It seems to me that a belief in god(s) makes you less prepared for a world with AI. In Buddhism the attitude is more sane: gods are just being that can be wrong too and ultimately suffer and cause suffering, the same as the rest of us. They might just be more strongly self-deluded (wink wink the pope wink wink)
Well, it's not the Catholic Church worshiping AI as the savior of humanity. I have seen no indication that those who do are particularly religious, either, what do you base that on?
And hey, when it comes to fallible Gods, ancient Greek mythology is also pretty wild.
It often feels to me that HN's view of Buddhism is "whatever bits of philosophy I happen to agree with". It's true that throughout history, there have been enough different expressions of Buddhism, practiced by at least a few people, that it's possible to say a lot of things 'are Buddhism', but it feels dishonest to me to rely on that in comparative analysis with a much more doctrinally stable religion. The difference is not fundamentally one of belief but of legibility of belief: with Buddhism you can get away with almost anything (did you know that most all modern Buddhists in Japan believe in the pure land -- for all intents and purposes heaven?), but with Catholicism there is but one creed.
That's true. Pure Land buddhism is quite crazy if you look at the basic writings in buddhism. And you're correct in that buddhism can't protect its trademark as it were, like Catholicism can. But on the other hand, Chrisianity or Islam also can't, with funny situations like Unitarian Universalists who are, as far as I can tell, basically not christian in any meaningful way. Or in the case of Islam you get everyone saying everyone else is a heretic and people trying to kill each other.
In this respect, the Catholic Church got it right with the concept of excommunication.
> It's true that throughout history, there have been enough different expressions of Buddhism, practiced by at least a few people, that it's possible to say a lot of things 'are Buddhism',
Then argue for the opposite. That a Buddhist can believe in the Abrahamic God.
Perhaps the difference is the Buddhists try to teach you how to experience the bliss of that discovery in this life instead of just crossing your fingers for jam tomorrow.
