Image via WikipediaBodhi Thunder
Buddhism is different from nearly any other religion in that it doesn’t require a belief in God.
Many Buddhists do believe in God. But the Buddha never answered the
question on whether there was a God or not. When asked such questions,
the Buddha maintained the Noble Silence. He said they were questions
“not tending toward edification.” Meaning that there are questions.
like does God exist?, that are not really helpful.
The Buddha instead gave an analogy of a person being shot with an
arrow, and there were those that wanted to help remove the arrow. But
the wounded person would not remove the arrow until he found out who
shot the arrow, where the person came from, why he wanted to shoot him,
and other questions that would not help remove his arrow and thus his
suffering.
Buddhism doesn’t require a belief in God to remove the arrow of
suffering. Rather, the Buddha asks humanity to see things as they
really are and to think and act in helpful ways for all of life. He
wanted people to experience the truth so that they wouldn’t be misled
by sources of information that are not in compliance with the truth.
Books and people can tell you of experiences of God and revelations.
But each of us ultimately have to experience the truth to know the
truth.
See Video Below of a lecture given by author Stephen Batchelor on his book
