2-b is exactly what I am talking about.... Atheists accept rational thinking over irrational thinking. If there was one thin mutually exclusive to all true atheists, it would be logical thought. That why we don't believe in nonsense.
The soul or spirit would serve no purpose in our evolution. In fact the soul and the idea of it automatically devalues life and living....
Buddhists believe in reincarnation,
False. In fact, Buddha reprimanded a disciple for believing in reincarnation. I don't know where you got that absurd notion from.
Sati: "Yes, venerable sir, as I know the Teaching of the Blessed One, this consciousness transmigrates through existences."
The Buddha: "Foolish man, to whom do you know me having preached this Teaching. Haven't I told, in various ways that consciousness is dependently arisen. Without a cause, there is no arising of consciousness. Yet, you foolish man, because of your wrong grasp, blame me, destroy yourself, and accumulate much demerit."
[
Mahātaṇhāsaṅkhaya Sutta]
they also have deities as well.
Utterly false. See my thread here where Buddha explicitly denied all concepts of God:
http://www.religiousforums.com/foru...101720-buddha-not-silent-god-metaphysics.html.
You must be thinking of devas and Brahmas, which Buddha acknowledged their existence, but clearly denied their God-hood and called them ignorant.
Many Atheists believe that Kim Jong Il exists, who is believed to be a deity by N. Korea. But does that mean that Atheists are now Theists because they believe Kim Jong Il exists? No, because they deny that he is a God.
Buddha would be their equivalent to Christ.
In what way? The only similarity between them is the fact that they are central figures in two different religions.
There are also different types of Buddhism as well. They may not believe a creator, but they certainly have deities.
Again, see above.
Again a soul aside from not being supported by anything tangible would hinder us more than benefit us.
Buddhists don't believe in a soul.
the Buddha: "
The assertion of philosophical views concerning the elements that make up personality and its environing world that are non-existent,
assume the existence of an ego, a being,
a soul, a living being, a "nourisher",
or a spirit.
This is an example of philosophical views that are not true. It is this combination of discrimination of imaginary marks of individuality, grouping them and giving them a name and becoming attached to them as objects, by reason of habit-energy that has been accumulated since beginningless time,
that one builds up erroneous views whose only basis is false-imaginations." [Lankavatara Sutra]
Buddha: "In this same class the disciples are the earnest disciples of other faiths, who clinging to the notions of such things as, the soul as an external entity, Supreme Atman, Personal God, seek a [belief] that is in harmony with them. ...But none of these, earnest though they be, have gained an insight into the truth of the twofold egolessness and are, therefore, of limited spiritual insights as regards deliverance and non-deliverance; for them there is no emancipation. They have great self-confidence but they can never gain a true knowledge of Nirvana." [Lankavatara Sutra]
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