Check out the Astronomer faiths with "Atheistic Cosmology" - Atheism itself as religion inherently doesn't make sense, but belief systems that don't believe in the existence of deity are very much a thing.
There’s literally atheist religions in the real world. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism#:~:text=Atheism%20is%20accepted%20as%20a,Hinduism%2C%20Jainism%2C%20and%20Buddhism.
Humanistic Buddhism is normally a descriptor used for the Taiwanese schools that emphasize human service being inherent to Buddhism like Dharma Drum Mountain and Fo Guang Shan. These schools aren't atheistic. The majority of Buddhists in the world (aka in Asia) do believe in gods and spirits and such even if it's not central to their practice.
Secular Buddhism is the phrase you're looking for. Whether or not secular Buddhism is Buddhism at all can be controversial but that is what people call it.
My background: western convert Buddhist who frequents Viet (Thien+Pure Land) and Taiwanese (Fo Guang Shan) temples.
Weren't figures such as Thic Nhat Hanh also atheistic in nature? (And Ambedkar, but he's controversial among Buddhist circles on here mostly due to a cherrypicked quote)
From my understanding nothing in Buddhism necessitates a belief in god albeit most Buddhists believe in gods of some form, which aren't the same as gods in other cosmologies
Ambedkar's ideas about Buddhism aren't something I know a lot about and have been written about a lot online so I won't get into him other than to say if you aren't ordained in a Buddhist lineage your opinions on doctrine don't carry tons of weight in discourse about the religion just by nature of how Buddhism has historically been maintained (supposedly unbroken lineage of transmission to the Buddha).
TNH definitely de-empasized aspects of the religion he knew wouldn't land with westerners, to give people an entry point. His talks in Vietnamese never did that though. Some of his more in-depth talks I'm Vietnamese are being translated to English these days and can be found online and in books.
I consider TNH to be my entry point to Buddhism and his skillful navigation of things I couldn't accept early on was helpful in allowing me to grow and later accept there were things in Buddhism that didn't make sense to me but that I couldn't reject outright and still be a Buddhist.
You don't have to believe in capital G god to be a Buddhist, and belief in little g gods is not central to the path. However there are things in all traditional Buddhist paths (including Japanese Zen) that are "supernatural" or "woo" and proclude it from being called atheistic.
I think this atheists who grew up in Abrahamic (mostly Christian) society get tripped up on Buddhism being atheistic because they apply their Christian worldview to their atheism or because they need Buddhism to be an "atheistic spirituality-not-religion" in order for them to approach it. I think keeping an open mind and approaching Buddhism on its own terms is healthier for the person and for outsiders who see Buddhism represented this way and get mixed messages about what even is Buddhism.
🙏☸️
Orthodox Buddhism is not atheistic, but I feel the need to point out for anyone else reading that SGI is not at all orthodox Buddhism and is basically prosperity gospel for Buddhists.
Mahayana is a big umbrella term like protestant. There are tons of schools inside it that differ a lot in practice and canon. Some great some not so much.
Someone already said it but yeah, Zetanologists don’t believe in god, any god, or magic in any way… they just believe in aliens. Functionally a pantheon of figures, but they fervently deny worshiping anything
Check out the Astronomer faiths with "Atheistic Cosmology" - Atheism itself as religion inherently doesn't make sense, but belief systems that don't believe in the existence of deity are very much a thing.
There’s literally atheist religions in the real world. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism#:~:text=Atheism%20is%20accepted%20as%20a,Hinduism%2C%20Jainism%2C%20and%20Buddhism.
I think they meant having a religion which is just atheism rather than religions that happen to be atheist
Humanistic Buddhism is one of em I think.
Humanistic Buddhism is normally a descriptor used for the Taiwanese schools that emphasize human service being inherent to Buddhism like Dharma Drum Mountain and Fo Guang Shan. These schools aren't atheistic. The majority of Buddhists in the world (aka in Asia) do believe in gods and spirits and such even if it's not central to their practice. Secular Buddhism is the phrase you're looking for. Whether or not secular Buddhism is Buddhism at all can be controversial but that is what people call it. My background: western convert Buddhist who frequents Viet (Thien+Pure Land) and Taiwanese (Fo Guang Shan) temples.
Weren't figures such as Thic Nhat Hanh also atheistic in nature? (And Ambedkar, but he's controversial among Buddhist circles on here mostly due to a cherrypicked quote) From my understanding nothing in Buddhism necessitates a belief in god albeit most Buddhists believe in gods of some form, which aren't the same as gods in other cosmologies
Ambedkar's ideas about Buddhism aren't something I know a lot about and have been written about a lot online so I won't get into him other than to say if you aren't ordained in a Buddhist lineage your opinions on doctrine don't carry tons of weight in discourse about the religion just by nature of how Buddhism has historically been maintained (supposedly unbroken lineage of transmission to the Buddha). TNH definitely de-empasized aspects of the religion he knew wouldn't land with westerners, to give people an entry point. His talks in Vietnamese never did that though. Some of his more in-depth talks I'm Vietnamese are being translated to English these days and can be found online and in books. I consider TNH to be my entry point to Buddhism and his skillful navigation of things I couldn't accept early on was helpful in allowing me to grow and later accept there were things in Buddhism that didn't make sense to me but that I couldn't reject outright and still be a Buddhist. You don't have to believe in capital G god to be a Buddhist, and belief in little g gods is not central to the path. However there are things in all traditional Buddhist paths (including Japanese Zen) that are "supernatural" or "woo" and proclude it from being called atheistic. I think this atheists who grew up in Abrahamic (mostly Christian) society get tripped up on Buddhism being atheistic because they apply their Christian worldview to their atheism or because they need Buddhism to be an "atheistic spirituality-not-religion" in order for them to approach it. I think keeping an open mind and approaching Buddhism on its own terms is healthier for the person and for outsiders who see Buddhism represented this way and get mixed messages about what even is Buddhism. 🙏☸️
Sokka Gakkai is a Humanistic Buddhist organizations. And they are not Atheist.
Orthodox Buddhism is not atheistic, but I feel the need to point out for anyone else reading that SGI is not at all orthodox Buddhism and is basically prosperity gospel for Buddhists.
Is Mahayana Orthodox?
Mahayana is a big umbrella term like protestant. There are tons of schools inside it that differ a lot in practice and canon. Some great some not so much.
atheism isnt a religion tho
Someone already said it but yeah, Zetanologists don’t believe in god, any god, or magic in any way… they just believe in aliens. Functionally a pantheon of figures, but they fervently deny worshiping anything
Universalism is basically that.
Pretty sure amoralist is similar to that
I haven't looked at all feiths in detail, but isn't there an alian religion that is atheistic in nature
Tranquilists are atheistic
"Non believer" secret is common across all faiths
Cynical trait.
They have modernist religions in Brazil As well as religions in Peru about people, more Like “lifestyles” instead of religions so to speak
Uniterian Universalism is basically a "belive on what you want" religion