[Buddha-l] Unpopular Buddhism

[Curt Steinmetz]

  A recent Pew study found that "Eastern" beliefs are widespread in the US:
http://pewforum.org/Other-Beliefs-and-Practices/Many-Americans-Mix-Multiple-Faiths.aspx
tinyurl:
http://tinyurl.com/2998m6w

There are significant issues with this study, both in terms of 
methodology and the analysis. It is unlikely that any of the people who 
gathered the data or wrote the report had much, if any, real 
understanding of Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, etc. (Regardless of how one 
would define "real understanding".)

Nevertheless, a widespread belief in reincarnation, which is right about 
25% both in the US and throughout Europe, is to some extent due to the 
200+ year on-again-off-again love affair that the West has had with the 
East.

We have to remember that the West lost her Buddhist virginity long 
before the 60's. Edwin Arnold's "Light of Asia" was a best-seller over a 
century before Stephen Batchelor announced that it was impossible for 
Westerners to "believe in" Buddhism.

Curt

On 9/23/10 11:09 AM, Jackhat1 at aol.com wrote:
> This is contrary to other sources I have read lately. Below is an example
> from Spirit News. I also read another recent article somewhere which had a
> title  saying Buddhism is now the most popular religion in the US. Of course,
> I can't  find the article now. The articles didn't say it had the most
> adherents but  that more people had a positive view of it.
>
> jack
>
>
> ""The  current issue of the Journal for the  Scientific Study of Religion
> includes one of the most  important pieces on  Buddhism in America to appear
> in recent years. “Buddhists  and Buddhism in the United States: The Scope of
> Influence,” was  written by sociologist of American religion Robert Wuthnow
> and  ethnographer of Theravada  in the USA Wendy Cadge.
> [snip]
>
>
> This means  that the number of people who identify overtly as Buddhists
> doesn’t  tell us much about whether Buddhism is impacting American religion
>
> generally,  particularly because many people who regularly attend Buddhist
>
> temples  and meditation centers do not consider themselves explicitly
> Buddhist.  Within Buddhist circles, this phenomenon has been noted for some
>
> time:  approximately 50% of Tricycle’s readership, for instance, doesn’t
> self-identify as Buddhist.
> Historian  of American religions Thomas Tweed has coined the term
> “nightstand Buddhists” for people who might read a Buddhist  book before
> bed or  perform some meditation in the morning, but aren’t connected to
> Buddhism  as an institutional religion—such people are usually left out of
>
> quantitative studies that attempt to gauge the number of  Buddhists out
> there. So  in reframing the question, Wuthnow and Cadge have found a better
>
> avenue of  investigation that comes closer to capturing the real situation
>
> of  Buddhism in America.
> And what  did they find? Even for the specialist in the field of American
> Buddhism,  the numbers Wuthnow and Cadge came up with will prove
> surprising. Based on their survey conducted in 2002-2003,  they found that
> one out of  every seven Americans has had at least a fair level of contact
>
> with  Buddhism, and that one out of eight Americans reported that Buddhism
>
> had  influenced their religious life. Those are staggeringly high numbers.
>
> To put it  in perspective, there are about four million Americans who
> actively  identify as Buddhists. But if we ask how many Americans include
> Buddhist  elements—a little or a lot—in their personal spiritual lives,
> the
> number  appears to be about 12.5% of the population: that’s 26,125,000
> adults.  The number who say the Buddhist influence has been significant is
>
> almost the  same: at 12%, that’s 25,080,000. Clearly Buddhism is exerting
> an  influence far beyond the relatively small number of people who claim
> Buddhism  as their primary religious identity.
> There’s  another lesson to be learned between the lines. The number of
> Americans  who have had at least a fair amount of contact with Buddhism is
>
> 14%, or  29,260,000 adults. The gap between those who have encountered
> Buddhism,  and those who have adopted some Buddhist elements into their
> lives, is  small. Using Wuthnow and Cadge’s figures, we learn that 87.5% of
>
> people who  have encountered Buddhism believe it has had an effect on them,
>
> and 85.7%  report a substantial impact. Not surprising, Buddhism scored
> high with  positive assessments, with many more people reporting positive
> associations with Buddhism than negative ones. In other  words, whenever
> Americans  have come into contact with Buddhism—and the study shows that
> this is a  much larger number than might have been guessed—they have
> overwhelmingly reacted favorably and incorporated elements of  it into
> their  religious thinking or practice.
> Extrapolating further, a scenario of ever-increasing Buddhist  influence
> within  American religious life can be discerned. Even a casual observer
> will  quickly concede that the amount of Buddhist materials available to
> the public  is far higher today than ever before, and growing steadily
> every  year. Buddhist temples continue to be founded across the country,
> and  Buddhist elements in movies, television, books, and online are
> becoming  more common. And since Buddhism appears to exert an influence on
>
> virtually  everyone who comes in contact with it (and a positive one at
> that), the  widespread penetration of Buddhism into American religion and
> culture appears to be a coming certainty.  "
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