Camparing Christianity and Buddhism

The purpose of this essay is to briefly compare some key elements of the Christian and

Buddhist worldview as pertaining to the concept of God, the soul, suffering, and their view of

religious concepts.

Concept of God

First let’s look the idea of God. According to the Christian religion God is divine and is

Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Omniscience and that man was made in his image. Christianity’s

approach is that man was created by an external God in which the goal of the Christian’s life is

to be one with God. This oneness with God is considered to be attainable by following the

teaching of Jesus Christ whom was considered to be God’s physical embodiment here on earth.

Jesus was considered as one with God, the son of God and yet God himself too. His teachings

were those that came from God’s commands. Thus the way to God was through Jesus and his

teachings, the Bible.

The Buddhist believes that there is not an external concept of a God. “All that exists is

spontaneous arising, in the same way that a flower grows organically from seed, given the right

causes and conditions.” (“Is There a Difference”, Alan Pope, ¶ 5). Some non-Buddhist often

misunderstand the nature of Buddha was that of the same concept of Jesus, the personification

of God on earth; this is far from the truth. Buddha was once asked what he was; a conversation

between him and another can best describe how Buddha rejects this concept. He was asked a

series of questions: “What are you?” “Are you a god?” “No.” “An angel?” “No.” “A saint?”

“No.” “Then what are you?” Buddha answered “I am awake.” (“The Illustrated World’s

Religions, Huston Smith, pg. 60 ¶ 1-2). Buddha was referring to being awake that he was

enlightened t...

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... the individual as the redeemer of suffering as opposed to the Christian

view of an external God, Christ, as the redeemer of man’s suffering. Christianity takes the

approach that all things are the creation of an external God. Buddhism does not acknowledge

the presence of an external God as I stated earlier the Buddhist view is, “All that exists is

spontaneous arising, in the same way that a flower grows organically from seed, given the right

causes and conditions.” (“Is There a Difference”, Alan Pope, ¶ 5).

Works Cited:

† Ethics across Cultures, An Introduction Text With Readings, by Michael C. Brannigan.

† The Illustrated World’s Religions, A Guide to Our Wisdom Traditions, by Huston

Smith.

† “Is There a Difference”, Iconic Images of Suffering in Buddhism and Christianity, by

Alan Pope, University of West Georgia.