Christianity vs. Eastern religions

Christianity vs. Eastern religions

Many people practice Christianity or some form of Eastern Religion.

First, let us take a look at Christianity.

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." (Genesis 1, 26-27).

The fact that humans were created in the image and likeness of God does not imply that God has a physical nature, but suggests that humans received by creation a way of existing resembling that of the persons of the Holy Trinity.

According to the Church fathers of the first centuries, the "image" conferred to the human being represents the personal character of God, as an ontological fact of creation. Since God exists only as person, human nature too, exists only as person. Humanity is defined primarily by the ability to have communion with the creator and other people and only secondarily by self-consciousness, ability to think, feel and will.

As the underlying reality of the Holy Trinity are defined only in relationship with each other, in the same way the human underlying reality is defined only in relationship with God and other humans. This relationship is a reciprocal fellowship, accomplished by a personal unfolding of each toward the other.

While God's image is imprinted on humans and remains in them as their personal character, the "likeness" is defined as a way of being. It corresponds to a free will relationship of obedience to the creator. While the image is a metaphysical fact of human nature, the likeness is an attribute that has to be built up through exercising the relationship with God. This position is held by most Church fathers of the first centuries, Clement of Alexandria, Irenaeus of Lyon.

Man does not have the nature of God, but only qualities resembling his. Therefore, "the breath of life" (Genesis 2, 7), which God has transmitted to humans, is not a small part of God’s essence (a kind of atman as in Hinduism), but the act of life giving, which marked the beginning of experiencing self-consciousness.

According to Christianity, human personhood has real and unique value. It does not succumb to the Eastern doctrine of illusion (maya). Both body and soul define human personhood and neither of them is intrinsically bad or illusory.

The command says: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind" and "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Luke 10, 27). Nor do the elements of psycho-mental life have anything bad in themselves, reason for which Christianity demands the renewal of mind (Romans 12,2), discernment between good and bad feelings (Galatians 5,16-23) and using the will for good purposes (Titus 3,8). Nowhere in the Holy Scripture is it taught that they should be annihilated in order to grasp a higher impersonal Ultimate Reality.

In Hinduism, the principle of individuation, ahamkara, ego, the sense of the "I", of duality and separateness from others is considered to be one of the most important causes of illusion and suffering in the world.

In Christianity being dualistic, on the other hand, the sense of the "I" itself is not the cause of problems, only its wrong usage, which generates egoism, can be an issue.

The Christian teachings imply that without the quality that makes one person different from another, the idea of personal communion with God, the very reason humans were created, is not possible.

Hinduism affirming Brahman as the Ultimate Reality and the individual as the, self, atman or purusha, Elements that influence human existence are karma (cause and effect) and attachment that require to be worked out.

Hinduism states that desire leads to attachment and hence to bondage.

The Christian view is that desire does not have an adverse nature; it is part of being human. Personal desires have to be channeled to function in obedience to God.

In conclusion, Christianity brings a novelty in defining human nature. Humans are created as personal beings by a personal God, but without having the same essence with him. Personhood holds the premise for grounding a personal relationship with the creator.

The nature of sin

God’s command to Adam was: You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die" (Genesis 2,16-17).

Here must be emphasized the following important aspect: The knowledge of good and evil does not mean gaining some new information. In this Biblical text, God’s command is not a hindering from getting necessary knowledge or an artificial limitation of man’s freedom, but a warning concerning the possibility of getting involved with the nature of evil, of participating in another reality than that intended by God. This other reality was the world of Satan and the fallen angels.

The teachings state that human beings are a part of creation. In the context of creation in the Judeo-Christian tradition, the meaning of human existence cannot be found in oneself, but only in one’s creator.

What about the soul of man is it not part of God? The teachings imply, that humans are not meant to find an inner "true spiritual nature" or a "higher self" inside (a kind of atman), but to adjust to the character of God, fashioned by free will to obey God or Satan.

The story in Genesis reveals that Satan’s temptation cast doubt on the justice of God’s demands, suggesting that God’s command was not just and that rebellion against him would bring total freedom:

‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?"

The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’" "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman”.

"For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3, 1-5)

The temptation can be summed up as "to be like God", that is, to find all resources in oneself and follow the same path of rebellion Satan had followed, in order to find self-determination.

