I really had a hard time to read The Old Testament last week because it seemed to be the first time for me to read something about the Christian scripture. Like other religions, the beginning of Christianity had been collected and edited, such as The Old Testament, which is written by Hebrews and used by the Jewish scripture.
Although people all consider God is the one, who creates the universe, and we are all descendants of Adam or Noah, there are some distinctions among different religions.
As a Buddhist, after reading Genesis, Psalm, etc, I realize some differences between western Christianity and Buddhism.
In Genesis of The Old Testament, it illustrates that human beings are created with guilt. Eve, the mother of human beings created by God, ate the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden which began the crimes of humankind. This kind of humanity is quite different from what Buddhism advocates, the universe is created with good, as well as the nature of human beings.
Actually, I do not have some strong opinions about The Old Testament because of lacking of the knowledge of this regligion. What I was trying to do is read it and trying to understand it.
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I would like to read a more complete contrast between the concepts of human origin in the Old Testament in Buddhism. Does Buddhism have a creation story that explains how humans came to be and why they now behave as they do?
ReplyDeleteI too had a hard time reading The Old Testament. As someone who grew up in a Islamic country, I had a hard time accepting alot of the stories shared in Islam for the purpose of explaining god. Therefore, anytime I have to read a religious texts I look at it as a litterary work or work of Fiction (not to meant to offend anybody) this wasy I have an easier time reading it or even understanding.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you about how in the stories big emphasis is made on guilt and people are meant to fear god through these stories and worship him. Trying to scare people in doing something does not always work. Even though many people are believers of these ideas at the same time many are against it. If the ideas were a lot less about one will be punished for doing something wrong and instead included being nice and leading your life in the best possible way, more people might be for it.