I. One of the world religions known by man before Christianity came to be was Buddhism; founded in 563-483 B.C. by Siddhartha Gautama. “Buddhism is best understood as a philosophy rather than a religion due to the fact that the Buddhist does not necessarily embrace a God.” This religion believes God is impersonal and that the universe has always existed. So to ask a Buddhist the question of Origin, “How did life begin?” It’s simple; it has always been here and will always be here. In regards to the question of Identity, a Buddhist might answer in a way that puts man and animals as equals. Being human is nothing more than being animal. In the Buddhist religion, depending on how we left our previous life would decide how we came back in our next life even if it was as an animal. Meaning and Purpose for Buddhism is to “reach a state of Nirvana.” Nirvana is defined as extinction. Buddhist’s morality/ethics is all left to Karma, which, believes doing good get’s you closer to “Nirvana” and doing badly will only lengthen your existence (reincarnation). Buddhism religion does not believe in life after death. Once a Buddhist reaches his/her Nirvana they become extinct, extinction being a Buddhists destiny.
II.
When comparing and contrasting Buddhism to Christianity one must first understand that Christianity believes that there is a one and only God and everything created exists because of him. Seeing that Buddhism teaches God is impersonal, we as Christians believe God is very personal and seeks an intimate relationship with all of his children. Understanding this, one can see the two religions are on separate ends of the spectrum. For Buddhist, the origin of mankind has always been here. But for Christians, God created the world in six days; he spoke and it came to be. Identity in Christian worldview differs from that of a Buddhist, “God created mankind above the animal (Psalm 8:5)” and not as equals. Man and woman
