[kahljorn]

karma is pretty much the doctrine of cause and effect and goes back to jainism and hindu (buddha was indian), possibly back to the aryans but I don't know. India has like 8 branches of philosophy or something, all of which are older than any western philosophy and many detail similar things.

Buddhism was originally a heterodoxical religion in that they didn't believe in a god (which was against the hinduish religion of the time) and just "believed in"/analyzed reality and the world.

modern buddhism comes mostly from chinese/tibet buddhism which actually are religous and many worship "Gods", mostly because buddhism kind of melded with other religions around whenever it spread into their culture. That's why you see some buddhists still worshipping Brahma or whatever, despite buddha saying there is no God.

but yes pure buddhism is "Godless" I guess, but still has a religous background with a philosophy that came from religions.