Hi there,

I had posted this very long response and it is missing, so I am going to abbreviate

I wasn't sure if buddhists believed in God, so I googled it. Now I want to read up on buddhism - very interesting. Anywho, the upshot was that alot of people that are buddhist do believe in God but you don't have to to be a buddhist - they don't base their religion on a God.

Now, having said that, I struggled with what to believe because I was raised a strict catholic. The God taught to me was loving - IF you did everything the way they told you to. So really my God was punishing.

I now have a higher power of my understanding that I call Source. I do not follow any particular religion. I know that if I am a good person and do my best then my "after life" will be just fine. I also believe the only person that will judge me when I die is myself. I will need to sit and reflect on my life and ponder what I have learned and what I still need to learn if I choose to come back.

You need to do some soul-searching to see what you truly believe, not what you were trained to believe or what you believe out of guilt. The bottom line is you have the freedom to choose what you want. So if you want to be a Buddhist that believes in God, then more power to you!

Tranquility