The ‘West’, if we think of it as representing the vanguard of science that brings us facts, not assumptions or fantasies, has brought us little in the way of real or reliable facts when it comes to certain important matters such as health. (I would like to get into cosmology but that is too long of a subject. Suffice it to say the Big Bang is bullshit.) Even today, we don’t really know the cause of cancer or heart disease or why males are far more likely to suffer from autism than females. There are a lot of assumptions as to why cancer rates have not significantly fallen; the same with autism which is still on the rise. In addition, the West’s so-called scientific method seems to be more interested in chasing grants than truth.
When it comes to dismissing religion the West is certainly at the vanguard. Christopher Hitchens’ book, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (2007) encapsulates the modern West’s view of religion in general. Hitchens’ criticism sets the stage for a new religion, one in which the physical sciences and reason dominate, or put more simply, one in which sensory consciousness sits on the ‘chair of Peter’ being the new preserver of unity.
Perish the thought that sensory consciousness is only an attribute of absolute spirit and can be superseded. In essence, this is what Buddhism actually teaches which should be obvious to anyone who is familiar with the Lankavatara Sutra which, incidentally, early Zen Buddhism was based upon. With this in mind, the West can mount no real criticism of Buddhism, except to dismiss it completely as teaching mumbo-jumbo. But this is not a real attack anymore than ignoring Plato can be viewed as a victory over his ideas.
To really defeat Buddhism one must prove that nirvana is impossible in which the human mind transcends its phenomena and by doing so, returns to itself as pure substance, proving that all things have no real existence as we previously believed. There is only Mind (cittamâtra). This, to be sure, is a daunting task for anyone wishing to overthrow Buddhism. Yes, it is better to ignore Buddhism hoping it goes away.
If we imagine Christopher Hitchens taking on Buddhism his criticisms would be directed against the culturally derived institutions of Buddhism which have fallen prey to a totalitarian state or a feudal system. Needless to say, many of his arguments would be justified. Such, however, is not a criticism of Buddhism itself, that is, the actual words of the Buddha.
Right now the West is the defender of the dogma of Scientism, that is, the omnipotence of the physical sciences, all of which rest completely on sensory consciousness and sensory experience. But even granting the West to be the upholder of reason, reason can know nothing purely of itself, according to Kant. The limit of seonsory experience cannot go beyond the conditioned, either. The West has, in effect, thrown itself into a conditioned prison of its own making from which it cannot escape since it denies the unconditioned (i.e., absolute substance, nirvana, etc.) and along with this, will not accept that reason is limited to the conditioned.