Why combating bad claims is important.

[Ashground]

I don't give Buddhists a pass. The west has a delusional love affair with the religions of the Orient and Asia.

I agree completely. It's easy to see a religion's faults when you're faced with it in your own society and easy to see unfamiliar religions as 'beautiful' or even 'harmless'.

And if I am not correct, they have a ritual where they let their kids as late teens go out into the rest of the world for a while. On the surface it sounds fair, but it is really a cruel trick. You have to keep in mind from a young age, they have been sold a script, have been denied modern things, and what they don't like to tell you is many, when they do this, if the kid decides to do their own thing, they do cut them off. But most of the time that deprivation of the outside world causes the kid not to handle it, so they come back anyway. The same thing happens with some who manages to escape North Korea. Many will return because they don't know how to live independently and are used to following a script.

I hadn't considered that comparison. To be honest I always thought Anabaptist was a fairer way to do it because at least they wait until they're an adult to choose. But you're right, in reality very few people are going to be willing to endure exile from those they've known their whole lives. I still think it's more moral than baptizing babies, that's like declaring a baby's political views. At least if a child is indoctrinated by a political movement they still have the protection of a secret ballot.