...Buddhism and Christian Faith Jennifer Herron HUM/130: Religions of the World Week 9: Final World Religion Report February 19th, 2012 Glenda Mitchell Since the beginning of time, religion was a part of society, much like it is today in a more modern era. There are so many different religions and sects of religions which brings about different interpretations and meanings understood by the people who practice a certain religion. Each religion has its own individual story and theory on how this world came to be and what happened in order for it to be created. With so many different religions and people practicing each one it is easy to be disrespectful when it comes to others’ beliefs and sometimes all it takes is an open mind and the will to just learn about another faith and really get down to the bottom of understanding where it came from and how it all started. At the end of our lives we all wonder about the place beyond this world and many live by the thought that they will make it to this place whether it be called Heaven or something else. For this paper I chose Buddhism and Christianity to discuss and I will be able to explain the differences as well as any common beliefs these religions hold. To start off with I did not know much about Buddhism or what it was all about. My mother’s biological father was from Japan and so this is what really sparked my interest about this religion, other than the fact that I just think it is completely interesting. I spent a lot...
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...between Christianity and Buddhism. Understanding why Buddhists believe in no soul, no life after death, and why there are no moral absolutes, so as not to raise any future issues, would be the best way to start of a relationship with someone of this religion. As to not offend their beliefs it would be best to probably avoid any activities that may have them question their beliefs because they believe that every decision determines your next place in life. Offering to teach them about your beliefs while learning from them about theirs is a good way to avoid offending either party It would be difficult to present any aspect of Christianity to a Buddhists because of the gap that is offered by the differences in our religions. Reincarnation is a touchy subject because it causes questions that many would not be willing to answer. Buddhists do not believe that there is the existence of a thing called soul but believe that everyone has lived more than one life. This borders on saying that as a human being we are not individual because we have lived many times. In Christianity the idea of this is preposterous because we believe that once our soul leaves our bodies it goes to Heaven or Hell not into the body of another being. Christianity teaches that we are giving this one life and to live it according to the word of God. This is the greatest barrier between our religions because of the many questions it raises. I would be nervous about presenting the Gospel to a believer of Buddhism because...
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...Running head: The Comparison of Buddhism and Christianity 1 The Comparison of Buddhism and Christianity World Religion 212 November 3, 2013 Running head: The Comparison of Buddhism and Christianity 2 Buddhism is a polytheistic religion, however, it does not believe in Supreme Creator Being. Christianity is a monotheistic and believes that Christ is the son of God. Christianity is an offshoot Judaism whereas Buddhism is an offshoot of Hinduism. Christianity is a Abrahamic religion and Buddhism is a Dharmic religion. There is no god in Buddhism anything like Jesus Christ. Buddha is seen more as a really great person that once lived that reached a higher level of consciousness. Buddha wanted to teach how people goo free themselves and reach Nirvana. Jesus had a set of rules to live in order to get to Heaven. If is really not known or expelled were what Nirvana is, besides a freedom from the pain and suffering from life and the recantation we all must go through. Heaven on the hand is supposed to be a paradise where you in the after life you meet all your loved ones in a paradise, made by god himself. Buddhism was started about 5 B.C.E in India , Christianity started around 33 C.E. in Palestine. Granted they started many years apart but they do have the same basic ethics and commitment to community and family . They have the same basic concept of threat...
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...of the different types of religion, whether that be Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism or any of the other ones, all share many similarities as well as many differences. However, it is these differences that set each of them apart from one another. Two of the most prominent religions in the world today, Christianity and Buddhism, couldn’t be more different, but yet share many similarities. Both Christian and Buddhists ideas and teachings have served to guide and influence the lives and decisions of each of their respected followers for many centuries and both continue to be a dominating force in the world today Christianity offers a distinct and comforting sense of purpose for those who believe. As a human, we are destined to make mistakes. Christianity offers us a way of knowing that we are forgiven of our sins. It shows us that we are loved no matter what, and it gives us a sense of how we should live our lives in order to be who God wants us to be. Christianity provides us with an ideal father figure to look up to and pushes us to live up to his ideals. We believe that our purpose is to work to be the best possible person we could be and to treat everyone with love and kindness. We believe that God made us just the way he wanted us to be and that God has a path already laid out for us. Many of us will essentially give up our lives to the Lord with hopes that he will guide us down the right path. Christianity offers us a sense of understanding and a way to deal...
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...CRITICAL THINKING ASSIGNMENT I. Part One: Buddhism i. The Question of Origin – Buddhists believe that the world has no beginning, and not everything that exists has to have one. As the famous quote by Bertrand Russell says: “There is no reason to suppose that the world had a beginning at all. The idea that things have a beginning is really due to the poverty of our thoughts.” (Thera, 2002) ii. The Question of Identity – Buddhism teaches that there is no self, but instead there are separate, ever-changing components that make up who we are. Defining one’s “self” would mean adhering to whatever our role or composition is today, which will certainly change in due time. This dependency followed by change would inflict suffering - what Buddhists live to avoid. (Silver, 2012) iii. The Question of Meaning/Purpose – Buddhists believe that their main goal is life is to end suffering by ending desire. According to this religion, humans suffer because they desire and hold on to things that are temporary and will eventually vanish. The purpose in life of the Buddhist is to follow the Eightfold Path – as directed by the fourth of the Four Noble Truths – to end suffering and attain enlightment. (Religion Facts, 2005) iv. The Question of Morality – Buddhism answers the question of morality with the term sila, which is the natural condition of goodness that we were born with. They attempt to preserve their sila and avoid being altered by worldly influences. Buddhists follow...
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...This paper is a comparison between two very different religions. Specifically Christianity and Buddhism. Coming from opposite sides of the globe these two religions could not be any farther apart in any aspect. I will discuss who Christ is for Christians and who Buddha is for Buddhists. I will also get into the aspects of charity, love, and compassion in both religions and I will be looking at the individual self and how christians see resurrection where the buddhists feel about the afterlife. One thing to keep in mind is that the two religions are very different but they seem to have a very similar underlying pattern. Both believe that there was a savior of their people, Buddha and Christ, and both believe that there is something good that happens to us when our time is done here on earth. This is a very generalized summarization but in order to go in to depth I need to explain the two religions more to fully convey this theory. The Christian religion, like all other religions has its strengths and weaknesses in our modern society. Perhaps the strengths out weight the weaknesses as this is one of the largest religions in the world. Hundreds of people follow the Catholic/Christian religion yet still a greater number follow yet other religions. Perhaps this is because they see the weaknesses or perhaps it is simply because their parents have taught them that it is a sin to follow this religion. The Christian religions do however present much more of an appealing atmosphere...
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...1/28/13 Buddhism vs Christianity Buddhism and Christianity are complex religions. They are quite different from eachother. They have different places of worship, prophets, practices, and much more. They're virtually the most different religions in history. Where you worship your choice of almighty power is important. Buddhists worship in temples. The most common are the Pagoda and Stupa.The main characteristics you will notice about these places are their unique shapes. Pagodas range from four to seven stories. They have kind of a rectangular shape and the tips wing out at the ends almost like an umbrella. A Stupa is a stone structure built on top of presumed artifacts of Buddha. Inside these temples there may be a worship hall, mediation hall, and gold warrior-type figures, which are said to be the gaurdians of heaven. A statue of Buddha will usually be the main subject of interest. Highlighting the characteristics of the lotus sitting Buddha is psychedelic lighting. Some statues of Buddha were carved with solid pieces of white or emerald jade. The walls are usually green, orange, or yellow. Christians worship in Churches, Cathedrals, and Chapels. The look of every church is different depending on what denomination you are. Usually they all have steeples going around the sides. The insides are filled with detailed stain glass windows. On them are pictures of Jesus or his mother Mary. People sit on pues to listen to the sermon of the preacher before them. Christianity offers...
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...Christianity and Buddhism, as seemingly different as they may be, also have many similarities. These similarities include the creation of these religions – though Buddhism is not exactly a religion nor a philosophy, but I will refer to it as a religion for the sake of simplicity – more than two thousand years ago (either by an individual or a group of individuals, which put together ideas and passed them down either orally or written); both religions also follow certain lessons that have been constructed and proliferated thoroughly, promoting good conduct, ethics, and morality. The differences between these two religions are far more than the similarities, however, and they are as follow: Christians believe in, and are devoted to, God – an...
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...domination of Christianity, a form of Buddhist or non-believers. My longtime friends are mostly non-believers and a couple that are Zen Buddhists. A majority of my family are Christians while the remaining minor are non-believers. It seems that my social group is not very diverse in religious aspects. Of course this may change with my online friends but I decided to leave them out for this project as it may be hard to attend a religious event with them. The two religions I choose to write about were almost chosen by default, Christianity and Zen Buddhism. As I said previously my social group is shallow in the...
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...Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity Many countries form ideas and rules based on religion that is practiced as a whole by the society of that country. In addition religion continues to affect rules and ideas that is promoted by various cultures. Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity are some of the most popular religions that are used throughout the world. Arabs has made Islamists powerful in Countries like Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco. Religious institutions are a public significance more so now than before. “In the Muslim political imaginary, the khulafa’ al-rashidun represent an idealized moment in history, that of the first four caliphs, the rightly-guided, who came after the prophet Muhammad: Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, Umar Ibn al-Khattab, Uthman Ibn Affan, and Ali Ibn Abi Talib. The period from the death of the prophet in 632 to that of Ali in 661 marks a golden era after which political history is conceived as having degenerated. However, Umar Ibn Abd al-Aziz (717-720) from the Umayyad dynasty is often seen as part of the rightly-guided Caliphs and defines what is often dubbed the “5th caliphate”. He exemplifies the possibility of being a pious and just ruler in times of corruption.” (Zeghal, 2012) The above reference was used by Jebali and was taken out of Islamic past to state about political renewal within an Islamic saying. Representatives of al-Nahda insisted that the reference was symbolic, and did not question al-Nahdha’s commitment to...
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...Buddhism and Christianity have their similarities and some differences of their early spreadings around the world. Both religions are offshoots of other religions. Christianity spread throughout the Roman empire after Jesus had died and the Jews wanted a messiah to help them. Buddhism spread through Southeast Asia because during the time of the fall of the Han Dynasty people went to Buddhism as a comfort religion. The two religions have different ways to reach salvation. In both religions, Jesus and Buddha never wrote down their teachings and the spread of their teaching was through their disciples and or missionaries. Christianity is an offshoot of Judaism and Buddhism is an offshoot of Hinduism. In Christianity, Jesus was born a Jew and lived as a Jew for many years of his life. Jesus followed and worshiped the Jewish law. Just like in Judaism, Jesus emphasized God’s love and teachings of the need of morality, justice, and do good work for others, but because Jesus claimed to be the messiah everything changed. Buddhism is an offshoot of Hinduism...
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...over the centuries experts have tried to explore and unravel the mysteries of this complicated or rather confusing phenomenon but have failed to arrive at a concrete conclusion. It has long been established that the Western and Eastern society have very different views on death that have been developed over the centuries. In the Western society, death is viewed as something that is permanent and emphasized the notion of Heaven and Hell. Heaven is conceptualized as a place of eternal bliss or happiness after death and Hell is depicted as a place where souls are continuously tortured or punished by creatures of Hell called demons. The entrance to either of these places relies on the deed or sins that have been committed in one’s life. Christianity is one of the many religions that view death in this concept. The Eastern society, as an...
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...Whilst there are different orthodox Christian beliefs – Catholics, Protestants, the Baptists and other Christians, the core of Christian belief about the afterlife is that there is an afterlife, that conduct on earth – how we behave - will determine where in the afterlife you will eventually end up. That there is a hell for the wicked ones – especially the Catholic Church still teaches that hellfire is for eternity and there is heaven for those who behaved well. Also, the Catholic Church claims there is an afterlife state which is between heaven and hell the Catholic Church calls ‘purgatory.’ The theological teaching is that after a time of purgation, the spirit will eventually be progress and will go to heaven. There are other Christians, the Protestants, who do not accept purgatory. Catholic theology also states that sinners can confess their sins to Catholic priests and those sins are forgiven for ever – it does not matter how grave the sins might be – including genocide – if the sinner truly repents, he will be forgiven. Buddha accepted the basic Hindu doctrines of reincarnation and karma, as well as the notion that the ultimate goal of the religious life is to escape the cycle of death and rebirth. Buddha asserted that what keeps us bound to the death/rebirth process is desire, desire in the sense of wanting or craving anything in the world. Hence, the goal of getting off the Ferris wheel of reincarnation necessarily involves freeing oneself from desire. Nirvana is the Buddhist...
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...Title: Difference and Similarities between Christianity and Four (4) World Religion, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Muslims and Hinduism. Introduction: In the world today there are many religions of different beliefs with vast numbers of followers. However, some of these religions turn to have similarities and differences which defer them from each another. The following report briefly talks about the differences and similarities between Christianity and other four (4) major world religions and they are Buddhism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism and Muslims. Zoroastrianism and Christianity Zoroastrianism was founded by a man named Zoroaster who was born around 1200 BC (www.Answers.com). During that time the Jewish people were held captive by Babylonians and most of their beliefs .i.e. Christianity and Judaism have Zoroastrian influence in them because they (Jewish) were exposed to that (Zoroastrian). But we will discuss about the similarities and the differences between Christianity and Zoroastrian. Similarities Zoroastrian worship one God to whom they believe the world was made and also the Christians too believe in one God, they (Zoroastrians) also believe that a Saviour will be born of a virgin who will defeat the devil and establish his kingdom when he returns just like Christians believe in Jesus Christ (www.metareligion.com) . Furthermore, both religions preaches about the existence of hell and heaven, both believed that hell is a place rewarded for righteous doing and hell is...
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...Comparative Analysis of Christianity and Buddhism Maria-Goretti Etor Grand Canyon University HLT-310V Professor Todd Fowler May 31st, 2015 Abstract This paper gives an extensive view at the accompanying beliefs: Buddhism and Christianity. The reader will see the way Buddhism is even more a reasoning than a religion that spotlights on the brain similar to the inventor of disease and wellbeing. The reader will likewise find that Christianity is a religion that has confidence in one God, the inventor of all. This paper records the different segments that each of these religions may use at some time to impact mending including petition to God, reflection, droning, the utilization of healers, and so on. This paper additionally characterizes what is essential to individuals when watched over by suppliers whose convictions contrast from their own. Introduction Religious practice is one of the oldest traditional practices of the world till date, times may change, technology may advance, but vital beliefs of the people never alter. Before the advent...
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