Sure is an interesting thread. Buddhism is very appealing to the intellectual or agnostic, so its expected to see it firmly at the top. I do meet a lot of people who say they lean towards Buddhism and like the philosophy, but disappointingly very few of them have any real understanding of these four principles:
The Four Noble Truths
1. Life means suffering.
2. The origin of suffering is attachment.
3. The cessation of suffering is attainable.
4. The path to the cessation of suffering.
That is the philosophical base of Buddhism on top of which dharma (the way of human life) is built. These principles are inherent to material existence, for which there is systematic proof through the truth of practice. For instance, it is explained how the realizations of these truths are hidden to those who do not practice ahimsa - non-violence. So by this method and under the guidance of guru (teacher) there is a semblance of empirical verification as one progresses.
Importantly, Buddhism forms a subset of what is now referred to as Hindiusm. This word 'Hinduism' was in fact a misnomer - an external imposition by an invading people who assumed superiority over the people of Inida. If the Persians could pronounce 'S' then it would've been 'Sinduism'. The prevailing misconceptions around Hinduism can doubtlessly be traced back to the vast and expensive academic campaign by the British to devaluate anything from India as inferior. History indicates that they were privately intimidated by such a vast, coherent and superior philosophy:
Schopenhauer: "Vedas are the most rewarding and the most elevating book which can be possible in the world." (Works VI p.427)
Niels Bohr: ''I go into the Upanishads to ask questions.''
Erwin Schrödinger: ''There is no kind of framework within which we can find consciousness in the plural; this is simply something we construct because of the temporal plurality of individuals, but it is a false construction....The only solution to this conflict insofar as any is available to us at all lies in the ancient wisdom of the Upanishad.''
Werner Heisenberg: ''After the conversations about Indian philosophy, some of the ideas of Quantum Physics that had seemed so crazy suddenly made much more sense''
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: ''Access to the Vedas is the greatest privilege this century may claim over all previous centuries.''
Henry David Thoreau: ''In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial.''
Ralph Waldo Emerson: ''I owed a magnificent day to the Bhagavad-Gita. It was as if an empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence which in another age and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the same questions which exercise us.''
It is a little sad that so many vote 'Buddhism', but do not know who Adi Shankara (or Shankaracharya) was. I am quite certain his writings and explanation of dharma would very appealing considering the great teachings of the Vedas and they're underlying Sanskrit structure.
Of Sanskrit I could speak 10 000 words, but I guess I'd rather not.
Anyways, just thought I'd contribute something. I didn't vote since I don't really see the world that way (People who think I'm a Jew, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Atheist etc.). It doesn't make sense.
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