So what is so evil about Buddhism??

Question

My friend invited me to a service at her church and I was shocked to find a notice board filled with updates about their "Save a buddist campaign." IT shocked me, because I am a buddist and here they are telling me that buddism is the wrong way to live and its a "indecent " religion. Confusing because Buddism is not a religion but a philosophy. This campaign is some campaign that a whole network of churches have adopted and they go to countries like Thailand to persuade them to come to the good side.
Buddism believes in peace and Im yet to see a war caused by it, unlike the Christian faith which has killed more people than any other cause.
I would love to hear ppls oppinion,espiecally those who apose buddism.

I feel its important to mention that as Buddists we are not idolising Buddha, we are honouring his actions. Buddha was a man of God and he did a great deal of good for his people so in an indirect way we are are honouring God.

Answer 1

*sigh* There will always be people who are convinced they are right and stick their noses into everyone else's business. Fortunately, Buddhism isn't one of those groups.

Answer 2

Oh! That's an easy one.

First, most christens think that Buddha is considered a god, so they think of Buddhism as opposing religion. This is NOT the case. Buddha was a man, a teacher. Nothing more. But, since Buddha didn’t teach that god was the only true god and didn’t know Jesus, he is obviously outside the Judeo-Christian circle and anyone outside that circle is EVIL!!!!

Secondly, Buddhism teaches a few things that Christians find VERY disturbing.

1 - All people are responsible for them selves and their actions. "Devine intervention", prayer, repentance, confessions and/or 'asking for forgiveness' does not remove your responsibility. Karma dictates that eventually you will reap what you sow. (Note: Karma is NOT an outside force, it is not different then the law of gravity. If you JUMP you will come back down...eventually. IF you hurt others, you will be hurt...eventually.

2 - All teachings should be questioned and nothing taken of faith alone. The Buddha said this. This scares Christians because most people that question the teachings of Christianity either have to surrender their questions and give it up to faith OR they give up Christianity. There are no other options. So, questioning faith is BAD for Business.

3 - The first goal of Buddhism is the cessation (ending) of suffering. To achieve this one must end their reliance on attachments. This includes attachments to items, ideas and people. Thus a monastery or temple is just a building. The Sutras are just words and the members of the Sangha (Buddhist community, including the Buddha) are just people. So it stands to reason that the Christian scriptures (the bible) are just words, churches are just buildings and the clergy and congregation and yes, Jesus, are just people and we should not attach ourselves to them.

4 - The ultimate goal of Buddhism is Enlightenment. This includes the cessation of suffering and thus total detachment but also includes true understanding of the world as it is. This is something that Christians believe to be unattainable for humans and yet Buddha teaches that this is the natural state for humans. So, the tw oare at odds...or to be more precise, Christianity is at odds with Buddhism.

So, as you can see, because Buddhism teaches self reliance and self enlightenment, the questioning of beliefs and the cessation of suffering and the attainment of enlightenment, this removes god from the core of the teachings, and in traditional Buddhism, removes god entirely from the teachings. So, naturally, a religion that demands absolute obedience, unquestioned submission and acceptance of a god would not like Buddhism and thus try to remove it...good luck.

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Answer 3

I think you should face the church you mentioned. If you can't go face to face, then write to them. If you can't write them yourself, let somebody else write and discuss. Then you will know the truth. We can only guess why they think Buddhism is so evil.

Let me response other answers at the same time.

Idol worshiping is bad for some religion but it's accepted in Buddhism - we keep the image of the Buddha the way you keep your family photos. The Buddha, as the founder of Buddhism that started 2500 years ago, is the father and the monks are His sons and daughters; this is the way of Buddhism.

Buddhist kings indeed killed people in various ways – just look at Burma (Myanmar), the military junta claims to be Buddhists but they have killed and jailed many monks already in recent saffron revolution. Actually, it’s evil that is evil – not to blame the good ones. Whoever acts evil is evil whatever they claim; it’s our actions merit us as the good or demerit us as the bad. After all, it’s the creatures good or evil.

