World eligions
For many people, the diversity of world religions is a reminder of the vast differences between the different people of the world and their various cultural experiences. However, while many people focus on the differences between the world's religious traditions, what is more fascinating is the incredible overlap between the various world religions and the moral and ethical traditions that have developed under the auspices of those religions. Despite the various differences, there are certain moral and ethical norms that seem consistent across cultures and religious traditions. Furthermore the major world religions, particularly the Abrahamic religions, share similar approaches to the idea of the divine and to the nature of the relationship between man and God. In this paper, the author will look at how religion guides and shapes judgment on several modern issues, in an attempt to explain those different religious perspectives, not in the historical context in…...

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References

Anonymous. (2010). Other religions. The Humanist, 70 A (1), 16-19.

Ciomos, V. (2010). The deterritorialization of human rights. Journal for the Study of Religions

and Ideologies, 9 (25), 17-27.

Graafland, J. (2008). Christian perspectives on the market. Zeitschrift fur Wirtschafts- und

Taoism is another ancient religion practiced within Eastern Asia. It shares beliefs and practices with Confucianism and is mainly practiced in various parts of China. It is a polytheistic religion that has a wide variety of gods within its spiritual arsenal. Like Hinduism, Taoism is a name that covers a wide variety of smaller religious sects that can be found in various parts of China and its neighboring countries, although the basic principles are the same (Hansen 1). Also known as Daoism, it is derived from the phrase "the path," or "the way." Its philosophy depends on three major conceits, or the "Three Jewels of the Tao," which are practicing elements of compassion, moderation, and humility (Hansen 1). Part of the principle of compassion is the idea of non-violence within everyday life. This means following a peaceful existence no matter what life throws at you. Human behavior is then guided…...

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References

Aiken, Charles Francis. "Jainism." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 21 Oct. 2009.  http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08269b.htm 

Brar, Sandeep Singh. "Sikh Religious Philosophy." The Sikhism Home Page. Retrieved 20 Oct 2009 at  http://www.sikhs.org/philos.htm 

Dahmmika, Ven S. "A Basic Buddhism Guide: 5-Minute Introduction." Buddha Net. Retrieved 20 Oct 2009 at  http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/5minbud.htm 

Glaser, Ida. The Bible and Other Truths. IVP Academic Press. 2006.

This also contrasts sharply with idealistic notions within strict doctrines of the Orthodox faith suggesting that faith and God are defined and not subject to interpretation. One may look into themselves to find compassion and strength, but those qualities must come from God if one views themselves as having what Chirban (1996) refers to as a "vertical relationship with God" (p. 3).
It seems agreed on "universally" among Unitarians that all are one and all human beings are interrelated with each other; whereas within the Orthodox faith all human beings are linked less by spiritual consciousness than they are by their relationship with God. Orthodox services thus focus more on worshipping and giving recognition to all that God has done and can do for humankind. This contrasts with a typical Unitarian view and Universalist service, which would encourage one to tap into their spiritual consciousness by engaging others and identifying…...

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References

Chirban, J.T. (1996). Orthodox Christianity and the connection between the body, mind, and soul. Westport: Bergin & Garvey.

Foothills Unitarian Universalist Church. (2006). (online). Retrieved 15, May, 2007, from Foothills Unitarian Church:  http://www.foothillsuu.org/ 

Unitarian Universalist belief structure. (S.K. Maroney, personal email and interview. 13, (May, 2007).

World Religions

World eligions eport
JUDAISM

Judaism (Introduction, Worship Site eview, Interview, Comparison/Contrast with Christianity)

This report explores one of the most important Abrahamic religions, Judaism.

In this report, a detailed introduction of Judaism has been given in the first part. Judaism is one of the oldest religions with distinct and unique holy texts. Despite the less number of followers, it has been divided into several branches. This report also contains a description of its branches; eform, Orthodox, Conservative and econstructionist.

The next section contains the summary of an interview of our community priest. Later, I have included the site review of a famous Jewish temple in Hawaii, Temple Emanu-El.

The last section contains the comparison and contrast of Judaism and Christianity.

Introduction

Judaism is one of the top 10 most famous religions of the world. It is followed and practiced by Jews scattered all over the world. They are present in several countries as a minority except Israel. According…...

