What’s the difference between atheism and buddhism?

Tony: What’s the difference between atheism and buddhism?
As a Christian man, I like to find out all I can about what others believe (or don’t believe). I already understand atheists. But now I’m researching Buddhism and it just seems like atheism to me. Is this true? If not, what are the differences?

Answers and Views:

Answer by No Chance Without Jesus
They are different forms of humanism

Answer by William Resew
buddhists practice buddhism, while atheists do not practice religion.
that is the major difference.

what is the difference between black and white?

Answer by Donut Tim
An atheist is a person that believes there is no God. The definition goes no farther. Like anyone else, an atheist may believe or disbelieve many other things.

Buddhism is a religion, holding that life is full of suffering caused by desire and that the way to end this suffering is through enlightenment that enables one to halt the endless sequence of births and deaths to which one is otherwise subject.
.

Answer by Adam Cz.
Besides the tons of written buddhist philosophy and the fact that buddhists believe in re-incarnation?

Answer by Rose
I guess Atheists can be in harmony with Buddhism.
Can Atheists be the transitional stage between Religious (like Christianity) and Buddhism which provides guidance and structure?
Don’t confuse with Buddhist philosophy and literature where you talk about floating elephants in dreams etc. Buddhism is much bigger than that.
By the way your profile pic is creepy lol

Answer by *Blessed*
Buddhism doesn’t NOT believe in God(s). They can believe in God, a god, gods, goddesses, whatever, but it’s not required.

Answer by Oldgrump
The main difference is that Atheism is not a religion, Buddhism is. Atheism is a term used for non-belief in god. Buddhism is a religion based on introspection – all the answers to the world’s problems come from within, not from the belief in a deity.

All Buddhists are atheists. Not all atheists are Buddhists.

Answer by ℒ’amour est le chaos
Buddhism is a religion and Atheism is not. In other words Buddhism has specifics and Atheism has nothing specific outside of the concept of there being no god(s). It is true that some Buddhists are Atheists but some are also theists, yet the thing is even if they are theists if they want to reach enlightenment they are told not to think about god too much. Buddhists are closer to being Pragmatic Agnostics, which means they arent supposed to think about god so they are technically atheists.

Answer by ?
“All Buddhists are atheists.”

This is false. Buddhism is non-theist but doesn’t exclude the possibility of a God or Gods, and many buddhist traditions include a variety of supernatural entities, devas and worlds.

“What’s the difference between atheism and buddhism?”

Atheism is a lack of belief in a god or gods, and usually also a lack of a belief in any supernatural beings and a supreme power. Buddhism as a religion began as a reaction to the decadent ritualism of the Hindu Brahmin priestly caste around 500BC. Buddhism derives many of its ideas from Hinduism; such as karma (cause and effect), transmigratory existence (called samsara), as well as the idea of liberation from this cycle which causes suffering. In Buddhism this idea is called enlightenment or nirvana, and in Hinduism it’s called variously moksha or kaivalya. Many modern buddhists seek to represent Buddhism as a form of humanism and just as philosophy, depriving it of its religious roots and traditional garb; that’s why you confused it for atheism.

Answer by ryuei2000
If you really want to know the answer to this question you will have to read what the Buddha taught in the Buddhist scriptures that are called sutras. Here is a page on which are links to a series of articles I wrote with copious citations from the Pali Canon on what the Buddha had to say about divine revelations, dogmatic traditions, the afterlife, theism, and other metaphysical speculations. It’s not anything like what you have ever read in Western religion or philosophy:

https://fraughtwithperil.com/ryuei/what-is-the-buddha-dharma/

If you would like to know more about the Buddha’s life and teachings here is another link to other articles about the Buddha’s life and teachings based primarily on the Pali Canon:

https://fraughtwithperil.com/ryuei/shakyamuni-buddhas-life-and-teachings/

By the way, I am a priest in a Mahayana lineage of Buddhism, but I use the Pali Canon for these articles (for the most part) because they are the closest to the historical Buddha’s teachings and because they provide the basic foundational teachings and practices that the Mahayana sutras also accept (even if they go beyond them). For non-Buddhists whose interest is primarily that of intellectual curiosity, I think it makes more sense to read these teachings first as in them the Buddha is also talking primarily to people who have never heard the Dharma before.

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei

Answer by zaxtor z
Buddhism is an Atheistic philosophy just like Jainism and Hinduism.
Probably others dunno at the moment.

In Western culture, atheists are frequently assumed to be exclusively irreligious or unspiritual. However, atheism also figures in certain religious and spiritual belief systems, such as Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism. Jainism and some forms of Buddhism do not advocate belief in gods, where as Hinduism holds atheism to be valid, but difficult to follow spiritually.

For Buddhism example.
Because of its absence of a creator god, Buddhism is commonly described as nontheistic.
People often think they worship Buddha but for real they do not worship Buddha they learn from his teaching.

Example It said Vietnam was 81-85% Atheist (most Atheistic country in the world) and I checked and most of its people are Buddhist.

I’m not Buddhist myself but Buddhism is among the best philosophy because it promote peace to all life and teaches loving and kindness to all lives.

Answer by Reality
There are gods that is mentioned in Buddhism. They are considered to be another type of living beings. They do not create or control the world.

Answer by Skraeling6
Some Buddhist believe in god(s) and therefore are theists and some Buddhists don’t believe in god(s) and therefore are atheists.

Some Buddhists play golf therefore they are golfers and some Buddhists don’t play golf and therefore are agolfers.