Not for Gods sake but for our own !!

When I was growing up, our household, from Dads side offered Humanism rather than a particular brand of Religion, whilst Mum would encourage me to attend the local Church of England services on a Sunday, usually Evensong. The church, situated in a village, was a leading focal point amongst the village community. The Vicar, along with the Doctor and the Policemen were the leading lights of a group of people, tightly caught up in each other,censoring and keen to pass judgement, yet helpful and supportive at the same time.
As kids we shared our parents, in so far as the grown ups were quick to set you right if they felt the need to and would have a word in the ear of a parent who they thought might need to know what little Johnny was getting up to. To be warned or even given a clip over the ear for being cheeky was accepted and part of the social tapestry. 
The point I wanted to make was the place the religious institution had in the society as I was growing up and the importance of religious dogma in our village environments early years.
Given this inculcation of Christian indoctrination, which I hasten to add was no bad thing in a general sense, I eventually emerged with a more rational position, that without evidence and specifically, without faith, I built on my scepticism and moved through from being an agnostic to become an atheist.

Andrews gradual immersion into Buddhism has challenged me to think again about the meaning of life and the sense that their could there be more to it all ?
Of course my prejudice against faith based religions and the reliance on the word of God passed down through a series of revelations in a book that propounds to be the word of God puts me immediately on the defensive.

Buddhism from the outside, appears to be like another religious group. It has a distinctive following, dressed in distinctive clothing who it describes as priests, a distinctive, revered leadership, temples, symbolic chanting and distinctive music, even massive opulent statues of the Buddha are scattered around parts of East Asia. All the panoply that is usually represented by the established Church.
The teachings of the Buddha and the interpretation of those teachings by the priesthood have some resonance with Judaism.

Of course what you see is not the substance of what Buddhism is about.   Buddhism is bound up in ones own, singular, exploration of your own mental substance, based on the recognition that much of who we are, is grounded on false values that can only lead to unhappiness and personnel disharmony.   
The recognition that there is potential, to fundamentally acknowledge the cause of our "suffering in this life", by the objective examination of ourselves, through the mind. 
To attempt to extinguish the external mental noise of events that happen around us, and the thoughts that flow with those events, which at root, falsify who we really are. 

Its about retaining control of the way we think and what we do in this life, not for Gods sake but for our own.