From: enon@erehwon.net   
      
   "David V."  wrote in   
   news:hN6dnXjKLN63DbLYnZ2dnUVZ_qadnZ2d@sti.net:   
      
   >   
   > Many Buddhists still believe in gods, afterlives, and so on. The   
   > whole religion cannot be secularized just because those that   
   > studied Western oriented materials want to.   
   >   
      
   Buddhism in general is not a theistic religion in that there are eternal or   
   supernatural deities. (The word supernatural is sort of an oxymoron in   
   Buddhism.) But it also does not assert that all conscious states of being   
   are limited to this earth. Stating in general that Buddhists believe in   
   gods is false, or least very misleading. The Buddha most definitely did not   
   teach belief in gods, though I'm sure you can find at least one Buddhist   
   that believes in a god. Some Buddhists, like Batchelor, believe in Buddhism   
   without beliefs.   
      
   Buddhism is a religion, though. It is not a materialist humanist view of   
   the world, and does teach moral consequence. "Afterlife" is a wrong notion   
   of the Buddhist teaching; when this body dies, it and its associated charm   
   (or lack thereof) and personality are dead. Buddhism does teach that the   
   moral remnants of that existence will shape a new one. But that new one is   
   really new, not a continuation of the old.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)