Siddathrata was never ever just a man in Buddhism. There are verses where he talks about coming back to earth to help humanity. Must be dozens of distinct fairytales about his birth alone let alone his physical form.
If you met a being that came from heaven to save humanity, was budded off a women’s side instead of normal birth or C-section, who walked as a newborn while flowers grew in his footsteps, who as an adult could spin his hands 360, could warp time and space to avoid knife stabs, whose ears were so long he could suck them, who had webbing that glowed between his super long fingers, soles of feet like a turtle shell, stood 7 cubits tall, could will falling boulders away from himself without even noticing, a natural palm pattern of a thousand spoke wheel, could summon a 7 headed snake as an umbrella, could meditate for 40 days without stop would you call that being human?
This part of the world is a lot like the west before monotheism took over. They have loads of gods. While true that some writers tried to emphasis his humanity they are few and far between.
If Buddhism is not a religion I truly do not know what a religion means. All those people at the temples I have been to, making offerings, engaging in OCD like rituals, seeking blessings, praying, chanting, seem like they were doinf religion to me.
I’m no expert but I’m pretty sure there’s both a religion and a philosophy. Taoism and confucianism are the ones that are more philosophical than religious but even taoism has a fair amount of woo baked in. Don’t know shit about confucianism except all the times Lao Tse pokes at Kung Tse in the Zhuangzhi, which is probably a bit skewed perspective. I made a cursory study of some of Eastern philosophy a few years back. Went a bit into the religious aspects but lacked the cultural background to properly understand without a teacher so I stuck mostly to just the philosophy (which was far less inscrutable than the Zhuangzhi, for example). It’s a western mistake to necessarily separate the two, from what I understand. Still worth trying to understand tho.
Of course there is both. You can say the same thing about every religion that has established itself. There have been great minds who wrote stuff down in all the major faiths. I don’t think theists are dumb people. You can for example study Thomas Aquinas and I dare anyone to say he wasn’t sharp but that won’t make Catholicism not a religion.
Siddathrata was never ever just a man in Buddhism. There are verses where he talks about coming back to earth to help humanity. Must be dozens of distinct fairytales about his birth alone let alone his physical form.
If you met a being that came from heaven to save humanity, was budded off a women’s side instead of normal birth or C-section, who walked as a newborn while flowers grew in his footsteps, who as an adult could spin his hands 360, could warp time and space to avoid knife stabs, whose ears were so long he could suck them, who had webbing that glowed between his super long fingers, soles of feet like a turtle shell, stood 7 cubits tall, could will falling boulders away from himself without even noticing, a natural palm pattern of a thousand spoke wheel, could summon a 7 headed snake as an umbrella, could meditate for 40 days without stop would you call that being human?
This part of the world is a lot like the west before monotheism took over. They have loads of gods. While true that some writers tried to emphasis his humanity they are few and far between.
If Buddhism is not a religion I truly do not know what a religion means. All those people at the temples I have been to, making offerings, engaging in OCD like rituals, seeking blessings, praying, chanting, seem like they were doinf religion to me.
I’m no expert but I’m pretty sure there’s both a religion and a philosophy. Taoism and confucianism are the ones that are more philosophical than religious but even taoism has a fair amount of woo baked in. Don’t know shit about confucianism except all the times Lao Tse pokes at Kung Tse in the Zhuangzhi, which is probably a bit skewed perspective. I made a cursory study of some of Eastern philosophy a few years back. Went a bit into the religious aspects but lacked the cultural background to properly understand without a teacher so I stuck mostly to just the philosophy (which was far less inscrutable than the Zhuangzhi, for example). It’s a western mistake to necessarily separate the two, from what I understand. Still worth trying to understand tho.
Of course there is both. You can say the same thing about every religion that has established itself. There have been great minds who wrote stuff down in all the major faiths. I don’t think theists are dumb people. You can for example study Thomas Aquinas and I dare anyone to say he wasn’t sharp but that won’t make Catholicism not a religion.