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References

, . (). Judaism. Retrieved (2011, April 11) from  http://www.world-faiths.com/Judaism/judaism.htm 

, . (2011, April 12). Welcome to TEMPLE EMANU-EL. Retrieved from  http://shaloha.com/index.cfm ?.

De lange, Nicholas. 2000. An introduction to Judaism ., Retrieved from   .http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=105530282 

M. Wise, Dr. Isaac. 1883. Judaism and Christianity, their agreements and disagreements ., Retrieved from   .http://americanjewisharchives.org/wise/attachment/5194/judaismAndChristianity.pdf 

Christians believe at increasing the followers of their faith such that everyone in the world would have one religion. Buddhists on the other hand follow the rule of impermanence which would lead to Buddhism fading out like every other worldly object. They are however anticipating the reappearance of an individual who can achieve enlightenment similar to the Buddha and reignite a religion with the same belief system. ("Comparison of")
Christianity and Buddhism share some basic similarities in the way they treat others, their general rules of behavior and in the themes of justice. Both religions explore beyond the mortal life. They teach its followers how to demonstrate selfless love which is not limited to the friends or family but spreads to the enemies as well, regardless of what they might have done. The state of being selfless is supposed to have the power to change the mind and can even…...

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References

Fisher, M.P (2005) Living Religions (pp. 130-175) Prentice-Hall.

Basics of Buddhism. Retrieved from  http://www.pbs.org/edens/thailand/buddhism.htm 

Grow. G (1996) Buddhism -- a Brief Introduction for Westerners . Retrieved from  http://www.longleaf.net/ggrow/Buddhism.html 

An introduction to Buddhism .Retrieved from  http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/buddhaintro.html

eligion in the Modern World
eligion Modern World

eligion is something that is as old as man. It means "almost everything because religions deal with the whole of human life -- and death" (Bowker 2006). Since the beginning of mankind, individuals have searched themselves and others, contemplated the universe and all its elements, and religions are what were formed through these personal and public explorations. But what exactly are religions? What does it mean to be a religious person? Bowker (2006) states that the most modern term today for religions is "communities of people who share practices and beliefs (often in God or gods), who gather in special buildings for worship and meditation, and who live in special ways in the world." It is estimated that over three-quarters of the world's population consider themselves to belong to a religion, whether or not they decide to practice or not (2006). Judaism, Christianity, and…...

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References.

Bowker, John. (2006). World religions: the great faiths explored and explained. DK

Adult.

Breuilly, Elizabeth., O'Brien, Joanne., & Palmer, Martin. (2005). Religions of the world:

the illustrated guide to origins, beliefs, traditions & festivals. Checkmark Books;

I was too proud to heed my wife's warning. But I dared not go against the opinion of my mother and my eldest brother. Nevertheless I pleaded with them saying, 'I know he has the weaknesses you attribute to him, but you do not know his virtues. He cannot lead me astray, as my association with him is meant to reform him. For I am sure that if he reforms his ways, he will be a splendid man. I beg you not to be anxious on my account. 'I do not think this satisfied them, but they accepted my explanation and let me go my way. I have seen since that I had calculated wrongly. A reformer cannot afford to have close intimacy with him whom he seeks to reform.
Through this simple example Gandhi expresses his own humility, for accepting a friendship that he was warned against, accepting his…...

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Works Cited

Gandhi, M.K. Gandhi's Autobiography the Story of My Experiments with Truth. Trans. Mahadev Desai. Washington, DC: Public Affairs Press, 1948.

Neihardt, John G. Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska press, 1988.

Ten Boom, Corrie. The Hiding Place. New York: Barbour Publishing, 2000.

M.K. Gandhi, Gandhi's Autobiography the Story of My Experiments with Truth, trans. Mahadev Desai (Washington, DC: Public Affairs Press, 1948) 18.

