All people think dogmatically. The only difference is what the ontological commitments and methaphysical foundations are. Take out God and people will fit politics, sports teams, tools, whatever in there. Its inescapable.
All people think dogmatically, but religion does not prevent people from acting dogmatically in politics, sports, etc. It just doesn't. It never did.
Under normal circumstances I'd consider this a nit and decline to pick it, but the number of evangelists out there arguing the equivalent of "cure your alcohol addiction with crystal meth!" is too damn high.
I'd encourage you to check it out for yourself. It's certainly possible to be a dogmatic Buddhist, but one of the foundational beliefs of Buddhism is that the type of dogmatic attachment you're describing is avoidable. It's not easy, but that's why you meditate.
The Western Zen? In my experience it is downgraded from being a religion to being a system of practice which relieves it of the broader Mahayana cosmology. But I would suggest the dogma is less obvious but still there, often just somewhere else, such as in its own limitations, or in a philosophical container at a higher level such as scientism.
Ah and there is the dogma -- the otherness of the enlightened.
The binaries still functionally exist. I see a lot of value in reflective practices. At the same time it seems unlikely to me that the point of existing is to not trouble your mind.
Under normal circumstances I'd consider this a nit and decline to pick it, but the number of evangelists out there arguing the equivalent of "cure your alcohol addiction with crystal meth!" is too damn high.