Agnosticism / Atheism: Weekly Poll: Are Systems like Buddhism Religion or Philosophies?

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Weekly Poll: Are Systems like Buddhism Religion or Philosophies? Feb 2nd 2012, 08:00 Buddhism is often categorized as a religion, but because it doesn't mandate belief in any gods some argue that it should be treated like a philosophy instead. Buddhism isn't the only 'religion' like this. Are they really philosophies, or is demand that there be a belief in some god the wrong way to define religion? I find that defining religion exclusively as theistic is very provincial and ethnocentric. It may be standard for religions in the West to be theistic, but this is hardly a sound basis for making declarations about the nature of religion as a whole for all cultures at all times. We might as well say that religion requires belief in a single creator god or belief in a savior figure. Religion is a very diverse phenomenon and while religions have a number of common elements, no one element -- not even theism -- serves as the sole determining factor for separating religious from secular belief systems.

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