Is Buddhism Evil?

I think my fellow blogger Firefighter is trying to get me riled up!

He sent me this YouTube video yesterday...



The kid, "Captain Awesome," runs the blog YourReligionSucks.net. I see his point, the evils of organized religion, which I have been pointing out all along. But in this video he trashes Buddhism and gets it all wrong.

He points out the basic tenets of Buddhism; life is suffering, desire causes suffering, the only way to stop suffering is stopping desire by following the eight-fold path. He implies that this is wrong because there are people who are happy and not suffering, even though they are not enlightened Buddhists.

It is not, however, that simple. This "suffering" is not simple suffering. You can be happy and still be suffering. You can be the richest guy in the world and still suffer. The richest guy in the world got that way because he had drive. He had a thirst for riches. This thirst is desire. Even though the rich guy may have all the riches, he still wants more. That want is suffering. Maybe he neglected his family in pursuit of these riches. So he is suffering in one aspect other than wealth.

But since nobody gets everything they want, that's where the real suffering comes in. You have a desire to get this new car, pay all your bills, buy this new guitar. But you can't get those things. You wanted it so bad, now you can't have it, so you are suffering.

If, however, you block that desire out of your head, you no longer suffer. You are content with what you have. You take it one day at a time, don't worry about what life dishes out, you have no suffering. But this is difficult if not impossible for most people. Somebody has to pay the bills.

So Buddha came up with an eight-fold path. Do these eight things, and it will make it easier to get rid of desire. The eight things, in layman's terms are; don't say bad things, don't do bad things, live your life so as not to hurt others, improve yourself, see things as they are, meditate to clear your mind, understand how things really are, and think.

This is good advice for anyone. If everyone followed all eight of those things, everyone would get along so much better.

Moving on... as his proof that riches make people better, Captain Awesome says that rich countries, i.e. all non-Buddhist countries, are better than poor countries, where all Buddhist countries are poor and have all sorts of problems.

This is also wrong. A country's religion does not dictate whether it will be successful or not. There are Christian countries in Africa that are far worse off than Buddhist countries in Asia. The richest countries in the world are Muslim. Political circumstances, resource potential, and other things make this determination, not religion. Religion is used more as a tool of control by governments, regardless of the religion.

Captain Awesome then points to Japan. He says that Japan can't be considered a successful Buddhist country because they are not really Buddhist, they are atheist. Well first, more than 80 percent of Japanese are Buddhist/Shinto. And guess what? Buddhism is a non-theistic religion, i.e. it is an atheist religion. There is no God in Buddhism. It is a philosophy wrapped in religious dogma that was inherited from indigenous religions before Buddhism.

Next he says that Buddhism is "the most anti-technology religion on the planet." This is completely off-base. Christianity is more "anti-technology" than Buddhism. True tenets of Christianity contradict all our basic scientific knowledge of evolution, astronomy, geology, etc. Buddhism, on the other hand, deals primarily with the self and getting your own mind in order. It has nothing really to say about technology and little to say that would contradict science.

Later, he attacks Tibetan Buddhism and reincarnation. Reincarnation is an idea that preceded Buddhism in India and was absorbed into the philosophy. In my opinion, it is less a part of true Buddhist philosophy than it is a throwback from the past that people couldn't let go. It is the same as the concept of heaven in Judeo-Christian religions. It gives people a larger sense of being, a greater purpose. I don't necessarily agree with it, but it is a product of our human nature.

Tibetan Buddhism is a perfect example of the absorption process. There is probably no place on Earth that practices Buddhism, as an organized religion, in the same way it was created by the Buddha. Each group of people or country that practices Buddhism has incorporated their own indigenous beliefs and ceremonies and dogma into their Buddhism.

Near the end, CPT Awesome points out that a Buddhist was responsible for one of the greatest slaughters in history. Hulagu Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan and Mongol army leader, was responsible for conquering Baghdad and Syria, killing millions in the process.

Hulagu claimed to be a Buddhist for part of his life, near his death. His mother was a Christian, one of his wives was Christian and he once told a historian that he had been a Christian since birth. Again, this does not prove that Buddhism is horrible because one of the greatest slaughters was conducted by an alleged Buddhist. This is another example of a political event or a quest for resources and power. Being a Buddhist did not make him do it. In fact, you could argue that a true Buddhist, who has pledged to lead a good life and not harm others (eight-fold path, remember?), would never do this. So he was Buddhist (and Christian) in name only, like many people of religion even today.

Lastly, he says that Buddhism is evil, "right up there with Christianity and Islam in terms of how much evil it causes."

Religion does not cause evil, humans do. Part of human nature is evil. Humans have been doing evil things forever. Some have used religion to justify this evil while others happened to be of a particular religion when they committed the evil act. The point here is that religion has nothing to do with it. It is human nature that does.