What I was saying about all religions sharing the same core concepts might be what you're getting at about Buddhism being a philosophy. In that case, every religion wouldn't be a religion. In Buddhism there is the worshiping of the Buddha, practicing the teachings, and then your group or community, which differs depending on if you're monastic.

Anyway, I don't think all atheists are bad people, just like I know not all religious people are blind followers. It's just with the internet a lot of people who happen to be atheist will go to extremes because of their anonymity. They go on forums for church groups and either hack their sites, or have an organized amount of people troll the forums. Not all religious people are bad, and in flaming and trolling them it really makes atheism look bad. It's also ironic because they claim to be against people like the Westboro Baptist church, and Fox news etc etc, but they are acting no better than them. I would just rather not be associated with either extreme.

What I was getting at is that Buddah isn't worshipped as a deity, just a teacher, so by definition Buddhism is broadly an atheist mentality. I'm not arguing a position so much as wanting to get your take on that idea. I don't much like being associate in any way with the mentality often associated with atheism, but since I don't believe in God I am by nature atheist.

Yeah, can't say I am educated enough to really know what I'm talking about here BUT the way I saw it was that yes he was a teacher, much like Jesus, but by reaching Nirvana and gaining spiritual enlightenment he would be considered more of a deity than a regular joe. I don't know all the details there though, so you could very well be right and by definition I would be considered an atheist...

and I don't totally have a problem with that either. I love science, the cosmos, space exploration. For the most part, I believe in evolution over intelligent design. I can spend an entire day listening to Carl Sagan and Neil Degrasse Tyson. I wanted to work at NASA most of my life but was stopped by the horrible realization that I get sick when I am driving in a car for 5 minutes, never mind a spacecraft.

I disagree with what it can do to some people and how some choose to follow it but as for the teachings behind the storys, I think they make a whole lot of sense. I don't personally believe what I read in the bible nor do I go to church but essentially Christianity, like all other religions, is about living your life to it's fullest potential. Some may twist that into a light that they think is right but that doesn't mean the entire religion is false. I respect peoples choice to follow it and none of those options apply to me. Sorry.

I believe in an organized principle behind existence, a wisdom at the core of the chaos, but I do not believe in any religion. I believe that belief in an omnipresence is moot in some ways and that no omnipresence would care whether you choose to believe in it or a non omnipresence. If an omnipresence allows for the possibility of dissent, it must not care about whether it is worshipped or not or else it comprehends that all stories are true. I believe that certain thoughtforms have asserted themselves in the collective unconscious through our misplaced worship and repressed desires and have poisoned the well. They want people to persecute, act selfish and harm each other in the pursuit of power. It is these gods that we have allowed to be through our directed, thoughts, prayers, actions and desires. These are the gods of the child molester, the bigot and the war monger, people who all think that they're pious and decent but are all slaves to warped, tyrannical archetypes. You are better off worshipping Captain Crunch, the Flash, Cobra Commander or Sephiroth than these people's gods, who are thoroughly different from the gods of good, thoughtful Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, etc. The important thing is you keep up a dialogue with forces that make sense to you, whatever they might be and use the judgment to know which ones will make you a better, more productive, more loving person and which ones will make you a dickface. If you choose none at all over some greedy shithead god that tells you it's okay to touch little children, it's fine by me.

Though I would have worded it more clumsily,I agree with Doc completely on the subject.In all religions there are thoughts and ideas that can both help and hinder our personal development.The tough part is finding what works for each of us individually.
If this world adhered to the following list,we would live in a paradise.
Mohandas Gandhi's 7 deadly sins....
1 Wealth without work
2 Pleasure without conscience
3 Science without humanity
4 Knowledge without character
5 Politics without principle
6 Commerce without morality
7 Worship without sacrifice

I am no expert but I would think you would find at least a nugget of these ideas in all religions.So hopefully somewhere in these words we all can find it in ourselves to not have sex with young boys nor to conclude that all homosexuals are pedophiles.I'm just sayin'.;)

Wonderful sentiments.

So glad to see someone quoting Mahatma Gandhi. He has been the single biggest inspiration for several generations of Indians. The only individual whose spiritual presence has been much, much bigger than his physical one in our country.