It is true that it is absurd to water down teachings to make them more palatable for the imagined, average person, but it is equally absurd to present certain things in a way that makes the average, intellectual-type person who believes in science, to think religious people are delusional, misguided idiots who believe fairy tales.
At the same time, it is arrogant to present science as anything more than a materialistic, completely primitive understanding of reality as it is. Science cannot explain anything and dogmatically ridicules anything not called science.
In truth, schismatic division in science is just as prevalent as division, between different religions, as well as within the same sect.
Unity is important, but unity can be of different types–from a good kind of unity to an evil kind of unity.
The Buddhist Sanskrit term,“Icchantika,” is translated as “people of incorrigible disbelief,” and not until the Saddharma Pundarika sutra did the Buddha Shakyamuni ever announce that they too could attain salvation, reach the state of Bodhisattva and even Buddhahood, either this lifetime or in a future lifetime.
The time period known as the latter day refers to a period of time 2000 years after the passing of a Buddha’s turning wheel of the law. After the period of the real and then, the counterfeit dharma passes, Buddhism becomes lost to the beings–the Latter Day. When the time is right, a Buddha returns.
The importance of the “time” and 'capacity of the people" determines the fertility of the seed of buddhahood within the people.
Strike when the iron is hot.