After US Festival, I visited my brother and his family for a few days at the Jersey shore. His wife's father, who was a devout Catholic had just died, and we were talking about religion. My brother describes himself as an atheist, although he said if wanted a religion, he would choose Buddhism. In fact, the one time he was at KMC NY, I couldn't get him out of the Temple!
My sister also considers herself an atheist.
But it occurs to me that I am too - if you define an atheist as someone who doesn't believe in God.
More often, I think people usually mean a non-believer, because in a culture that's predominantly monotheistic, we tend to equate the two. I certainly don't think of think of myself as a non-believer.
One of the things that's changed since I became a spiritual practitioner is that I find I have a lot in common with people who are religious, when I used to have more affinity for secular humanists. Now I have different feelings about abortion rights, for example.
In Sunday's NY Times, there was an article about Mitt Romney and his Mormonism, and I felt that we have a lot in common - even though I don't agree most of his political positions. Strange bedfellas, huh?
In Eight Steps to Happiness Geshe-la says "'Self' and 'other' are relative terms, rather like 'this mountain' and 'that mountain ... 'This' and 'that' therefore depend upon our point of reference. This is also true of self and other. By climbing down the mountain of self, it is possible to ascend the mountain of other, and thereby cherish others as much as we presently cherish ourself."
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