Nontheistic religions (not to be confused with atheism) are traditions of thought within a religious context—some otherwise aligned with theism, others not—in which nontheism informs religious beliefs or practices.
Nontheism has been applied and plays significant roles in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. While many approaches to religion exclude nontheism by definition, some inclusive definitions of religion show how religious practice and belief do not depend on the presence of a god or gods. For example, Paul James and Peter Mandaville distinguish between religion and spirituality, but provide a definition of the term that avoids the usual reduction to "religions of the book":
Buddhism
Existence of gods
The Buddha said that devas (translated as "gods") do exist, but they were regarded as still being trapped in samsara, and are not necessarily wiser than humans. In fact, the Buddha is often portrayed as a teacher of the gods, and superior to them. Except gods who are considered as manifestations of Buddhas such as the five Jambhalas and the devas who reside in Pure Abodes and other deities such as Tara based on some Buddhist traditions.
Since the time of the Buddha, the denial of the existence of a creator deity has been seen as a key point in distinguishing Buddhist from non-Buddhist views.B. Alan Wallace, Contemplative Science. Columbia University Press, 2007, pages 97–98. The question of an independent creator deity was answered by the Buddha in the Brahmajala Sutta. The Buddha denounced the view of a creator and sees that such notions are related to the false view of eternalism, and like the 61 other views, this belief causes suffering when one is attached to it and states these views may lead to desire, aversion and delusion. At the end of the Sutta the Buddha says he knows these 62 views and he also knows the truth that surpasses them. Later Buddhist philosophers also extensively criticized the idea of an eternal creator deity concerned with humanity.Principled Atheism in the Buddhist Scholastic Tradition
Metaphysical questions On one occasion, when presented with a problem of metaphysics by the monk Malunkyaputta, the Buddha responded with the Parable of the Poisoned Arrow. When a man is shot with an arrow thickly smeared with poison, his family summons a doctor to have the poison removed, and the doctor gives an antidote:
Christianity
A few liberal Christian theologians define a "nontheistic God" as "the ground of all being" rather than as a personal divine being.
Many of them owe much of their theology to the work of Christian existentialist philosopher Paul Tillich, including the phrase "the ground of all being". Another quotation from Tillich is, "God does not exist. He is being itself beyond essence and existence. Therefore to argue that God exists is to deny him."Tillich, Paul. (1951) Systematic Theology, p.205. This Tillich quotation summarizes his conception of God. He does not think of God as a being that exists in time and space, because that constrains God, and makes God finite. But all beings are finite, and if God is the Creator of all beings, God cannot logically be finite since a finite being cannot be the sustainer of an infinite variety of finite things. Thus God is considered beyond being, above finitude and limitation, the power or essence of being itself.
Tillich saw God more as a symbol. He appreciated using symbols to envision God, something meaningful and abstract, and appreciated using a personal God's image to relate to the "ground of being." He believed that major Christian themes remained meaningful through re-envisioning Christian stories that were accepted literally. He also perceived the root of atheism as a rejection of God's traditional image.
From a nontheistic, naturalist, and rationalist perspective, the concept of divine grace appears to be the same concept as luck.Kaufman, Arnold S. "Ability", The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 60, No. 19
Nontheist Quakers
A nontheist Friend or an atheist Quaker is someone who affiliates with, identifies with, engages in and/or affirms Quaker practices and processes, but who does not accept a belief in a theistic understanding of God, a Supreme Being, the divine, the soul or the supernatural. Like theistic Friends, nontheist Friends are actively interested in realizing centered peace, simplicity, integrity, community, equality, and social justice in the Society of Friends and beyond.
Unitarian Universalists
Originating from Christian Unitarianism and Universalism, already two liberal strands of Christianity, Unitarian Universalism developed into a religious non-creedal movement that encompasses a wide range of theological perspectives, including atheism, agnosticism, humanism, and other forms of nontheism. Nontheistic Unitarian Universalists generally emphasize ethical values such as human dignity, compassion, reason, freedom of conscience, equality, and social responsibility rather than belief in a supernatural deity. Religious practice may therefore focus on communal worship, meditation, reflection, music, ritual, and social action, with these practices understood as ways of cultivating meaning, community, and ethical commitment rather than as acts of devotion to a supernatural being.
Hinduism
Hinduism is characterised by extremely diverse beliefs and practices.Catherine Robinson, Interpretations of the Bhagavad-Gītā and Images of the Hindu Tradition: The Song of the Lord. Routledge Press, 1992, page 17. In the words of R.C. Zaehner, "it is perfectly possible to be a good Hindu whether one's personal views incline toward monism, monotheism, polytheism, or even atheism."Catherine Robinson, Interpretations of the Bhagavad-Gītā and Images of the Hindu Tradition: The Song of the Lord. Routledge Press, 1992, page 51. He goes on to say that it is a religion that neither depends on the existence or non-existence of God or Gods.R. C. Zaehner, (1966) Hinduism, P.1-2, Oxford University Press. More broadly, Hinduism can be seen as having three more important strands: one featuring a personal Creator or Divine Being, a second that emphasises an impersonal Absolute and a third that is pluralistic and non-absolute. The latter two traditions can be seen as nontheistic.Griffiths, Paul J, (2005) Nontheistic Conceptions of the Divine Ch. 3. in The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Religion by William J Wainwright, p.59 . Oxford University Press .
