Religions You Should Learn About

Granted, this isn't a list of all the religions I find interesting, or that I think contain ideas which can contribute to positive (atheologizing) dialogue. Hinduism and Buddhism are both rich and colorful, but they're old news. In this post I want to draw attention to those minor religions that stand out to me for their doctrinal, ritual, and/or lifestyle expressions of something that approaches the sacredness of the individual. The last entry in this post is a religion which is neither minor nor especially individualistic, but which I think everyone should familiarize themselves with nonetheless.

Jainism: The main tenet of this ancient Indian religion is ahimsa - popularly translated as nonviolence, but which I think might be better interpretted as a kind of nonaggression when the term applies to the duties of the laity. (I should note that though the NAP is often taken as deontological, Jain ethics are somewhat egoist in that they assume a causal link between harming others and harming oneself, and derive the duty to not harm others from the self-interest of improving one's next-life prospects.) All Jains are vegetarian. Some (maybe most) even abstain from root vegetables, like potatoes, onions, and carrots, out of consideration for the subterranean beings that could be hurt in the process of uprooting, and also because the plant itself would necessarily be killed, and many Jains believe that the plant itself should not be killed if human survival doesn't depend on its death. (Other reasons to abstain from onions might include the traditional Hindu ascetic abstinence from spicy food and other indulgences which can lead a soul down the road of untamed passions.) There are two main denominations of Jainism, which are based around different orders of monks and nuns. Shvetambara monks and nuns wear white, and sometimes wear a white cloth over their mouths to avoid accidentally breathing in and killing a flie. Digambara monks, the clergy of the other denomination, take the vow of nonpossession so seriously that they go about "sky-clad". Out of consideration to conventional propriety, they do not admit females. And so, they believe that women cannot attain moksha in their current life.

Though Jainism can be called nontheistic, it is not an atheist religion. Jains do believe in gods - they just believe that the gods also die and are reborn (and, needless to say, they believe in the immortality of the soul). At the center of the Jain pantheon sit 24 Tirthankaras - people who are alleged by Jain tradition to have conquered the cicle of death and rebirth and have contributed to human understanding of how that cicle can be overcome.

Taoism: Another nontheistic (though not atheist) religion which bases a certain "correct" way of acting on a certain understanding of how the world naturally works.

Epicureanism: Though Epicureanism is taught as a school of Hellenistic philosophy, I think this school and other Hellenistic schools have attributes that mark them as all out religions. Epicurus and his followers had certain beliefs about the world, including beliefs about gods and the soul, and a certain ethical framework related to these beliefs and which implied a particular way of living. Epicureans are physicalists. They believe that what happens in the world are the results of natural processes and not the intervention of gods. Epicurus himself did believe that immortal gods exist, but he believed that as divine and perfect beings they did nothing but sit in bliss, and that they declined to bother themselves with human drama. If there is a polytheistic kind of Deism, it would look a bit like Epicureanism. Epicureans do believe in the soul, which in Greek is called psyche, but this is more like the psyche of psychology. The soul is an aspect or function of the living body; once the body dies, so does the soul. Epicureans believe that the highest good, or purpose in life, is pleasure - which they define as living without pain and anxiety. Contrary to the popular use of the word "epicurean", the lifestyle that Epicurus himself recommended was a bit ascetic. He advised against having sex too often, and his beverage of choice might have been water. Should say, though, that he did like his cheese.

Epicureanism is an egoist brand of hedonism, and is a forerunner of modern ethical egoism (what XOmniverse calls "rational ethics"). Moral obligations are those actions or inactions that contribute to one's personal happiness or avoid displeasure. People should be sober because when they are, they keep their better judgment and tend to think twice about decisions that might get in the way of their happiness. People should be kind to others because kindness is most conducive to relationships that help people meet their social and physical needs, and unkindness repels people and provokes retaliation, which is not conducive towards one's own happiness. One criticism I have of ethical egoism, which I speak more about here, is that when one's own happiness is the only basis of morality, there is no reason outside of cultural norm to not rape babies with pickets.

