Why do some say that Buddhism is not a religion?

Bright on Buddhism Episode 57 - Why do some say that Buddhism is not a religion? What evidence have they for that claim? What are the historical roots of this debate?  Resources: The Making of Buddhist Modernism, David L. McMahan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.; Buddhism and Science, Donald S Lopez Jr, 2008, University of Chicago Press; How the Swans Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America, Rick Fields, 1992. Shambhala Publications; https://web.archive.org/web/20050204223509/http://web.otani.ac.jp/EBS/dts.html; http://www.azenlife-film.org/top.htm; Zen Buddhism : selected writings of D.T. Suzuki, translated by William Barrett; Mysticism: Christian and Buddhist by Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro; Godart, Gerard Clinton. “‘Philosophy’ or ‘Religion’? The Confrontation with Foreign Categories in Late Nineteenth-Century Japan.” Journal of the History of Ideas 69, no. 1 (2007): 71–91. https://doi.org/10.1353/jhi.2008.0008.; Inoue, Enryō. “Against Materialism.” In Inoue Enryō Senshū, edited by Inoue Enryō Kinen Gakujutsu Sentā, Vol. 7. Tokyo: Toyo Daigaku, 1987.; Inoue, Enryo. “Prolegomena to A Living Discourse of Buddhism.” In Buddhism and Modernity: Sources from Nineteenth Century Japan, edited by Orion Klautau and Hans Martin Krämer, translated by Joseph Ananda Josephson, 163–71. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i Press, 2021.; Josephson, Jason Ānanda. “When Buddhism Became a ‘Religion’: Religion and Superstition in the Writings of Inoue Enryō.” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 33, no. 1 (2006): 143– 68.; Klautau, Orion. “(Re)Inventing ‘Japanese Buddhism’: Sectarian Reconfiguration and Historical Writing in Meiji Japan.” The Eastern Buddhist 42, no. 1 (2011): 75–990.; Kopf, Gereon. “Between Identity and Difference Three Ways of Reading Nishida’s Non- Dualism.” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 31, no. 1 (2004): 73–103.; Kopf, Gereon. “Temporality and Personal Identity in the Thought of Nishida Kitarō.” Philosophy East and West 52, no. 2 (2002): 224–45.; McMahan, D. L. “Modernity and the Early Discourse of Scientific Buddhism.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 72, no. 4 (December 1, 2004): 897–933. https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfh083.; Snodgrass, Judith. “The Deployment of Western Philosophy in Meiji Buddhist Revival.” The Eastern Buddhist 30, no. 2 (1997): 173–98. Do you have a question about Buddhism that you'd like us to discuss?   Let us know by finding us on email or social media!   https://linktr.ee/brightonbuddhism Credits: Nick Bright: Script, Cover Art, Music, Voice of Hearer, Co-Host Proven Paradox: Editing, mixing and mastering, social media, Voice of Hermit, Co-Host