Earning Heaven: Parallels Between Pure Land Buddhism and Evangelical Christianity

Salvation in the afterlife is the shared quest in Pure Land Buddhism and Evangelical Christianity.

Salesmanship of Organized Religion

Religions must compete in the marketplace of ideas. If the sales pitch isn’t compelling, people won’t follow it. Without adherents, the religion dies.

Religions all use a carrot-and-stick approach. Some emphasize the carrot, like the Christian heaven or the Buddhist pure land, and some emphasize the stick; both Christianity and Buddhism posit a Hell, a place of eternal damnation.

A good salesman or religious missionary will start by offering the lure of a carrot, but if that should fail, they generally resort to fear of the stick.

Spreading the Good News

An old Inuit and a Christian missionary had a conversation about the teachings of Christianity.

The missionary explained the basics of the Christian faith, including the concept of heaven and hell, and how one’s actions on earth determine where one will spend the afterlife.