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There are many different schools and traditions in Buddhism. Their followers treat science differently. Most schools accept data obtained through experiments. They use the five senses as tools for understanding samsara. For example, the other day there was another meeting of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, where he directly said that he considers the big bang theory useful, and that he believes in the formation of man in the process of evolution.
http://www.youtube.com/embed/ay2HzFP9JnQ?wmode=opaque
There are monks who take archaic texts that contradict modern research literally. And there are those like the Dalai Lama who try to find the intersection of science and Buddhist tradition. But it is important to remember that science does not deal with issues that lie beyond the capabilities of the senses. Whereas in Buddhism, such practices (direct experience of reality) are considered to lead to the goal of discovering the freedom of the mind.
Buddhists treat atheists in the same way as theists — benevolently. Buddhists have a nontheistic position of thinking — there is no creator of the world and consciousness. All minds are beginningless and infinite. Buddhists do not impose their position on anyone. If a person begins to show hatred, greed, and stupidity in trying to protect the tradition, they can be said to have strayed from the path taught by Buddhists. The various spirits and deities in Buddhism are just other forms of mind incarnation. That is, a person's mind can, for example, accumulate good merits and be incarnated in the world of deities. That is, deities as well as people exist in samsara, in contrast to the Buddhas, whose existence in nirvana is qualitatively distinguished by the absolute absence of suffering, dissatisfaction, and limitations of the mind.
Buddhists treat the fruits of technological progress positively when they bring benefits, and negatively if they cause harm to living beings.
Buddhism has nothing to do with science and technological progress. At the same time, are Thailand or Japan backward in terms of science? the country's progress? I don't think so 🙂 Atheism is a little more complicated. European atheism is not particularly well known there, and the culture of many Southeast Asian countries is so permeated with Buddhism that it is inseparable from it. Of course, not all residents there are religious, some more, some less. Some people simply accept Buddhism as part of their culture, without following the religious precepts. There is a separate situation with Tibetans who hate the Chinese Communists for occupying their country, destroying 90% of monasteries, abusing monks and nuns, and still continue to do so. But this is a national-political ground, not an ideological one.
The attitude to atheism is ambivalent. On the one hand, Buddhism is a nontheistic teaching, the idea of a Creator God is not fully developed there, and in some texts it is criticized as illogical and hinders liberation from suffering. On the other hand, in some branches of Buddhism there are ideas that can be interpreted as prateistic, and in general Buddhism does not welcome too sharp denial as a painful attachment to the absence (“trying to sell the absence of goods”). Therefore, on the one hand, some atheists of the post-Christian culture go to Buddhism, considering it an atheistic religion, and on the other, Buddhists of traditional cultures protest against being considered atheists (literally, monks in Sri Lanka went out to demonstrate against this).
At the same time, however, it is often forgotten that atheism denies not only the theistic God, but all gods in general, while Buddhism fully recognizes them, allows them to pray and make offerings (but not blood sacrifices). Therefore, Buddhism has come to live with the polytheistic beliefs of Nepal, Tibet, China, Korea, and Japan, and has even integrated many gods into its own pantheon of Buddhas and bodhisattvas. However, this is not necessary, i.e. it is not prescribed as a duty of a Buddhist.
Buddhists view science and technological development positively, but without enthusiasm. In 1955, Ernst Schumacher proposed the concept of a Buddhist economy in which progress is determined by minimizing suffering, reducing desires, avoiding violence, and so on. In 17th-century Japan, there were attempts to give a Buddhist counterpart to the Protestant vocation ethic (Suzuki Sesan), but they did not receive widespread support.