Good ol' Buddhism...

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It's not so much karma itself, its the fact that it shoves people into discrete castes - that's it's that organised and final. Obviously, caste goes away when you stop believing in it because people in other societies move between social classes all the time. The belief that they have an imperative to be poor isn't there.

Atheism is an intellectual position, not a state of feeling 'separate' from a higher power. I've experienced plenty of instances of 'spiritual' elation or insight, or whatever. I still don't believe in God.

When I read things like the 8 fold path or the 4 noble truths it can sound appealing and thoughtful.

But people have also linked Buddhist teachings to the Japanese Kamikaze pilots.

Also, supposedly Buddhism attempted to shrug off the Hindu style caste system but I'm not sure that entirely succeeded. If someone is born diseased or deformed they may be scorned saying they obviously are paying for bad Karma from a previous life.

This is to bad because I've read interested books from the Dalai Llama, but I've also listened to Christopher Hitchens and even Penn Jillette critizise the Dalai Llama and this way of life. Even accusing old Tibet of allowing a kind of Serfdom.

So as far as Eastern "Religion" is concerned, I'm now exploring Taoism.

In a similar way, religions like Christianity brush over suffering in this world because there's an afterlife. That sort of thing rubs me up the wrong way.