From time to time a “religious” discussion erupts on the Forum about Buddhism. Some members claim to “be” Buddhists, others that Buddhism isn’t a religion at all.

I wonder how many of those who claim to be Buddhist have considered one of Buddhism’s central tenets - that speculation about reality (including the existence of anything including God) is pointless.

The most famous Buddhist philosopher along these lines is Nagarjuna. In his writings he said “All experienced phenomena are empty. This does not mean that they are not experienced and, therefore, non-existent; only that they are devoid of a permanent and eternal substance because, like a dream, they are mere projections of human consciousness”. It’s a not dissimilar thought to those expressed in the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes, most famously “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity”. “Projections of human consciousness” are what gives religion (and conspiracy theories - often bedfellows) its illusory substance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagarjuna