Christianity v Buddhism

Running head: CHRISTIANITY V BUDDHISM
Christianity v Buddhism
Jonathan P. Logsdon
Professor Marek Suchocki
REL2300-World Religions-02932
31 January 2019

1CHRISTIANITY V BUDDHISM
The religions of Christianity and Buddhism are two of the most influential religions on
Earth. They have a wide reach among the people due to the fact that both of them promises
salvation to the people (3). They were founded by two extra ordinary people who had the ability
to influence the thought process of the individuals with their preaching about the different
aspects of life and how to manage themselves better. Although both the religions harp on the
need for peace and harmony amongst the different individuals, the teachings taught by them are
strikingly different and they adhere to different paths of life in order to achieve those aims. The
religion of Christianity is different from Buddhism on the aspect that Christianity believes in the
image of God while Buddhism does not believe in the image of God at all (1). Moreover,
Buddhism is a subsidiary religion, drawing its inspiration from the Dharmic religion and that of
Hinduism. Christianity on the other hand belongs to Judaism and the religion of Abraham.
Another point of difference between Christianity and Buddhism is that the Christians go to the
churches to worship their God, while the place of worship for those people who follow the
religion of Buddhism is known as temples and shrines. A unique belief within Buddhism is that
of nirvana. It is believed that people can break the perpetual cycle of birth, death and re-birth
with the help of nirvana (2). Nirvana is the only mechanism that can aid in the ending of
suffering for the people. The main objective of nirvana is to attain the ultimate phase of
enlightenment which will allow the people to forsake the cycle of birth and death. On the other
hand, Christians do not believe in life after that, instead choosing to believe in the temporal
worlds of Heaven and Hell where people go depending upon how they have led their lives.
Christians put their entire faith on the ‘word’ of God that is the preaching left behind by their
Savior, Jesus Christ. They are of the opinion that any diversion from this ‘Word’ of God will
lead them to commit sins (3). If they do end up commuting sins, they confess this to a priest of