By religious spectrum I mean monotheistic, polytheistic, pantheistic, atheistic, etc. I just started to get to know about Buddhism and so I want to know the very basics of where Buddhism stands. I know there are a lot of different schools in Buddhism and some have integrated with local culture and so different schools fit into different spectrums. Eg. with Chinese folk religion. But where does the most original (at least in theory) school of thought in buddhism, that is, the one that Gautama Buddha taught to his disciples fit into the religious spectrum? I know there are two major schools in Buddhism, Theravada and Mahayana. Do they fit into the same spectrum but just differ in rituals, customs, etc, or are they totally different? I have no idea abut Theravada but I know a very tiny bit about Mahayana because my family has more tendancy on it and I find it hard to position Mahayana Buddhism. Is it Atheism or Polytheism? There are many Buddhas but once we also become a Buddha they are just our "colleague" or "classmates" in the "western world". And there are no so called "creator" because this materialistic world we live in is actually created by ourselves and the teachings in Buddhism is to train our mind to escape this material world because the material world is the root for stress and unhappiness. Then would at least this school of thought be considered as Atheism? But often nowadays when we talk about Atheism we often relate our minds to Secularism and Buddhism imho does not relate to Secularism. Yet indeed I think Buddhism is very appealing to secularists nowadays.