Actually, people do believe in the Buddha. It's called Mahayana Buddhism where a boddhisattva is prayed to, similar to a Catholic saint. The Buddha is worshipped as a supernatural being in this form of Buddhism. The philosophical, or orthodox Buddhism, is categorized as Theravada.
And the Buddha is related to the Tao in that Taoism adopted some of Buddhism's philosophies. Buddhism permiated throughout Asia because it's so flexible in its basic form. You'll see a lot of Tao-ish beliefs in Mahayana Buddhism.
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Actually, people do believe in the Buddha. It's called Mahayana Buddhism where a boddhisattva is prayed to, similar to a Catholic saint. The Buddha is worshipped as a supernatural being in this form of Buddhism. The philosophical, or orthodox Buddhism, is categorized as Theravada. And the Buddha is related to the Tao in that Taoism adopted some of Buddhism's philosophies. Buddhism permiated throughout Asia because it's so flexible in its basic form. You'll see a lot of Tao-ish beliefs in Mahayana Buddhism.