Buddha, Santa, and Atheism

On December 8th, while looking online for information on Bodhi Day, Bodhi tree images, and ideas for me and my daughter's Bodhi Tree project,  I came across one too many comparisons between Buddhism and atheism, most in favor of finding a correlation and some by Buddhists, themselves. These particular Buddhists reveal themselves as false practitioners/believers because true students of Buddhism understand that Buddhism is in no way supportive of atheism.

I am not Buddhist but I've studied Buddhism for 8 years. There are many who are of one religion but study and respect the guidance of Buddha, including Christian priests and Jewish rabbis.

Buddha believed in science, logic, and reason. He believed theory for the sake of theory was unrewarding and a waste of one's consciousness. Here is where those who do not understand the deep philosophies get confused: Buddha felt we should not theorize about a god, goddess, gods, or goddesses. He taught that we should focus on our own energies, our own spiritual development that encased our consciousness. Ours was not to question the existence or non-existence of a supreme being. To do so is a fruitless effort and only serves to cloud our thought and block our path.

We are to work on our own spiritual growth and evolution to achieve enlightenment. It will be at that time that we know what we must know and not before. We are not rewarded for laziness; therefore, we cannot hope to obtain the knowledge of higher powers if we are unworthy. We cannot become worthy if we have not worked on ourselves to be so.

We are mere humans. Regardless of what ones religion tells them, not one human creature knows what or who the god is. We do not know if it is male, female, one, or many. We do not know of it is an energy we, with our limited human understanding, could not mentally grasp. Theorizing (and that is all a human can do) will only distract us and open the window for negativity. There can be no affirmation when there is no way a living human can know.

Children hold their belief in Santa Claus dearly in their hearts and minds all year and especially at Christmas. They form their opinions of his appearance, attitude, and character from what they are shown by those they trust. As they grow older and wiser, they learn it was all false. Their parents meant well but the truth was the truth all the same. Believing in Santa felt good but what real benefit was it? Especially when it is discovered to be false?

Of course, a child's belief in mythological creatures encourages their creativity and imagination. It's a good thing. Adults, however, understand we must put away those childish toys whenever life calls upon us to think with true knowledge and fact.

When adults believe in things we cannot prove to ourselves is real or unreal, we spend our lives seeking justification for those beliefs, especially if anyone debates our beliefs (fighting to prove our worth is a product of vanity and ego). We dedicate our energy, our being, our knowledge, our higher consciousness to questioning that which we cannot ever learn. We spend little-to-none of those attributes on what we CAN understand and know, which is ourselves.

Various religions even teach us that we can never truly know God, "his" secrets, "his" answers, but we look, anyway. Some call this devotion. Buddha would call this self-serving and an unproductive use of the tools given to us at birth. Questioning is not faith, either. It is doubt. We theorize to prove and disprove a thing, which is why Buddhism holds theory of a god frivolous. Why must we prove or disprove the existence of a supreme being? Why can we not just KNOW and let it be?

Atheism believes there is no supreme being. Buddhism believes it is not our duty to theorize. Quite literally, then, Buddhism is the most faithful of all religions because it does not theorize. It just believes.