Nontheistic religion
[2] The Buddha said that devas (translated as "gods") do exist, but they were regarded as still being trapped in samsara,[3] and are not necessarily wiser than humans.
[5] Except gods who are considered as manifestations of Buddhas such as the five Jambhalas and the devas who reside in Pure Abodes and other deities such as Tara based on some Buddhist traditions.
[6] Since the time of the Buddha, the denial of the existence of a creator deity has been seen as a key point in distinguishing Buddhist from non-Buddhist views.
[8] On one occasion, when presented with a problem of metaphysics by the monk Malunkyaputta, the Buddha responded with the Parable of the Poisoned Arrow.
Many of them owe much of their theology to the work of Christian existentialist philosopher Paul Tillich, including the phrase "the ground of all being".
Zaehner, "it is perfectly possible to be a good Hindu whether one's personal views incline toward monism, monotheism, polytheism, or even atheism.
Max Müller termed this henotheism, and it can be seen as indicating one, non-dual divine reality, with little emphasis on personality.
[18][19] It is with the Upanishads, reckoned to be written in the first millennia (coeval with the ritualistic Brahmanas), that the Vedic emphasis on ritual was challenged.
[22] The understanding of the nature of Brahman as impersonal is based in the definition of it as 'ekam eva advitiyam' (Chandogya Upanishad 6.2.1) – it is one without a second and to which no substantive predicates can be attached.
[24] The mahāvākya statement Tat Tvam Asi, found in the Chandogya Upanishad, can be taken to indicate this unity.
"[38] This means that it lacks properties usually associated with God such as omniscience, perfect goodness, omnipotence, and additionally is identical with the whole of reality, rather than being a causal agent or ruler of it.
[39] Jain texts claim that the universe consists of jiva (life force or souls) and ajiva (lifeless objects).
Various views on divinity and the universe held by the Vedics, Sāmkhyas, Mimamsas, Buddhists, and other school of thoughts were criticized by Jain Ācāryas, such as Jinasena in Mahāpurāna.
Chinese Taoism or Daoism originally emphasizes the otherness of the divine, the Tao, which is at the same time immanent and transcendent, but not anthropomorphic.
Only in later Taoism does a pantheon of gods emerge, and even then they are considered deities inferior to the principle of Tao, often representing cosmic or heavenly concepts.
The god Shangdi might have originally as a symbolic of the Pole Star in northern China, eventually becoming a kind of intermediary between the impersonal Tao and the world of active creation.
[40] Philosophical models[clarification needed] not falling within established religious structures, such as Confucianism, Epicureanism, Deism, and Pandeism, have also been considered to be nontheistic religions.
