Cap'n Awesome's Criticism of Buddhism

Cap'n Awesome criticizes Buddhism in the video above, but I will detail below flaws with his argument. I am not religious myself. I am non-religion like Captain Awesome is. Watch the video first before reading anything below.

That rich countries on average have higher happiness than poor countries does not prove that more money makes you happy. Correlation does not imply causation.

Also, many poor people may be unhappy with their poverty because they have an attachment or desire for material goods. They may witness richer people and envy them. Had they not had any attachment to wealth they wouldn't be bothered. Captain Awesome simply assumed that all poor people were not attached to wealth.

Captain Awesome says that in Cambodia the state religion is Buddhism. He then says that Cambodia is filled with war, etc. But of course this does not prove that Buddhism caused those wars. Remember the Simpsons? Homer sets up a bear patrol and observes no bears in the neighborhood. Therefore, he concludes, the bear patrol must be working.

Captain Awesome then says that Thailand is well known for its child sex trade and then says "Buddhism is doing so well to suppress that." He seems to be suggesting that the presence of Buddhism causes the child sex trade. Once again this is confusing correlation for causation.

Then Captain Awesome says that some people in Tibet can't get medicine and says that Buddhism is the cause of this. It could be many other reasons, e.g. lack of ports, influence from China, etc, yet he just points the finger at Buddhism. Once again, using the Simpsons, it's like saying some rock lying on the ground is the reason why Homer's bear patrol works.

He then goes on about Buddhist theocracies. This argument is pretty much: Here are some evil Buddhists. Therefore, Buddhism is evil. Quite simply, he hasn't made a distinction between Buddhists and Buddhism. Anyone can call himself a Buddhist. For example, I may be a mathematician who claims that 1+1=2. Then all of a sudden I go into a milk bar and shoot innocent people. Then someone says the following: "Mathematicians are evil and wrong. The mathematician who said that 1+1=2 went into a milk bar and murdered innocent people. Therefore, mathematics is evil and 1+1 is not 2." My point is that the actions of a mathematician have nothing to do with mathematics itself. Likewise, the actions of a Buddhist don't have anything to do with the philosophy of Buddhism.