What kind of atheist are you?

[°Leprechaun]

   http://www.selectsmart.com/nontheism/

        1.     Theravada Buddhist (100%)            
   2.   Taoist (81%)            
   3.   Strong Agnostic (64%)            
   4.   Deist (55%)            
   5.   Naturalistic Pantheist (51%)            
   6.   Ethical Culturist (44%)            
   7.   Freethinker (44%)            
   8.   Iconoclast (44%)            
   9.   Ignosticist (42%)            
   10.   Implicit Atheist (41%)            
   11.   Rationalist (40%)            
   12.   Secular Humanist (40%)            
   13.   Strong Atheist (39%)            
   14.   Transhumanist (37%)            
   15.   Unitarian Universalist (37%)            
   16.   Atheistic Paganist (35%)            
   17.   Objectivist (32%)            
   18.   Weak Agnostic (32%)            
   19.   Confucianist (21%)   

[°Leprechaun]

> including Buddhism as a "nonteistic philosophy"

I can't wait to see Nathan rip this apart.

Belief in God is not a requirement for being a Buddhist.

[°Leprechaun]

> including Buddhism as a "nonteistic philosophy"

I can't wait to see Nathan rip this apart.

The fact that the phrase the quiz uses is 'non-believer' is actually way worse than just classifying Theravada as a not-necessarily-theistic belief system would have been.  Confucianism is arguable--the Catholic Church, for instance, finally decided, in 1939, largely for realpolitik reasons, that it didn't count as a religion, and academic East Asianists are pretty evenly split on whether or not we agree with this--and I guess Tao might be arguable too based on what I know about it, but describing Theravada Buddhism as a 'nontheistic philosophy' makes about as much sense as describing Mormonism as an 'American political ideology'.

I would say that we don't actually know what exactly what Buddha taught, because like Jesus and Socrates we don't have any of his writings, only the writings of his followers and the various schools of Buddhism don't agree, anyway (just like Christians). To describe Theravada as a "not-necessarily-theistic belief system" is fine by me. The point is that not all Buddhists believe in God. Obviously some do.

[°Leprechaun]

If your definition of religion includes a belief in "God", then yes I would call Christianity a religion.
By that definition many Buddhists are not "religious".

Then issue was not what is a religion, however, the issue was whether all Buddhists believe in "God".

[°Leprechaun]

If your definition of religion includes a belief in "God",

But why would it?

The problem with the inclusion of Buddhism in this quiz (along with Confucianism, Tao, and, frankly, Unitarian Universalism) is that it's being lumped in with all these abstract philosophical conceptualizations. Theravada Buddhism and 'weak agnosticism' are simply not part of the same conceptual category at all.

The connection between these beliefs is tenuous at best, but one thing that they have in common is that none of them embrace the traditional "western" God. (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). Those three although very different are often classified as "western" or "Abramic" religions.

Of course, the question "What kind of atheist are you"? is problematic. Many people associate the term with rejection of religion.

[°Leprechaun]

My point is that while the test is fatally flawed it is designed for people that aren't Jews, Christians or Muslims.

[°Leprechaun]

These tests (whether political, religious or whatever) usually are poor indicators of what a person actually believes, but may in some cases, help give a person a better idea of where to search. In my case, for example, while I don't want to label myself as a Buddhist or Taoist, these two "religions" have a great deal of appeal to me. However, I already knew that before I took the test.

[°Leprechaun]

http://www.selectsmart.com/philosophy/

here's another one but it is about specific philosophers rather than philosophies