I once dated a Japanese guy, who said his parents were like "born again Buddhists". What came to my imaginative mind were parents threatening their kids with "You will reach enlightenment, even if we have to beat it into you." Not sure if what I pictured was an accurate portrayal of what he experienced. He really didn't like talking about it.

The courage of conviction, severely lacking in American religion. So much fear and guilt.

Good for them...makes the USA look bad...but it will take a MAJOR shakeup to rid this country of these religious zealots. ET(who doesn't look human)making contact would do it...especially when they tell us the part where they also at one time believed that THEY were made in their gods image...and then they figured out that was made up BS.

Try telling that to the mental defectives in the U$A.

A very enlightened policy, in my view!

Japan is more Zen Taoist in spiritual inclination so I'm really happy to see them take this stance.