I suppose it is sort of like how Christians see Buddhism as a philosophy rather than as a religion.
Why do they see it this way?
Because Christians tend to see Buddhism not as a religion because God isn't involved in this philosophy.
However, this isn't entirely true in Buddhist Philosophy.
The real point Buddha was trying to make is that the emphasis shouldn't be upon whether God exists or not and instead the emphasis should be upon ending the suffering of humanity. And I think to some degree, humanism, or trying to help and comfort mankind possibly came from this point of view.
If your emphasis is whether or not God exists and is there helping you it diverts people around the world from helping other people in many different ways. And in fact it allows some people who are fundamentalists to kill others if they don't believe in God in the same way that they do. Or also if they don't believe in God at all.
So, you can see how humanism or helping people not to suffer and die so much is useful to long term human survival in many different ways and how it evolved directly or indirectly from Buddhist philosophy.
However, this is also not to lessen how things like the Red Cross came from Christian nations or how the Red Crescent came from Islamic nations either. Each religion has it's beneficial activities like the Catholic Charities came from Catholicism worldwide too.
In my own life I have studied Mystical Christianity which is how I was raised and then Eastern Religions in my 20s and in my 30s I studied with Native American Medicine men and women and eventually Tibetan Lamas in the U.S. and India and Nepal. My parents were mystical Christian ministers and in charge of a church in Los Angeles on Hope Street from the time I was 6 to 12 years old by the way. So, religion and God has been there always in my life. However, as an adult I was sad to see that I am too independent a thinker to be directly involved in churches and too much of a free scientific thinker too.
So, I found I had to go my own way and to follow the Mystics rule which is: "God is where you find him, her the Being". If an ant is your guru feed him. There is nowhere that God is not.
So, I see God in all of you and every moment I'm thinking about anything. So, God is present in all my experiences 24 hours a day.
Buddhist thought allows me to have compassion for all life in the past, present and future of the entire universe. So, my life is a constant prayer of gratitude to God and to Life for still being alive now at 73.
By God's Grace
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