Dispelling woo-woo-ism within religion

[Dids]

I'm a Buddhist, and a member of a mailing list for the particular sect, but occassionally some really woo-woo nonsense gets posted. How can I dispell it without being seen as not a "true believer" or some sort of troublemaker.

Two recent specific examples come to mind: One poster is a bit of Dr David Hawkins fan (this doctor being a pusher of Applied Kinesology, it seems) along with dragging up many other woo-woo things, the latest being a cite of some nonsense about how gurus fire out laser beams or some such to silently transmit their thoughts. However, that was put down by someone pointing out how the guy writing the paper also believes in Uri Geller.

Second, there was a "miraculous healing", a member friend of a member friend in Puerto Rico who recovered from both brain cancer and AIDS at the same time - fully cured, as in no longer any cancer or AIDS (I presume they mean HIV) detectable in the body. He did do chemotherapy and unspecified AIDS treatment as well, of course. Whilst I can believe cancer can be eradicated 100%, I thought it wasn't possible for HIV? To post a message along the lines of "That's a lovely story, but can you provide more documentation?" sounds just a bit too mean-spirited.

Any suggestions?

[Abdul Alhazred]

Originally posted by Dids
I'm a Buddhist, and a member of a mailing list for the particular sect, but occassionally some really woo-woo nonsense gets posted. How can I dispell it without being seen as not a "true believer" or some sort of troublemaker.

Any suggestions?

Would you consider karma and reincarnation to be woo-woo nonsense?

I know intelligent Roman Catholics who are emabarrassed by the Jesus on a tortilla bleeding statue stuff, but they are still woo-woos.

[T'ai Chi]

Originally posted by Dids
I'm a Buddhist, and a member of a mailing list for the particular sect, but occassionally some really woo-woo nonsense gets posted. How can I dispell it without being seen as not a "true believer" or some sort of troublemaker.


Politely ask them to explain their beliefs further.

[Zep]

See what can be done to separate the spiritual aspects from the unreal aspects. There may be no line that is clear between them, but at some point you know when they have crossed the boundary.

(That was NOT meant to sound Zen...!)

[Dids]

Just to explain a bit further, I'm of the opinion (and science seems to back this up) that positive thought can improve one's health, etc, and this particular brand of Buddhism promotes self-improvement, and challenging oneself always, which, even if you strip away the religious stuff, is still true. The various books I've read by the prolific current leader of the sect are suprisingly woo-woo-free, such as although reincarnation (well, it's not really you in a new body, though) exists (except for those precious few who reach enlightenment), it's a one-way process - none of this talking back to you by the dead.

However, some of the members (Americans often scare me - the ones on this ML are no exception) are into things like praying to get the last hurricane deflected, or rain in the Californian fires, miracle cures, or whatnot.

However, one of the guys has recently started talking about Dr David Hawkins (apparently the Dr strongly promotes Buddhism when he lectures these days) with these two supporting URLs given as background info:

http://www.dowsers.info/map.htm

http://www.uni-verse.net/Website/Powerforce.htm

Applied Kinesiology and the ideomotor effect is pretty easy to debunk, isn't it? I posted a message to that effect recently, so I'll see what crawls out of the woodwork.

[Abdul Alhazred]

Originally posted by Dids
Just to explain a bit further, I'm of the opinion (and science seems to back this up) that positive thought can improve one's health, etc, and this particular brand of Buddhism promotes self-improvement, and challenging oneself always, which, even if you strip away the religious stuff, is still true. The various books I've read by the prolific current leader of the sect are suprisingly woo-woo-free, such as although reincarnation (well, it's not really you in a new body, though) exists (except for those precious few who reach enlightenment), it's a one-way process - none of this talking back to you by the dead.

However, some of the members (Americans often scare me - the ones on this ML are no exception) are into things like praying to get the last hurricane deflected, or rain in the Californian fires, miracle cures, or whatnot.


What sect do you belong to?

If reincarnation exists, does that mean that you survive death or what?

You are in Japan. Are you Japanese or just living there? It makes a difference. This relates to Americans scaring you.

It has always seemed to me that "Western" converts to Buddhism tend to be generic woo-woos. For these people Buddhism is just another woo-wooism in their collection.

This is slightly different from "the zeal of the convert" in monotheistic religions where the convert is more of a woo-woo than anybody in that religion.

Buddhism, being more inclusive, allows a zealous convert to be every other kind of woo-woo at the same time.

Inclusiveness has its virtues, but also its weaknesses.

[Yahzi]

Originally posted by Dids
How can I dispell it without being seen as not a "true believer" or some sort of troublemaker.
You picked the wrong place to ask for help. We're all troublemakers here.