Buddhism...really?

My wife and I have recently had a bomb dropped on us and I would love to share "it" and get some opinions on how I (and my wife) should handle the situation.

A friend/family member/random person on the street recently has informed us that he/she does not believe in the Bible and is thinking of becoming a Buddhist. Immediately I acted as any Uncle/friend/samaritan would and tried to immediately fix the problem...or in today's society, I googled it, procrastinated and am about to ask my wife what we are going to do when she gets off the phone!

While waiting for her I thought maybe we could review some of the pros and cons?

Pro-It's logical and has evidence and proof to support most of its claims and doesn't require faith of its people.

Con- its a very pacifistic religion which while good in some ways (no history of war etc) it made it extremely easy for china to invade tibet - they didn't fight back they just ran.

Pro-its extremely peaceful and encourages compassion and learning.

Con- easily misinterpreted many people think Buddhists think life must be suffering because of the first noble truth that is often stated as 'life is suffering' when actually it is 'life is fraught with suffering' meaning that "it happens".

Hmmm...well, if you are reading this, you certainly aren't because of my religious views...let's put a sports perspective on the situation. Let's see...big sports star + Buddhist = Tiger Woods? Let's give it a shot? We all know he spent last Thanksgiving being clubbed (plenty of pun intended) by his wife (after she learned that he cheated with many different women while on tour), but during his press conference he did mention that he wanted to get back to his Buddhist roots.

Pretty sure that if his root's were Christian he would have read a "Commandment" or two and wouldn't have had to sleep off that turkey dinner in the E.R.

 

All righty then, how about the big screen? Searching...searching.. Wait, this can't be right...Hollywood star Steven Seagal announced in 1997 that he had been recognized as a Tibetan incarnate lama, or tulku. “Wait,that Steven Segal? The action-movie hero who specializes in toting powerful guns and blowing stuff up?” Sooooo....moving on.

Let's check the music scene?? Searching....Tina Turner??

You know what, forget it, she's off the phone.