You can choose the topic you want - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... stence is all about hope and since the dawn of human civilization on this planet, almost all the major religions of the world have either believed in or alluded to rebirth in one form or other. The early Christians do believed in rebirth and life after death and they carried on with this belief until the Middle Ages. The records of many important and influential church fathers like Origen establish beyond doubt that they believed in rebirth and reincarnation. Yet, by the advent of Renaissance, the Christianity dropped the beliefs about reincarnation from its doctrines and rituals. However, two major world religions that are Hinduism and Buddhism regard rebirth and reincarnation to be an essential part of their creed. Though there are many similarities between the Hindu and Buddhist theologies about rebirth, yet there also exist many marked differences between the way the two religions tend to elaborate on the concept and mechanism of rebirth.
The fundamental similarity between the Hinduism and the Buddhist beliefs about life after death is that both of them believe in reincarnation or rebirth. Both Hinduism and Buddhism believe that death is not the end of life, but the extension of life into a second life that is a life after death. Thus, there exists nothing as death and the human beings continue to live after death by taking a second birth after death as some other personality, individual or life form. The Hindus believe that eventual goal of the human existence is to merge with the Brahma or the Supreme Being or God and before the attainment of this state; the human beings continue to pass on from one birth to other, from one state of existence to other and experience many births and deaths. As per Hinduism, every individual has to bear with countless and many experiences and has to live many lives before becoming one with the Divine. According to Buddhism, the eventual goal of human consciousness to attain Nirvana or enlightenment and on its way to Nirvana, ...Download file to see next pagesRead More