RESPOND

Question 2: Write an essay which discusses the place of Buddhism in the world today. Discuss in some depth if you think it will become a more popular religion in the future and why you believe it will or will not.

Buddhism dates back to around 2,500 years ago, when Siddhartha Gautama – better known as “the Buddha” – was enlightened and founded Buddhism. After two millenniums, Buddhists now represent 7.1% of our world population (Pew Research Center, 2010). It is incredible that one person changed the life of millions and millions of people that now add up to around 500 million. Even though this religion represents a great number of people, in my opinion, I believe that the number of Buddhists will decline in the future and become less of a popular religion because of a few reasons that I will go into more deeply in this essay.

To begin with, in Buddhism, the Four Noble Truths are: “1. Suffering is inherent in life. 2. The cause of suffering is desire. 3. There is a way to put an end to desire and suffering. 4. The way is the Noble Eightfold Path.” (Brodd, 2013). Buddhism preaches that suffering can be eliminated though the Noble Eightfold Path, however, we live in a world where suffering is immense. We see innocent children dying, people hating on each other, wars, hunger, families separating, just to name a few issues that so many people face every day. I feel like Buddhism is a very hard religion to preach to people that are under these types of circumstances.

Secondly, we live in a very superficial and materialistic world. Even though Buddhists live the “principle of the Middle way” as the foundation of their religion, not many people would like to renounce to all of their worldly attachments. I believe that every day, more people want a more comfortable religion that does not ask that much of them.

Thirdly, Buddhism is an “atheistic religion” or at least a “transtheistic”, which means that either they do not believe in any gods, or they acknowledge their existence, but it is basically unimportant when it comes to the “quest for enlightenment”. In the world, more than 70% of the global population, is part of a religion that believes in a range from one to many gods (Pew Research Center, 2010). But in the end, an enormous percentage of the world population believes in God or gods. It is very hard to think of a religion, where god will be just acknowledged but not cared for. I think that this is a particular thing that will make Buddhism decline in its popularity. Now a day, it is important to at least believe that there is a greater force beyond this world that will eventually make things better – consolation of promise.

In conclusion, Buddhism encompasses at least 500 million people in the world, which is roughly 7.1% of our population (Pew Research Center, 2010). But in my opinion, this religion will become less popular in the future because of its ideas that suffering can be eliminated by following the Noble Eightfold Path, because we live in a very superficial and materialistic world and finally because it is an atheistic religion. However, this religion preaches basically the five universal ethics which are not to kill, not to steal, not to commit inappropriate sexual acts, not to lie and not to use intoxicants. And it also preaches love to others and service to those in need. So in the end, once again, I hope that we can all come together as a world and be less separated by differences in religion.

References

Brood, Jeffrey. Invitation to World Religions. 2013. Oxford University Press. Print.

Pew Research Center. 2014. Global Religious Diversity. http://www.pewforum.org/2014/04/04/global-religious-diversity/