[Buddha-l] buddha-l Digest, Vol 103, Issue 6

[Richard Hayes]

On Sep 14, 2013, at 23:11, "Dan Lusthaus" <vasubandhu at earthlink.net> wrote:

> And ad hominems in the place of evidence is your standard line. If you actually need evidence that the majority of people on planet earth in the past and in the present adhere to a single religious tradition, perhaps getting out and looking around will prove insufficient for you -- you either can't see what is all around you, or else you are fabricating b.s. simply in order to pretend that you've offered a refutation. In either case, pathetic.

Interesting. You accuse me of using argumenta ad hominem and then launch into an extended ad hominem. Nice attempt to dodge the issues.

Yes, I do need evidence that the majority of people on the planet earth in the past and the present adhere to a single religious tradition. Do you have any?

It seems to me that if the majority of Hebrews had adhered to just one religious tradition, the Hebrew bible would not be filled with prophets claiming that all the disasters befalling the Hebrews were punishment for their failure to be loyal to just one god. The textual evidence suggests it was difficult for the majority of Hebrews to get on board with the message that the fanatical prophets kept trying to shove down their throats.

If the majority of Christians had been inclined to follow only one tradition, the Inquisition might have lasted only a weekend, and preachers might have found something else to talk about than the fires of hell awaiting idolaters and apostates. Similar observations can be made about Islam. The very fact that so much emphasis is repeatedly placed on remaining faithful to the one true religion suggests that most people were inclined not to so remain.

Get outside the Abrahamic traditions and you find that there is not much of a preoccupation with adhering to only one tradition. Buddhism has no such preoccupation, nor do the other Asian ways of thinking. African and American religions were for the most part quite fluid, which is partly why Christian and Muslim missionaries were so ready to dismiss Africans and indigenous Americans as uncouth heathens in desperate need of conversion.

The evidence that I see seems to weigh against your claim. When one looks at how people actually behave, as opposed to how a small minority of religious leaders try to tell them they ought to behave, your portrayal of human religiosity looks pretty distorted.

Now, how do you support your claim? If you have actual evidence, put it forth for examination.

Richard