Buddhism is lived as a supernatural religion despite nontheistic theology
Evidence
- Some have singled out Buddhism as a world religion without supernatural beings. Granted, these “nontheistic” belief-systems reject personifying the divine. However, these assertions confuse theological dogma with “natural religion” as lived by adherents every day. Angels and devils are legion in Buddhist worship. Buddhist monks ritually ward off malevolent deities by invoking benevolent ones, and common folk deify Buddha contrary to theological teachings (Pyysiäinen, 2003). In India, Nepal, China, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam, there are magic mountains and forests that are infused with Buddha’s powers, and the folklore of every Buddhist tradition recounts supernatural events surrounding the Buddha and the Buddhas (Atran and Norenzayan, 2004). — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 649
Categorization
- XREF: Distinguishes theological dogma from lived natural religion — the same gap that matters in the reader’s fumi-e analysis, where official theology vs. practiced faith shape apostasy’s meaning.