So, I'm a Buddhist now.

[Rip]

[dexeron]

[Despanan]

[Agent]

[Despanan]

[Agent]

I'm going to take some time to figure out how exactly to tell you how much you just offended me.

[Despanan]

Well you seem quite intent on being offended.

Also I misread anti-atheist as anti-theist. I'm a Buddhist and an atheist. I'm just not a western-style secular humanist atheist, at least not anymore.

What precisely offends you about the idea that all people can benefit from religion and/or the religious experience? Saying you can't benefit from it is limiting yourself. You may not want to go down that road for whatever reason and that's okay - not everyone has to be the same.

One of the core concepts of my belief is that everyone has an inherent Buddha-nature and this nature can manifest within a single lifetime. Were I to deny this and say that you couldn't benefit from religious practice I would essentially be saying that you are somehow inferior to people who can, which is incorrect.

You don't have to believe what I believe, you don't have to study what I study, you don't have to do what I do. Hell, Buddhism even has the concept of Pratyekabuddhas, which are being who become enlightened without any contact with Buddhist practice whatsoever. Literally all I've told you is you and everyone else has untapped potential to be the best "you" that you can be. Not my idea of what the best you is, just you - your own authentic self.

If that best you involves you being a western-style secular humanist atheist, fine. All I've done is related my experience to you and talked a bit about the ideas that I'm currently developing about how religion may function in humans and what purpose it may serve.

So I'm not gonna tell you that you can't benefit, because that would be telling you that you're limited or deficient and I don't think that's true.

Now, if you want to believe the inverse: that people who do benefit from the religious experience are somehow inferior to those who do not, that we are "sick" and need help and you are healthy and don't - well that's bullshit. I don't think anyone's better than anyone else - morally, spiritually or otherwise. We're different but we're all equal. I believed that when I was an atheist and if anything Buddhism has made that belief firmer in my mind.

[Agent]

Holy shit

[Despanan]

[dexeron]