Didn't the Buddha specifically state he wasn't to be worshipped as a god?

Buddhism, Gautama Buddha

Reminds me of the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, Sri Lanka: HOME | Sri Dalada Maligawa

One of the Buddha's teeth is supposedly preserved there.

I don't think I could ever visit there, because I would be laughing like crazy the whole time.

But I doubt that the Tooth of Kandy is much more absurd than the Shroud of Turin or the Cloak of Kandahar.

lpetrich wrote: Tooth of Kandy

So, Buddha had a sweet tooth, eh?
Eh?
Eh?

So much for Buddhism being an atheistic religion.

This is hardly surprising. I flirted with the Buddha at one time, but she never flirted back - the cow. Essentially it is superstitious mumbo jumbo. And its not like its a unified faith, nor have the different branches peacefully co-existed in the last century, let alone across the full scope of time. In its time Buddism has been no less benign that militant Islam is today, so don't fall for all that happy-clappy, second-rate, orange-clad Californian-style self-help hyperbole. Like all religions Buddhism is predicated on acquiring members, they want to posses you body and mind adding the gullible to their numbers in order to swell their egos and their coffers proportionately.

THWOTH wrote:This is hardly surprising. I flirted with the Buddha at one time, but she never flirted back - the cow. Essentially it is superstitious mumbo jumbo. And its not like its a unified faith, nor have the different branches peacefully co-existed in the last century, let alone across the full scope of time. In its time Buddism has been no less benign that militant Islam is today, so don't fall for all that happy-clappy, second-rate, orange-clad Californian-style self-help hyperbole. Like all religions Buddhism is predicated on acquiring members, they want to posses you body and mind adding the gullible to their numbers in order to swell their egos and their coffers proportionately.

Yep. It's one of these die-hard myths that Buddhism is non-violent and essentially peaceful.
Zen Buddhism in Japan and its role in WWII is often nonchalantly overlooked.

ehhhhh I don't think the entire religion should be judged based on stuff mentioned in this thread.

First of all there is many different sects of Buddhism each with their own cultural influences. For example Buddhists in Tibet pray to mountain deities that where carried over from pre-buddhist beliefs, it's a cultural belief the locals weren't willing to give up, but the belief in those deities isn't a part of other sects of Buddhism. Some sects have deities and more supernatural B.S. others are as close to secular as any religion can be and are considered agnostic/atheistic.

Is there Buddhist con men? of course there is, some temples are packed with monks selling magic crystals, medallions and a bunch of other B.S relics. There is nothing in the Buddha's teachings that tells people to do it though, in fact he warned against trusting people who claim they can perform miracles, and made it an offense for monks and nuns to perform them for the public. When he was asked to perform miracles to convince/convert people, he refused and said education was his only miracle. He said he wasn't a god, and shouldn't be worshiped. Again some of the stuff people do is cultural, magic crystals, medallions, & relics where part of some of these cultures before Buddhism spread there, and people held on to it, especially the con men. I'm Buddhist but would never go for any of this ridiculous non sense.

As others mentioned there is Buddhists who fight in wars, but when you say "so much for the religion of peace" is that really any different than Christians who mention Stalin & Mao and connect it to atheism? When we criticize Islam or Christianity their scriptures leave instructions of when to go to war, the same can't be said for Buddhism. Buddha doesn't say "go to war for me against non believers" like Islam. Buddhists have fought to defend themselves against ethnic cleansing, they have fought over politics and other issues, there was Buddhist samurais etc... but how many of them TRULY fought to spread Buddhism in the way Abrahamic religions have? When a country has a Buddhist majority and that country goes to war, is that really enough to make it a Buddhist war?

In some of these countries an over whelming majority of the people are Buddhist, like Thailand where over 90% of the people identify as Buddhist. When 90% of the the population is buddhist, some of them will be "bad apples". it's a common problem with any religion that people are born into on that scale, where people just don;t practice because they take it for granted. American prisons are packed with men who can quote the bible all day, and have cross and praying hand tattoos all over their body, but how many of them actually practice Christianity? most where just born into the religion and identify as it, there is a difference in the two.

Are you suggesting that we cannot criticise Buddhism because it is not one particular thing, belief-set, or institution mortuus piscis?

These are long discussion, but I think the atheists here will at least respect it. He references and agrees with Richard Dawkins in this one, and discusses why people shouldn't follow superstition


In this video he starts off referencing and praising Christopher Hitchens, and his quote about religion causing people to suspend their critical faculties, and being submissive to hierarchies. Ajhan Brahm is also critical of these things. He is critical of people who bend the truth to fit their faith, and instead encourages people to bend their faith to fit the truth.

