Athiest/medieval fantasy

I think the Buddhist angle is appropriate, and there are the two branches (one atheistic and one kind of theistic) of Buddhism that might provide a good parallel in your world.

You might also find something useful on the philosophy forums: http://forums.philosophyforums.com/

Take another look for the Atheistforums it looks like an interesting place.

My personal, very general definition of evil is hurting others to help yourself. My personal, very general definition of good is selflessness. The rest is just matters of degree.

The reason why I believe most people would agree with these basic definitions is because we are social animals. A society cannot exist unless most of its members have a set of behaviours, and patterns of thinking, that are hard-wired in. I believe these behaviours/patterns include empathy, affection, and a sense of justice.

No gods required, but it gives you a lot of the moral code that most human societies operate under.

jjdebenedictis said:

My personal, very general definition of evil is hurting others to help yourself. My personal, very general definition of good is selflessness. The rest is just matters of degree.

Click to expand...

Ignore if derail... Second one can hurt if you sacrifice for others while hurting yourself. Oddly enough The Bible and Buddhism go over this aspect.

There are religions, though, that don't dictate so much moral, but social code.

Anyway, back to Buddhism. There are two major branches, the Northern and the Southern. The Northern waits for everyone to get to Nirvana. The Southern says it's more individual, from what I remember.

Within those branches there is fighting (as in intellectual debate) about if there are Gods or not. And also variations. Such as one in Nepal which looks like a blend of Hinduism and Buddhism. (Both religions kinda mixed together).

What is interesting to me is that the Eastern religions overall have not been big on fighting it out with guns, but fighting with intellectualism. When the rulers of India did try to kill certain followers, as what happened in GB, the Empires soon collapsed. So many religions just got to coincide and often synchronize. (I'm trusting that the OP knows what that is).

So for example, the Old religion after Shamanism in China Synchronized with Confucianism in some areas. Confucianism then blended with Taoism which kinda, but not always looked like it off shot a bit from Buddhism (It's murky to me...)

Buddhism in the Chinese sense got shipped early to Korea, where is blended and co-existed just fine with Muism. (which has its own branches). Muism doesn't particularly have its own ethical code. It's more like a way of existing... so when it met Muism, Muism picked up some of the morality, since it Synchronized, while Buddhism picked up some of the magical belief. (Meant in the anthropology way, BTW... and not excluding it to Asia... Europe and US in contemporary times also has magical belief... such as luck.)

When Confucianism came to Korea, it became a lot more rigid over time, throwing out muism. But Muism had already synchronized into the mindset somewhat. (As I said it's more like a way of life).

Though this may be insulting to some Japanese... there is speculation that an early form of Muism/Wuism came to Japan and that synchronized with the Ainu to form Shintoism. (Muism, though, most likely comes from a blend of Mongolian Shamanism and maybe Wuism, South Eastern version. Parts of Wuism look a lot like The Southern most part of Muism.)

Confucianism (which already was blended with Chinese religions as mentioned) became Neo Confucianism, which is really rigid, but absorbed Taoism and Buddhism, while trying to get rid of Muism. (though really, you can't get rid of Muism by this point since it's still in the basic cultural frame).

Buddhism, meanwhile got imported into Japan and Japan turned that into Zen Buddhism, which looks like the stripped philosophies of Shintoism blended with Buddhism to me. (I'm not savvy enough to figure out if it's the Korean or Chinese version that was imported, and probably if I chose there would be resentment anyway)

Christianity came later... which freed many women (I know that's odd given the Medieval way it played out)... but some of Korean, at least, Christianity has shades of the other religions kicking around. People still believe in Eastern Medicine, for example, and daily life is just riff (though most won't see it) with little leftovers...

Religion mostly serves to justify the way of life you have now.

And I did a lot of studying to get all of that information. BTW, the Pantheon of Chinese Gods doesn't have its own name as a religion... so I'm guessing it just got wiped at some point, but parts of the Empire kept it. ('cause it's not Confucianism and it's not Buddhism and it's not Wuism... plus they don't look like the Taoist gods (explaining Taoist gods takes too long.) either.)