Another facet of the Buddhist doctrine that is often attacked is the opposing elements of helping others come to Buddhism while the rest of the religion preaches a strong support for evading society. Doing both is quite difficult, as one cannot help other people come to Buddhism and cultivate their minds if they are not even a part of society where there are people to support (Confucian esponses to Buddhism throughout Chinese History, 2010).
The escapist, anti-social, and nihilistic attitude was at the forefront of the Confucian response to Buddhist predominance in Chinese society. Confucians found that many Buddhist clergymen were preaching that the mind must be free of all secular commitment and influence in order to become free from the sanctions of civilization and exemplify the ultimate Buddhist form, nirvana. This is in direct contrast with Confucian ideas that urge that people should learn from the world, react with…...

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References

Ancient Eastern Philosophy on the Ancient Wisdom of Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism & Confucianism. (2010). Retrieved August 20, 2010, from Web site:

 http://www.spaceandmotion.com/buddhism-hinduism-taoism-confucianism.htm 

Confucian Responses to Buddhism Throughout Chinese History. (2010). Retrieved from Web

site: http://history.cultural-china.com/en/165History5834.html

As always throughout his book, whenever analyzing the past and the events of the past, the focus quickly transfers to the future. When discussing the interaction between the Neanderthal and the Homo Sapiens, the transition immediately goes to looking into the past and in understanding that the human individual is sometimes unlikely to make any compromises in his search for progress. One can also better understand the ruthlessness of the human specie and understand the risk to which other species can be subjected to.

The look in the past also gives very obvious and interesting aspects of civilizations that disappeared because of reasons we may encounter in the future for our own civilization. The Sumerians, for example, disappeared because they had consumed all the resources that were supporting their civilization. One can obviously wonder whether this is not something that could also occur in our own times. With progress, often additional…...

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Bibliography

1. Wright, Ronald. A Short History of Progress. Toronto: Anansi. 2004

Wright, Ronald. A Short History of Progress. Toronto: Anansi. 2004

Ibid.

Ibid.

Take as an example the philosophy behind the religions Hinduism and Buddhism. Hinduism, which originated from this period in India, subsists to the belief that harmony should be achieved between humanity and nature and human beings with other human beings. Similarly, a collectivist approach towards achieving spiritual meaning in life is adopted by Buddhists, who believe that a life of compassionate giving is better than satisfying the worldly needs of the self. Philosophical thinking in the West, on the other hand, mostly deals with the pursuit of self-satisfaction and happiness. Epicureanism teaches individuals to achieve happiness by eliminating the fears and limits that people put into their lives; skepticism, meanwhile, posits that knowledge and truth cannot be truly achieved in the 'material world' that we live in -- it is only in achieving a higher state of understanding that an individual can truly achieve satisfaction, truth and knowledge in…...

Byzantine and the Islamic Empires
The decline of the oman Empire gave birth to new political formations that had a tremendous impact upon the world at large. Out of this disintegration emerged three new political formations, such as the Eastern oman Empire, the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic empires. These different regimes had steady economic and intellectual contact with one another and both the Byzantine and Islamic empires impacted the west and western culture.

The Byzantine Empire bore its name from the surviving eastern half of the oman Empire and the people among it considered themselves oman. However, Greek remained an incredibly strong influence on the Byzantine Empire as did Christianity. Christianity continued to wage a massive influence on this empire, one which was readily apparent in the artwork of the period (Cunningham & eich, 166). eligion had a massive influence on Byzantine life as all Byzantine holidays were religious festivals,…...

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References

Cunningham, L.S. And J.J. Reich. Culture And Values: A Survey of the Humanities. New York: Wadsworth, 2005.

Metmuseum.org. Byzantium and Islam: An Age of Transition. 14 March 2012. 2014

.

NYTimes.com. 'Byzantium and Islam'. 2012. July 2014

Christian Attitude to Other World Religions -- a Five-Paragraph Essay of the Paradoxes of Tolerance and Intolerance
Christianity is, in many ways, a peculiar religion. Its early history is a series of paradoxes and its attitude towards other religions of the world continues to be paradoxical to this day. Christianity began as a subsidiary sect of Judaism. Eventually, Christianity became a religion predominantly composed of gentiles. The Christian religion began as a Messianic response to the institutions of Roman control and the Roman Empire. Later, the Christian religion was taken up as the official religion of Rome, after the revelation of the cross to the Emperor Constantine. Christianity began as a sect of a national religion, the Hebraic Israeli-based Judaism of Jesus. It eventually evolved into a portable (particularly in its Protestant incarnation) religion 'of the book,' a religion of many nations, and catholic in spirit (in the sense of…...

