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Most scholars believe there is no historical evidence of any influence by Buddhism on Christianity. [verification needed] Leslie Houlden states that although modern parallels between the teachings of Jesus and Buddha have been drawn, these comparisons emerged after missionary contacts in the 19th century and there is no historically reliable evidence of contacts between Buddhism and Jesus. [28]
A statue of Siddartha Gautama preaching. Since the arrival of Christian missionaries in India in the 1st century (traces of Christians in Kerala from 1st-century Saint Thomas Christians), followed by the arrival of Buddhism in Western Europe in the 4th and 5th centuries, similarities have been perceived between the practices of Buddhism and Christianity.
There are inherent and fundamental differences between Buddhism and Christianity, one significant element being that while Christianity is at its core monotheistic and relies on a God as a Creator, Buddhism is generally non-theistic and rejects the notion of a Creator God which provides divine values for the world. [3]
Christianity understands acceptance of Jesus' sacrifice as a transformation of the individual, by that the person sheds off its former sinful nature and dissolves in the will of Jesus, an idea attributed to Paul in the Bible: "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new cre-ation: the old has gone; the new has come." [114]
In Christian theology, redemption (Ancient Greek: Ἀπολύτρωσις, apolutrosis) refers to the deliverance of Christians from sin and its consequences. [1] Christians believe that all people are born into a state of sin and separation from God, and that redemption is a necessary part of salvation in order to obtain eternal life. [2]
Some Christians note that the cross carried by Jesus is the crossbar or patibulum, a rough tree trunk, which probably weighed 80–110 pounds (36–50 kg). [ citation needed ] Jesus also fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, an example of submission to the first person of the Trinity, God the Father, and as a way of preparing for ministry.
These influences were inherited by Zen Buddhism when Chan Buddhism arrived in Japan and adapted as Zen Buddhism. Despite the geographical distance that would seemingly preclude any direct influence, some scholars have historically observed similarities between traditional Chinese religious beliefs and Christianity.
Although the philosophical systems of Buddhism and Christianity have evolved in rather different ways, the moral precepts advocated by Buddhism from the time of Ashoka through his edicts as well as the Pali Canon do have some similarities with the Christian moral precepts developed more than two centuries later: