"Religious people tend to be smarter"

[TheRocketSurgeon]

Much of the actual forms of Buddhism as actually practiced is either outright theistic, in the sense that deities are directly appealed to, or place so much focus upon some mystical, ineffable wisdom that can only be accessed through the Buddha that the Buddha is a deity in all but name.

While Buddhism may in some instances be seen as less confrontational and reflexively hostile towards outright atheism, I don't think Buddhism is in any way a step towards atheism for its actual adherents.

I say "a step toward atheism" because it's a 2500 year old religion that (theoretically, if not in practice) eschews the concept of gods as necessary to achieve enlightenment. I think of it as something like a transitional fossil.