The God debate in Buddhism
June 23, 2008 by K.
So what do you think? Do you believe in God?
| Buddhists do believe in god |
| One of the points that I run into all the time is that Buddhism is a religion without god, that is it is an atheistic religion. I admit this assertion as an ideal or elite belief, but contend that the vast majority of the world’s Buddhists are theists, so one can’t simply present Buddhism as an atheistic religion when most Buddhists are not atheists. I do tend to agree that Western converts to Buddhism are often atheists, and that’s one reason Westerners view it as atheistic religion since the Buddhists they are most likely to know are not ethnically Asian ones. The US Religious Landscape Survey actually has some questions which assess the beliefs of American Buddhists. |
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Posted in Buddhism (general) | Tagged god | 1 Comment
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personally I believe there are trillions of gods and I came to this conclusion based on the Buddha’s mentioning of the six realms of transmigration. Two of these realms; the Deva and Asura realms where beings have stature greater than human beings and referred to as either gods or demigods.
These beings have positive karma which propels their mind into these higher realms where their existence is much more pleasurable than a human life. However the Asura beings are jealous of the higher gods and are caught up with their own stature.
I believe the christian god resides in this asura realm based off of biblical accounts of his attitude and destructive tendencies for solution of human sin and plain lack of consideration for human life. Not to mention that he is often referred to as a jealous god, which is a coined term for beings residing in the asura realm.
The only problem with all of this realm talk is that they are not clearly seen through every day human experience. Only one other realm has a direct connection to the human realm and that is the animal realm. This is not enough to provide enough evidence that these other realms exist. But intriguing non the less especially when these realms are heavily studied they fall in line with the concept of karma quite perfectly.
Perhaps believing in gods and the realms of transmigration is only additional delusion preventing the enlightened mind from manifesting. But for me it does provide many answers to the problem of where does a god come from, or who made a god if there is one. I would go as far as to say, a god is nothing more than a being residing within samsara…