Buddhism is a very pragmatic and down to earth philosophy actually. Also predates Christianity by about 500 years. There are zero promises of eternal heaven or 72 virgins if only one "believes" Buddha always denied that he was a god when people asked him and told his disciples to never worship him but to instead follow the noble eightfold path (which basically consists of ethics, meditation and right livelihood) I have absolutely no idea how one could consider that to be run by "spirits" A demon named mara tried to tempt Buddha himself before he attained Nibbana under the bodhi tree.