Do Buddhist believe in God almighty or do they just believe that Buddha was a religious leader?

Answer 1

No, they do not. There are several reasons for this. The Buddha, like modern sociologists and psychologists, believed that religious ideas and especially the god idea have their origin in fear. The Buddha says:
"Gripped by fear men go to the sacred mountains,
sacred groves, sacred trees and shrines".

Primitive man found himself in a dangerous and hostile world, the fear of wild animals, of not being able to find enough food, of injury or disease, and of natural phenomena like thunder, lightning and volcanoes was constantly with him. Finding no security, he created the idea of gods in order to give him comfort in good times, courage in times of danger and consolation when things went wrong. To this day, you will notice that people become more religious at times of crises, you will hear them say that the belief in a god or gods gives them the strength they need to deal with life. You will hear them explain that they believe in a particular god because they prayed in time of need and their prayer was answered. All this seems to support the Buddha’s teaching that the god-idea is a response to fear and frustration. The Buddha taught us to try to understand our fears, to lessen our desires and to calmly and courageously accept the things we cannot change. He replaced fear, not with irrational belief but with rational understanding.

The second reason the Buddha did not believe in a god is because there does not seem to be any evidence to support this idea. There are numerous religions, all claiming that they alone have god’s words preserved in their holy book, that they alone understand god’s nature, that their god exists and that the gods of other religions do not. Some claim that god is masculine, some that she is feminine and others that it is neuter. They are all satisfied that there is ample evidence to prove the existence of their god but they laugh in disbelief at the evidence other religions use to prove the existence of another god. It is not surprising that with so many different religions spending so many centuries trying to prove the existence of their gods that still no real, concrete, substantial or irrefutable evidence has been found. Buddhists suspend judgement until such evidence is forthcoming.

The third reason the Buddha did not believe in a god is that the belief is not necessary. Some claim that the belief in a god is necessary in order to explain the origin on the universe. But this is not so. Science has very convincingly explained how the universe came into being without having to introduce the god-idea. Some claim that belief in god is necessary to have a happy, meaningful life. Again we can see that this is not so. There are millions of atheists and free-thinkers, not to mention many Buddhists, who live useful, happy and meaningful lives without belief in a god. Some claim that belief in god’s power is necessary because humans, being weak, do not have the strength to help themselves. Once again, the evidence indicates the opposite. One often hears of people who have overcome great disabilities and handicaps, enormous odds and difficulties, through their own inner resources, through their own efforts and without belief in a god. Some claim that god is necessary in order to give man salvation. But this argument only holds good if you accept the theological concept of salvation and Buddhists do not accept such a concept. Based on his own experience, the Buddha saw that each human being had the capacity to purify the mind, develop infinite love and compassion and perfect understanding. He shifted attention from the heavens to the heart and encouraged us to find solutions to our problems through self-understanding

Answer 2

Buddha was a great teacher.
Buddhism is viewed as a philosophy, not a religion. So Buddhists can believe in a God, or not. It doesn't necessarily conflict with being a Buddhist.

Answer 3

Buddhist people think Buddha is god because he was a very kind and caring man. He gave to the poor and such. But he's not the real God.

Answer 4

Depends, as there are many type of Buddhism. Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism are the two main Buddhism believing in slightly different principle. But, both do not bother to ask question about God. In fact, there is no leader in Buddhism, as it is only principle guidelines in leading one going through life. Theravada adheres to the principle of solitude, in order to achieve clear focus to "think through" life of its causes and effects to reach Nirvana. One is the best dependence of oneself.

Buddha advised a group of people called Kalama of the ten principle of not believing: one among them was not to believe because I (meaning Buddha himself) say so. This is called Kalama Sutra (Literally means "Solution/or Formular for Kalama people": Not Kama Sutra: the Art of Love Making). The crux of it is only to believe when one proves to oneself that it is worth believing, yet leave room to disprove it later on.

Things happen out of causes and effects; therefore by scientific reasoning, problems can be isolated and cured.

To address issue of Gods; at which time the concept of one God did not exist; Buddhism was somewhat 550 years before Christ, Buddha has never mentioned God (obviously non-exist then: only perhaps Hindu multiple gods), but a general answer was that: He will not talk about this life or next life; Ghosts and Devils, as it is not relevant to what he is teaching: which is the path to enlighten; the four noble truths. In any case, Buddha also made an analogy that his knowledge is compared to a leaf of a tree, whereby there are many leafs in the forest, signifying that there are many bodies of knowledge in the world, the only one which he is talking about is the path that will help understand and put an end to continuous pains and sufferrings.

Answer 5

Buddha said that you have to know him well before you believe in Buddha.
I will tell you in easy words to make you understand, that the time that Buddha have to fulfill being a Buddha.
Do you know how many years will make our world destroy and disappear from universe?, each world will count as one until you can't count as many as (4+0*40+100000), that is the time that our Buddha have learned to become Buddha.
(4+0*40+100000)=40000000000000000000000000000000000100000,
Most reincarnation people can remember their one or two of their past lives. The person who practice to see their past and present lives can see up to 40 of theirs and others, that is what I know, maybe more than that.
But Buddha can see past of his lives in (4+0*40+100000) and others people's past and present, too. That are the things that Buddha can do of many other things that can't be describe.
Buddha also know the way to stop the life reincarnation and tell all the people to take meditation to stop the life reincarnation.

Answer 6

I consider myself to be a Buddhist and I believe in God. One of the things that attracts me to Buddhism is the fact that Buddhist's seem to have tolerance for other thinking. This because Karma determines outcome. All is nothing. Life is pain. Learn to cope.

Answer 7

The Buddha was a man, not a God. Buddhism is a philosophy about enlightenment, close to a religion, but not a religion.

Answer 8

Buddhism itself is not considered a religion its more of a teaching, hence Buddha is regarded as a teacher NOT a God

Answer 9

Buddha is not a god.

He was a human, who reached true Enlightenment.

Buddhists seek to become One with All. You may call "All" God, if you like.

Answer 10

buddhists believe in themselves, they follow the buddha's teachings, they do not have a centralized deity like that of the Judea-Christian religion.