You have to give Buddha a lot of credit. This is a guy that in ~400 to 500 BC celebrated the law of conservation of energy as a truth to be internalized and made the basis of philosophy/religion.
The notion of “karma” also is tied deeply to cause-and-effect, recalling Newton’s laws of motion.
Buddhism has been absorbed by the West in many forms – the New Left in the 60’s, yoga, Salinger, Alan Watts. Per the American Religious Identification Survey, alongside Islam, New Religious Movements and Others, and No Religion (including Atheism) it is one of the only religions actually growing in the last 20 years in America.
As our interconnectedness on this planet becomes more intimately apparent and as we integrate ourselves into a more humanistic and scientific mindset, a religion sympathetic to wisdom and logic such as Buddhism clears a path for modern ways of thought to follow:
Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it
Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many
Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations
But after observation and analysis when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all then accept it and live up to it
Text taken from: http://www.teachingsofthebuddha.com/
Active Philosophy 
Fantastic post.