The Buddhist tradition is full of people who were great sinners that repented and became saints. In the time of the Buddha, there was a killer named Angulimala who was determined to kill 108 people to fulfill a vow. Seeing the Buddha walking down a village path, he decided to make him his final victim. They had a verbal exchange, whereupon Angulimala felt great remorse for his actions, repented, and became a disciple. He later attained nirvana. Milarepa, the great Tibetan saint, was also a mass murderer as well as black magician, but he too attained redemption through his deep faith and the arduous practices assigned to him by his master Marpa. Tiger Woods is certainly no mass murderer; his sins, while painful to his family, are pretty common and run of the mill. He may currently be little more than a nominal Buddhist, but there is no doubt that if he were to feel a sense of genuine contrition and turn to the Dharma in earnest, he could atone for his transgressions, become a better man, and even attain enlightenment.

As far as the “effectiveness” of religions, I’ve alluded to that on my blog in the past couple of days: would Hume accept a “mindfulness” based therapy to help him deal with the grief over his son’s suicide, if it were known to him to be “Buddhist” – like?