A life long devout Christian and a life long ardent athiest are hiking up a trail by themselves discussing the Yankees chances this year and which stocks to buy when a man suddenly materializes out of thin air in front of their eyes in which he pronounces "I am Buddha reincarnated to teach the earth again. Who shall be my first disciple?" Who is more likely to think this is some amazing magic trick? Would either immediately follow this man?

huh???

the atheist is probably the only one smart enough to know that if this ever happened, the guy who appeared would be lying by saying hes the buddha reincarnated.

Here now! We Christians aren't all so parochial that we don't know understand what "contradiction in terms" means re: the Buddha!

(atheist will be off looking in nearby trees for 3-D projection equipment while Christian is praying fervently to Christ to banish the demonic vision - poor Buddha has to keep on truckin')

does "buddha" say that the yankess will not win the 09 world series?

If so, he is a blasphemer and must be stoned on the spot.

or at least it means he is a false prophet. basically the same thing i guess.

If you believe a fairy-tale written 2k years ago, seems reasonable that you'd be more likely to believe one unfolding right in front of your eyes.

How each would react would very much depend on the individuals.

Whether they are Christian or atheist really doesn't matter. Are you implying that people are just cookie cutter versions of their religious belief?

I thought the whole reason athiests didn't believe was a lack of evidence or proof. To me, it seems the athiest is more likely to convert to Buddhism than the Christian is in this spot, though I think "more likely" is a relative term because it's very possibe they both reject the apperence of this Buddha outright.

probably both will think its a trick at first. And the most ignorant of the 2 would choose to follow that man. (Buddah)

According to any Buddhist teachings that I have heard the Buddha was enlightened and can't be reincarnated. Only non-enlightened beings are reincarnated. Other Buddhas can emerge, but only after attaining enlightenment.

This shows a kind of stubbornness that loses you a lot of credibility. Honestly, if you saw a miracle unfold in front of your eyes, and you weren't doped up on the John Travolta Pulp Fiction stuff, how could you even call this believing in a fairy tale 2k years running?

I mean just how far does it have to go? Does the master creator of the universe really have to invite you out for a beer and explain to you how he did it?

I thought the atheist disbelieved for a lack of proof. If the Buddha materialized into thin air, I'd at least open up the possibility that it was a divine miracle, after of course I looked for projectionists behind the tree.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Arthur C. Clarke

That quote should explain my viewpoint. Thinking that you're going to be smart enough to figure out how it works on the spot by simply "looking for projectionists behind the tree" is quite LOL.

If some guy materializes out of thin air and tells me he wants to teach me some stuff. Im down cause thats a cool trick and turning yourself inadvisable might come in handy.

I understand this quote, and I get the viewpoint. However, I will guess that you could spend the next few months or years trying to figure out how the Buddha appeared to you, and even in the case of never finding any reasonable explanation for the Buddha materializing, you still wouldn't just go, "Hmm, well f*** that damn Buddha just appeared.

Is there a point where you would admit that something supernatural occurred?

Not sure I know what you mean by "supernatural" in this context.

I would likely admit from the very beginning that it's something I don't understand. And I would do my best to extract as much knowledge as I can from that Buddha. But would I give up and say - this is not understandable? I don't think so.

There is one scenario where I would give up understanding it actually - if this Buddha explains to me how my brain works and then consistently demonstrates that some things are not possible to understand using human brain and shows that he/his materialization/whatever else is in that realm of things. At that point I would give up understanding it and would instead concentrate on finding means to upgrade my brain (with help from this Buddha, hopefully).

Brain upgrade, eh? Sign me up