Somehow I came across this site whilst looking for a holiday
I'm sure there's plenty of others like this...
Wasn't sure which forum to put it in... a religious one, comparative, the lounge
, politics and society...
I don't know if it's depressing or funny. Probably both. So far I've only entertained myself with some of the stuff on Buddhism and dinosaurs.
Can I start off with:
Why?!
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(the title of this thread is one of the articles on the site. And you thought
we could be inane...
)
s.
Why not?
Having read the article in question, I would like to to direct your attention to a matter that I think is of significant importance that I believe is glaringly evident:
This family started as
nominal Buddhists.
Much like the Easter-Christmas Christians, their religion became token. Is it any wonder that a spiritual void was formed where once it was satisfied by practice? In fact, there seems to be a trend in Japan in abandoning the use of a Butsudan in the home, even though the practice was maintained for hundreds of years, according to Wiki:
Wiki: Butsudan said:
Today, many people no longer have time or room for their butsudan. They either give it away or discard them completely. Family butsudans are thrown away after hundreds of years of survival. Yet, it still remains the focal part of Japanese, and now international, Buddhist practice.
Not only that, but it seems that what little form of Buddhism they maintained was fear-based ("If you become a Christian, the ancestral spirits will come after you.") Now, I don't know what brand of Buddhism is being taught here, but it doesn't seem conducive to me to try to keep your offspring in your religion through threats. Also, it doesn't help when you are being hypercritical.
But my main point is that had they been strong practicing Buddhists, I would think that there would have been less temptation to resort to some other religion. I've seen this type of conversion over and over again: Jewish to Christian, Christian to Islam, Catholic to Baptist, Baptist to Agnostic, Methodist to Mormon, Christian to Buddhist, whatever, all because there was little or no deeply root convictions in the first exposure. Do you know how hard it is to convert a hardline Catholic? Not easy at all!
Not to mention certain JWs? Need I say more?
