Cultural Differences Between Buddhism And Christianity

In every area of the world there are many different types of religions, most people may believe in multiple gods or one god while others may not believe in any. On the contrary, the religions that popped out the most were none other than Buddhism and Christianity. Buddhism is a belief of finding peace, while Christianity is a belief in a god, however even though they are different in numerous ways, it is still something that is apart of this world’s culture. It’s apart of multiple cultures. To begin with, my first choice was Buddhism. Additionally, the origin date for this is around the fifth century BCE; the place where this first took place was in Bodh Gaya, North India, in which Buddha Shakyamuni (Siddhartha) found and attained enlightenment at the Bodhi Tree. Afterwards, Buddha started to teach the first, second and third Wheels of Dharma. In this course, Buddha was inspired by love and compassion to find lasting peace and nirvana. In present day, there are now a few distinctive numbers of followers, the number of followers are from 488 to 535 million in regions like Asia, India and other countries like Tibet.
Correspondingly, Buddhism has many beliefs.
These beliefs are most common amongst Buddhist, for starters, Buddha is not a God. Buddha was none other than a ordinary man who saw clearly into the nature of reality. Another belief is that teachings and books are very important, because it can undo most of our ignorance. Lastly, Buddha believed that every living being, object and notion is attached to its surroundings. Also, Buddhist believe that our afterlife will depend on our life as of now, for example, once we leave our body, our mind goes into a dream like state while our karma depends on the type of dream: good or
bad. The impact of this religion is extremely significant, especially since it was adopted by the Japanese culture. Buddhism gave Japanese people an understanding to philosophy, psychology and natural sciences, it has also guided Japanese citizens to an improved way in religion. It has “enlarged the conceptions of the divine, the destiny of man, and the way in which one can reach a higher destiny.”, my source of information came from http://buddhismbeliefs.org. Equally important, Christianity is one of the most important religions that takes up majority of the population as followers. Christianity has a sum of 2.2 billion followers in areas like Indonesia, Central Asia, Middle East, United States, Brazil and Mexico. To start off with, Christianity originated from Rome during 6 BC - 4 BC. The founder was none other than Jesus Christ, where he wanted to spread the teachings of God, the Father. However, the Jews disliked the Roman rule, which lead them seeking for their promised Messiah (savior). In like manner, Christianity has beliefs as well. The belief is in justification by faith, christians conjecture that through the belief that Jesus died on the cross, his resurrection and that he is the son of God, that their relationship with God will be righteous and that their sins will be forgiven. Another belief is the Trinity; the Trinity is not three separate gods, but one. This includes the the Son, the Father and the Holy Spirit, all three of these represent God. Lastly, Baptism; a teaching that both infant and adult do to show their commitment to the lessons of Jesus. The influence of Christianity is a great deal, because it has non-believers acknowledging Jesus and his teachings. Christianity has stopped multiple problems back in the past for example, the killing of children. In Ancient Rome infanticide was legal and applauded for, killing their own children was considered an act of beauty until Christians had put that to a halt. Not only did it stop the killing of children, but it also had an enormous impact on art, music and literature. As we know it, today music, art and literature play a big role in all of our society’s and without Jesus our music wouldn’t have been the same and the art we see wouldn’t really be “inspirational”, at least not fully. In conclusion, religion has and will always have a big impact on our personalities, our society and our culture. Religion gives us a sense of comfort, a safe haven where we can let all of our troubles go and Buddhism as well as Christianity are just a few religions. Their history and beliefs are historical to our community because without it we wouldn’t have something very significant.