Religion

Why is it that all people need a religion for their lives to feel complete? Even believing in nothing is a religion that holds many followers. Are humans possibly comforted by knowing that no matter what you believe there is an organizations out there that will support you, as long as there are only small differences. When you compare religions how different are they really? When comparing Christianity and Hinduism, two supposedly vastly different religions, is there not answers to the same exact questions of life and death. Even though the answers do hold their differences they still answer wanted questions like; is there an after life?,what should be the rights of passage?, and what about god, is there one or many or maybe none?

When comparing the questions, for an example, about an after life. Both religions have a definite answer. For Hinduism the answer lies in the belief of reincarnation. The belief that the after life of one life is another living life, the decision of rather you come back as a human or an animal is not believed to be up to you. Karma also plays a big role in the reincarnation. For this religion, what goes around comes around fairly. The reason karma is such a big part is because, they believe that incomplete punishment for a person's evil deeds in this life will be completed in future lives. Now looking at Christianity's answer, which is the belief that good deed do-ers that are Christian followers go to heaven and everyone with enough sins (bad deeds) go to hell for the rest of eternity to pay for those awful sins. Generally all Christians are completely against karma, what goes around does not come around quite fairly for them. They believe strictly that it is divided cleanly, you are not punished in life for bad deeds/sins, you are simply condemned to the red hell of fiery torture for an eternity as punishment if your sins are bad enough or if you are not a Christian follower when you die. But on the other side if you do mostly good deeds(for everyone is human) and apologize regretfully for any sins committed in life, then you will go to the pearly white gates of heaven, the perfect paradise, where you will spend your eternity in a perfect bliss.
Another question asked in all religions is; what are the rites of passage to be accepted and acknowledged as a true follower of that religion? On the answer to this question the two religions believe similar answers. Christianity just has a more strict like code than Hinduism it seems. Hinduism's rite of passage are not mere formalities or social observances, such as Christianity's Christmas holiday and Easter holiday, but serve to purify the soul at critical junctions in life's journey. Which is similar to Christianity's baptism rite of passage, where a priest of your church uses water to wash away your forgivable sins, to cleanse a person, usually done when someone is first born or when someone “finds” Christianity later in one's life. Hinduism's belief is also similar to Christianity's weekly praying in a church, if not more than weekly, usually occurring on Sunday and/or Wednesday.
And last, another asked question, possibly the most important question in all religions because this simple question, in a very vague way, answers all the questions of any religion. This question is, quite simply, is there a believed god(s) and/or goddess(es)? And again the two's answers to this question are, in a distinct way, similar. Hindus are pantheistic. Meaning that Hindu's believe in all gods. Though for Hinduism it is not really that simply explained. Hindu's believe that god is just energy. To them god is everything since energy is everything. It's what makes everything live, die, feel, and simply be. God is karma and the after life and it is also sometimes in god like forms. For instance, their goddess of destruction, Kali, is the form of a woman with eight arms. To them she represents and brings destruction and death, though she is not evil like Satan, who is the all evil punish-er and ruler of Christianity's believed hell, is to the Christians. Being pantheistic is mainly the reason Hindu's do not fight with other religious believers, they respect all forms of energy so they believe in every god. Christianity is monotheistic, meaning they believe solely in one god. He is the one and almighty that is ruler of heaven and everything on earth that is good. Christian's believe that if you do not acknowledge and properly worship this one god only, that you will be questioned at the gates of heaven and possibly sent to hell for this believed “sin”. Because of this sole belief that their religion revolves around, Christians try to convince everyone to follow Christianity and its ways of worship and belief. By converting them, Christians believe that the person converted, if he/she continues to follow this god and Christianity's ways, will be accepted by god into his heavenly castle. All Christians feel very strongly that all other religions are wrong and that all other believers do not know what they are doing to their immortal souls.
Christianity and Hinduism are definitely different religions. But how different they truly are is to be decided by who ever closely inspects and researches the two religions. The questions are all the same but do the answers really differ that much? Is the basic rule of both religions not “be good to receive good, be bad to be punished”? Always ask yourself that before you judge any religious person because their beliefs are different then yours is. Religions are like children are they not? Children are never the same on the outside, but all children need hearts for blood and lungs for air, plus every other important organ to live. So are they really that different, physical body aside?