Not all religions require much in the way of shared beliefs. Many require only that you do. It’s your duty to, say, carry out some rituals and practices, but what meaning you find in them and what you believe about them is up to you to decide. This is the way it is in Zen and among old-line Quakers.
It’d be unfair to say there’s no shared beliefs, of course. If you don’t believe in the Four Nobel Truths, it’s hard to be a Buddhist, but you can take them more as claims that you either agree with or don’t. If you don’t agree with them, Buddhism is probably not for you. If you do, then it might be.
I’ll just also say that commitment to a belief being the whole point is a very Abrahamic view and less common in other religions.
I’ll just also say that commitment to a belief being the whole point is a very Abrahamic view and less common in other religions.
It seems to me that Anglo-American atheists often have a Protestant (or even specifically Lutheran) ontology of religion; they implicitly expect that “religion” must mean something creedal, evangelical, often sola scriptura, and various other things that aren’t even universal among denominations of Christianity.
Not all religions require much in the way of shared beliefs. Many require only that you do. It’s your duty to, say, carry out some rituals and practices, but what meaning you find in them and what you believe about them is up to you to decide. This is the way it is in Zen and among old-line Quakers.
It’d be unfair to say there’s no shared beliefs, of course. If you don’t believe in the Four Nobel Truths, it’s hard to be a Buddhist, but you can take them more as claims that you either agree with or don’t. If you don’t agree with them, Buddhism is probably not for you. If you do, then it might be.
I’ll just also say that commitment to a belief being the whole point is a very Abrahamic view and less common in other religions.
It seems to me that Anglo-American atheists often have a Protestant (or even specifically Lutheran) ontology of religion; they implicitly expect that “religion” must mean something creedal, evangelical, often sola scriptura, and various other things that aren’t even universal among denominations of Christianity.