[Buddha-l] the existence of God in Buddhism

[Richard Hayes]

On Wednesday 23 August 2006 22:05, Piya Tan wrote:

> This sort of nitty gritty I suppose is what is grist for the academic mill:
> it's what get the academics paid.
 
Academics will get paid regardless of what labels people pin on Buddhism. But 
some people who may NOT get paid if the religion label is not applied are 
Buddhists who want to make money by performing weddings and funerals. 
Moreover, some tax exemptions depend in some locales on an organization's 
status as a religion. Priests and lawyers stand to make money on this 
question, but academics have nothing to gain one way or another.

Many years ago a Theravadin monk in Toronto said to the religion editor of the 
local newspaper that Buddhism is most definitely not a religion. Rather, he 
said, it is a form of psychotherapy. This caused a minor thunderstorm among 
Toronto's Buddhists, and one of the reasons given was that classifying 
Buddhism as a non-religion would put into jeopardy the right to perform 
weddings and funerals.

On the other hand, in Australia there used to be a law that only religious 
organizations could offer meditation classes, and for a short time Theravadin 
Buddhists were disqualified, because in order to be registered as a legally 
recognized religious organization, the organization had to perform weddings. 
But performing weddings contravenes the vinaya rules.

In none of the strange legal cases I have come across has the status of 
religion depended on an organization's attitude toward God.

-- 
Richard P. Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico
http://www.unm.edu/~rhayes