Originally Posted by Leto

categorically no. Buddhism is not a religion, unless you want to set up a definition that incorporates all philosophies. In fact Buddhism incorporates aspects of religion within it's paradigm, indicating that gods too can achieve enlightenment if they practice dharma.

Believe me, time spent at temple in Sri Lanka only served to reinforce this concept. They don't pray, they meditate on dharma. Now, the offspring of Buddhism (that practiced elsewhere, that isn't orthodox eg. Tibet, Japan) can take on religious trappings for sure.

Originally Posted by roachboy

this seems to me the central problem in this thread--as it is in any thread here that involves islam.

in the main, folk aren't talking about a huge self-evidently diverse population of people who have in common a committment to a particular way of life--they are talking about the officially sanctioned Big Other of the moment--a phantasm, a construction that says more about what the american far right sanctions as "that which you are afraid of" than anything else.

so it seems acceptable that people say whatever.
so it seems acceptable that people invert reality, make stuff up ("the muslim community in france is responsible for destroying the country"--this is neo-fascist stupidity, nothing more, nothing less) and indulge arbitrary types of argument (from the highest level of absurdity--"the trade center was attacked therefore islam is a monolith" to more peculiar local variants--"wearing hijab makes you an extremist.")

it's depressing to see this repeat every time islam comes up as a category.