Contrast with Buddhism and Christianity free essay sample

What is the best religion in the world? It is the question that everybody argument. Each country has its own culture with different religions. That’s why there are many religions in the world, such as: Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism. Each religion has its own featured, so nobody can’t choose which one is the best religion in the world. Religions are different in a lot of ways, for example, the places that they are popular. Christianity and Buddhism are the clearest example. Christianity is popular in American, Europe, and Australia†¦ Buddhism is popular in Asian. Not only are they popular in the different place, but Buddhists and Christians also are different in the way they practice to the way they believe. Finally, Buddhism and Christianity are different in several ways. One way that Buddhism and Christianity are different is in their beliefs. Firstly, they are different in their beliefs about the afterlife. Buddhism believes that the afterlife is more than one life in the reincarnation. Buddhists believe that good person can go to Nirvana and be a Buddha. Furthermore, Buddhists believe that doing bad things will be punished relate with that bad things in the 18 levels of Naraka, or hells. For example, if they tell a serious lie, which is cause bad for another people when they live, they will be cut the tongue in the first level of Naraka. Or if they live very tight-fisted and many people have injuries or died because of them, when they died they will become a preta, which is a hungry monster, and if they eat anything, it will become the hot charcoal. After they pay for their sins in hell, they will be reincarnated. Buddhists also believe that they can have reincarnation without go to hell and Nirvana. If they do something to fix their mistake such as: dominate poor people and pray for other people, they could be a human again or an animal. But they still pay for their past karma and have retribution: definition or revenge; it depends on them. Christians, however, believe in afterlife is only one life and after that the judgment. Christians believe that good people will go to heaven and see God. Heaven is the place that the people are also freed from sin and all its various manifestations, like suffering and pain. And life in heaven relates with the present world. According to Corinthians 15:35-49. in the Bible, it say that â€Å"the life in heaven can be the same with the present world, if that people have a bodies like they do now, whereas it can be different with the present world, if that people have a new bodies. † People go there will continue life in heaven. Bad people will go to one level hell, and Lucifer will burn all of people with any kind of sins. Unlike Buddhism, Christianity believes that after death is not reincarnation; just be judged by God to go to heaven or hell. Death is the end, so they will not come back to life. Therefore, they try to live good enough to meet God when they die. Secondly, their beliefs are different about the way to salvation. In Buddhism, there are many ways to salvation. People who die can be human again, if they do five rules: not killing anything that has life, not drinking alcohol, not stealing, not lying, and not having sex with another people who is not their wife or husband. If they break one of the five rules, they can be an animal or go to hell. If they do more than that five rules, which is the Eightfold Path such as: control their thought, practice mediation, say nothing to hurt others, know the truth, resist evil, free their mind of evil, work for the good of others, respect life, they can go to empyrean, which like heaven or even be a Buddha in Nirvana. According to worldhistoryatyhs. wikispaces. com, it says: â€Å"In Buddhism when a soul is able to break Samsara by following the Eightfold Path and finding the middle way, they have reached Enlightenment. From here they may continue on to Nirvana, the highest destiny for man. This can be considered the actual afterlife for the Buddhist faith; in that finally the soul is free from Samsara and moves on. † By contrast, Christianity just has one way to salvation. It is they believe in Jesus, Son of God and do what he said to go to heaven, which is the only way to meet God. Buddhists believe there are a lot of Buddhas, whereas Christians believe that there is just one God in the world. Christians live to pay for the sins that Eve and Adam made. Eve and Adam are the human ancestors. In the beginning of the world, God created Adam to take care of the Garden of Eden, and then God created Eve from the seventh rib of Adam. They could eat every fruit in the Garden except the Forbidden fruit. But one day, Eve didn’t do the thing that God say and eat Forbidden fruit. God got angry and left them out of the Garden of Eden. Because of that, people are not pure when they were born. If they don’t get salvation, they will definitely go to hell. And the only way to salvation is believe in Jesus. So, Buddhism and Christianity are different in their beliefs. Another way that Buddhists and Christians are different is the way they practice their religions. The first way that they practice differently is their ethics. Buddhism’s ethics protect human right in marriage. It protects human right in marriage because marriage in Buddhism is comparatively liberal. Buddhism doesn’t