Was Buddha an atheist?

Buddha (about B.C. 560-480) The Hindu Moralist Gautama, who came to be known as Buddha (the enlightened one).[He] is chiefly interesting to us from the fact that, though the religion which now goes by the name Buddhism is a crass and to a great extent corrupt mass of superstitions, he was an atheist. It is admitted that he was educated in the Sankhya philosophy, which was atheistic. Brahmanism had become so andtract a religion while the mass of the people clung to the grossest myths, that there was a wide spread of atheism at that time. Gautama decided to devote his life to a purely humanist and very simple preaching of ideals of conduct among the people. The few writers of any weight who doubt his position are content to argue, very feebly, that he may have believed in God but never mentioned him. That is not the way of moralists. But the chief authorities are positive. The highest is Professor T. Rhys Davids who both in his lectures at Cornell (published as Buddhism) and his Life of Buddha says that Buddha "denied the existence of any soul" (cosmic or human). Professor N.W. Hopkins (Religions of India, 1895) says that he cast off not only gods but soul (p. 298), and the same in his Ethics of India. Professor Vincent Smith says that "without denying the existence of a Supreme Being he ignored it." In the Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics Professor Macdonell (professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University) says in his article "Indian Buddhism" that he denied the existence of a world soul and individual soul"; yet the same encyclopaedia, which always keeps an eye on the churches (as all encyclopedias do), entrusts its article on Buddhism to one of the clerical writers who hold that Buddha must have believed in God. These sophists first argue that atheism is inconsistent with high ideals and then that any man whose ideals they cannot deny must have been a theist. The real authorities agree that Buddha was an atheist.Source: http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/joseph_mccabe/dictionary.html


Some quotes --- Buddha (verses from the Bhûridatta Jataka)
If the creator of the world entireThey call God, of every being be the LordWhy does he order such misfortuneAnd not create concord?

If the creator of the world entireThey call God, of every being be the LordWhy prevail deceit, lies and ignoranceAnd he such inequity and injustice create?


If the creator of the world entireThey call God, of every being be the LordThen an evil master is he, (O Aritta)Knowing what's right did let wrong prevail!

Source: http://www.buddhistinformation.com/buddhist_attitude_to_god.htm