Buddhism is unlike most religions

Buddhism is not like other religions.  It different than Judaism, Christianity and Islam insofar as the direct, personal realization of the unconditioned absolute, which would be nirvana, is what Buddhism teaches. 

Siddhartha Gautama set the example with his own awakening teaching others who followed him how to awaken.  In this context, what Buddhists believe in is that they can attain nirvana.  There is also the matter in Buddhism of how does one go about attaining nirvana which makes up the bulk of the Buddha's discourses.

Measured against Buddhism, Judaism and Islam do not believe that their followers have the obligation to have the same vision as their founders.  Followers are taught to be obedient to a certain message.  There is, however, an exception within Christianity which is found in the Orthodox and Oriental Churches  which is theosis (theopoesis) or the same, divinization.  St. Clement of Alexandria said:

“Yea, I say, the Word of God became a man so that you might learn from a man how to become a god.”

Neither theosis nor divinization is accepted by Catholicism.  The Catholic Church makes up a large portion of the Christian faith which broke away from the old Christian tradition in 1054 and seems, presently, to be on the brink of collapse because it, essentially, went against Christianity although Catholics would argue otherwise.

Theology, which is the interpretation of religious beliefs in relation to contemporary thought and life, has had a hard road to travel in the modern era having to fight against scientific materialism, a corrupted Christianity, and an increasingly militant Islam. 

Turning to Buddhology, which has its own set of problems, it is trying to find its place in contemporary culture.  There are many forces acting on it, trying to get it to adapt to a world view unlike its own.  Buddhism’s reformers want, eventually, to reduce the importance of nirvana, karma and rebirth because these particular tenets don't exactly chime with their doctrine of nihilism and moral relativism.  Instead of Buddhism acting as a light by which to guide people in a dark world, that light is being extinguished by some very arrogant and misguided people who think they are doing good but are not.

Comments

[MStrinado]

"B. R. Ambedkar was the creator of a version of Buddhism called "Navayana"

Good detective work there; "Navayana Buddhism" does indeed appear to be one of the prominent antecedent roots for present-day Buddhist materialism. It's all social-justice now, accompanied with an incessant thrust on the psychophysical. All authentic mystic traits are buried amidst a sea of raging indifference and preference for rotten flesh over the spirit.

[david brainerd]

I had never heard of this before, but I think I found the origin point of modern "Buddhism," i.e. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navayana I ran across this by accident. I was reading the wikipedia page about a Jain/Buddhist scholar, Padmanabh Jaini, whose book "The Jaina Path of Purification" I was reading recently. There was mentioned in the wiki something about him meeting a certain B. R. Ambedkar in 1951, from there I clicked that to find B. R. Ambedkar was the creator of a version of Buddhism called "Navayana" and then I went to the Navayana article and found its description is modern American "Buddhism" exactly: he threw out karma, rebirth, etc. and made it all about social justice and equality between castes. Now I know who the founder of all this fake Buddhism is: B. R. Ambedkar