No, they don’t. Unlike the folks where I grew up in Texas, they’re perfectly content to leave you be.
I think I’m getting it right, but it’s all based on research I did over twenty years ago, and I’m only reciting from memory. The way I learned it, the socialists (or military) came in and took over, at least in part to reverse the weirdness of the Buddhist fundamentalists. It doesn’t excuse the abuses of the last fifty years, but it might go a step toward explaining why they seized power. (Other than, y’know, wanting power…)
I think it’s largely regarded as more benign, but that may just be in the English-speaking world. In my experience, atheists tend to focus their anti-religion attention on the “my religion says you can’t” type of believer. I vaguely recall someone on the Dope saying that Buddhism has its share of hypocrites who selectively quote their religious texts to justify being assholes, but they’re far away from most English-speakers and/or on a different part of the internet.
Muslims Vanish as Buddhist Attacks Approach Burma’s Biggest City
I’d say that’s pretty assholish, yes.
It is both squishy and not squishy. This is why one of the symbols for Buddhisms is a rotund seated figure. Seemingly solid with lots to grab hold of, but grease him up real good and he slips right through your fingers. 
Well said.
The Transcendentalists beat the Beats to Buddhism…
You don’t mention the other religion that is into violence, war and sexist agendas. Why not?
Probably because he doesn’t get door to door muslims, or see mosques with a big sign saying “sinners burn in HELL” on his way to work. At least where I live the christians are the pushy annoying ones.
Maybe because the Buddha told his followers to question everything they were taught, even by him?
Or because there is no dogma in Buddhism? No God. Also Buddhists are mostly forbidden from converting others, with few exceptions.
And it’s only ‘trendy’ in the west, everywhere else it’s been around for thousands of years. Also you can be a Buddhist and any other faith you wish, at the same time. Few religions are so accommodating!
What’s left for a God fearing Atheist to attack?
I’m an atheist, my wife is buddhist. Her parents were very involved in Buddhism and never once tried to convert me. I’ve been to several buddhist events with my wife, and nobody there tried to tell me I was going to hell. Heck, I’m not sure they ever even asked me if I was religious in any way whatsoever.
Leave me alone, and I’ll leave you alone.
I’m an atheist Buddhist and have been for a little over a decade. I don’t believe in literal karma or reincarnation or anything like that. I’m mostly Zen, I just try to be as aware and accepting as I can of the present moment. Evidence supports the use of Zen meditation to treat psychological disorders, create new brain cells and raise one’s baseline mood. I was attracted to Zen because, while it can be heavily steeped in ritual and confusing language, it’s actually a very secular, simple, non-dogmatic way of looking at reality. It wasn’t like the fundamentalist Christianity I clung to in my youth which placed so much emphasis on what you believe. Zen is way more interested in your experience of the present moment.
Most of the attacks I see against Buddhism are those woo aspects like reincarnation which IMO are pretty silly, or the attackers really don’t understand what Buddhism is and attack it based on their erroneous assumptions about it.
Either way, I don’t have the compelling need to convert people or change their minds. I’ve got enough on my plate minding my own spiritual life as it is.
I think it’s weird that some people act like Western Buddhism isn’t real Buddhism. One of the foundational concepts of Buddhism is impermanence. Buddha himself said, ‘‘Work out your own salvation.’’ Buddhism has soaked up local and cultural religious beliefs for thousands of years, so it’s no surprise it would do so in the West as well. I don’t think people realize the diversity of Buddhism worldwide - Tibetan Buddhism, for example, is radically different than Zen Buddhism, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t both Buddhism. If there is any religion that would reject a purist attitude about the way it is practiced, it would be Buddhism.
Like olivesmarch4th, there are a lot of atheist Buddhists.
My brother in law is sort of becoming a Christian Buddhist. The two are not incompatible.
That was my impression. Maybe the Transcendentalists got into Buddhism first, but I think the Beats are probably responsible for the way people in the U.S. view Buddhism now.
I can believe that. Saraya seems to have confused this for general Buddhist practice in the U.S.
Paramahansa Yogananda brought his brand of spiritualism (partly Buddhist, but not entirely) to the US in the 1920s. There certainly were various “revivals” in the 50s and more so in the 60s, but I don’t know that it “peaked” in either of those decades. And there are different types of Buddhism, too, so it’s hard to talk about it as one would the RCC.
But at least some flavors of Buddhism do “damn” you to living with karmic retribution for ills supposedly committed in a past life.
Except for the fact that it is not true of Buddhism as a whole - many varieties of which very much have gods (as well as heavens and hells).
Given the popularity of Mahayana Buddhism, in fact, it could be argued that most of the world’s actual practicingf Buddhists are “theists”.
http://www.religionfacts.com/buddhism/deities.htm
The average believer in “Pure Land” Buddhism is functionally indistingusihable from the believer in any other Western religion: he or she worships in the hope of getting into heaven.
In the West, the more philosophic aspects of Theravada Buddhism are of course more popular. This should not obscure the reality, that in actual practice Buddhism isn’t really much different, for most of its adherents, to any other religion.
Buddhists, in general, are very nice and don’t try to convert you or talk about their religion. In fact, you pretty much have to seek out a Buddhist if you want to talk to one, as they will never go door to door asking you to convert nor will they go around putting up pictures of Buddha and complaining that people are insulting them. Other religions can learn a lot from them
Sure, and most christians couldn’t explain the Trinity without invoking a heresy. The historical Buddha specifically declines to speculate on cosmology.
Warren, Buddhism in Translations, Ch 13 ‘Questions which tend not to edification’ (Majjhima-Nikaya, Sutta 63)
ETA in response to Malthus