HINDUISM,
BUDDHISM,
TAOISM AND
NEW AGE
HINDUISM:
GOD
IS ONE; EVERYBODY,
INCLUDING THE ANTIGOD, IS THE SAME ONE
GOD AND CAN SAY, “I AM
GOD”.
TEACHINGS
 The
ultimate god, Brahman, is
impersonal, but all other lesser gods
are personal and the manifestation
of the supreme god.
 Man is the extension of the divine
being:
He can apply his godly power to his daily
life by meditating (Yoga) on his eternal
godhood.
 He will be able to release the divinity
within himself and rise above
materialism and reach towards love and
peace.

TEACHINGS
 There
is no false religion for
Hinduism, because, everybody who
brought a religion was the same
supreme god.
 Hindus worship demonic spirits, the
living saints, animals such as cows,
monkeys, snakes and others.
 Gods exercise their power in favor of
or in opposition to men (gods) and
women (gods), depending on their
respectful or disrespectful deeds
towards those gods.
TEACHINGS
 Nothing




is permanent:
The whole universe and every thing that
exists, including gods, are subject to
constant change.
Mountains, rocks and gods will pass
away and others will take their places.
Each soul has many lives that die and
are reborn again and again.
When a person or animal dies, only the
physical body dies, the soul does not die
but is reborn.
PROBLEMS

Impersonal and indescribable god cannot
manifest itself into other describable personal
beings.
A perfect God cannot multiply into inferior and
opposite gods.
 Inferior gods, who merge with one another, cannot
make a perfect god.
 Personal beings, who are describable, also cannot
become impersonal and indescribable.
 Also, Brahman cannot be perfect, if Satan (Shiva)
lives in it and sin flows down from it into other
inferior forms.

PROBLEMS
 How
can Brahman, who is
impersonal, be also called
“ultimate reality”?
Reality can be attributed only to a
God that has personality and is
describable, but not to an impersonal
god.
 Impersonal god cannot manifest
itself, guide people, establish justice,
peace and love among people.
 Brahman, therefore, cannot be real.

PROBLEMS
 Hinduism
says that man will be able to
release the divinity within himself
through yoga and rise above
materialism and reach towards love
and peace.
Isn’t material spirit, god and good too?
 If Brahman was the source of love and
peace, why did it manifest itself into painful
(inferior) beings but now tries to reach to its
original state again?
 Does really Brahman have peace and love
while the enemy of peace and love, Shiva,
lives in it?

BIBLE CONDEMNS
GOD’
 “In
THE IDEA OF ‘SELF-
the pride of your heart you say,
“I am a god; I sit on the throne of
a god in the heart of the seas.”
But you are a man and not a god,
though you think you are as wise
as a god.” (Ezek. 28:2);
 “The Lord is One.” (Deut. 6:4; Mark
12:29).
BUDDHISM:
MAN IS THE CREATOR OF GOD.
THE WORLD WE KNOW IT IS NOT
CREATED BY ANY SUPERNATURAL
BEING. IT EXISTS IN THE MINDS
OF THOSE WHO PERCEIVE IT.
WHEN THE MIND STOPS THINKING,
AND AWARENESS DISAPPEARS, ALL
THAT EXISTS DISAPPEARS.
TEACHINGS
 Mankind
is significant and able
to save himself.

He must rely on his own
intelligence in order to get rid of
pain and reach the state of
liberation, nirvana.
 Awareness
and consciousness
is part of a person.
 There is no soul or self (anatta)
for a person.
TEACHINGS
Nothing
is permanent or has
a fixed identity because of
cycle of death and rebirth;
all things are transitory and
subject to change.
Man’s present position
depends on his behavior in
the previous life.
PROBLEMS
 What
is light in Buddhism, since every
man is the master of his own life?
It is a relative light, which can be taken as
a light by one and darkness by his
oppositions according to the variation in
human thinking.
 If it is relative, it cannot stop one to cause
problem for others or threaten peace.
 How does this relative light lead to nirvana,
the state of perfect peace and happiness?

PROBLEMS
 How
can a man be his own savior or
be trusted while he is the creator and
gratifier of his own craving and pain?
 Can Buddha (or any person) be his
own real light and refuge since he
believes that man is unreal?

If man is unreal, the light, peace and
happiness in him are also unreal.
 Buddha
said, things exist only when
man thinks and is conscious. Doesn’t
this theory apply to his own Eight Fold
Path?
PROBLEMS
 Buddha
does not belief in “soul or self”.
How then is he able to identify himself
with his own Eight Fold Paths?
 How is he able to say to his followers,
“Follow my instructions”?
 How can any of his followers say, “I can
be attentive to the Eight Fold Paths?

 If
man is not permanent and is without
soul, how is Buddhism able to offer a
permanent hope to people?
PROBLEMS
 If
man is not permanent, then what
part of man will carry itself to the next
reincarnation or rebirth?
 Buddha says, everything that exists is
created in the mind of man. If so, why
then is man not able to create one
more thing, called soul?
 If the word soul does not exist, then
how is it that this word exists in
Buddha’s vocabulary?
PROBLEMS
 Is
Buddha able to introduce a
universal faith of peace and
happiness while he himself believes
that the universe is unreal and
disappears when the mind stops
thinking?

