The Buddha was an atheist.

Before I continue, I would like to state to the voters that at heart and mind, I do NOT believe the Buddha was an atheist. I believe that the Buddha was a Messenger of God and Buddhism is a monotheistic Religion, despite the belief of some individuals. I simply accepted this debate on the grounds that I will hopefully learn some arguments from Con to present to individuals who may hold such a belief that the Buddha was indeed, an atheist. Therefore I will be taking the side of the individuals who would take the Pro-view of this debate topic for educational purposes. Let's begin: Throughout the realm of Buddhism, there are doctrines and traditions that state a variety of things. Some state that the Buddha Himself was in fact God, while others state that the Buddha wasn't God but rather HAD a God Himself to which He prayed to. There are some who totally reject the idea of a Supreme Reality and argue that the manifestation of God rests in the nature of life around us (pantheism), while others restrict Buddhism down to the idea of consciousness and forms self-evaluating meditation techniques. The question is who's right? In order to answer this question, we need to focus on the logic behind Buddhist teachings. So, if we compare Buddhism to the Judeo-Christian-Islamic religions, we can conclude that Buddhism has no God or gods where people submit to in exchange for some solace. The spirit presented by the Buddha's teachings ultimately refuses to offer any sort of divinity or god-like being to help subdue anxiety or other forms of distress. Instead, freedom from such anguish rests in the ability of the individual's mind, in turn making the mind of oneself equivalent to God. How does this relate to the Buddha? Well, it is the Buddha who taught such methods of mental stress-suppression and Self-reliance, which means that the Buddha did not rely on God or a god to assist Him throughout His endeavors. This idea that the self governs all is clear when the Buddha directly connects the self to a Godlike station and says, "I am the core of all that exists. I am the seed of all that exists. I am the cause of all that exists. I am the trunk of all that exists. I am the foundation of all that exists. I am the root of existence. I am "the core" because I contain all phenomena. I am "the seed" because I give birth to everything. I am "the cause" because all comes from me. I am "the trunk" because the ramifications of every event sprout from me. I am "the foundation" because all abides in me. I am called "the root" because I am everything" (The Supreme Source p.157). We can clearly see that the Buddha uses such terminology to promote an atheistic system of thought, which can be looked at as the self being the center of all that is around. So without the mind of self, control over the environment around us becomes lost. Since we"ve determined that the Buddhist Teachings encourage the strengthening of the mind, a new question arises; did the Buddha actually believe in One God, the One True God as explained in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic religions? The simple answer is no, because monotheism was a very foreign concept to the Buddha and India. This was due to the world He lived in, which was filled with numerous gods with the creator Brahma being the most important. Just to show you how foreign it was, history tells us that at time of the Buddha, the only people practicing the monotheism, were the Jews. Remember, it was still 500 years before Christ came into the world. So the only way the Buddha could have known about the One True God at the time, was if the Buddha met a Jew, which He clearly didn"t. So now, we know the foundation of the Buddhist teachings rests in the strength of the mind, we know that the Buddha did not encounter monotheism, the next question is, "can we prove the disassociation from the Buddha and God?". Well, the answer to this question is yes we can, because of the 3 Buddhist foundations known as the 3 Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma (the Teachings), and the Sangha (the Community). This Buddhist Trinity (for lack of a better term), does not include or even touch on the subject of God or a single Supreme Power, like the Judeo-Christian-Islamic religions do. It all revolves around the Buddha and how the Buddhist teaching is integrated in the daily life. The purpose of such an integration is so an individual can eliminate the suffering of of human life, which is a doctrine more important than the concept of God in Buddhism.