Download Buddhist Apatheism

Buddhist Apatheism
Atheism is tricky to pin down now „a days. There is the “extreme”
atheism that denies the existence of anything supernatural
whatsoever, including karma and rebirth. And then there are those
that identify as atheists simply because they don‟t believe in
god/gods. Either one is fine by me. I can embrace the atheistic idea
of no deities, but I choose not to define myself by what I don‟t
believe in.
I believe Buddhism to be largely apatheistic in its approach to
deities. It doesn‟t really matter if god/gods do exist, because they
obviously don‟t care about ending our suffering. It falls upon us to
end the cycle of samsara (though we may call upon the bodhisattvas
to aid us).
But as for “complete” atheism, no, I don‟t think it‟s really
compatible with what the Buddha taught. The Buddha spoke for
kalpas upon kalpas about karma and rebirth. It‟s kind of hard to
deny this, isn‟t it?