[newwebstar]

This article was mentioned in another one - "How Western Buddhism has changed in 50 years" and so I thought I'd post it as a separate discussion topic.




Can a religion survive being stripped of its superstitions?

Removing a religion's supernatural core is a revealing exercise, especially when applied to the supposedly 'godless' Buddhism

by
Julian Baggini, guardian.co.uk



A recurring criticism I've face in this series is that I talk about religion but focus almost exclusively on the Judaeo-Christian tradition. In some ways that's fair, but given my concerns are with the broader features of religious belief, not the minutiae of doctrinal differences, I'm pretty confident that all or at least most of my main points apply to the monotheistic religions at least, and many are also relevant to others.

Nonetheless, it is true that several eastern religions look very different indeed, at least superficially. Could it be that those of us with spiritual urges unable to get any satisfaction from the Abrahamic faiths should head east in search of enlightenment?

Many certainly find it appealing, with Buddhism especially tempting. One of the main reasons is that there is a widespread belief that it is more of a philosophy than a religion, and that being without God, it requires us to buy into fewer – perhaps even none – supernatural beliefs than Christianity, Judaism or Islam.

As a matter of historic and sociological fact this appears to be wildly mistaken. This becomes painfully evident if you care to look. Just watch Werner Herzog's documentary Wheel of Time and you'll be disabused of any notion you might have that Buddhism is not up to its neck in superstition.

Continued at the link :

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...tions-buddhism

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[I9dydJrX]

probably not

[allvideO]

What do you mean by 'superstition'?

[mazabotman]

What do you mean by 'superstition'?

Is that not evident from the content of the article?

I didn't write it myself .

[Enjoymmsq]

Well I have heard of many people practicing Buddhism as a philosophy and I think some posters here have mentioned being agnostic on the issue of rebirth. I think some branches of Buddhism would fare better than others without superstition.

Tibetan Buddhism is full of superstition it inherited from the native Bon religion so I don't think it could survive that. Zen might fare better and some branches of Theravada. However, while I can't accept a lot of the supernatural elements in Tibetan Buddhism or some other sects, I see no reason in trying to strip those elements away.

Some people need those supernatural elements and if it helps them along the path, then I'm fine with it.

[VoriEremiagem]

I'm not sure I completely understand the article. I'm fairly new to Buddhism, but
I thought there were many different "branches" just like there are many "branches" of the major religions.

It seems that some branches of Buddhism do have more superstition and ritual in them. So I guess it depends on what the author of the article was really looking at.

My understanding is that the basis of all practices of Buddhism is the same - the Four Noble Truths and the Eight Fold Path. All of which have nothing to do with superstition or the supernatural.

So I guess my rambling here is trying to understand why the article was written in the first place - they seem to get to that above point in the end anyway.

[Dodoerabe]

I'm not sure I completely understand the article. I'm fairly new to Buddhism, but I thought there were many different "branches" just like there are many "branches" of the major religions.

It seems that some branches of Buddhism do have more superstition and ritual in them. So I guess it depends on what the author of the article was really looking at.

My understanding is that the basis of all practices of Buddhism is the same - the Four Noble Truths and the Eight Fold Path. All of which have nothing to do with superstition or the supernatural.

So I guess my rambling here is trying to understand why the article was written in the first place - they seem to get to that above point in the end anyway.

I agree the article's purpose isn't very clear. The question posed "can religion survive without its superstition." wasn't made very well and the author didn't attempt to answer it. Not that anyone person could, but he could have given his opinion.

[Evdokia]

Tibetan Buddhism has a lot of superstition but most of the other traditions don't have many superstitions at all.