Would you argue Buddhism is populist like Christianity?

[MURAI]

Christianity is an offshoot of Judaism. But with the appeal of one can be saved under Christ if you just believe in him. Their appeal is that Christ died on the cross for all of mankind. So, to be saved you dont have to born a Jew. The rules for Christianity is much more feel-good, and "forgiving" compared to Judaism.

Buddhism grew out of Hinduism like Christianity out of Hinduism. And Buddhism ditched the strict caste system of Hinduism, so again anybody can be a believer. Buddhists criticize Christianity as a form of pity while they claim that they appeal to compassion which is something higher.

So would you consider Buddhism to be as populist as Christianity?

 

[LORD_RED_DRAGON]

So would you consider Buddhism to be as populist as Christianity?

are u saying populist = bad???

 

[VikingSF]

Buddhism is very accessible and "friendly," in that anyone from any culture can adopt it with ease. It's essentially about meditation and thought instead of worship of a specific god, so it's also easy for mostly non-religious people to get into. Witness the number of New-Age types, Hollywood actors, and hippies who adopt all or part of Buddhism. What I don't like about Buddhism, and why I would never practice it, is that it encourages passivity and communalism, and discourages action and individualism.

 

[LORD_RED_DRAGON]

yes buddhism is as populist as christianity

 

[Korona]

Bhuddism is as Bhuddism does. I think some types are pretty elitist, maintaining that life is just a striving to become good enough to come back as a monk and attempt enlightenment. Then again there is always the people who will tell a celebrity that they are "enlightened" and take the £50,000 they are being paid for the privalidge!

 

[LORD_RED_DRAGON]

Then again there is always the people who will tell a celebrity that they are "enlightened" and take the £50,000 they are being paid for the privalidge!

i can see your point here...i mean that you don't see Kenneth Copeland getting paid to convert celebs to Christianity

 

[speed]

i can see your point here...i mean that you don't see Kenneth Copeland getting paid to convert celebs to Christianity

They prefer to convert politicians.

 

[LORD_RED_DRAGON]

They prefer to convert politicians.

which creates the problem of Christianity having a detrimental effect on America, think about it this way, if we really had "fredom of religion" then, when Iraq was trying to vote on a constitution, our constitution should have been secular enough for them to use but really it wasn't even anywhere close and the american people are so accustomed to the presense of Christianity that we didn't even realize that our "freedom of religion" doesn't even exist enough for some other religion to use our constitution, this rant is sort of applicable to this thread because buddhism is still, in America, a concept considered worthy of being on a "philosopher" type forum as the direct result of how "Christianized" America has become, there are a still few countries where religious differences would not even be considered "philosophical" because they would just be accepted as part of who an individual person is the same as what a person's favorite color is or something equally trivial