Buddhists Beliefs about God

Buddhism is non atheistic and one of the most unique religions across the globe. This is based on Buddhists beliefs about God. Buddhists does not recognize nor have any place for God, a supreme being in its soteriology. Buddhist rejects the existence and presence of creator deity and emphasizes on the system of causal relationship underlying the universe, which constitutes source of enlightenment and natural order or dharma).

An overview of Buddhists beliefs about God

Buddhists reject the presence of a supreme God and just as it does so, it also rejects the idea of an abstract God principle operating all over the universe. In Buddhist texts, Brahman is not discussed at all and even in India, it can be a post Buddhist development from an attempt to reconcile the belief in gods with a more powerful a supreme critique of Buddha.

In early Buddhism, Buddhists only speak of the existence of a category of beings known as devas and this can be found in Buddhist cosmology). Devas refer to gods, shining and radiant beings that focus on their physical appearance as opposed to supernatural powers.

Brahmanical and Vedic religion of Buddha postulated various gods and majority of them natural forces personifications. Even so, Brahmanical theology had advanced to the point where the gods were seen more superior than others and was considered creator god. This supreme god could be according to Buddhist be equivalent to single God of many monotheistic religions that emerged in the Middle East.

Buddhists also believe in gods and that they probably lead comfortable lives and are addicted to different forms of pleasure in terms of wisdom which can be inferior to human beings. According to Buddhists, gods are represented as coming to get instructions from lay persons and from monks. Therefore, there is incompatibility between Buddhist principles and the belief in god.

As mentioned earlier, God cannot be reconciled with the idea of causality included in the theory of dependent origination. This is one of the adversaries of Buddha during his enlightenment.

There is a fundamental Buddhist belief about God that all phenomena including human beings have three major characteristics including dukkha, anicca or impermanence and anatta or unsustainability. God attributes are not consistent with these kind of Buddhist universal of existence. Therefore, God should be free from dukka but must be eternal therefore, not subject to anicca. Lastly, he must have a very distinct and an unchanging identity meaning it lacks the features of annant.

The other belief of Buddhist about God is that He acts as the final judge and can determine if individuals will go to hell or heaven. According to Buddhist, the destination of different individuals is largely determined by Karmic law and cannot in any way be determined by any external process. Only people can affect their karmic destinies. Not even Buddha can pardon or interfere with Karmic process. This means that according to Buddhists teachings and beliefs, there is no place for a God even if one would or were to exist.

According to Buddhists, there is no place for atonement of human sins and vicarious salvation by a God. The believers affirm that through Karma, one is done or created. Buddhist in this case believes that no one including God can save the other. This is therefore a cardinal principle of Buddhist that cannot be reconciled with actions and attributes of God.

Summary of Buddhists beliefs about God

According to Buddhists, God appears to be a vain being that expects the others to worship and to pray to him. Such prayers appear to be the most significant and decisive factor in a person’s salvation and not necessary any bad or good deeds by the individual. However, as mentioned above, Buddha’s strongly refute existence of God and it was formulated more than 2500 years ago.

It is also worth noting that even though Buddhists do not believe in the existence of God, they inherited various Indian cosmology of the time including different types of realms such as Heaven of the Thirty Three as well as the Four Great Kings among others.

 

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Sources

http://www.budsas.org/ebud/ebdha068.htm

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lewis-richmond/do-buddhists-believe-in-g_b_859658.html?ir=India&adsSiteOverride=in

http://www.religionfacts.com/buddhism/beliefs