Comparison of Christianity and Buddhism as Universal Religions Essay

Comparison of Christianity and Buddhism as Universal Religions - Essay Example In natural religion, individuals make choices to reject or accept given practices. However, ethnic religion makes an entire rejection of natural religion impossible. There are numerous natural religions, among them being Christianity and Buddhism. With universal religions, there is an active search for converts thereby not limited to a given people. Again, universal religions reflect in terms of individual salvation, which makes them voluntary. The salvation of an individual is independent of that of a community and neither does the community affects an individual’s salvation. Like other universal religions, Christianity and Buddhism have particular founders. This paper compares and contrasts Christianity and Buddhism as universal religions. Buddhists believe in no God. For the Buddhists, a supreme God is not known. In addition, Buddhism believes in no creator, omnipotent or omnipresent God. There is also no believe in a Lord over his creation. However, Buddhists believe that there exists only the eternalness of a remote emptiness or void. Emptiness, for the Buddhists, is inexistent (Hattaway 203). This implies that God does not exist. Christians, on the other hand, believe that there is a God who is all-loving and all Christians must have a relationship with Him. However, the existence of a loving and caring God to the Buddhists reflects ignorance. This is because desire results from ignorance. In addition, Christians believe in God as their creator who gave each man a purpose to live. For the Buddhists, the cause and effect of human living are Karma. As a result, Buddhists would equate God to Karma, ignorance, and void (Hattaway 204).