The Genesis story says that Adam and Eve sinned against God and that the first thing they came to know was not that they had become like God, but that they were separated from God and also from the perfect environment where they lived (Genesis 3,24).

In order to define sin, it suggests using the phrase having missed the mark that God has intended. Calling us sinners, God blames us for what we know is wrong but still do, not for unknown mistakes done against some unknown laws of God (see Romans 2, 1-15). According to God’s justice, the consequence of this situation would have been that God should respect humans’ desire to live a separate existence from him (as a fulfillment of their free will), and to abandon them in a world where he withdraws his presence and intervention, where separation from him and any good thing he created is eternal.

This world is called hell. (See some comments of the Early Church Fathers on hell, death and life after death.) It is often asked: How can a loving God condemn humans to such a horrifying punishment? But instead of seeing hell as a punishment, it can rather be taken as a real chance of existence offered to those who reject his presence. God would be unjust if he forced humans to live in his presence against their will.

The notion of sin, as stated in Christianity, has no correspondent in the Eastern religions. Although there are some Hindu terms translated as "sin" or wrongdoing, adharma or acting against one's own dharma, intrinsic nature, they do not represent a crime against God, but an act against dharma (the moral order) and against one's own self (leading to accumulation of karma). The origin of "sinful" conduct is spiritual ignorance (avidya). Therefore, a "sinner" needs only instruction and not condemnation. He needs help to reason the right way and realize that he is responsible for his actions, for which he must pay the consequences in samsara (the world of delusion in which we all live). Being a manifestation of the Absolute, humans have in themselves the divine nature (atman, purusha) and all resources to overtake the state of ignorance.

But Jesus stated: For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.' (Mark 7, 21-23)

According to the Judaic understanding of humanity, which was the context of Jesus’ saying, the "heart" is the core of man’s being, the emotional and volitional life. Consequently, in the New Testament, the heart is depicted as something that can think and understand (Matthew 9, 4; 13, 15), be troubled (John 14, 1; Romans 9, 2), rejoice (Ephesians 5, 19), make decisions (2 Corinthians 9,7) and also participate in salvation by expressing faith (Romans 10,9-10).

There is no deeper level of man’s nature that could hide a superior spiritual self. According to Christianity, the attitude of relying on inner resources in order to find an alleged "true inner nature" is a result of spiritual pride, the very cause of the fall. The Bible teaches that humans do not possess an intrinsic divine nature, and thus are incapable of saving themselves from sin. The only "true inner nature" humans possess is a sinful nature.

Hinduism: Ultimate Reality and human nature are in a cause and effect relationship. An impersonal Ultimate Reality determines that the essence of the human being, or its innermost nature, is also impersonal. This is the case in the pantheistic religions. The core of human nature is the impersonal self (atman), of the same essence with Ultimate Reality (Brahman in Vedanta, or Shiva in Tantric thought). Humanity's present condition is governed by karma, an impersonal law started by spiritual ignorance that forces the self to reincarnate until true knowledge is attained.

Buddhism rejects both personal gods and Brahman as Ultimate Reality. As a result it denies the reality of any permanent self residing in humans and defines human nature as a mere process of becoming. This process involves five aggregates, namely: form, sensation, perception, mental formation and consciousness.  They are called aggregates because they work together to produce a mental being. Each of the aggregates is undergoing constant changes. Aggregates are not static things; they are dynamic processes.         

The only reality of human existence is that of suffering. Although reincarnation is fully accepted, it deals only with the passing of karma from one life to another, without any permanent self being involved.

The monotheistic religions humanity's personal created status as a fundamental element of their theology. Personhood has nothing bad or illusory in itself, since it is the major condition for having personal communion with God. Karma and reincarnation are excluded. They have no room in Judaism, Christianity or Islam, because the role of supreme judge belongs only to God. The major flaw that defines human existence is sin, understood not as ignorance for one's "true inner nature", but as an offence against the creator. The barrier between humans and God has a moral nature, not an epistemological one, as in the Eastern religions. The result of sin is hell, a state of definitive separation from God, according to man's decision during this single earthly life.

In conclusion, there is no harmony among the world's religions concerning the status of humans and their present condition. Their positions are too divergent for any possible reconciliation.