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Originally Posted by Jainarayan

Hinduism and Christianity could not be more different if they were designed that way.

Hinduism:

1. No single founder or guiding doctrine or dogma, or single scripture.
2. Belief that God takes innumerable forms, appearing to devotees differently.
3. Largely henotheistic, i.e. belief in one God, but the belief in other gods and forms of God.
4. Belief that all paths are equally valid for salvation, knowledge, liberation from the cycle of rebirth.
5. No need for salvation, all creation is a manifestation of God and therefore divine and holy.
6. Belief in a cycle of rebirth, i.e. reincarnation.
7. Pantheistic and panentheistic simultaneously; God pervades the universe, is the universe; all life is pervaded by and part of God.
8. No concept of divine judgement, punishment or reward.

Christianity:

1. Jesus Christ and apostles founded Christianity as we know it; the Bible is the only and ultimate authority.
2. Only one God with one form.
3. No other gods are to be worshiped.
4. Christianity and the Bible are the only means to salvation.
5. Man and creation are flawed, sinful, needing redemption.
6. Does not believe in reincarnation; one life, one death; final judgement.
7. God is outside the universe; God is not the universe, the universe is not God.
8. God judges and rewards or punished the soul for its actions in life.

The similarities people like to cite are the birth and life stories of Jesus and Krishna. My own belief is that the Krishna stories, which predate Jesus by several centuries, if not a millennium or more, were carried from India into the Roman world via the Silk Roads and the travelers (merchants, traders, armies, diplomats, migrants) who traveled. Rome, South Asia and East Asia traded and had connections for centuries.

1. Jesus and Krishna were both of royal bloodlines.
2. Jesus and Krishna were both conceived transcendentally by God, Mary by the Holy Spirit, Devaki by Vishnu himself.
3. They were both raised by foster parents; Krishna raised by Yashoda and Nanda, Jesus raised by Joseph, his foster father.
4. Both were prophesied to be the downfall of evil kings, who tried to kill both babies.
5. Their births were announced by divine beings, Jesus by angels, Krishna by Goddess Durga. Goddess Durga took birth as Krishna's baby sister at the same time he was born. She appeared to King Kamsa and announced that Krishna was already secreted away and safe.
6. Joseph was told by an angel in a dream that Jesus's life was in danger and to flee to Egypt.
7. Vasudeva, Krishna's birth father took him secretly to Nanda and Yashoda in another kingdom for protection.
8. Devaki, Krishna's birth mother was not a virgin. She had 6 children before Krishna.
9. Krishna killed his uncle the evil king, his mother's brother, in a duel. Jesus killed no one.
10. Both were adults when they gave their most famous and important teachings, the Sermon on the Mount and the Bhagavad Gita.
11. Krishna did not die by hanging on a tree. He was accidentally shot with an arrow by a hunter.

Buddhism and Hinduism are far closer in beliefs, given that Buddhism is an offshoot of Hinduism. Siddhartha Gautama, aka the Buddha, was Hindu. The difference between Buddhism and Hinduism is that Buddhism is non-theistic, does not believe in an independent Self as Hinduism does. All three promote the ideas of non-violence and non-injury. However, while Buddhism and Hinduism recommend vegetarianism, Christianity is silent on it.

Buddhism is not an offshoot of Hinduism as we know it today, Buddhism came before Hinduism.

Buddha was a Hindu because he was born in the land/civilization of the 'Indus ' 'the people of the Indies', The religion he was born into was Brahmin.... and not Hinduism as a religion.


Some Buddhists do believe in God and also eat meat, different Schools have different ideas. Buddha ate meat and never denied a God, according to Suttas. In Buddhism there are no ' Rules ' just guides.