But Richard, do Buddhists believe in ONE supreme being?
On Wednesday, December 11, 2013 8:29 AM, Richard J. Williams
<pundits...@gmail.com> wrote:
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. :-)
>
>
>
