How many gods do Buddists believe in?

Answer 1

None. The Buddha told his followers that any belief in a God was another form of grasping and attachment which led to suffering.

Some Buddhists do beleive that there is a Deva realm in which certain enlightened beings (Devas) enjoy a finite blissful existence, but these beings are not Gods and their time in this realm is not permanent.

Answer 2

None. Some Buddhists believe that there exist God-like beings in higher realms, known as devas. But these, like all other beings are temporary and transitory. The reason that the Buddha taught us not to believe in Gods is because there has been no irrefutable evidence for them. I once read somewhere that there was over 5000 different religions still being practiced on Earth, and with the exception of a few (including Buddhism) all had different Gods and cosmology.

Answer 3

None. The Buddha was a man, not a god, and he stated many times that what he taught was the end of suffering; that teachings about gods did not contribute to an end to suffering, so he didn't teach about gods. However, there were lots of believers in a variety of gods around during his life, so they seem to have crept into Buddhist stories.

Answer 4

Buddhist believes in Karma, There are no creator Gods, but Buddhism believes in divas, who are the reincarnations of people with very good karma.

Answer:

Buddhism believes in less than one god. There is no central deity in Buddhism, each individual is on their own to pursue the path to enlightenment. The example of the Buddha shows us that it can be done, the instructions of the Eightfold Path show us how it can be done, the support of the community of Buddhists helps us.

Answer 5

Here are comments and opinions from a variety of WikiAnswer contributors:

• Buddhism is not a religion. Hence, there are no Buddhist gods.

• The Buddha himself was not a god, just a man who thought his way towards the answer to questions around the meaning of life and the pursuit of happiness. Like any role model he is revered and some may turn to him as a source of inspiration - like a pianist pondering on a bust of Beethoven. Buddhisms doesn't exactly worship any god (although it does not means we denied the existence of god) so there was never a script mentioning a god.

• Some buddhists believe in karma or action. Karma is the law of moral causation. It is action which is responsible for the sorrows and happiness of human beings. Action decides past, present or future of a person. For some people, in Buddhism karma or action has replaced the concept of God.

• Buddhism in general is a faith (not a religion) and has no gods, though this belief varies widely by which Buddhist tradition one adheres to and each individual. Theravedic tradition holds there is no single god. In the larger Mahayana tradition there also really is no god, but many of this traditions hold that there are many.

• Buddhas and lesser Boddhisatvas who are god like. I am more of the Mahayana tradition but do not believe in a single creator god. I believe God is all and all is God.

• Buddhism is in itself a form of Atheism, originated from India that was because India has long been a extremely religious country.

• In Buddhism, there is no God, nor any gods or goddesses, seraphim, cherubim, archangels, demons, mythological beasts, familiars, pan-dimensional cyborgs or talkative shrubbery.

• Buddhists have neither god(s) nor prophets. Everyone finds enlightenment by their own effort. In that sense, God is complete balance.

• There is no god in Buddhism. Buddhism in not a religion. People are pretty much on their own to find there way towards perfection. The Buddha him self spoke on the futility of asking for divine intervention on the path to enlightenment.

• Some Buddhist traditions have a number of demi-gods (spirits, demons etc.) but these may be symbols for the inner struggles that we must overcome. The belief in these beings ties the believers to older religions that were replaced by Buddhist beliefs. An example would be the Bon religion in pre-Buddhist Tibet.

• Buddhism is a practice not a religion like most Western religions. The Buddha himself addressed the issue. He stated that existence or non-existence of a god(s) is unimportant as a person must achieve enlightenment by their own efforts.

• Furthermore, many questions like "Is there a god(s)?" or "How did the universe begin?" are open to endless debate with no possible totally satisfying conclusion. As a consequence the questions consume time and effort that could be better channelled into following the Eightfold Path. At the same time Buddha did not see any advantage in actively denying the existence of a deity - this is the same as wasting time on the other non-resolvable endeavors.

As far as I know there are not a proscribed number of Gods in Buddhism. The Buddhist path is essentially one of self realisation, supported by the teachings of beings who have already attained realisation.
None, its a philosophy.x
There are no Buddhist Gods in the sense of the Abrahamic or other deity-centered religions. The Buddhas are often revered in a very similar way to deities in other religions and Buddhism does have varying teachings regarding the exact nature and definition of God but, from an 'official' perspective, there are no Gods in Buddhism.

Answer 6

None. Buddhists do not believe in any immortal, all powerful gods.

We do believe that people, if they have lived a good life and are on the path to enlightenment, can attain a temporary existence in a realm we call the God Realm. But these beings are not all powerful and not immortal. It is a way-station on the path of enlightenment.

Answer 7

None in the Western sense of a theistic God. However, in some branches of Buddhism, such as Tibetan Buddhism, various deities are involved in Buddhist worship.

Answer 8

None. Though some Buddhist tradition teach that there is a God Realm in the afterlife in which enlightened beings called Devas live for a long time, but not forever as a reward.

Answer 9

Contrary to popular belief, Buddhism is polytheistic, not atheistic (if it was atheistic, it wouldn't have become a religion). However, they do not believe in a Supreme Creator.