Religion and Theology

Overview
Buddhism is a religious conviction based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, who lived about 26 centuries ago in what is now Nepal and northeastern India. He became the Buddha, which means awakened one, after an experience of philosophical consciousness of the nature of life, fatality and survival.  In the centuries following the Buddhas life, Buddhism extended all over Asia to be one of the leading religions in the continent.

Buddhism differs from other religions because, the central crucial point of nearly all religions is God, or gods but Buddhism isnon-theistic. The Buddha explained that having faith in gods was not significant if one was seeking to be liberal. He did not teach any doctrines to be memorized and understood, but instead taught how people could grasp reality for themselves. Buddhism is a form of discipline of the truths that the Buddha taught the truth of suffering (dukkha), the truth of the cause of suffering(samudaya), the truth of the end of suffering (nirhodha) and the truth of the path that frees us from suffering (magga). The main aim is not to just believe in the knowledge, but to explore it, understand it, and to test it beside ones own encounter. It is theprocessof exploring, understanding, testing and realizing that is Buddhism.

The roots of Buddhists in America are dated back in 1800s from the Europeans.  Year 1893 is regarded as the year Buddhism came to being in America, i.e. during the first World Parliament of Religions, which was held in Chicago. The first famous Buddhist monk in the Western hemisphere was, Allan Bennett.  He finally changed his name to Ananda Metteya.

As Buddhism began to blossom in America, it began to manipulate significant thinkers, who in turn influenced the religion itself. In the 1980s and 1990s, Buddhism augmented noticeably in America, fed by the invasion of Asian immigrants, attention in martial arts, and the Internet. Presently, approximately 3 million Americans, or around 1 percent of the entire inhabitants, consider themselves Buddhist.
The approach of Buddhism is come and observe for yourself, which attracts many Westerners.

Buddhists are not required to have faith in anything, but to follow the Buddhas guidance to experiment thoughts for ourselves. In fact, Buddhas ultimate words were to, be a lamp unto yourself, make of yourself a light.

Social and Political Life of Buddhists in United States
According to Jones (2003), Americans misunderstood the advice from Buddhist teachers for forming social Buddhism movement for a radical permission to pull out from relationships, from society and from the democratic process of biased conversation. Possibly many of them took to meditation to run away from the demands of normal lives. Buddhist wisdom was being absorbed and interpreted from an American mindset that is extremely money-oriented, selfish, aggressive and egotistical.

In the American Buddhist community, many Buddhists have decided with the Dalai Lamas declaration about the dangers of egoism and vanity in Buddhist practice. ThoseAmerican Buddhists who are trying to correct this trend have coined the term Engaged Buddhism to emphasize the inherent link between genuine Buddhist reflection and social action,Queen (2000).

Comparison between Buddhism and Christianity
Buddhism teaches that, human beings are spellbound in a recurring cycle of birth, life, death and reincarnation. Each successive reincarnation may be into an improved, a worse life, or a similar life, depending upon the persons Karma -- the sins and merits that have accumulated during their present and earlier lives.  Christianity teaches that there is life after death and this life is in Christ Jesus who died and rose again to live with God the father in the internal kingdom. A person only has one life on earth the next life is either in heaven if he believed in God and the life to come or in hell if he rejected the will of God.

The two religions share common behaviors in their practices like Themes of morality, justice, love.These themes are found through both the Buddhas teaching and the Hebrew and Christian Bible. Some traditions within Buddhism trust in the power of prayer while others differ, just like Christians do.

Conclusion
Buddhism has had a great impact on Americans and this has led to the need for learning and understanding what is entailed in the whole practice.  There are many books which function as resource materials for this religion and have helped a lot of people with the intent of being transformed to Buddhists. Again, according to the practices and procedures of this setup, we can conclude that it is not a religion since there is nothing like faith in any god or being as sovereign divine power, but works with own efforts to gain whatever one is pursuing.