There is something very theistic about the way the Buddha is related to - not to mention some humans like the King of Thailand - by many Buddhists. Whether it fits or not with whatever version of Buddhism they participate in, I find it very hard to distinguish from Western worship of monotheistic Gods. Sometimes it smacks more of pantheism with everything being the Buddha, but I can't quite call that atheism. I agree with you. In fact I would say many Buddhists are atheists, but its murky.
That make speak more to a human desire to worship.
Daoism, of which I understand much more than Buddhism, has been perverted into an equally unrecognizable form. I had the privilege of reading the Dao De Jing long before I saw a modern Daoist temple or practice. I was literally baffled upon first seeing modern Daoists in their priestly, colourful robes, with a great many rituals and much order to their sermons and whatnot. All of this stood in exact opposition to everything I'd believed I'd just read in the Dao De Jing. My only explanation at the time was that I must certainly have misunderstood every word of that book. I understand more now, and have come to realize that these people are following very little of the Dao and much more of the many writers who came later, after Confucianism had already secured it's strangehold on the Chinese psyche.
In traditional Dao there is no need to believe in any god. Dao takes care of everything and, simultaneously, is nothing. Dao is the space in a bowl, the air of the valley and the emptiness below a roof. It is also nothing. Such is mysticism; take it or leave it.
Yet because of the modern perversion of Daoism and the outlandish lengths to which it has gone to compete with Buddhism and Confucianism, Dao is now officially a religion. The very notion of Dao being a state-recognized(read: controlled) religion is absurd and I can't imagine how the 'priests' manage to put on their robes in the morning without a sense of self disgust. (To be fair, there are people of every religion who ought to recoil in disgust as they preach to others.) Yet belief in Dao requires no belief in a diety. As such, one could - at least in China - be considered both religious (traditional Daoist) and an atheist. Remember; the key is that 'atheist' just means 'without belief in god(s)'. Religion, on the other hand, is not always defined as 'belief in god(s)'. It may be that your experience living amongst Muslim, Hindu and Christian cultures defines it that way, but it is not so in all parts of the world.
any more than a believer in ghosts or fairies or angels is polytheistic, to point to a trivial example.
This is a good example. Daoists may call themselves religious or spiritual, but they need not believe in gods any more than the crazy woman down the street believes in ghosts.
According to Kim Jong-il's On the Juche Idea, the application of Juche in state policy entails the following:
1. The people must have independence (chajusong) in thought and politics, economic self-sufficiency, and self-reliance in defense.
2. Policy must reflect the will and aspirations of the masses and employ them fully in revolution and construction.
3. Methods of revolution and construction must be suitable to the situation of the country.
4. The most important work of revolution and construction is molding people ideologically as communists and mobilizing them to constructive action.
The Juche outlook also requires absolute loyalty to the party and leader. In North Korea, these are the Workers' Party of Korea and Kim Jong-il, respectively.
Juche - that is, the body of work which espouses Jouche philosophy - is not a holy text, though it sometimes revered as one. So-called "Juche history" is, in many ways, reminiscent of religious texts. Kim Il-Sung is said to have been born at the foot of a holy mountain to a holy family, blah blah blah. As with many other of the hilarious (when not terrifying) aspects of North Korea, this seems to be the party's insistence on playing up folk-superstition while also telling their people to abandon all traditional superstitions.
To be fair, the quote is wrong. Absolute loyalty is sworn to Kim Jong-Il, but he is not the sitting president of North Korea. That honour still technically belongs to (the deceased) Kim Il-Sung. (Or, technically, The Eternal President.)
So it depends what you mean by 'religion'. There are strict rules and laws to follow. There is the demand of unwavering commitment. There is the fear of reprisal if one fails; yet no hope of reward for a life of hard work. There are no deities, though certainly there is demand for worship.
Juche can qualify as a religion only if one defines religion by the way people act (reverentially and with worship), rather than the beliefs or texts.
