Anyone believe Jesus was partly copied from Buddha ?

[Traxster]

I think life on earth as we know it, is just an experiment started by an 'itinerant alien being' who was hurtling thru space one day many moons ago when he espied a strange looking blue planet and upon investigating found that the aforementioned planet would be ideal for his next experiment ie...planting various forms of 'life' on the planet,( (just like when you or I plant a seed in a plastic pot and watch to see what happens,) and watching to see how it goes/grows?....,

God only knows what he thinks of how things are going but I do think that he will eventually get a little bit p/off with everything on bring it all to an end.

Failing that,the way thing s are going we'll probaly beat him to it.

[slipperylobster]

Seems like the only thing people want to argue about is Religion, Politics and Football.

All three topics being unwinnable.

[xylophone]

One way or another we are all "victims" of our own stupidity as regards the worshipping of deities.

Man had a need to find out the reason why he was here, where he came from and what his life was all about, and was he only here for a short period of time and then disappeared for ever, or was there another life? – – – – and so on.

Some religions decided to make this into a business opportunity (the Catholic Church for example) and even now, others still do, and even though Scientology is not considered a religion, it still has "religious status" with regards to being a charity or some-such like. Other recent ones like Mormonism seek to tell a modern-day version of the founding of their faith, borrowed of course from the past.

Religion, in whatever form, has been responsible for more killing, war, torture, repression, poverty and genocide than any other event, man-made or otherwise in the history of the world (as we know it anyway).

How you handle that is completely up to you, however you will get just as much peace of mind/good luck/healing/long life etc by worshipping a corn dolly as you will any other deity out there.

This is the most common fallacy being put forward by atheists/materialists..

Remove God/religion from society and humans will revert to the most savage slaughter you cannot imagine

Why be good if there is no reward/punishment

Only suckers would be good...pretty soon everyone would turn criminal and the process would accelerate to total butchery

..btw,,,neither Mao,Stalin or Hitler were religious..

The death toll they caused easily reaches 100 million.

This as earlier posted says it all really...............

Is God willing to prevent Evil, but not able?

Then he is not omnipotent.

Is God able, but not willing?

Then he is malevolent.

Is he both able and willing?

Then whence cometh evil?

Is he neither able nor willing?

Then why call him God?

[jmccarty]

One way or another we are all "victims" of our own stupidity as regards the worshipping of deities.

Man had a need to find out the reason why he was here, where he came from and what his life was all about, and was he only here for a short period of time and then disappeared for ever, or was there another life? – – – – and so on.

Some religions decided to make this into a business opportunity (the Catholic Church for example) and even now, others still do, and even though Scientology is not considered a religion, it still has "religious status" with regards to being a charity or some-such like. Other recent ones like Mormonism seek to tell a modern-day version of the founding of their faith, borrowed of course from the past.

Religion, in whatever form, has been responsible for more killing, war, torture, repression, poverty and genocide than any other event, man-made or otherwise in the history of the world (as we know it anyway).

How you handle that is completely up to you, however you will get just as much peace of mind/good luck/healing/long life etc by worshipping a corn dolly as you will any other deity out there.

Site your source:

This is an enormous subject, all written by various parties with something to win or lose, so biased.

All wiki info:

Atheists claim that religion is the cause of most wars is shown to be false. The history of human warfare shows that less than 7% of all wars have religious causes. If atheists are correct, the most religious industrial nation, the United States of America, should be involved in more religious wars than any other country. However, only the "War on Terror," among all 17 American wars, involves a religious component.

Plague is believed to be the cause of the Black Death that swept through Asia, Europe, and Africa in the 14th century and killed an estimated 50 million people.^[1] This was about 25% to 60% of the European population. World war 1 and 2 killed around 38 million and 60 million respectively.

In their Encyclopedia of Wars, authors Charles Phillips and Alan Axelrod attempt a comprehensive listing of wars in history. They document 1763 wars overall,^[3] of which 123 (7%) have been identified and listed as primarily religiously motivated.

The Encyclopedia of War, edited by Gordon Martel, using the criteria that the armed conflict must involve some overt religious action, concludes that 6% of the wars listed in their encyclopedia can be labelled religious wars.

In any case, I am an atheist, but don't believe that religion is all bad. But It is annoying and does cause a lot of problems as well as solving some.