give any rules about marriage. They just give people advice to marry people about how they can live with happiness. Buddha said, â€Å"Marriage is the personal problems, not the responsibility of religion. † Therefore, Buddhists can get divorced from their husband or wife and marry with another people. For example, if their husband is cruel and hit them all the time, they can divorce him and find another man can protect them. Moreover, Buddhists are allowed to marry with people with the same sex. Buddha also said, â€Å"If you marry some one with volunteer, you can get married. † If they marry someone with happy, faithful and pure, you can marry that person with the blessings from Buddha. It just depends on the country’s law that allows it or not. On the other hand, Christianity’s ethics do not protect human rights in marriage. They don’t protect the human rights in marriage because marriage in Christianity is demanding and conservative. Christianity has several rules for married people. Christians believe that God created each person, so marriage must relate with God, the religion. Christians would like to marry a person who is the same religion, or if that person is not the same religion, that person must be a Christian to get married. Moreover, Christians just can marry one time in their whole life with the witness of God. For example, if they marry a man or a woman but that person is bad, they can’t divorce with him or her. Christianity also doesn’t allow same sex marriage. Christianity says that same sex marriage is against Bible and against God. Christians believe it is not right if gays or lesbians get married. If they get married, they will go to hell even they are a good people, because they are not pure to see God. The second way that they practice differently is their rituals. Buddhist rituals are different in the way they are structured. Buddhists always read the Buddhist scriptures in the morning and at night. They can pray for themselves and other people have a good day with retreats in the morning. And at night they pray to avoid the devil and the things they have done in that day. They also go to temple during the full moon day to bless for a quiet life. Because they don’t kill animals on the full moon days, people don’t have sins in those days, so that they are pure to pray with Buddha. On full moon days, Buddhists are fasting which do not eat meat, just eat vegetable. Because they believe that everything have souls, so animals have souls too. They also believe that animal is reincarnated human, so they don’t eat our fellow. They think that animals are human, so it not right to kill them. Buddha said, â€Å"Every single life around this universal is equal. † As a result, it not right to kill other, even Buddha himself. For example, a mother lied to her son and promised that if she had told a lie she would have been a dog. After she died, she became a dog and came back to her son’s house to protect her son’s family. She was coming back to her son’s best friend dream, and she told him the story and hoped he could give her a salvation. Then the friend went to the son’s house and told her son that he wanted to eat dog meat. Then her son killed the dog, which was his mother; even he didn’t want to do that. After that, his best friend told him about the story. Therefore, if they kill an animal, they have already killed a human. That is why Buddha encourages people fasting as much as they can, and then they may go to Nirvana. Furthermore, Buddhists don’t pray before they eat something. They are thankful for the food and the chef, who made the food for them. Unlike Buddhist rituals, Christian rituals are different in the way they are unstructured. Christians don’t set time to read the Bible. They can read whenever they want, or when they doing something wrong and want to baptize and to repent with God. Christians always go to church in the Sunday morning. When there they can pray and repent for the previous week and implore for the next week, and they want God to forgive what they have done. Some Christians aren’t fasting and some are fasting two days a month but they can eat seafood such as: fish, shrimp, and crab. People like to eat meat more than seafood with fishy smell, so Christians are allowed to eat seafood. Christians don’t eat meat (warm-blooded animal) because they want to sacrifice, penance, repent and empathize with the Passion of the Christ. It shows respect to God and shows that they want to go to heaven. They also think that beef and pork are more sexual stimulant than fish, shrimp, and crab (cold-blooded fish). So they eat seafood to do penance for themselves. Furthermore, they also pray before eating something. Christians thank God to give them food. They make the sign of the cross before eating, which can show their respect for God. In conclusion, Christian and Buddhist have some differently in the way they practice their religions. As the result, Buddhism and Christianity are different in the way they believe and in the way they practice their religions. Which religion is better? Nobody can answer it. Each religion has its own characteristic so every religion is different. But every religion in the world teaches people to be a good person, instead of a bad person. It just depends on the place you live and the situation and the belief. So every religion is good and just chooses one to follow for yourselves.