Is Buddhism a religion?

Factual Questions
1

Earlier I saw a thread about Buddhism and it revived this question that has been plaguing my mind for a while.

Why is Buddhism considered a religion? Its principal exponent, the Buddha,is not a deity. As far as my knowledge goes, inherent to the concept of religion is the belief and worship of a God.

Hence the aforementioned question.

Buddhists of the world, step to the plate and take a crack at it.

2

I should note at the outset that I am not an expert on Buddhism, and the following is based on a bit of reading I have done in the past and on the entry in “The Oxford Companion to Philosophy” that I have just read.

I think Buddhism has some features that make it resemble a religion in some aspects, but in some important ways it is not a religion.

What makes Buddhism like a religion:

  1. It has a class of religious leaders (monks, Dalai Lama);

  2. It guides people in their spirituality and their ethical lives;

  3. It takes positions on mortality and the afterlife (rebirth) that are not really subject to observation;

What makes Buddhism unlike a religion:

  1. It is atheistic;

  2. It is much more philosophical than other religions;

  3. Many of its precepts are derived from philosophical reflection and reason, rather than being simply arbitrary fiats derived from nowhere; Many of the disputes between the several Buddhist schools parallel disputes in western philosophy, rather than in western religion.

  4. Much of it is intelligent;

  5. Unlike in most other religions, there is really no soul (this may seem confusing, since there is the concept of the soul being reborn; but the soul in buddhism is not what it means in the West. Buddhism holds that the individual/soul is an illusion – and a dangerous one at that because clinging to the concept of the soul/individual causes suffering).
    I don’t think there is a definite answer to your question, since our concept of Religion is fluid, inexact, and somewhat vague. But it is clear that there are many features of Buddhism which make it unlike other religions, and it would not be wrong, in my opinion, to say it is not a religion.

3

Well, the belief and worship of a God is actually not inherent to the concept of religion. I myself am a Taoist (a philisophical Taoist, if you want to get technical) and a deity is in no way involved. There are different forms of Taoism, one of which does include deities, but my particular branch does not. I believe there that the Tao is in everything and ties everything together. Though, labelling it the Tao isn’t something that one should necessarily do (Read some of the Tao Te Ching).
Anyway, I think a more apt description of religions is that the thing they share is tying people back to something that lies beneath the surface; a greater reality. Whether it be a deity, some power, or something reached by deep soul searching of following guidelines (like ultimately reaching Nirvana in Buddhism, and following the 4 noble truths and the 8-fold Path of Liberation).
Other “religions” that don’t have a deity of sorts; Confucianism (which has co-existed in China with Buddhism and Taoism), Jainism (though I am not as familiar with it), and Shinto (a major religion in Japan, it focuses on our affinity with nature).

4

The question “Is Buddhism a religion?” is rather like asking “What is the Christian Eucharist?” – there are so many schools of thought that it is impossible to give a single answer.

The great majority of Mahayana Buddhistic schools are certainly much more “religious” than Theravadan schools, or than Zen (Ch’an, Dhyana).

5

Many people believe that Buddhism fails to meet the criteria for a religion as it lacks dogma.
Nothing must be taken on faith.
For this singular reason many Buddhists believe their’s is a philosophy not a religion.

6

I would call buddism a religion based on the fact that it tries to teach a method of living based in spirituality rather than physicality (ps i have trouble differentiating between ideology and religion often).

An interesting thing about buddism, that makes it stand out in my mind, is that it seems to be the only religion that allows you to be a member of another religion. While it bothers Catholic and Muslim priests that some of their flock have Budda statues in their bedroom, it bothers the Buddists not at all. Any religion that self-confident gets bonus marks in my books.

7

The Unitarians (actually Unitarian-Universalist) wouldn’t be terribly pissed off at you either. They make a big point of being non-dogmatic. It’s a funny sort of church, which I actually have a fair respect for. It was introduced to me as “a church for people who don’t believe in God”. What it does is provides the social benefits of a church community without a nasty dogmatic belief system. Sort of like “Theology 101” with church socials and potlucks. Most UU ministers seem to be more than willing to coopt every spiritual tradition they run across, and are as likely to quote from the Baghavad Gita in their sermons as the New Testament.