What makes people irrational thinkers?

[emjay]

Well that kind of reminds me of something I believe the Buddha said... something like you should be open to wisdom from any source, thus being open to different religions etc. I can't remember the exacts words at all obviously but that was the general gist of it. When I try to tell my dad about that, as an example of what I consider a very open minded and progressive religion, even at its inception, I still get more pushback than I do when I talk about atheism... which is a shame, because to me it is just an atheist philosophy, not a religion. Ie I do not believe in any superstition or reincarnation etc, but I appreciate the philosophy of Buddhism... and yes, find comfort in it; ie when I'm depressed I often turn to YouTube to watch a talk by a monk, usually my favourite, Ajahn Brahm, and it really helps puts things into perspective.

Well spotted! The leader I was quoting was Ashoka, who spread Buddhism in India. 

I should have said third century BC. I was only off by a few centuries. 

I'll look up Ajahn Brahm.

Ajahn Brahm was just someone I could easily relate to, as he's just a pasty Brit like me lol... a Londoner (not like me)... who joined the Buddhist Society of Western Australia. My sister introduced me to his videos (as well as introducing me to binge watching Netflix ), when I went to stay with her for a while, and we used to watch it together and go out for walks in the sun to meditate, and even went to a couple of monasteries (I think they were monasteries) to meditate. It was a great time, I miss it.