[Buddha-l] the existence of God in Buddhism

[Ilana Maymind]

Emilio Gentile in a newly published Politics as Religion, (Princeton University Press, 2006) in his discussion related to the term "secular religion" (used interchangeably with "political religion" or "secular religion") states the following: " If, for example, your definition of a religion is premised on the existence of a supernatural divinity, then you would be justified in denying that a belief system that considers a secular entity to be sacred could be a religious phenomenon.  However, if we accept this definition, we would be obliged to deny that Buddhism is a religious phenomenon, because it does not allow for the existence of God, whereas the Nazi political religion could be considered a religious phenomenon, because it did not deny the existence of god, even though it dressed that god up in its own ideology" (3).

I wonder if anyone could comment on the highlighted? 

Thank you

Ilana Maymind
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A great truth wants to be criticized, not idolized
Nietzsche
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