Using religion in election campaigns not against the law: EC

17 hours ago, bluesofa said:

Firstly I apologise for you thinking I called you a liar. Looking back I could have worded my post clearer.

 

The phrase I used, 'never letting the the truth get in the way of a good story', was meant to point out the way buddhism has morphed from a philosophy into a religion, and picked up fiction along the the way to become what it is here today.

As you said, "Burning incense, chanting, the head monk splashing water over the congregation and so on.

In Thailand, this philosophy is a quasi religion, even though Buddha stated he was never to be revered."

Fair enough. Buddhism is many things to the many countries that practice it.

From Zen Buddhism in Japan to the repressed Buddhist in China and the almost non existed remnants left in Laos cities.

Muslims have many different versions of their faith, as do Christians and Jews.

In my area of Thailand, many still believe in animism. Old trees are revered. As are rocks and phallic shaped objects and womens err "things".

Thai Buddhism has encompassed all of these beliefs, in the same way that the first Catholics embraced many early Greek and Roman mythology.

 No need to despise a culture for that. Buddhism in most rural areas of Thailand is still the "glue" that holds the country together. If you got out and about, you would see that