Can I combine religions to make something that works for me?

Can I combine religions to make something that works for me?

Asked by Kieren

I myself am catholic turned buddhist and my friend is convincing me that
christianity is the way. I believe that jesus was a modern day buddha..(i
dont believe much else of the bible and dont really incorporate it into my
life) Is it wrong to combine the religons when they in theory COULD work
together.

It is great to hear that you are considering Christianity as a belief worth following.  There is much to say about your question and I will give some suggested links at the end. 

However, in this response I simply want to pick up on your last phrase.  I want to ask, ‘can we really say that all religions “in theory could work together”’?  I don’t think we can.  Each major religion believes things that are the complete opposite of the others.  Take life-after death as an example: Hindus believe in physical reincarnation, Buddhists believe in the extinguishment of bodily reality (nirvana), and Christians believe in bodily resurrection to eternal life.  There is no way that all these three ideas of life-after-death could be rationalised into the one theory.  They stand in contradiction to one another, and therefore could not work together. 

In short, it is not possible to combine religions.  Either they are all wrong OR one is right, but they can’t all be right.  Our task is to investigate the evidence and see where the truth lies.  I am confident that the uniqueness of Jesus gives enough weight to put all my eggs in the Christianity basket.

Here are a couple of links, from the christianity.net.au website, which will give you more info.

On the question of “which god should we listen to?” goto:
http://www.christianity.net.au/god/god-whose/

On the question of “are all religions the same?’ goto:
http://www.christianity.net.au/you/are_all_religions_the_same

And for some thoughts on the reliability and relevance of the Bible goto:
http://www.christianity.net.au/you/can_i_trust_the_bible

On the uniqueness of Jesus see:
http://www.christianity.net.au/god/god-christ/

Keiren, if you are interested in talking more about christianity then please feel free to come back and ask them on the site.

Answers are kindly provided by our friends at Christianity.net.au

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