Is Buddhism an Alternative to Christianity

The Buddha was supposed to have been a real person who lived about 700 to 500 years BCE. That makes Buddhism much older than Christianity. The tale of Buddha has some things in common with the tale of Jesus. Neither was a wealthy banker or lawyer. Both remained poor during their lives and sacrificed for the good of humankind. No one who wrote about either actually knew either of them. Stories about them were written after they were dead. We can assume whoever wrote these stories had some motive we cannot know for certain today. But we can assume a self serving motive because that is what we expect in today's world. 

Reading about the two mythical characters, I'm struck by how much better, or perhaps contemporary, the Buddha character seems than the Christian one. The Buddha character sees human beings as having the ability of endure the suffering or unhappiness they experience without petitioning some super natural/fictional deity. In the depth of sorrow we will find a strength within ourselves we did not know we had. 

I see some similarities in where the Buddha and ancient Christians received "instructions" as to what they were supposed to do. In the Bible instructions were supposedly "revealed" in dreams or visions. With the Buddha it was through meditation. Like Christianity, Buddhism has gone off in many directions over the two or three thousand years of its existence. No doubt most who practice it, like Christians,  say theirs is the real deal and others are not.

Our son married into a Buddhist family and we attended the wedding ceremonies in Thailand. Monks came to the house twice during the day of the wedding to perform chants.

Some Americans have become enchanted with Buddhism in the abstract and entered to faith to experience it first hand. Of these, a few found it filled inside with people and practices they did not like and left it behind. 

For myself, I don't see Buddhism as an alternative to Christianity. A better alternative is atheism.