Camparing Christianity and Buddhism - 2661 Words

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†¦show more content†¦The Soul or The Concept of Self The doctrine of the Christian core teachings is from the Judà ¦a Christian bible which is the Old Testament, New Testament which is a collection of the writings from the disciples of Jesus and his teachings. By following these teachings each Christian individual soul will be redeemed by the second coming of Jesus, the Messiah, who will save the all Christian Souls providing everlasting life. This relationship between the external God and the existence of an eternal, individual soul, the self, which will go to either Heaven or Hell, is what drives the Christian faith. The best way to look at the Buddhist conception of the individual being is to examine what he observed as the three signs of existence. The first of the three signs is that of dukkha, the universality of suffering† (â€Å"Ethics across Cultures†, Michael C. Brannigan, pg. 256  ¶ 4). As an example of this concept of universal suffering is that of the death of a friend or loved one, it is fair to say that all human beings have suffered this sorrow hence the universality of suffering. The second sign of existence is that of Anicca this meaning the impermanence of the self. This the reality that nothing is permanent in life that it is constantly changing and this goes without exception for all things. For example we are constantly going through different challenges in life and when one is