Another reason Buddhism doesn't get a pass.

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What makes you believe (that I believe) that the four noble truths are "special"?

They're nothing of the sort.  ( P.S. Why are you so angry?)

Knock it off, my word choice makes me blunt, not angry. If you don't believe it, why did you bring it up? Still does not change that other people do and do get upset when you tell them their religion isn't special, just because you wouldn't get violent, or demand political correctness like even liberals of all labels do, doesn't mean others dont. THEY DO,

Now, I am going to lay it all on the line and make it clear. Religion wont go away, nobody is going to force any religion out of existence, to attempt that one would become a monster. But you are playing word games with me in a very poor attempt to allow Buddhism to avoid scrutiny, no religion, not even atheists should be setting up taboos. Our species only owes each other non violence, but don't claim anyone or don't even imply that Buddhism should get a pass. I treat every religion the same and I don't even give fellow atheists a pass.

The point is religion spends way too much time protecting itself and not enough time understanding we are all the same species. You merely have an outsiders view of Buddhism, the insiders of all the competing sects have the same narrow view of their corner of the planet most people of most religions have.

I'm certainly not giving Buddhism (writ large) any passes. People are people; politics is politics, while the admixture of religion and politics have always made for dangerous bedfellows. I'm simply following a personal philosophy to which my humble sphere of influence cannot control what's happening in Tibet or wherever.  Simply take Buddhism or leave it...some days I view it as a worthless bag of horse-shit, though I generally come back to it simply because when you calm the waters; clear out the useless white-noise the Buddha made some salient philosophical and psychological observations.

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Far from being disappointing as the only "dogma" committing me to (or from) Buddhism....is me.

So the man who told me to educate myself about dogma, as a rebuttal to the statement that there was a buddhist dogma......didn't know what dogma was?  Typical.

I'm glad to hear that no one has forced you to accept their dogma, that you have done so all on your own.  This is hardly unique to buddhism.  Many muslims and christians have -also- decided to swallow their faiths dogmas whole, themselves.  You all have your reasons, I'm sure.

Feel free to generalize....though I'll point out that there's no dogmatic appeal to punishable apostasy regarding Buddhism.