The Religions of Buddhism and Christianity Religious belief is one of the oldest and most sacred customs of the human species. Religion started off as a principle belief in an afterlife, and then developed further into organized and tribal religions, which evolved into ancestral worship then into polytheism and lastly into monotheism. Monotheism “in the shape” of Christianity is the largest religion of the modern world, followed by Buddhism as the 4th largest world religion. Christian religion and Buddhism are similar because both religions beliefs teach the equality of people, but are different in their beliefs in different afterlifes, and lastly the different lives of their gods Jesus and Buddha.
Christians and Buddhists both teach about the equality of people and that making good choices reflects the positive teachings of that religion. Both world religions have basic tenants that establish their beliefs. In Buddhism there are four Noble Truths and the 8Fold Path, and in Christianity there are the 10 Commandments(Rahula, W. 2013, par. 1) Buddhism's eightfold path is found to be the guide to end suffering. Using 8 different paths of liberation it guides its followers to live pure lives through practicing the elements of understanding, thought, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration throughout their own lives.(Rahula, W. 2013, par. 1)In addition,
Christianity incorporates the 10 commandments known as laws set by God to show his people how to apply love in every aspect of life. There are 10 laws established: shall have no other Gods, nor worship any graven images, not take the lord's name in vain, remember the sabbath day, honor thy parents, shall not kill, shall not commit adultery, not steal, nor bear false witnesses, and lastly thou shalt not covet against thys neighbors(Bennett, M. 2010, par 4), Each of these beliefs is a set of laws that tell followers of the religion about the equality of people and how to make the choices to live a pure life. Buddhism, Christianity and all of the other major world religions share a basic rule of behavior which governs how they are to treat others. Two quotations from
Buddhist texts which reflect this Ethic are: "...a state that is not pleasing or delightful to me, how could I inflict that upon another?("Samyutta NIkaya v. 353.) "Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful." (UdanaVarga 5:18.)
These quotes from buddhism's holy book known as the Tipitaka relate closely to scripture found in the Christian's holy book the bible’s golden rule which is seen in two quotes;
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Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them
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Matthew 7:12. "...and don't do what you hate..." Gospel of Thomas 6.
(Robinson, 2010, par 9) Both religions focus on the equality of its people. The Lotus
Sutra is where Buddhist teachings of absolute equality come from. In chapter 12 of the
Lotus Sutra there is a famous story where a young Naga princess gives a valuable gem to the Buddha and and is able to quickly become a Buddha herself (Khandro, 2015, par.
5) Also in the same chapter, Devadatta, the Buddha's cousin , who committed crimes such as trying to break up the community and attempted to kill the Buddha was also
promised that he too would one day reach enlightenment(Khandro, 2015,par. 12)Any school that teaches the Lotus Sutra teaches true equality of all beings without conditions. Even in the early Buddhist teachings the Buddha said that women could be ordained, but it was generally believed that one has to be reborn as a man first before you could become enlightened.(Khandro,2015, par. 13) Christianity teaches equality of its followers through the bible. The Bible teaches that all people are equal in the eyes of God because they were all made “in the image of God.”
Christians believe
