Good Times, Bad Times: What's The Difference?

It is human nature to get disenchanted with the world when we see around us much violence, crime and degradation of values. It makes us worry over what is in stor for future generations. However, the present time is a good or bad as any other time and the state of the world and society could not be something other than what it is now.
Our predecessors have poured out their anguis at the declining moral and ethical standards then prevalent. Seers and social reformers have tried, since ages, to combat negetive forces and reform society. Was human society ever better than it is now?
Socrates was poisoned.
Christ was crusified.
Caesar was betrayed.
Deceit, treachery and court intrigues fill the pages of history.

Unalloyed happiness is impossible because the world cannot exist except as an amalgam of the good or bad.

Christianity

Christianity is a religion based upon the teachings and miracles of Jesus.  Jesus is the Christ. Christianity teaches that there is only one God in all existence, that God made the universe, the Earth, and created Adam and Eve.  God created man in His image.  This does not mean that God has a body of flesh and bones.  Image means the likeness of God's character, rationality, etc.  Because we are made in the image of God, every person is worthy of respect and honor.  Furthermore, this means that we did not evolve through random processes from a single-celled organism into rational, emotional beings.

God created Adam and Eve and put them in the Garden of Eden and gave them the freedom to choose between right and wrong.  They chose to sin. Sin is doing that which is contrary to the nature and will of God.  For example, God cannot lie; therefore, lying is sin.  The sin of disobeying God that Adam and Eve committed resulted in them being expelled from the Garden of Eden as well as suffering the effects of death.

HINDUISM

Introduction

Hinduism originated in the area now called India and is still practiced by 80% of its inhabitants. Hinduism is considered a major world religion because of its approximately 700 million believers and its has influence on many other religions during its long history. Some authorities date it back to about 1500 BC and consider it the oldest religion in the world. This religion cannot be traced to a specific founder and does not have only one "holy book" as a spiritual guide. Unlike most other religions, Hinduism does not promote the worship of one particular deity. A Hindu may worship one or many different manifestations of the divine. They consider themselves successful Hindus when the reach the "Ultimate Reality" or nirvana in their lives.

BUDDHISM

An Introduction to Buddhism

To do no evil;

To cultivate good;

To purify one's mind:

This is the teaching of the Buddhas.

--The Dhammapada

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The Buddha was born Siddhartha Gautama, a prince of the Sakya tribe of Nepal, in approximately 566 BC. When he was twentynine years old, he left the comforts of his home to seek the meaning of the suffering he saw around him. After six years of arduous yogic training, he abandoned the way of self-mortification and instead sat in mindful meditation beneath a bodhi tree.
On the full moon of May, with the rising of the morning star, Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha, the enlightened one.
The Buddha wandered the plains of northeastern India for 45 years more, teaching the path or Dharma he had realized in that moment. Around him developed a community or Sangha of monks and, later, nuns, drawn from every tribe and caste, devoted to practicing this path. In approximately 486 BC, at the age of 80, the Buddha died. His last words are said to be...