@maxdancona,
What's "non-sensical" here?
Quote:The belief in "rebirth" is supernatural, especially when it relates to reincarnation.
Reincarnation is a belief which originated in Hinduism, not Buddhism.
Quote:The narrative of self and suffering is supernatural.
No it isn't. It's an insight into the interaction between human psychology and the world as we experience it. It doesn't posit anything supernatural.
Quote:The myths about Naga snakes are supernatural (and before you say Naga snakes don't count... it was you who mentioned "pre-sectarian" Buddhism.
Again, these are traditional Hindu beliefs, grafted onto Buddhism, the same way various pagan traditions were worked into the fabric of Christianity.
Quote:Buddhism had to be changed quite a bit to appropriate it into a modern Western cultural context.
There were already many sects and traditions in Buddhism by the time the teachings became popularized in the West. Buddhism didn't have to be changed; Westerners simply had to sort out the various schools and study how they grew from the earliest forms of the religion.
Quote:Tell me a "claim" that Buddhism makes that isn't based on supernatural claims.
Sure. The Middle Way between the extremes of sensual indulgence and extreme self-mortification:
Quote:Monks, these two extremes ought not to be practiced by one who has gone forth from the household life. There is addiction to indulgence of sense-pleasures, which is low, coarse, the way of ordinary people, unworthy, and unprofitable; and there is addiction to self-mortification, which is painful, unworthy, and unprofitable.
Avoiding both these extremes, the Tathagata (the Perfect One) has realized the Middle Path; it gives vision, gives knowledge, and leads to calm, to insight, to enlightenment and to Nibbana. And what is that Middle Path realized by the Tathagata...? It is the Noble Eightfold path, and nothing else, namely: right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration.
This is not a supernatural claim, it's practical advice Gautama gave to five ascetics.
Again, the topic is whether atheism and Buddhism are more compatible than atheism and the other great religions. While later followers tacked on massive amounts of mythology and supernaturalism derived from Hinduism and other folk beliefs, the essential elements of Buddhism can be practiced by atheists as well as followers of other religions because they aren't based on a Supreme Being.