Self in orld Religions
Although religion is primarily a social activity -- even the most solitary and mystical of religious practitioners require an existing creed subscribed to by other people -- to a certain degree religion is required to define the self. In practice, the religious conception of selfhood can work in a number of ways -- either by setting limits to acceptable thought and behavior by the self by establishing doctrine or taboo, or else by defining the nature of that self in terms of those essential characteristics which relate specifically to religious practice (as in religions which hold to concepts of the soul or of an afterlife). From this standpoint it is worth surveying the concept of self in the various non-estern religions -- Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Shintoism -- to examine how they contribute to, or define, the self.

It is worth noting at the outset that Confucianism…...

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Works Cited

"Confucius." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Web. Accessed at:  http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/confucius/ 

Hsu, Sung-Peng. "Lao Tzu's Conception of Evil." Philosophy East and West 26:3 (July 1976). Print.

Soccio, Douglas. Archetypes of Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2009. Print.

Strong, Dawson Melanchthon (translator). The Udana. London: 1902. Web. Accessed 14 April 2012 at:  http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/udn/udn5.htm

Moreover the 'diyya' or blood money stipulated for killing or mutilating of a man was stopped. However, whipping as a punishment for theft and added offences remained in its applicability in local courts. (Pitaszewicz, 87)
Hence till 1960, the Alkali Courts applied the Sharia also in penal cases fulfilling the changes and bans launched by the British. Prior to the declaration of independence, the British signed a negotiation with Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Prime Minister of Northern Nigeria that resulted in approving of the Penal Code that continues to be valid today also. A catalogue of 20 criminal actions and its corresponding sanctions were created. It covered actions recognized by the Sharia as penalties imposed with particularly serious punishments. Punishments that lack humanitarian aspects such as limb amputation for theft, stoning to death for adultery, decapitation for killings and others have been changed with the sanctions from the British Penal…...

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Works Cited

Arlandson, James. Top ten reasons why Sharia is bad for all societies. November, 2007.  http://www.americanthinker.com/2005/08/top_ten_reasons_why_sharia_is.html 

Banville, Lee. Sharia Law and Nigeria. 5 April, 2007.  http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/africa/nigeria/sharia.html 

Din, Stella. Nigerian Women speak out. January, 2003.  http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/nigeria/voice04.html 

Feldner, Yotam. Honor Murders -why the Perps get off easy. Middle East Quarterly, vol. 7, no. 4, Dec, 2000. pp: 26-30.

Love
There is no world religion that doesn't speak of and teach love, but each has its own approach to love. Christianity, for instance, distinguishes itself from all other religions as the one most emphasizing love. The foremost symbol of Christianity is Christ on the cross, Christ as the incarnation of God, who loved us so much that He 'died for our sins.' The God who revealed himself on the Cross as the God of love demands love of God, of every neighbor, and of God's whole creation -- even our enemies. This God descended into our world in order to save us: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3, 16). Jesus Christ is "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1,29).

One key…...

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Bibliography

Confucius. The Analects of Confucius: A New Millennium Translation. David Lee, Ed. Premier Pub Co (1999)

Easwaran, Eknath. The Upanishads. Nilgiri Press (1987)

Elman, Benjamin A; Duncan, John B.; Oorns, Herman. Rethinking Confucianism: Past and Present in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. UCLA Asian Pacific Monograph Series (2002)

Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity. Harper San Francisco (2001).

Afterlife Concepts and Beliefs: An Exploration of Diverse Perspectives

1. Theological Perspectives on the Afterlife: A Comparative Analysis of Major World Religions

Examine the beliefs about the afterlife held by Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and other major religions.
Analyze the similarities and differences in concepts such as heaven, hell, reincarnation, and karma.

2. The Role of Near-Death Experiences in Shaping Beliefs about the Afterlife

Explore the phenomenon of near-death experiences (NDEs) and their impact on individuals' beliefs about what happens after death.
Discuss the common themes and variations reported in NDEs, such as tunnel visions, encounters with deceased loved ones, and feelings....