APPEAL OF BUDDHISM

The Buddha held that there is no God and no Atman.   But how did he arrive at this?  His thinking mind determined it.  But it was the Buddha’s thinking mind only.

Other thinking minds could just as easily have decided otherwise.  Indeed, many did, not the least of which were Vedantist thinking minds.

But that is not the point.  The aim of Buddhism is the end of suffering, and a surefire way to achieve this is to contend that no God or Atman exists.  It does not matter whether or not this is fact.  The effect is the same.

No longer, for example, are you frustrated by not being able, seemingly, to get close to God, or God to get close to you.  If He does not exist, that solves that.

You may have mystical moments when you think you feel His presence, but such moments are unreliable, unpredictable.  No matter how conscientious and determined you are in your spiritual practice, it does not seem to matter.  God is hard to come by.

Why put yourself through all that, the Buddha argued, when, by disengaging from it, you get relief?  Indeed, you do get relief when you detach from it.  Such is the appeal of Buddhism.