In Christianity, where the absolute God of monotheism was affirmed, the relation between reason and faith became a big issue, and arguments developed around three positions—having faith in order to know, knowing in order to have faith, and having faith although it is irrational. In Buddhism, such serious arguments never arose, because the conception of God found in monotheism does not exist in Buddhism. In other words, the Everlasting Buddha of chapter 16 of the Lotus Sutra is essentially different from the One God, the supreme deity commonly seen in India, and from the monotheistic deity of Christianity and other religions.