to mean "non-religious" all the time. It's technically accurate, but describing a Buddhist as atheistic sounds kinda silly. That's a result of the poverty of language, unfortunately. "Nonreligious" doesn't quite cut it either.

I'd prefer to use "superstitious" and "nonsuperstitious" instead of "religious" and "atheist" because these terms don't privilige monotheism over other kinds of religion and they don't presuppose that being religious is somehow the more credible norm (and lack of belief kinda deviant).

But that's just me.

I've always viewed Buddhism, as well as most Eastern practices, to be a philosophy and not a religion at all. So yes, unless one is a Buddhist AND a (random pick influenced by CG) Catholic, they're an atheist.

 

[crabapple]

Staggering that its not Finland...

Not really Finland is much more traditional then Sweden

 

[JZ_UK]

Not really Finland is much more traditional then Sweden

We have a saying in England "Theres only three things in Finland, Vodka, Heavy Metal and Suicide"

 

[frob2900]

We have a saying in England "Theres only three things in Finland, Vodka, Heavy Metal and Suicide"

There's a lot of vodka. Presumably a lot of suicide, and a lot of dark, whiny heavy metal (Lordi, who won Eurovision for Finland are on the less-whiny side of the spectrum).

It doesn't surprise me that Sweden is more atheistic, though, since Sweden has always been more progressive than Finland.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

It was probably mentioned in the 7 pages ... but aren't vietnamese mostly Hinayana Buddhists ? Which makes them Atheists ?

 

[wicshade]

In describing a buddhists as an 'atheist' it is best to put the word weak befor atheiset just like this 'weak atheist'. there are 2 definitions of atheism strong and weak. To just call someone atheist is somewhat vague,

 

[Heretic_Cata]

To me atheist = there is no God. The strong and weak blablas are for other not-important stuff.

 

[A1CBOZ]

Atheistic=No belief in God
Agnostic=Non-religious

 

[GenMarshall]

Why are we nitpicking at small details on atheism. Yes there is Weak and Strong, but do we realy need to nitpick at it all day?

 

[Grisu]

Why are we nitpicking at small details on atheism. Yes there is Weak and Strong, but do we realy need to nitpick at it all day?

CFC wouldn't be the same if we didn't

 

[Swedishguy]

An ateist buddhist either is just a buddhist or just an atheist.