PACIFIC WORLD - The Institute of Buddhist Studies

86Pacific Worldmembers of the category of birds than, for example, penguins or evenchickens might be. 43 As Pyysiäinen suggests, this insight is important in acritical approach to the way in which theories of religion are formed.Cognitive theories will need to not only take into account the universalcharacteristics of human cognition as Pyysiäinen has attempted to do, butalso recognize the effects on theory when different religions are prototypicalfor the theorist. Buddhist thought and practice is important then to thedevelopment of a cognitive theory of religion, since it can not only provideimportant test cases for a cognitive theory of religion, but more fundamentallya radically different prototype for understanding what religion is.