Buddhism

March 01, 2004

I had a thought recently:

If you assume for a second that Christianity is completely right, then Islam, Judaism, Mormonism, Christian cults, etc. are distortions of that truth, but some other faiths can be seen more as being outright denials of it.

The one I know more about (although still almost nothing) is Buddhism, and I would say there the case for it being directly opposed to Christianity is quite strong:

Buddhism is about:

a) everyone is God (sort of).
b) you should remove yourself from the world because the world is suffering.

I think b), although I haven't explained it at all well, is a straightforward denial of everything I think is true.

However, I find it (_especially_ b!) very attractive. If I had to choose a religion not on the basis of whether it was true but on the kinds of ideas I liked, I think I'd choose Buddhism.

What would you choose?

BTW if anyone with any knowledge whatsoever wants to contradict what I'm saying, go ahead - I'd love to learn but am too lazy to do the research.