Is buddhism one religion or many religions?

Answer 1

neither.

Answer 2

Neither.

Buddhism does not depend on the existence of a God who created the universe. Instead Buddhism chooses to focus upon practical ways of life that can lead to a blissful state of being (enlightenment). However, at the same time, Buddha did not rule out the existence of a God or gods altogether.

With the growth and spread of Buddhism, local deities and religious practices were included in it. Today, Tibetan Buddhist cosmology talks about a large number of 'Divine Beings', believed to be representative of the psychic life. One of the six realms of the Tibetan cosmology is the realm of Gods, who must take birth on earth as humans to attain enlightenment.

Essentially though Buddha was simply a teacher and an agnostic.

To read more on how Buddhism differs to traditional forms of religion copy and paste this link:

http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/snapshot01.htm