Visit metacafe at the following address. You will get the answer I hope. And read the comment at the left side of the page.

Answer 4

There's nothing wrong with Buddhism! I had some interest in Buddhism and looked into it. Being a buddhist yourself you will already know that you do not worship Buddha - in fact you do not worship anything. Buddhism has some quite modern psychological concepts which equate suffering with craving - remove the craving and you remove the suffering.
There may be instances where a 'Buddhist' has started a war, but it has not been related to religion (unlike some other religions which shall remain nameless)

Answer 5

"Believers go to heaven, non-believers go to hell", this is a typical teaching in almost all one-God religions. So all non-believers are target for saving, not just Buddhism. The question should be expanded to be "So what is so evil about non-Christians??"

Buddhism recently has been spreading steadily in western countries. Many people find the teachings enlightening. The fact that churches targeting Buddhism is a sign that they are feeling 'threat' of losing devotees. There is nothing evil about Buddhism, it is only because Buddhism is attracting people that churches think they ought to do something to stop it, and to turn around the trend, go to Buddhists countries and convert them.

Answer 6

This is just what American Christian organizations are into: they've got a long history of trying to buy people's faith in countries like Sri Lanka, Thailand, India, China. They've got money, and the hill-tribes in Thailand for example are quite poor. So some of them sell out and become Christian for the money: those people didn't care for religion in the first place so they don't mind being Christian. Then they start to like being a Christian because they get money for it. In the end they get aggressive towards Buddhism because their sponsors tell them to. It shows the stupidity of some Christians and their practices, and how they attract other stupid people to follow them... Luckily most Buddhists are too clever for this.

The wise practice spirituality for its inherent benefits,
They're not led astray by dollars from a money-machine.
Fools indeed grasp for material benefits,
And later become Christian because it fits.

Answer 7

You will probably get the clearest answers from the people at the church you attended. Since it is their actions that confused you, it is their views that are in question.

It is likely that
- they don't really know anything about Buddhist teachings.
- 'Buddhist's worship idols and believe in many gods'
- 'Buddhists, especially Tibetan, worship demon-like creatures in particular and have all sorts of devil rituals'
- 'Jesus is the only way'

I think we know already that Christians like you speak of believe that salvation is thru Christ, and that it is their personal duty as Christians to bring others to Jesus and therefore salvation, and they have elected to focus on Buddhists for a while. From one point of view that's quite beautiful because mixed into their motivation somewhere is compassion for others - not wanting others to suffer for eternity.

I don't oppose Buddhism, I'm Buddhist, but I grew up around and have been around Christians similar to those you visited, and that's the essence of the matter.

It is fine if people desire to help others due to their beliefs, but when those beliefs and that help destroys others faith and culture, or is given in an extremely inconsiderate manner, it crosses the line into abuse of human and religious rights.

Answer 8

Buddhism is eveeel because it promotes peace and acceptance. Jesus was not into that...or WAS HE? He was, just nobody else was.

Oh and Paul B, people got beheaded because they didn't bow down to the emperor in ancient China, it has nothing to do with the emperor being Buddhist or not, and as a fact, Buddhism came into China during the Tang Dynasty which was around 618-907 AD and people still got beheaded before that.

Answer 9

You know, maybe there are just alot of ignorant people out there, including me, becuase until this minute I thought that Buddists worshipped Budda. And before I sound too stupid, i did ask a buddist friend of mine if youll do worship him, and she siad "yeah, basically." So im sure alot of ppl just think its wrong.

Answer 10

If you truly want to understand what is going on, read the online resource "Gospel Enigma" It explains this WHOLE thing very clearly...that is, this Christian dislike for anything eastern.

I think you will enjoy the book becasue it does address your question perfectly. I think you will say... "Oh yes, that's it!!"

Find this free book at the top of the page...

Answer 11

Buddhism is opposed to evil.
The purpose of life is to oppose evil.
Buddhism is all about universal love
unconditional.
Its all about non-violence.
Buddhism teaches to meditate & investigate one's own personality for finding faults so as to improve upon them.
If you are full of love to all, know that you are a Buddhist.