What Do You Mean by "God"?

A blogger named Razib, who posts on the science blog Gene Expressions, questions whether Buddhism is theistic or atheistic. Razib writes,

One of the points that I run into all the time is that Buddhism is a religion without god, that is it is an atheistic religion. I admit this assertion as an ideal or elite belief, but contend that the vast majority of the world's Buddhists are theists, so one can't simply present Buddhism as an atheistic religion when most Buddhists are not atheists.

Razib presents data from a survey of self-identified American Buddhists, the majority of whom reported some belief in God. Also in Asia, Razib says, many people who call themselves Buddhists also believe in a supreme being or God. Razib continues (emphasis in original),

This is not to say that I believe Buddhism is a theistic religion; one can't deny that many people are Buddhists who are admitted atheists. It is to offer that to generalize about a religion one must look at the true distribution of beliefs and practices, not just scholarly inferences based on textual clues in their scriptures. Of the American religions listed Buddhism did have the highest number atheists (Jews were second at 10%), so it is correct to say that of all major World Religions atheistic interpretations are most prevalent in Buddhism. But it is too much to make the claim that Buddhism is an atheistic religion as such.

Razib's arguments bring together several issues I've discussed on this site, but I'd like to start with the theistic/atheistic issue.

Strictly speaking, Buddhism is neither theistic nor atheistic. It is nontheistic. The historical Buddha taught that belief in God or gods is irrelevant and unnecessary to the realization of the dharma.

I discuss this matter in more detail in "Atheism and Devotion in Buddhism." One of my points in that essay is that, in Buddhism, much of what looks like worship is not. Rather, acts of reverence or devotion are skillful means to break down the hindrance of ego. One's conceptualization of what one is being devoted or reverent to is another matter.

If Buddha was not a god, why bow to Buddha-figures? One might bow just to show gratitude for the Buddha’s life and practice. But the Buddha figure also represents enlightenment itself and the unconditioned nature of all things.

In the Zen monastery where I first learned about Buddhism, the monks liked to point to the Buddha on the altar and say, “That’s you up there. When you bow, you are bowing to yourself.”

And then, of course, what's a "God"? Several of Razib's readers pointed out in the comments that Razib seems to be conceptualizing "God" and "theism" as these terms are conceptualized in the Abrahamic religions. This is a common mistake many people make when observing Buddhism, and it leads to considerable misunderstanding.

Many of the celestial beings of Buddhist iconography might more accurately thought of as archetypes than as gods as westerners understand the term "gods." For more discussion of these beings and how they are understood, see, for example, "What Is a Bodhisattva?" See also "Gods in Buddhism" by Austin Cline, our About.com Guide to Agnosticism/Atheism.

Another question that has to be asked is, What is a Buddhist? Razib took some of his data from a Pew Forum study I discussed last February. As I said in the earlier post, one problem with data from self-identified Buddhists is that there are people who call themselves Buddhists because they are vegetarian and meditate now and then, but don't know the Four Noble Truths from eggplant. On the other hand, one can find people actively practicing Buddhism who hesitate to call themselves Buddhist.

I argue that Buddhism is not whatever anyone wants it to be, and if the word Buddhism is to mean anything, then the definition of Buddhist must have some parameters and integrity. There is plenty of room for discussion and disagreement over what those parameters might be, but I suggest that a "Buddhism" utterly disconnected from the teachings of the historical Buddha is not Buddhism. And in the West, I believe there are plenty of self-identified Buddhists who aren't.