Although the Vedas are broadly concerned with the completion of ritual, there are some elements that can be interpreted as either nontheistic or precursors to the later developments of the nontheistic tradition. The oldest Hindu scripture, the Rig Veda mentions that 'There is only one god though the sages may give it various names' (1.164.46). Max Müller termed this henotheism, and it can be seen as indicating one, non-dual divine reality, with little emphasis on personality.Masih, Y. A comparative study of religions, P.164, Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 2000 The famous Nasadiya Sukta, the 129th Hymn of the tenth and final Mandala (or chapter) of the Rig Veda, considers creation and asks "The gods came afterwards, with the creation of this universe. "Who then knows whence it has arisen?".O'Flaherty, Wendy Doniger, (1981)The Rig Veda: An Anthology of One Hundred Eight Hymns (Classic) Penguin This can be seen to contain the intuition that there must be a single principle behind all phenomena: 'That one' (tad ekam), self-sufficient, to which distinctions cannot be applied.Collinson, Diané and Wilkinson, Robert Thirty-Five Oriental Philosophers, P. 39, Routledge, 1994 Mohanty, Jitendranath (2000), Classical Indian Philosophy: An Introductory Text, p:1 Rowman & Littlefield,
It is with the Upanishads, reckoned to be written in the first millennia (coeval with the ritualistic Brahmanas), that the Vedic emphasis on ritual was challenged. The Upanishads can be seen as the expression of new sources of power in India. Also, separate from the Upanishadic tradition were bands of wandering ascetics called Vadins whose largely nontheistic notions rejected the notion that religious knowledge was the property of the Brahmins. Many of these were shramanas, who represented a non-Vedic tradition rooted in India's pre-Aryan history.Jaroslav Krejčí, Anna Krejčová (1990) Before the European Challenge: The Great Civilizations of Asia and the Middle East, p:170, SUNY Press, The emphasis of the Upanishads turned to knowledge, specifically the ultimate identity of all phenomena.Doniger, Wendy, (1990) Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions, P. 441, Merriam-Webster, This is expressed in the notion of Brahman, the key idea of the Upanishads, and much later philosophizing has been taken up with deciding whether Brahman is personal or impersonal.Smart, Ninian (1998) The World's Religions P.73-74, CUP The understanding of the nature of Brahman as impersonal is based in the definition of it as 'ekam eva advitiyam' (Chandogya Upanishad 6.2.1) – it is one without a second and to which no substantive predicates can be attached.Wainwright, William J. (2005) Ch.3 Nontheistic conceptions of the divine. The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Religion p.67 OUP, Further, both the Chandogya and Brihadaranyaka Upanishads assert that the individual atman and the impersonal Brahman are one.Jones, Richard H. (2004) Mysticism and Morality: A New Look at Old Questions, P. 80, Lexington Books, The mahāvākya statement Tat Tvam Asi, found in the Chandogya Upanishad, can be taken to indicate this unity.Brown, Robert L, (1991) Ganesh: Studies of an Asian God, SUNY Press, . The latter Upanishad uses the negative term Neti neti to 'describe' the divine.
Classical Samkhya, Mimamsa, early Vaisheshika and early Nyaya schools of Hinduism do not accept the notion of an omnipotent creator God at all.Larson, Gerald James, Ch. Indian Conceptions of Reality and Divinity found in A Companion to World Philosophies By Eliot Deutsch, Ronald Bontekoe, P. 352, Blackwell, Morgan, Kenneth W. and Sarma, D S, Eds. (1953) Ch. 5. P.207 Hindu Religious Thought by Satis Chandra Chatterjee, The Religion of the Hindus: Interpreted by Hindus, Ronald Press. While the Sankhya and Mimamsa schools no longer have significant followings in India, they are both influential in the development of later schools of philosophy.Flood, Gavin D, An Introduction to Hinduism,(p.232) CUP, Larson, Gerald James,(1999) Classical Samkhya, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, The Yoga of Patanjali is the school that probably owes most to the Samkhya thought. This school is dualistic, in the sense that there is a division between 'spirit' (Sanskrit: purusha) and 'nature' (Sanskrit: prakṛti).Feuerstein, Georg (1989), Yoga: The Technology of Ecstasy, Tarcher, It holds Samadhi or 'concentrative union' as its ultimate goalKing, Richard (1999) Indian Philosophy: An Introduction to Hindu and Buddhist Thought, p:191, Edinburgh University Press, and it does not consider God's existence as either essential or necessary to achieving this.Clements, Richard Pauranik, Being a Witness in Theory and Practice of Yoga by Knut A. Jacobsen