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Buddhism bias
AjeevakDharmana
Explorer
**I have heard that Christians and even some atheists complain that normally atheists do not bash Buddhism and sometimes even present it in positive light..... Quite contrary to how they treat major theistic religions. Is it true? **
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Comments
I think it is a generalization.
Buddhists can be theistic, atheistic or agnostic. An agnostic approach will outsmart an atheistic one and the atheist looking to belittle a view knows it.
Any solid position can be taken down.
The hard core lump Buddhism in with everything else.
For all else, not a clue.
All concepts and beliefs are untrue. Even this one. Hah.
Athiests don't know enough about Buddhism to bag it!
One of my Tibetan teachers stated the other night that millions of years ago humans lived to 85,000 years of age. He wasn't joking either!
Tell that to an Athiest and see what they say.
Yes.
The Christians say that Buddhists are polytheistic, and the atheists say that Buddhists are non-theist, so I think they are fighting over us! Nice to be wanted though.
Why would it matter?
Just like everything else, it varies. My 13 year old claims to be an atheist at this point in his life. He knows quite different, but being an antagonistic teen, he likes to point out that I worship the "fat guy." Does his experience that creates his rebellious opinion deserve as much consideration as someone who is an atheist but is well studied in world religions? Atheists run the gamut like anyone else. Some of them are atheist because it sounds good and it means attention. Others are atheist after a long, extensive religious investigation. Some atheists I know, know more about Buddhism than I do. How they view it influences their opinion on it. Some don't see it as a religion. Many atheists (that I know) mostly mean theistic/Abrahambic religions when they call out religion on a general basis. Some of them post things on FB and I'll bring up something, and knowing I am a Buddhist they will say "well I'm not talking about your religion, that's not the same." A lot of the time they are referencing Christianity alone while lumping it under the umbrella of "religion."
I wonder how many of the frictions and kerfuffles of this life would fall flat on their face if there weren't an on-going, seldom-spoken premise that agreement assures truth. How often do I feel relieved and vindicated that a lot of people agree with me? "Compassion," "clarity," "enlightenment," "love" "God" and on and on.... Pretty often is the unfortunate answer. It is unfortunate because that agreement allows me to skip over the highly-annoying necessity of finding out for myself if something is true,
There is a difference between the applause-o-meter (or catcall-o-meter) and whatever it is that has some true meat on the bone.
An ex-Jesuit shrink friend of mine once observed mildly, "Life is a smorgasbord." And that strikes me as about right: Make your choice, shoulder the responsibility, be thankful for what proves nourishing ... and puke out the rest.
Does it come with choice of cheeses?
Problem is... there is not even consensus whether Buddhism is a religion, a philosophy or a psychological system.
The Buddha never bothered to discuss the God question.
He did not deny, he did not accept.
His position was agnostic.
What difference does it make how theistic religions and atheists feel about Buddhism?
Why wouldn't it be true? Since Buddhism is non-theistic, there's nothing for atheists to bash, at least--on a superficial level. Someone should ask those atheists what they think of rebirth. Or, on second thought....maybe they shouldn't.