Hey atheists, have you checked out Taoism?

I am a total atheist and some would say i am one of the asshole atheist that attack Christians. I am sure you know the type. However i read the Tao Te Chin recently and i must say i found what it said to be quite powerful. It is an atheistic/pantheistic religion that offer alto to how a human aspiring to be more than animal can be truly spiritual. Has anybody else read it and felt the same?
I am not a "Taoist" exactly but i do have tremendous respect for many of its teaching. Certainly more than most religious texts of read (not to name names)

Where does it talk about humans being more than animals?

There's a great deal of unsupportable magical thinking in Taoism.

I am very interested in Taoism and Buddhism.

Yes, I have several translations of the Tao Te Ching. I'm not specifically Taoist, but I do enjoy the philosophy of it.

I am not Atheist , but ha vent read it either
but just want to say I wish you well on your new journey ( wherever that leads ) xx

Yes, deep down inside I'd say I'm a Taoist, but calling oneself an Atheist is more of a statement.

Pay close attention to references to water in the Tao Te Ching. And remember that the Tao that can be spoken of is not the true Tao (and funny how hard some people try to describe/anthropomorphism God)

The Atheist Experience recently did a show on Taoism. They really did a good job of dissecting it and pulling out the reasonable bits from the Frau-fru stuff. You can watch it here.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7466681418557233605

"atheistic/pantheistic religion"

Er, huh?

But isn't being spiritual kind of a pretend thing too? I don't know what a spirit is, can't touch it or see it, so it must be whatever it is that I think it is, or believe it is? I'm not up for pretending in a god, and I'm not up for pretending humans or animals have some sort of spiritual thing going on either.

i have read that it was pretty deep too

Like other religions Taoism has adherents that believe a variety of beliefs -- from naturalistic ally philosophical and psychological, to mystical and even magical. However, I see a lot of truth to it, and if I were going to formally practice a religion Taoism would probably be my first choice.

Still, I wouldn't call myself a Taoist because I don't follow it as a religion but only agree with a lot of its philosophy. Some would call it a kind of spiritual atheism (even though traditional Taoist do have gods and immortals). Generally, though, I would call the Tao Te Ching possibly the most enlightened and enlightening book I know of.

If your curious what is meant by "spiritual atheism" check out the site below -- I've struggled with labels before, since society wants them and I don't have a good one for myself, often calling myself "spiritual but not religious" when forced, but "spiritual atheist" might be an even better fit.

http://www.spiritualatheism.com/