Why is it that when Religion is discussed here it is only Christianity mostly?

[M.U.G.E.N]

Mr Khan said:

M.U.G.E.N said:

DaRev said:

Awesome

If you do find out what your religion says about Big Bang or any other type of Science vs Buddhism/Religion then I'll love to see how they deal with it.

You mentioned Lord Buddha, is this like the Christian God, i.e. creator of all? Is there an equivalent figure to Jesus aka God in human form, in your religion? Sorry for all the questions, Google is broken

aah science. It's a popular topic to be addressed in Buddhist discussions and lectures. I can't recite the names of the specific scriptures now but I Buddhism supports evolution. It does not encourage the concept of creation by an entitiy.

As for who Lord Buddha is, I suppose the closest example would be Jesus. However Lord Budda is neither a god nor is related to a god or other divine entity. He is a man among other regular men who discovered the truth of the world. If I were to describe his journey I will be writing a long ass essay here tho :D But to summarize he was born to one of the royal families of India....at his birth a prophecy was told that IF he choose the path of a king he will rule all kingdoms...but if he seeks the truth he will be discover it and help mankind..or something along those lines. He eventually grew tired (not sure what english word to use here....tired is all I can think of lol) of the ways of a humans life and all that binds one till death. He gave up his crown and kingdom and went into seclusion. After attempting different methods (some were extreme and they were failures) he realized the truth of the world. The ultimate message of buddhism is regarding desires. As long as you desire, you won't be free of suffering. 

There are mentions of gods. But it's mainly in the sense that there are heavens for those who do good in life line of thought rather than an interfering with humans type of god. You have to keep in mind a lot of the buddhist teachings were influenced heavily in later years by other more dominant religions in the region, specifically Hindunism. So we have newer stories of Hindu gods appearing in Buddhist stories too :D 

Hope my rant was able to answer your questions...was a bit distracted typing this..was watching the Trail Blazers vs Timberwolves game.

Heavens and Hells are a Mahayana contrivance, from what i remember from my college course in the matter. Ascencion to enlightenment otherwise proceeds through a number of phases, from animalistic humanity, through civilized humanity and up to spiritual awareness then spiritual attainment of Nirvana which is neither nothingness nor oneness but something that is neither and both at the same time.

The other Mahayana belief is in the Bodhisatva, who stops just before the attainment of enlignment in order to help others on that path (and their desire to help others is precisely what stops them from taking the last step).

You are right about the enlightment. There are various stages. If you are at least able to reach the first stage you are on your way to enlightment. But it will happen in a certain number of life times where with each time you will edge closer. Hehe I have trouble putting into words what englightenment is. The simplest way I can put it is devoid of desires and attachments. And by desires it means every desire not just in a material sense. It's kind of hard to explain :S man I really should think about this more and think of a way to explain it in English...no one has ever asked me about it before after coming to us :D

Heavens and Hells are in the scripters for Theravada too. Trust me on this. It plays a big part may it be on the Gatha (the poems we recite :S what's a good word for this?) and Buddhist folklore. You can easily see this when you go to a theravada temple. They have paintings and figurines etc depicting what bad deeds can do to you in after life and vice versa.

and The Bothisatva portion of your comment is wrong..at least according to Theravada. Bodhisatva has already attained englightenment before he engages other human in his teachings. Then he will continue his teaching until his demise where his mind will cease to exist, not in earth, hell or heaven, and by doing so he will have broken the chains that binds him to rebirth and sufferings. 

ps: my knowledge of the subject matter comes from teaching from childhood. I'm from Sri Lanka. One of the very few Theravada Buddhist nations. (actually the only one with the Majority lol)