Jesus and Buddha

The reason I haven’t been blogging for the last week is because I been spending a lot of time studying for the Bible study we have on Wednesday’s with the students. We ask the students at the beginning of the summer to write down a question about life, religion, the Bible, etc. and I would answer it from the Bible. One person wrote down a very intense question for a high school student: What is the explanation for the hundreds of things that Jesus said that are virtually identical to things that Buddha said? So all this week I have been studying and researching this topic. I didn’t really know that people accused Jesus and Buddha’s saying to be similar, but apparently some do.

I have linked the Bible study, worksheet, and PowerPoint game here. You can read the lesson for yourself if you want, but I will say two things, first there are not hundreds of sayings that are similar and secondly they are not identical, they are at best similar in theme. It would seem that people like to compare sayings of religious leaders, for instance I found books comparing Jesus with Muhammad, Buddha, and Lao Tzu. I also found books comparing Muhammad and Buddha among others. It is crazy to think these religions are even close, in my Bible study I not only discuss the reasons for similarities in the sayings, but discuss the differences between Buddhism and Christianity. They are different on ever theological issue like God, salvation, scripture, etc. This was a very exciting study for me to do, if it interest you please feel free to use for you own purposes.