Religion Essay

Sydney Bennett 12.18.12 World Religions Matt Religion Wrap Up

Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are all very different and very similar to each other. Hinduism, there is either one God, just one God, or no God. It depends on the person and what they believe. Hinduism isn’t a religion; it’s more of a practice, trying to find yourself and who you are as a person. They do believe in reincarnation, but until you achieve Moksha, Moksha is “the ultimate goal, which is recognized as being unattainable for most, is to move beyond the cycle of death and rebirth, and attain a transcendent state known as Moksha” (172), which is enlightenment. Hinduism rules/guidelines for living is achieving Moksha, and doing that anyway you can, without doing anything bad. Hinduism is open to other faiths, they just want you to meditate and find yourself, without being selfish. Hindus believe that good and evil are equal and exist in everything. Mainly, if you haven’t reached Moksha you have been doing bad things, because something is in the way of you reaching enlightenment. How you achieve Moksha is you get past the 4 Yoga’s, which are Karma, Bhakti, Raja, and Jnana yoga, each yoga helps you reach Moksha. Hindus purpose of life is to achieve Moksha, which is pretty obvious. Hinduism focuses on the individual, finding out what your meant to do in life. It is very personal and something that, you, as a person can achieve. Buddhism, there is no God, but some people Buddha God, but that’s only a select few. When Buddha started going around the world, preaching what he believes to people, more people thought he was God, than today. Buddhist believes when you die you get reincarnated, but your soul is always changing. The main rules for Buddhism is the Noble 8-fold path, which is “a collection of Buddha’s teachings, Noble Eightfold Path makes up a guide for virtuous living. Eight elements that the Buddhist should aim to practice all at once. Each element of the path deals with a specific human activity” (190), to achieve Nirvana Zen meditation. Nirvana is finding Enlightenment, very similar to Hinduism. Buddhist are open to other faiths, but they believe there is the right way to live and how to live. Buddhism doesn’t believe in good, but believes evil is suffering in life. If you are not suffering then you are good. The right way to live is though meditation, and trying to achieve Nirvana through meditation. The purpose of Buddhism is to achieve Nirvana. Hinduism and Buddhism is very similar to each other, is what they believe in and what they are trying to achieve. Both Hinduism and Buddhism are individual. But Buddhism practice Zen together, and Hinduism is more by yourself. Judaism, there one God, and God is a part of life, paired to, rules over humans. God rules everybody. Jews don’t really believe in the afterlife, they do not talk about it much, so it’s hard to understand what they think about it. They do believe that the rules are to follow the 10 commandments, which is the Hebrew Bible, and Talmud. The Talmud is the stories about Jesus and his disciples. Jews are open to other religions/faiths but they do believe they are the chosen ones because they have been though so much and have, they think, started religion. They believe Adam ate an apple that he wasn’t supposed to, even though God told him not, but he did anyways. Then God made everything good. Worshiping God is important to Jews and you are apart of a Temple, which is like a church in Christianity. The purpose for Jews is Prayer and Holidays. Every Sunday, you stay at home and you don’t do anything, you just relax. Some Holidays are, Passover, Hanukkah, and Fast. Judaism is very community based, with people coming together for Temple. Christianity, only believes in one God, but believes he is 3 things, Father-God, Jesus-Son of God, and Holy Spirit-Feeling and experience. They believe when you die you either go to heaven, which you go if you haven’t committed the 7 deadly sins or do bad things, and you don't do bad things, or you go to Hell, where you go if you have committed the 7 deadly sins, or done something bad. The rules are pretty basic for Christianity, they believe if you don’t commit Sin, which is doing something bad, go to church, but you can believe in anything you want, just have to believe there is one God, Jesus. Eating bread and wine. They are not specific on what they think about other religions. What I got out of the reading was they are open to other religions. They do believe in Good and Evil. If you commit the seven deadly sins, you are evil. If you don’t you are good. Also if you have been and ask for forgiveness then you might not be going to Hell or be evil. Christians believe when you are born you must be baptized, which is welcome to the church and also wiping the sin off of you, so you have a clean slate. When you Eucharist, eat bread and drink wine. Also celebrate Christmas, and other Christian Holidays, and pray. Mainly Christians just want to be generous and be the best person you can be. Many people worship or do Christianity in many different ways, and some ways are more organized than others. Islam, believe there is one God, and only one God. Muslims don’t talk about the afterlife at all in the reading. They believe they have to pray 5-8 times per a day, throughout the day, and Friday is the most important day for them. They have to pray towards Mecca, which is a place in the Middle East. They do tolerate other religions, but they like Christianity and Judaism better because they believe in only on God. There isn’t a distinct good and evil. Believing that you are Muslim and only believe in one but you really believe in more than one God, that’s the worst to them. Praying 5-8 times a day and follows the rules of Shari’ah. The purpose of living to Muslims is always having God in their mind, no matter what they doing; God is in their mind. Islam is more organized and community based because everyone prays together towards Mecca.