THWOTH wrote:Are you suggesting that we cannot criticise Buddhism because it is not one particular thing, belief-set, or institution mortuus piscis?

To an extent. I'm careful when doing it because I don't want to seem like Christians who might say " We are the REAL Christians, unlike the ______ who practice wrong", but I don't believe Buddhism can be criticized with these generalizations in the way some other religions can be. I'm ok with specific criticisms, I'm critical of con-men selling magic medallions, and spreading crap like these relics. They exist, and they are a problem. I'm critical of some of the excessively lavish temples I've seen, but I also understand that those problems aren't universal, and they defiantly aren't what Buddha taught.They are corruptions of those teachings. I won't pretend Buddhism is immune to it, I just don't buy generalizations especially for something as decentralized as Buddhism.

In Christianity It doesn't matter much if it's Lutheran or Baptist, the bible is the bible, the differences aren't that major, and the culture of the people practicing isn't major.. but the worship of deities & other superstitions found in some Buddhist is more of a cultural influence on Buddhism, than a Buddhist influence on a culture. Buddhism at it's core is agnostic, it doesn't tell people "you shouldn't believe in god" or vice versa. It leaves people the freedom to believe & disbelieve what they find to be true, based on their own life experiences, so that left room for people to hold on to past cultural beliefs, and that's where some of these problems come in. If you ask the average Zen Buddhist their view on supernatural and deities, It would most likely differ from Buddhists living at the base of the Himalayas, who believe mountain deities protect them. Tibetan Buddhists have all kinds of relics and ritual that mean nothing to me, even the Dalai Lama means nothing to me, that's their thing.

As a Buddhist when I see people thinking a tooth heals them, I think it's ridiculous. There is nothing in the Buddhism I follow that tells me any of this stuff should be done. Buddha didn't want to be worshiped, much less have his teeth.

mortuus piscis wrote:In Christianity It doesn't matter much if it's Lutheran or Baptist, the bible is the bible, the differences aren't that major, and the culture of the people practicing isn't major.

I beg to differ. Get a Southern Baptist from the US, an Australian Evangelical, a Catholic, and a Russian Orthodox follower, and compare and contrast. And that's just for starters.

Goldenmane wrote:

mortuus piscis wrote:In Christianity It doesn't matter much if it's Lutheran or Baptist, the bible is the bible, the differences aren't that major, and the culture of the people practicing isn't major.

I beg to differ. Get a Southern Baptist from the US, an Australian Evangelical, a Catholic, and a Russian Orthodox follower, and compare and contrast. And that's just for starters.

I don't disagree that they have difference, but would you say the differences are as major as belief/disbelief in the supernatural & gods all together? Baptists and Catholics may disagree whether Mary was sinless, or just how far Jesus's forgiveness goes, but the basics are all still there. The difference I'm speaking of, is more along the lines of early Gnostic Christians Vs Orthodox Christians.

My agnostic-atheist views where already held firmly before my interest in Buddhism began taking off, I used those existing views as my B.S filter, and they steered me away from the more supernatural traditions. While belief in deities and supernatural may not be considered major for many Buddhists, for me it was because that was my starting point. If every sect of Buddhism had a culture of magic teeth and other supernatural nonsense, it would have been to difficult for me to relate too, but some of the major ones like Zen honestly don't. While I do still doubt ideas like rebirth, I've found the rest of the philosophy is pretty down to earth and basic, it's something I can live by without feeling intellectually dishonest. My practice of Buddhism involves meditation and practicing mindfulness, It doesn't involve me sitting around waiting for magic and miracles. I haven't come across a single Buddhist writing that suggests healing relics should be part of the practice, unfortunately no religion has been immune to their existence, because all religions have ignorant money hungry leaders and desperately sheepish followers.

lpetrich wrote:Reminds me of the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, Sri Lanka: HOME | Sri Dalada Maligawa

One of the Buddha's teeth is supposedly preserved there.

I don't think I could ever visit there, because I would be laughing like crazy the whole time.

But I doubt that the Tooth of Kandy is much more absurd than the Shroud of Turin or the Cloak of Kandahar.

Ha ha I've been there way too much. The tooth was sort of like the holy grail back in the day. Whoever had control of it had a good claim to the throne.

i would say that you can find more distinctions between Buddhist sects, both in terms of ideology & practice, than between Christianity & Islam.