Looking up what r/UnpopularOpinions could say about religion since I thought that might bring up something related to this thread.
I won't deny religion can be built like a scam what with how shit is run though I'm assuming the literal definition or association in one making money off of followers rather than someone thinking a Trump's Chosen guy is their lord and savior or a priest of some kind that fully and unironically does the priestly duties thing because they truly believe in it or believes God spoke to them. OP manages to make some post sounding euphoric or at least being a douche and thinking someone not agreeing with him could be like some sort of hypocritical Christian or an idiot. What really goes further is him sperging a bit on Buddhism in it being selfish but a ctrl + F search not showing me reasons why, and doing a course on Buddhism to graduate, that makes my inner autist get the feeling OP may not know what Buddhist mean by "detachment" in regards to things like desire.
As I mentioned before, being a guy that had to learn of Buddhism, part of me feels OP might not of learned up on what Buddhism is about beyond how he feels about it. Then again, OP didn't seem to get into why it's selfish beyond "reaching the Buddha."
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"Self-centered"? As far as I know, even with the whole self-centered sounding path, Buddhism has rules that would at least try to encourage one to be a better person via the Eight Fold Path
Definition of Eightfold Path. : the Buddhist teaching of the
means of attaining Nirvana through rightness of belief, resolve, speech, action, livelihood, effort, thought, and meditation — see four noble truths.
Yes rightness of conduct, action, and the like sure do sound selfish and self-serving. Also what is Mahayana Buddhism and trying to stay in the cycle out of compassion in wanting to help others attain nirvana?
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I could see OP's experience, assuming this is all without bias and what he says if it all lines up with reality and isn't one sided. While the whole show could be something to get a person into donating, one would wonder how many would actually donate while a band plays Christmas songs, much less how much did one actually donate? And even then, the tithing may still just be voluntary, all it really ends up being is like a live version of those sad African kids/puppy commercials with sad music and celebrity asking you to donate. Also in regards to hearing a sermon vs some lesson of gravity, this is just more of me drawing from my own experience but then again, how many actually read either books and how many feel a sermon or lecture is just one in the same with the difference being the building and whose speaking.
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