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.
Don’t know much about Buddhism either. But I have one observation regarding a friend who was into ‘New Age’ sort of thinking probably loosely based on Buddhism.
Point a) – which in new age I would interpret as you yourself are responsible for reaching transcendence / inner peace / etc – can lead to a lot of guilt and frustration. Christianity is better (more appealing, even) because it admits that as human beings we are basically a bit rubbish and we need help to do any better and just to get through life.