Expert: Alex Wilding - 1/25/2009

Question
Hi, why does belief in Buddhism preclude a belief in God? Please explain, thank you.

Answer
Hi Marc,
There are a couple of reasons.
Firstly, we see no good reason to believe in "God", in any case, though of course it depends what you mean by the word. Perhaps indeed there are powerful beings on another plane; perhaps indeed some of them have a degree of power over us or over this world. One can argue that point back and forth.
However, if there is a powerful being "out there" - whom we might call Indra, for example - the evidence of all the suffering that there is proves beyond any doubt that he cannot be both loving and very powerful - if he's powerful, he's horrible, if he's loving, he obviously has little power.
The other thing is that what Buddhism teaches us to do is to be grown-up and to take our own responsibility for our own actions - if we think, speak and act with hate, the world will get worse, but if we think, speak and act with kindness and compassion, things will get better in the world, and better in our own minds.
This last point has nothing to do with god, even if he does exist.
Does that clarify things at all?