Featured Buddhism

If Buddhism is not really a religion, why does it have temples, priests, a form of salvation, and worship of idols? It most certainly is a religion. I'm puzzled as to how you would define religion.

Concerning Confucianism, it is quite different than Buddhism and much less of a religion, though there actually are temples for the worship of Confucius. Confucianism is a philosophy for social structure, and involves a system of relationships rather than a system of worship.

 

My understanding of it is that it does not have a personal God, nor was Buddah seen in same light as Jesus, a Messiah, more akin to showing the right pathway to live in order to get off being reincarnated...

More of a how to live right then how to get saved thing!

 

You appear to be saying that to be a religion, a teaching must have a personal God (why the capital letter?) and a doctrine of salvation. By this very narrow definition, there are only a very few religions in the world. I suggest that perhaps you should study comparitive religions.

As to how Buddha was seen, it is different from how he is now seen. He apparently did not plan on starting a religion, but that is what he did. He became the "god" of Buddhism, since he is worshipped as a god in many countries.

Concerning salvation, he taught that it meant ceasing to exist after achieving enlightenment. Simply because that is quite different from the Christian view of salvation does not mean it is not a doctrine of salvation.

Oddly enough, there are similarities to Christianity in some versions of Buddhism. The Japanese version of Pure Land Buddhism (浄土宗) teaches that faith in Amida Buddha brings salvation. There is also a Paradise and Hell in some Japanese vesions of Buddhism, which some scholars attribute to Nestoria influence.