The faith in Buddha cannot be universal
and does not have a permanent value.
 Unlike
the Buddhist belief, man is real
and his soul is eternal, so that the
permanent nature of his/her soul may
link him to eternal peace and
happiness.
PROBLEMS
 Buddha
believes that awareness and
consciousness is part of a person.
This contradicts his own belief which
says, “nothing exists”;
If nothing exists, how then that thing can be
aware of conscious?
 Stages of existence and the methods of
operating choices make a person winner or
loser.
 If there is existence (or are beings), then
the values of the super being will draw our
attention to excellent values.

BIBLICAL VIEW
Humanity
needs an
absolute standard of peace
and happiness in order to
effectively achieve genuine
peace and happiness
amongst all individuals
(2Cor.5:18-21; Col.1:20).
TAOISM:
YIN (DARKNESS) AND YANG
(LIGHT) ARE THE TWO OPPOSITE
AND AT THE SAME TIME
COMPLEMENTARY CHARACTERS
THAT FLOW DOWN FROM TAO
(GOD) INTO EVERY INFERIOR
SPIRITUAL AND MATERIAL BEING.
TEACHINGS
 God
is impersonal and the
manifestation of everything in the
world.
 All aspects of life in the world are in
harmony; masculine with feminine,
hard with soft, sweet with sour, hot
with cold, light with dark, good with
evil, right with wrong, true with
false, big with small, black with
white, etc.
TEACHINGS
 Taoism
attributes the darkness,
passivity and regression
aspects of life to Yin and calls it
the female gender of the law of
nature, whereas all positive
aspects of live are attributed to
Yang and is called the male
gender of the law of nature.
TEACHINGS
A
Taoist must do everything calmly,
live in harmony with the nature and
welcome the consequences
whatever they might be good or bad
without any judgment, because his
self or inner being is in perfect
harmony with Tao.
 To avoid trouble, Taoists should not
chase the pleasures of the world and
upset the balance between Yin and
Yang.
PROBLEM
Taoism has the same problem of the
impersonality of god in Hinduism.
 Tao is the creator of both good and evil.
Instead of rescuing people from evil, he
himself has created evil and furthermore
has called people to bow down to evil.



For this reason, justice and salvation have no
meaning in Taoism.
Thirdly, Taoism encourages passivity
towards evil and rejects human activity in
every dimension of life against evil.
PROBLEMS
Has
human history proven that
good and evil go together?
No one achieves peace and
happiness from dualism or
impurity.
Darkness cannot be in the
service of light, and visa
versa.
PROBLEM
 Since
Taoism attributes every evil
thing to Yin and call it the “female
principle of darkness”, this has
affected the place of women
negatively in society. People call
women shy, unassertive, narrowminded, disorganized, hard to work
with and use these words as a
subtle excuse to block their
promotion in society.
NEW AGE:
EVERYTHING, INCLUDING SATAN,
IS SUPERNATURAL AND
SPIRITUAL—EQUAL TO GOD, PART
OF GOD, AND GOD A PART OF
EVERYTHING. THERE IS NOTHING
NATURAL IN ITS REAL SENSE.
MATTER IS THE ILLUSIONARY
MANIFESTATION OF THE
SUPERNATURAL.
TEACHINGS
God is impersonal and unknown.
 Individuals have power to remove barriers,
to rise to a higher consciousness and unite
with each other, Muslims, Christians,
Hindus, and all others, through their divine
attributes and thereby change society.
 Good and evil are one and the same; there
is no absolute truth or morality.
 Since everybody is “god” and has nothing
less than others, s/he therefore does not
need to get approval from others for what
s/he thinks, says or does; s/he is the
source of all truth.

PROBLEMS





Matter is supernatural and impersonal. If this
is the case, why is it then called ‘matter’ which
is a personal and describable term?
Personal feelings and experiences are the
measuring tools for the truthfulness of a claim
but not in comparison with any set values or
with others’ feelings and experiences.
If everything is good, why then are New Agers
trying to unite since disunity is also good?
If every religion is good, why don’t they join
another religion but instead are encouraging
others to join their religion?
If every thing is good, then there will be no
need for a set law to condemn the attitudes of
those who oppress others or trample their
rights.
PROBLEM
 If
God is impersonal and unknown,
how can God be witnessed then?
How do we know God is Holy if he is
unknowable?
 How does impersonality express
personal words (in writings) that
describe values or attributes?

BIBLICAL VIEWS
 Only
a personal God can reveal and
relate Himself to His creatures.


Jn. 1: 1-3, 14; Mt.11:27b.
The revelation of God makes reconciliation
(salvation) possible here on earth.
 Only
the knowable God can make
Himself known.

The testimonies of the followers of the
known God is trustworthy.
BIBLICAL VIEWS
 The
God of “personal man” must be
personal.
The personal God can relate Himself to His
personal creatures.
 God touch His creatures in creation. He touches
them in salvation too.


The prayers (and cries) of every nation to
their deities prove that their consciences
are not consistent with their religious
beliefs.

 To
Impersonal God cannot hear or be
omnipresent.
a personal man a personal Creator and
Redeemer makes sense.
BIBLICAL CHALLENGES
Who
can bring what is pure
from the impure? No one
(Job.14:4).
Can imperfect lead to
perfection? (1Cor.13:10)
If the root is not holy, so are
the branches (Read
Rom.11:16b).
DO CHRISTIANS
NEED A REASONED
APPROACH TO EVANGELISM?
HOW
CAN THIS MINISTRY BE STRONG
AND WIDE SPREAD?
IS GOD
CALLING YOU TO PLAY A ROLE
IN THIS MINISTRY?
DR. DANIEL SHAYESTEH
719-271-5227
7SPIRITS@GMAIL.COM