It should be noted that Barry is the author of this thread, and that he
sucks, when it comes to describing what Buddhists believe. Everyone
knows that "Buddhas" are supernatural beings, not real people that can
fly up in the air like Rama supposedly did.
All Buddhist believe in Buddhas - there's no denying this fact,
otherwise they would not call themselves "Buddhists". Buddhists don't
believe in a creation, but at the same time they don't believe that
something can come out of nothing.
For an effect there has to be a cause. The Buddha taught Causation -
everything that happens, happens for a reason - there are no chance
events. Buddhists the world over believe in supernatural beings, but
Buddhist don't believe these entities to be Buddhas - there are no
enlightened beings in heaven, because the gods are not enlightened. Go
figure.
On 12/11/2013 7:57 AM, TurquoiseB wrote:
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Richard J. Williams" wrote:
>
> This statement of Barry's is somewhat misleading - Buddhists are not
> atheists.
/*I won't get sucked into a debate with either Richard or Empty on
this. I will only point out that trying to claim anything about "What
Buddhists believe" is ludicrous.
Buddhism probably has more sects than Christianity. Each of them drew
from local religions and traditions in the areas in which they sprung
up, and some of them can be as different as night and day. Even though
the historical Buddha would be as horrified by this as Jesus would be
at some of the things taught "in his name," some sects even revere
*him* as almost a God. He went out of his way to keep this from
happening, but it happened anyway. Go figure.
The same is true with issues such as whether Buddhists believe in a
God or not. Many do not believe in one sentient entity who "runs"
things, although some sects seem to believe in sorta "demi-gods" who
might exist on subtle planes and "run" limited aspects of creation.
Few Buddhists I've ever met believe in a Creation, because they tend
to believe that the universe was never created. Thus they have no need
to posit a "Creator."
That's all. Now you can go back to arguing about things you'd like to
believe can be "defined" well enough that someone could actually "win"
an argument about them. :-)
*/
