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.

Ignorance surrounding those religions and the western-focused nature of this board's contributors.

Take a look at verse 30 of the 21st chapter in the Quran. Speaks briefly of the Big Bang.

I think that there is also a retaliatory bias at play. It isn't just that posters are indifferent or oblivious to other faiths. As they have rarely had much in the way of meaningful interactions with the practitioners of those faiths. There really is such a thing as a Anti Christian sentiment in this community, and it isn't even without justification. Members of small minority groups can hardly afford to be assholes in regards to their faith or world view. Majorities however are just plain chopped full of real fucking assholes. My apologies to the Christians on these forums, but a lot of your fellow worshipers are total dicks.

Where would any person place the majority of their attention. On the group that is harmless, or the group that seems intent on causing trouble, or worse is intent on doing real harm. Not only that, but has inflicted such harm in the past. I don't know that Christians can truly appreciate the oppression that comes out of their religion, but let me put it to you this way. Christians have told people that they deserve to suffer forever. That God gave them a disease to hurt them. They even insist that things belong to their faith, and others should be made to leave. Just imagine how you would feel if someone said those things to you, and you just might understand why some people have a big axe to grind.

It just seems to me that we have a lot of people on these forums with festering resentments, and they find a lot of opportunities to vent their frustrations on the source of their pain. Online they find themselves a fair fight which they don't get in the real world, and they often get themselves some payback. You can't really blame them every time the opportunity presents itself. They are really scratching a itch, and other faiths don't present any kind of an itch. You can't put two mutually antagonistic groups into a room, and not expect them to pull on one another. I mean two groups hell bent on hurting one another. It is a miracle that every discussion doesn't end up in a storm of curse words.

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)

Huh, i assumed it was a Mahayana root, but the class i took was actually in Japanese religions (including Japanese Buddhist divisions), so it only brushed on the Lower Path, as the two major Japanese branches (Tendai and Shingon) are focused on upper path, though Tendai is focused on the Lotus Sutra while Shingon is more esoteric.

Whereabouts in Sri Lanka? Obviously not up north if you're Buddhist, but the Colombo area, or inland closer to Kandy?

I am not that familiar with Mahayana teachings so it very well could be a concept common to both ..hehe and that's Mahyana and Japanese all right..I have no idea what any of those words mean. Our basic teachings are focused around the languages of the original scriptures, Paali and Sanskriti

Yep I'm from Colombo. My whole family is from down south but born and raised in Colombo :D

Paragraph 1 - wow, that must be a real selling point for Evolutionists. The concept almost escapes me as I always believed that Religion = Belief in some Creator/God.

Paragraph 2 - you said "truth of the world. The ultimate message of buddhism is regarding desires. As long as you desire, you won't be free of suffering." If I understand you correctly, the ultimate massage of Buddhism, is not to desire anything? Is this what Enlightenment means? Conversly, I would say the ultimate message of Christianity is the Love of God for his Creation.

Paragraph 3 - Ok, considering that Buddhism supports evolution rather than creation, do Buddhists believe that 'heaven' or 'hell' came about the same way that our Universe came about, i.e. some sort of Big Bang? Is there a Buddhist concept of rebirth considerign it being influenced by other religions, or is it that when you die you just go to different levels of heaven or hell and that's it?

What about the 'F' word, FAITH - which is an integral part of Christianity. Is there a concept of Faith in Buddhism? I assume that there isn't if the religion has at its core concepts of evolution, and deeds = rewards.

Again, thanks for entertaining my questions. Let me know when you get tired It's not every day a Christian gets to discuss religion with a Buddhist.