Why do some religions have more than one god?

Answer 1

Not every culture believes that having one god is better than having many. Even the Hebrew people once followed more than one God. And at least one modern Christian denomination, the Mormons, believes in the existence of more than one God.

Answer 2

Buddhists do not particularly believe in any god - you might be confusing Buddhism with Hinduism, which has a plethora of deities.

Buddhism mentions gods in many texts, but always as "heavenly beings" who also gather to hear the teachings of the Buddha and are eager to hear to his wisdom, which is greater than theirs. In various Buddhist cultures, there exist tutelary deities, which serve to protect the believers, but these are holdovers of the religions formerly practiced by the locals before conversion to Buddhism. In fact, Buddhism simply doesn't consider God or gods at all, except as symbolic of natural law - to the Buddhist, it is the Mystic, or Wonderful Law of cause and effect, or Karma, that overrides everything, and all beings, mortal and heavenly, seek wisdom to eradicate their karma.

Buddhism teaches self reliance in that quest, and does not accept the idea of an intermediary of any sort, not even the Buddha, who is simply a historical figure who tried to inspire that search in others and provide guidance as to how to achieve it.

It comes out to the Buddhist saying of: " You cannot get rich counting your neighbour's money" which means that there si no intermediary between yourself and your enlightened self, but that your own effeorts are all that count in this, there is no other help in that sense. While to Christians this might sound harsh, to Buddhists, the opposite, relying on a god to cradle you and protect you seems an anathema and a sign that one has not properly understood the true law of cause and effect.