Non-Theistic Religions aren't necessarily Atheist Religions

A theistic religion is a religion that gives center stage to something or someone we can call "God". The stage might be the role of Creator or Sustainer or Most Intimate Chum (or it might be all of those) but whatever the role is, it's the most important one. And God, however you define it, is going to occupy that role.

A non-theistic religion is a religion that does not give center stage to anyone we can call "God". This doesn't mean, though, that the believers reject belief in God and all gods. It just means that non-physical beings don't take center stage.

Let's look at a list of non-theistic religions. There's Buddhism, Jainism, Daoism, Confucianism, a few others that I won't list here, and others that I don't remember. Followers of each of the four that I list have accepted the existence of at least ghosts. Both Buddhism and Jainism accept the existence of pretty much all Hindu gods.

If you go to the Jain temple in Milpitas, you'll see a shrine to Dhurga and a couple other Hindu gods. This isn't a belief in a symbolic god; it's belief in actual beings who watch over earthly affairs and intervene to protect the temples and the people who worship in them. Jains wouldn't reject the existence of Jesus or God, either. They just think, as do many Buddhists, that every single soul is subject to Samsara - that is, being reborn and treated according to how ethical you act. The Jewish God has yet to die, and when He does, he will be reborn into a position that reflects how justly he ruled as God. He may have to live hundreds, or thousands, or millions more times before he can attain moksha.

The ones who get most of the adoration in a Jain temple are a set of 24 ancient religious leaders who attained moksha and now do absolutely nothing but sit blissfully and peacefully (that's what you do in Nirvana). Worshipping them is more like honoring someone for adhering to a very strict ethical path, than worshipping any kind of God or god - you don't get favors from or have any personal relationship with these ones. We can say that it's really the path itself that's being worshipped. Center stage, then, isn't really occupied by anyone.

But though no God or gods take center stage in Jainism, Jainism can't be called atheist according to today's meaning of the word. Atheists, as understood today, reject all supra-empirical reality - if you can't prove it, they don't believe it. Jains and most Buddhists, though, believe in supraempirical reality.

For one thing, Jains believe that the souls of their 24 Tirthankaras are sitting peacefully in Nirvana. That is just as much a belief in the "superantural" (I don't like using that word) as the belief that Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father. (Buddhists don't believe that Buddha exists, because if he is Buddha then he attained Nirvana, and Buddha himself defined Nirvana as the annihilation of the self.)

Also, Jains (and most Buddhists too) believe that each one of us who isn't going to attain moksha in this life is going to be reborn in a future life. This is just as supra-empirical as the belief that those who are saved go to heaven after they die. There's no way we can possibly prove that any one of us was someone else in a past life. And so, an atheist would reject belief in reincarnation for the same reason he would reject belief in heaven and hell.

To be a properly atheist religion, the belief system can't have any room for any thing whose existence can't be proven. God, Nirvana, Karma (as understood by Jains, which is as heavy dust particles that cling to your soul when you sin and literally weigh you down so that you're reborn as a lower life form), and rebirth all have to go out the window for the religion to be an atheist religion.

Three religions immediately come to mind when I think of atheist religions: Objectivism, LaVeyan Satanism (which can be described as Objectivism with robes and candles), and Marxism. All three of these reject God and all supernatural phenomena. Each one of them is a religion because each one of them is dogmatic - they're just not dogmatic about God (or rather, they're dogmatic about him not existing).

There are other atheist religions. There's atheist Judaism and atheist Christianity, and if it hasn't already come about, sooner or later there's going to be atheist Islam. There used to be an all-out atheist school of Hinduism called Carvaka, and from what I see there's at least one person today who identifies with that school. If there are others who share their Hindu and atheist beliefs with that blogger, then Carvaka is risen from the dead.