Zen: the Solution to Atheism

Zen Buddhism is a wonderful approach to spirituality. It generally avoids philosophy and serves more as "direct pointing." It's practice of zazen (meditation) simplifies life enough for us to live spontaneously. It is the religion that I would call the most natural and easiest to approach for even Atheists.

Experience is very important in Zen, and the reason why it avoids philosophy is because it doesn't depend on ideas. There is a lot of cloudy religious beliefs that don't make much sense for people, and since the ideas come from the mind, they are quite distorted from the reality. When Zen masters are asked questions like, "What is Buddha nature?" they avoid answering with thought answers and bring attention to the present moment instead.

Living in the present moment without mind input, like fears, doubts, attachments, etc. is the key to Zen, since it brings out our true nature. Interactions with the world flow freely and smoothly, spontaneously like intuition. This is really how we are supposed to live in order to be free from the ego mind. You could say that being spontaneous is really the Holy Spirit taking over for you, since the Holy Spirit is much closer to your true nature than yourself (well, your idea of who you think you are).

The reason why Atheists dislike religion is because they see it as strange ideas that cause fear and pain, such as God judging whether you should go to Heaven or Hell. Really, this is only an idea, and it doesn't involved any direct experience. That skepticism is rightfully used, but it unfortunately leads agnostics and Atheists away from spirituality completely. However, Zen Buddhism is a solution for suffering, and shows that our true nature solves the problem. If we were to dig under our layers of attachment and aversion, pleasure and pain, lust and greed, a silent mind will reveal to us this true nature. If only agnostics and atheists were to still the body and mind, they would find the treasure of spirituality without using doctrine or dogma.