Weekly Poll: Are Systems like Buddhism Religion or Philosophies?
Buddhism is often categorized as a religion, but because it doesn’t mandate belief in any gods some argue that it should be treated like a philosophy instead. Buddhism isn’t the only ‘religion’ like this. Are they really philosophies, or is demand that there be a belief in some god the wrong way to define religion? I find that defining religion exclusively as theistic is very provincial and ethnocentric. It may be standard for religions in the West to be theistic, but this is hardly a sound basis for making declarations about the nature of religion as a whole for all cultures at all times. We might as well say that religion requires belief in a single creator god or belief in a savior figure. Religion is a very diverse phenomenon and while religions have a number of common elements, no one element not even theism serves as the sole determining factor for separating religious from secular belief systems. Comments (8)See All Posts
