Buddhism and Christianity?

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annem said:
Christianity has been the greatest force for good in the history of humanity. Buddhism …well…after 2,500 years, Buddhism cannot boast of almost any improvements for the world caused by Buddhism.
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If there was ever a religion of peace, it is Buddhism (not Christianity although that is Jesus’s teaching).

India was beset by wars between states and their warlords for hundreds of years, until Ashoka conquered most of it and then converted to Buddhism - that brought peace to the country.

Similarly Buddhism has been spreading the teaching of compassion and non-violence to China/Japan and most of South East Asia for centuries. The Dalai Lama is practically the epitome of non-violence or ‘turn-the-other-cheek’.
 
Buddhism has had its wars, but they were mostly over by the time Europe discovered Buddhist countries, so they don’t usually appear in the history books. The Tibetan Empire grew during the period Buddhism was spreading in Tibet.

The current problems in Myanmar between Buddhists and Rohingya are another example.

Generally Buddhist countries have been in fewer wars than Christian countries, but the number is not zero.

As so often, there is a disconnect between the ideals of a religion and the way its adherents behave in practice.
 
rossum said:
Buddhism has had its wars, but they were mostly over by the time Europe discovered Buddhist countries, so they don’t usually appear in the history books. The Tibetan Empire grew during the period Buddhism was spreading in Tibet.

The current problems in Myanmar between Buddhists and Rohingya are another example.

Generally Buddhist countries have been in fewer wars than Christian countries, but the number is not zero.

As so often, there is a disconnect between the ideals of a religion and the way its adherents behave in practice.
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Shree Lankan Buddhists have also been responsible recently for a few atrocities, but compared to any other religion, Buddhism is definitely a religion of peace.
 
I think the Jains are the only ones who haven’t picked up any dirt through the centuries. But perhaps I’m mistaken.
 
YHWH_Christ said:
I think the Jains are the only ones who haven’t picked up any dirt through the centuries. But perhaps I’m mistaken.
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This is true. Some Jains go around with a cloth over their mouths so that no insect dies by entering the mouth. Some won’t pick fruits off the tree and wait for them to fall (picking would be akin to killing the fruit).
 
Neithan said:
…
If Brahman is the source of everything, then there is at least something — some sort of monism.
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Yet Brahman is not like God in Christianity, for in Christianity, God is creator ex nihilo. Ex nihilo possibly could be likened to creation of illusion. But in Buddhism, the idea of a supreme being who created and governed this world is rejected.
 
So Buddhism is a materialistic epiphenominalism? Consciousness is an emergent property of matter, as many atheists argue?
 
CorydonMundi said:
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openmind77:
If there was ever a religion of peace, it is Buddhism
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Lol.

Buddhists have a long history of violence against Christians and other religious groups.

Buddhism and violence - Wikipedia
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This is not a ‘long’ history - this is recent history (late 20th century onwards). Long history is like the western colonization of Asia and the Americas.
 
CorydonMundi said:
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openmind77:
especially the Native Americans!
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They should be. They were killing, enslaving, and sacrificing each other to their pagan demons for centuries before civilized people put a stop to it.
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Apparently the best way they found for civilizing the Native Americans was to kill most of them.
 
Yes, it’s an essential denial, and without any ultimate reference, so it’s really difficult to see how it’s different from nihilism. We can’t learn anything from nihilism, since there is nothing to learn. Buddhism is a pretense.
 
Rossum Not a problem. Since nobody has any Self, then everybody is equally important.

Aren’t you deliberately ignoring the harm caused to people by the theory that there is no self? Do you really think it was ‘okay’ for Zen samurais to murder peasants? What about the utter devastation caused by Japanese forces to the Chinese, the horrifying experiments and rapes? Historians argue these were a direct result of the Buddhist belief in no-self. Read “Knights of Bushido” for background.
 
openmind787 p01\
“openmind77 said:
Shree Lankan Buddhists have also been responsible recently for a few atrocities, but compared to any other religion, Buddhism is definitely a religion of peace.
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Certainly not true of the 20th century, In fact, some of the gravest atrocities in the 20th century were a direct result of Buddhism.
 
Neithan said:
Yes, it’s an essential denial, and without any ultimate reference, so it’s really difficult to see how it’s different from nihilism. We can’t learn anything from nihilism, since there is nothing to learn. Buddhism is a pretense.
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Although I studied philosophies, I don’t remember anything about Nietzsche and nihilism, but what you say is interesting.
 
annem said:
openmind787 p01\
“openmind77 said:
Shree Lankan Buddhists have also been responsible recently for a few atrocities, but compared to any other religion, Buddhism is definitely a religion of peace.
*
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*

Certainly not true of the 20th century, In fact, some of the gravest atrocities in the 20th century were a direct result of Buddhism.
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There certainly were some atrocities by Buddhists in the 20th century. But the gravest among all atrocities? Were any of them greater than Hitler’s or Stalin’s or Mao’s, the Armenian genocide, Nanking, Rwanda, Suharto’s Indonesia, Ethiopian killings, East Pakistan killings?

Maybe only the Cambodian one was as bad as some of these, but still not the gravest - but that was done by communists not directly related to religion.

Which ones are you referring to?
 
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openmind77 said:
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annem:
openmind787 p01\
“openmind77 said:
Shree Lankan Buddhists have also been responsible recently for a few atrocities, but compared to any other religion, Buddhism is definitely a religion of peace.
*
Click to expand...
*

Certainly not true of the 20th century, In fact, some of the gravest atrocities in the 20th century were a direct result of Buddhism.
Click to expand...
There certainly were some atrocities by Buddhists in the 20th century. But the gravest among all atrocities? Were any of them greater than Hitler’s or Stalin’s or Mao’s, the Armenian genocide, Nanking, Rwanda, Sukarno’s Indonesia, Ethiopian killings, East Pakistan killings?

Maybe only the Cambodian one was as bad as some of these, but still not the gravest - but that was done by communists not directly related to religion.

Which ones are you referring to?
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Mao and Stalin also fit into flavors of communism…
 
rossum said:
Not the annihilation of the Self, but rather the realisation that you were mistaken all along in thinking that a Self existed. You cannot annihilate what never existed in the first place, any more than you can annihilate the water in a mirage. All you can do is to realise that is was never ever there. The Soul/Atman is a reified mirage of your own internal model of yourself.
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Sort of like the Matrix.
“There is no spoon.”
 
CorydonMundi said:
They should be. They were killing, enslaving, and sacrificing each other to their pagan demons for centuries before civilized people put a stop
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This post is inappropriate and inaccurate. I have flagged it as such.
 
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