In its original form buddhism is not a religion, but it eventually turned into one. You can see that, that people prey to buddha statues etc. Buddhism asks what is the inner self that never changes and then step by step eliminates everything that is under the law of change. Stoicism I have not a good foundation to discuss it.
Most people stick to what they were told in their society. I was born and raised as Christian. The last few years I have done excessive studies of the Bible, but also of the Koran. But then I studied Buddhism and Eastern Religions. And I have come to the conclusion, that the teachings of the Buddha make sense to me. Why? Because they are strictly logical. Every thesis of Buddha you can reason about it, and if you do, it is like a course in logic. Not even the higher beings can deny it as they cannot deny number theory. The first part is to realize, what the mind is able to do, and what it is unable to do. That part I have mastered. The second part is much more difficult, it is the practice to get the mind out of the things it cannot do and has no business to intervene. That can be done by meditation. If anyone is interested, I can give a good advise of what books to read.
In 1995 I wrote an article about molecular nanotechnology for Computerworld Switzerland. All what is going on now, was to see at that time, specially the self assembly. If you go thru patents, you will see horrific stuff, like You beeing used as a computer when you are online with your Ipad, I phone etc.
this is huge! Just ordered the book (PDF), because for me as a musician looking for the right frequencies to tune instruments, very valuable.