[VincentRJ]

One way or another we are all "victims" of our own stupidity as regards the worshipping of deities.

Man had a need to find out the reason why he was here, where he came from and what his life was all about, and was he only here for a short period of time and then disappeared for ever, or was there another life? – – – – and so on.

Some religions decided to make this into a business opportunity (the Catholic Church for example) and even now, others still do, and even though Scientology is not considered a religion, it still has "religious status" with regards to being a charity or some-such like. Other recent ones like Mormonism seek to tell a modern-day version of the founding of their faith, borrowed of course from the past.

Religion, in whatever form, has been responsible for more killing, war, torture, repression, poverty and genocide than any other event, man-made or otherwise in the history of the world (as we know it anyway).

How you handle that is completely up to you, however you will get just as much peace of mind/good luck/healing/long life etc by worshipping a corn dolly as you will any other deity out there.

Plague is believed to be the cause of the Black Death that swept through Asia, Europe, and Africa in the 14th century and killed an estimated 50 million people.^[1] This was about 25% to 60% of the European population. World war 1 and 2 killed around 38 million and 60 million respectively.

You could add to that the flu outbreak, known as the Spanish Flu, that began at the end of the WWI in 1918. It caused probably far more deaths, world wide, than the preceding WW1. Estimates of deaths from that flu, worldwide, are as high as 100 million, but we can't be certain.

I find it rather ironic that the numbers of people killed by trained armies, deliberately and with viciousness, malice and hatred, is not as great as the deaths resulting from very simple lifeforms, such as bacteria and viruses, just going about their normal business of reproducing themselves in a natural manner.

Edited November 22, 2015 by VincentRJ

[arjunadawn]

I do not recall the source but it is not common knowledge that Buddhists were around some of the more cosmopolitan centers of that day. I think it is beyond uncanny that many of the sayings of Jesus echo for those who are familiar with the gitas and Buddhist sutras. Many people like to maintain that the genesis of their faith began in a vacuum and thus had no other influences. This is done with Christ, it is also done with the islamic prophet, and again later with Joseph Smith. These men had no gifts of writing or learning, etc., but were uniquely empowered by Grace, or so it is suggested. But factually, there was a great deal of trade and trade in ideas during this period.

Whether Thomas suggesting a source of the Missing Years of Jesus being a valid premise, the fact remains Jesus said many things that have a connection to Eastern thought. The next question is then, are these thoughts simply the common ways one would articulate the spiritual pearls they are trying to communicate. I mean, are some of the parables, for instance, only properly framed by either Buddhas or Prophets in a way that only comes out sounding similar? Perhaps. However, the easiest explanation is usually correct, that there were influences.

I have paid great attention to this topic, which has variously been suggested as a Perennial Philosophy, or syncretism of faiths. One caveat to the assertion that one faith influenced others can be found in the context of what is called the Axial Age. In the Axial Age there popped up nearly simultaneously most of the seeds of the great faiths of today. Cross influenced or not this period was a pinnacle in human development of theology. Whether this is an expression of a common consciousness or cross seeding is beyond me but it does suggest disconnected peoples arrive at the same information independently.

*When one undresses the words of the Christ and looks at what he was really saying, whether it is the Mustard Seed or otherwise, there is an unmistakable connection to Vedanta, which the Buddha himself would have been quite familiar with.

[VincentRJ]

There is a modern concept called the 'meme', which is described as a cultural idea, thought or explanation for something, that spreads and evolves in the manner of a gene, in a metaphorical sense.

It is quite reasonable to assume that all cultures have been influenced in some way and to some degree by previous cultures, through processes of trade, conquest, travel and natural migration.

The same idea can often be expressed in different ways, sometimes creating the illusion that the idea is original. Gautama Buddha seems to be have been aware that everything is connected in some way to everything else and that everything is in a constant state of change.

[camerata]

Off-topic posts deleted.

[only1]

Most teachings of the Gautama Buddha are indeed his own discovery since achieving Buddhahood.

Other religions do teach about doing good but none had the explanations that he taught.

As for what Jesus story copied from Buddhism, I don't refer to their deeds.

I refer to all their personal events and stories that could not be coincidental.

Both mother's names stated with Ma,unexpected pregnancy, born during a journey,prophesied soon after birth, 12 disciples, 1 betrayer and so much more....

Meaning Jesus was not son of God but a fraud.