I chose Buddhism as one of two religions and as luck would have it, I found an excellent site about the history of Buddhism. I also chose Atheism, which I was informed by the Infidels that Atheism is not a religion and not to use such a generic term for it. The infidels own the site and they also have a chat room on the chat server, so it is very easy to drop in and chat with them. I was not happy with the sites provided with the assignment's links, (a lot of them were dead links) so I went searching for more information. I found it!
             Buddhism was founded around 500 BCE by Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama (Birth Name). Although Buddhism was founded in India, today less than 1% of India's population is Buddhist. Buddhism has more followers in countries east of India. Thailand's population is over 92% Buddhist.
             Siddharta had adopted the path of searching for enlightenment. But at some point he came to a conclusion that this was neither the way towards enlightenment nor was the spoiled life he had as a prince the way. According to him the right path was somewhere in the middle and he called it the 'middle path'.
             According to Buddha's theory, life is a long suffering. The suffering is caused because of the passions people desire to accomplish. The more one desires and the less he accomplishes the more he suffers. People who do not accomplish their desirable passions in their lives will be born again to this life circle which is full of suffering and so will distance themselves from the world of no suffering - Nirvana. To get Nirvana, one has to follow the eight-fold path which are to believe right, desire right, think right, live right,
             do the right efforts, think the right thoughts, behave right and to do the right meditation. (Buddha). Religiously the Buddhists are vegetarians. But many Indians believe that Buddha, died because he ate a sick animal. Buddhism does not have a
             ...