Hindu, Buddhist, Moslem, or Christian?

I was asked by a subscriber to write about various world religions that we might say are “competing” with Christianity. This is quite a challenge for a 1200 - 1600 word article. There is not space to “make a deep dive,” so my goal is to present enough information to see why I have chosen Christianity. Yes, I will be quite partial .

Hindu

Hindu is the oldest of these religions, some say orginating about 2000 BC. However, it is actually very difficult to put a date on it because it appears to have come about due to the intermingling of two cultures, Aryan and Dravidian, which both contributed various elements to what would become Hindu. It is as though after years of various shared practices someone said, “Look! We’ve got a religion.” It was given the name Hindu because of it‘s origin in the Indus Valley of India.

It is a complicated religion as there are many parts to it and various ways for individuals to properly behave in those “parts.’ There are three gods (yes, a trinity) in the first level. Brahma is the creator. Vishnu is the protector. Siva is the destroyer. There is a second level and a third level of gods that have their own drama going on. Hindu recognizes three levels of sacred writings, each with several subgroups. The writings range from atheistic (not a typo,) to the concept of salvation through knowledge. It is possible for a Hindu to be fully accepted by the Hindu system and know almost nothing about any of their sacred writings.

This is because the Hindu system is really not a system, but a hodgepodge of anything and everything. There are over 300,000 gods that people can choose and worship in whatever way they decide, or they can determine their own special god. No one can say anyone else is worshipping incorrectly because how could anybody know? The only thing that is wrong is to say someone else is wrong. Hindus accept Buddha and Jesus as part of their deity system, except that their version of Jesus could never say, “No man cometh to the Father but by Me.”

Brahma, the chief Hindu god, the creator, the Great Absolute, is impersonal with no characteristics or qualities of any kind. “He” or “she” are improper for Brahma. “It” is the proper designation. Besides Brahma there is nothing else. “It” is beyond all appearances, changes, differences. “It” is the Reality, the Unchangeable, the One. “It” is absolute experience, causeless and limitless. “It” is above good and evil, personality, sex, distinction and differences. Actually, there is nothing that can be said about such a god.

It is impossible to worship such a god. To attempt to worship a god implies that the god has desires of some kind. However, Brahma has no qualities of any kind. Hindus do not worship Brahma, even though they believe in “it.” It is a justifiable query to wonder how it is known that nothing is known about Brahma. In other words, if nothing can be known about this qualityless god, how is it that anyone found out about this god in the first place? No one knows.

Buddhism

In contrast to the vague, fuzzy, origins of Hinduism, the origin of Buddhism is well known. In about 560 BC, a man by the name of Siddhartha Gautama was born to a wealthy, “high caste,” Hindu family near what is now the border of India and Nepal. At the age of 29 he left his wife and son for an ascetic lifestyle which he gave up after seven years to begin a life of meditation. He was not a fan of the Hindu religion under which he had been raised and his meditations led to a new religion. He has been known ever since as Buddha, “the enlightened one,” and the religion is known as Buddhism.

The precepts of Buddhism are better defined than those of Hinduism. Gautama rejected much of the sacrificial practices of Hindu, and interestingly had nothing to say regarding supernatural beings and made no claims to be god, himself. This left Buddhism as a godless religion. (Much later other meditators and philosophers did add thoughts regarding gods, supernatural beings, to Buddhism.) What he did provide was an organized approach to guiding principles regarding how a life should be lived.

He offered “Four Noble Truths” all about suffering. It is universal, it is caused by the desire to have “things,” it is cured by the elimination of craving, and adhering to the “Eight-fold Path.” That path consists of having right views, aspirations, speech, conduct, livelihood, endeavor, awareness, and meditation. There is a pledge to take refuge in Buddha, doctrine, and Buddhist followers. The doctrine contains “Ten Precepts,” much like the Ten Commandments, the Truths and Path listed above, along with other things such as “Five Mental Hazards”, sensual desire, ill-will, sloth, worry, and doubt. These are hazards that interfere with obtaining Nirvana. There are also “Ten Fetters” that prevent obtaining Nirvana. They are belief in self, uncertainty, belief in good works, evil thoughts, evil attitude, desire to live on earth, desire to live in heaven, pride, self-righteousness, and ignorance.

