I think this question demosonstrates missing the point.Buckwheat wrote:OK - another question: do Secular Buddhists (collectively or individually) tend to believe in powers such as the ability to read minds?
I think secular Buddhists question the usefulness of belief for the sake of belief. What point would there be in believing in "the ability to read minds"?, what point would there be in not believing in "the ability to read minds"?
If you consider the purpose of the path as being the end of craving, aversion, and delusion then "the ability to read minds" is entirely beside the point and not relevant, therefore there is no need to have a position for or against.
It's only relvant if one is scrambling for something to believe in as if that would somehow validate that there is something spiritual going on here.
In a lot of peoples minds rebirth falls into this category also, but at least in the case of rebirth one can put up reasons rightly or wrongly why it shouldn't be.