LaVeyan Satanism: Anton Szandor LaVey may have been the funnest thing that happened to religion in the past 2 millenia. People who don't know about this path of darkness should read LaVey's book. LaVey was a complete atheist, he did not believe that any fallen angel named Satan actually existed, he knew that magic was all smoke and mirrors, and yet he started a religion that gives center stage to the fictional character "Satan" and which involves "black magic". Satanism straddles the fence between egoism and a purer individualism. The Eleven Satanic Rules of the Earth include prohibitions against stealing, harming children, and killing non-human animals for reasons other than defense or food. These prohibitions imply an assertion of the other's entitlement to a certain standard of treatment or non-invasion, which would make it a more purified individualism; but then, these prohibitions could be based on mere self-interest combined with an awareness of social convention.

Liberal Quakerism: Since its formation in the the mid-17th century, the Religious Society of Friends traditionally has been a quite liberal religion. It took the priesthood of all believers to its logical extent and did without clergy. There is no plan to the church service, which they simply call a meeting: they just sit in silence, and whoever feels moved to say something stands and says it. Women were allowed to speak in meetings since the beginning. Early Quakers did not accept sola scriptura. George Fox, who founded the religion, believed that what was authoritative was the Holy Spirit that inspired men to write the Bible - not the Bible itself. Quakers were involved in many social justice issues, including abolition, women's suffrage, civil rights, and the obvious one, anti-war activism. But some Quakers classify as evangelicals, while other Quakers - including and especially the ones here in the SF Bay Area - are either accepting of atheists or are atheists themselves. One of the Quaker themes that atheist Quakers embrace is the Inner Light, which is often understood as every human's innate capacity to sense moral or spiritual truth. I've also seen it explained as that which makes every human innately valuable, though I don't think that captures all of what it is "supposed to" mean (and I think it conflates or welds together conscience and rights-possession; I do believe one can have the latter while not having the former, or while having a very simple one, or while not being very good at listening to it). Another Quaker theme that atheist Quakers embrace is concensus. From what I've seen with my own eyes, Quakers are very hard core about open and participatory democracy. I have been allowed to actively participate in business meetings at the local Friends' Meeting, even though I am not formally "convinced".

Unitarian Universalism: UUs don't have creeds. But if they were to, the doctrine at the top of their list would be the inherrent dignity and worth of every person (sometimes it's written "of every being"). Since UUism assumes this from the get-go, it can be thought of as a more purely individualist religion than Jainism, Epicureanism, and Satanism. However, the vast majority of UUs are politically "progressive", and so they are New Tories. That aside, UUs as individuals are strongly encouraged to conduct their own "free and responsible search for truth and meaning". There's a general impression that many UUs are atheists who can't let go of doing church. From what I've seen, loads of UUs are Wiccan - but maybe those are just the ones that stand out to me. The three interest-themed spiritual groups at First Unitarian in San Jose are the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans, Dances of Universal Peace, and the Labyrinth Guild. Quite a few UU churches have a chapter of the UU Christian Fellowship, but not the one in San Jose (at least they don't advertise it on their website). Once when I made a remark about Jainism to a man at First Unitarian in SJ, the man looked at me frankly and asked "Is that your path?" Of course it was a decent and appropriate question - but only in a UU church, or a Friends' Meeting. I encourage anyone who hasn't yet visited a UU church to do so. Do be forewarned, that it might be a bit out of your comfort level.

Islam(s): I'm putting this religion on this list, not because I think it's notable for anything, but because it's been in the news quite a bit and a whole lot of non-muslims think they're authorized to open their mouth and speak on the religion when they apparently aren't. One of the most respectful things you can do for people of a different religion is recognize that there is diversity in that religion. Making a sweeping remark about some supposedly monolithic entity called "Islam" can be like saying that Protestant priests are allowed to marry (which is only true for those denominations that have priests). So please, click around on the internet, and especially here, cause if you say something about Islam as if it's supposed to describe all Muslims and it doesn't, then you're going to look like you have a big mouth and really small ears.