Karma is action created by individual will. Karma, it seems, is the closest thing to “god” in Buddhism. Buddhism does not have the caste system of Hinduism. It does teach reincarnation and Nirvana. Buddha is said to have had as many as 500 reincarnations. Morality is taught as a means of determining what you will be in your next life. The goal of all rebirths is to become nothing and thus to cease to exist, which is Nirvana. Like Hindu, Buddhism is accepting of other religions and would be quite willing to teach that Jesus was one of the reincarnations of Buddha if only Christianity wasn’t so “narrow-minded” in its approach.

Islam

In about 570 AD, Mohammed was born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. He was raised by his grandfather and uncle. When grown he began to attach himself to caravans to Syria where he was exposed to Judaism and Christianity (both of which had a small influence in Mecca.) He became an influential person in Mecca and was opposed to the idolatry of the heathen Arabs.

From the year 610 to 632, while meditating in a cave he claims to have had visions from Gabriel, the angel of God. These visions became the Koran, which was compiled in text about 644 AD. The Koran is the holy book of Islam. Mohammed’s preaching produced few converts but did result in persecution. He found Medina to be more receptive to his new religion than Mecca, made it his focus, and eventually became a ruler there.

The hatred between Jews and Moslems came about because Mohammed expected Jews to be receptive to him because he espoused the same God, which he named Allah, and his vision was alleged to have come from one of God’s angels, Gabriel. However, the Jews would have nothing to do with Mohammed or his teachings and basically ran him off. About this time Mohammed began to attack and plunder caravans travelling between Mecca and Syria, and soon thereafter began to slaughter many Jews. Mohammed provoked a war between Medina and Mecca which he won. Many tribes submitted to him and he became ruler of Arabia. Although Mohammed died in 633 AD, Islam spread through violence into North Africa which had formerly been Christian. Through war, Islam spread into Spain and Turkey, but was stopped from going deeper into Europe by Charles Martel at the battle of Tours in 732 AD.

Christianity

I have written several articles in Trying to Walk to support my contention that it is preposterous to believe that a world, a universe, as complicated and intricate and diverse as the one in which we live could have happened by chance. There must be a supreme being possessing intelligence and power who designed and guided the process of creation. There must be God. (If He didn’t create it, He is not ruler over it, but just another part of it.) True religion will be all about that God.

The Bible is a book that starts at the beginning and lays out God‘s plan in creation so that we understand how and why we are here. It tells us and shows us how God deals with people. It reveals to us who God is. It explains to us what God’s desires for us are, and how we can accomplish them, that is, how we can please Him. It personalizes God. It explains the rewards of living according to God’s wishes and the negative rewards of ignoring God’s wishes. No other book does anything remotely similar.

Hindu writings don’t offer such an explanation of God. What is offered as God, is more of a theoretical concept than a being. There is no spelled out manner in which a person connects with Brahma, mainly because Brahma is an idea with which there can be no connection. There is not the idea of a supreme being who brought us about for a purpose. Instead there are mostly just various writings of what is best for us to do. The idea of multiple reincarnations to reach Nirvana, nothingness, is not acceptable. The soul of man will not be housed in a cow.

Buddhism is a godless religion. You can’t have a religion started by “Buddha” and then years later determine that he forgot to include god in his religion and attempt to “fix” that. In reality, Sidharttha Gautama was not interested in starting a religion anyway. He just meditated on what was the best way for people to live.

Islam claims Jesus as a prophet, but Jesus claims to be the Son of God. Islam claims to worship the God of the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, patriarchal ancestors of God‘s people, Jews, whom Moslems hate. The God of the Bible is in no way like the Allah of the Koran. Mohammed’s war parties are impossible to correlate to Jesus’ healing the ear of Malchus, the servant of the high priest when they came to arrest Him. That God would offer 72 virgins to a man upon entering Heaven is preposterous and despicable. The difference in the guiding principles of Islam and those of Christianity are on display throughout the world.

I do not claim to be an expert in knowledge regarding other world religions. But I’m convinced that none of them have what Christianity has to offer. Nor do any of them provide such a thorough explanation of God, His creation and our place in it, and our relationship with Him. It is easy for me, all things considered, to choose Christianity as the one true religion, and the God of the Bible as the one true God.