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Thinking all religions are dogma, some people hold a strong bias against Buddhism and go so far as to deride it. Certainly, some religions fall in this category but not all. If proponents of either the Idealist or Realist school want their argument to be accepted but cannot provide evidence of any kind, that constitutes dogma. It is not possible to overturn a viewpoint with dogma. To overturn any view, we must use methods based on logical reasoning that everyone can accept. There are many different methods in Buddhism, such as the logic in Madhyamaka (Middle Way) and Yogacara (Mind Only) ; the common goal of all these methods is to eradicate our deluded view.

The Buddha expounded early on that our five sense organs are not reliable; although on the surface they can sense the existence of objects, this kind of feeling is just an illusion. To see a thing clearly, we cannot go by its appearance alone. For example, if we want to do a careful check on a car, we need to take apart all its components, then examine the parts individually. In so doing, we will find the original car has disappeared in our hands and cannot be found. If the car truly exists, it cannot disappear. This testifies to its lack of inherent nature. Why do we always persist in thinking external objects exist? Because we have complete faith in our five sense organs; we think things are real if they can be seen and heard, without ever investigating the logic behind it. Because we hold on to a very simplistic view, our five senses have deceived us since beginningless time. It is only upon careful analysis that we discover the things we see and hear ordinarily are but an illusion.