Confession of a Buddhist Atheist

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Bodhi 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

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