My uncle was a Buddhist, and my dad practiced yoga and was very involved in tibetan buddhist pholosophy. Both of them learned their buddhism from overseas, not by 'reading books' here in the states. I can honestly say that while some concepts may be shared between various religions/philosophies, nevertheless Buddhism is a VERY different 'faith' (if you can call it that) from either biblical Christianity, Islam, Judaism, or several of the ancient 'pagan' religions of europe, the MidEast, Africa, China, etc.
The fundamental teachings of buddhism -
The Four Grand Truths (or Four Noble Truths)
Suffering is a reality in life.
All suffering is caused by desire.
Remove desire and you remove suffering.
Removing desire is accomplished by the 8-fold Path.
The 8-fold Path consists of 8 elements -
1. correct beliefs.
2. correct thoughts.
3. correct speech.
4. correct actions.
5. correct manner of living.
6. correct efforts.
7. correct 'mindfulness' (or attitude, if you will).
8. correct meditation.
The goal of buddhism is not to 'know God', but to literally 'know nothing'. Nirvana (enlightenment, akin but not identical with the yogic and hindu doctrine of samadhi) is the state of having no desire, no thought, no self-identity, no SELF. Achieving this state results in freedom from reincarnation and the apparently endless cycle of desire, suffering, death, rebirth, desire, suffering, death, rebirth, etc etc.
The 8 fold path is a strict method of eliminating desire by bringing the individual to an awareness that desire itself is illusory and false, because desire presupposes the SELF as a distinct existence. By coming to awareness of the falsehood of self existence (that awareness is basically samadhi), one enters nirvana and is freed the cycle of death/rebirth.
This is entirely AT ODDS with the fundamental truths of Christianity, which assert that suffering is a result of SIN, and freedom from suffering comes by freedom from sin, which is NOT achieved by effort but by Christ's atonement made effectual in a person's life through faith and obedience to the 'gospel'.
Buddhism is also entirely at odds with Islam, which holds that man is ignorant of God and is commanded to submit to God's truth and directions for living by submission to the teachings of his apostle/prophet Mohammed, with the end result being eternal life in Paradise. Eternal torment in hell awaits those who refuse to submit to God through the teachings of Mohammed.
Also, you said 'love god' is one of the fundamental truths taught by all religions. Buddha said IF there is a God our worship of him is irrelevent to him, he is indifferent to us and we to him, and the whole idea of 'God' is irrelevent and probably a large distraction to enlightenment.
So much for Buddhism teaching mankind to 'love God'.
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