Appreciating other Religions Essay

Freud illuminates with slight sarcasm how convenient religion is in it's ability to rectify all the trials and tribulations of life for us. "Everything that happens in this world is an expression of the intentions of an intelligence superior to us, which in the end, though its ways and byways are difficult to follow, orders everything for the best." (Freud, 23) The existence of this divine creature who creates justice for us ensures that the masses will not stray from the laws and beliefs of religion and society for fear of being judged by this entity. Religion is also valuable to civilization for it's ability to explain death. Thanks to religion, death became something other than simply the termination of a life. Death stopped being the end and was recasted into the role of a doorway to another existence. As though knowing that the continuation of life were not enough, religion furthers it's own appeal by promising that the afterlife will be better than life on Earth. The afterlife itself also serves a function as well. A desire to gain entry into this afterlife will cause many of the masses to renounce their instincts.

What is the true definition of the word religion? Well, religion is a set of beliefs and practices that recognize the existence of a god or many gods. We need religion in our lives because it gives us a sense of belonging to our common faith and helps us set morals in our lives. The importance of faith in our lives has created a bigger understanding to us and has showed us how we can have a closer link to it.

What purpose does religion serve? Why does religion continue to play an important role in human life? Koenig (2009) declared that atheism is rare, and rather, 90% of the world’s population practices religion or spirituality. Religion and spirituality have ambiguous meanings and are not universally defined. Although difficult to adequately define, Koenig (2009) inferred that “religion is rooted in an established tradition that arises out of a group of people with common beliefs and practices concerning the sacred” (p. 284). Spirituality, however, is often defined on an individual basis and not necessarily connected to religious beliefs (Koenig, 2009). Researchers often relate spirituality to personal interaction with spiritual entities

     The English word religion loosely translates into “rules” in Latin. Therefore, a religion teaches us how to think, how to act, and basically everything except what to eat in the morning. The Hindu and Christian religion agree on many things and our society follows some of the rules too because religion and laws are based on humanity. From holy literature many different ideas have been pawned but they are all supposed to lead you to the same things: a happy, healthy life, contribution to the world around us, and some kind of liberation after death. Concerning these ideals the Hindu religion has come up with three ways to make sure that everybody will get what they want out of life and those are the four

There are many religion in the world and according to heir religious beliefs, different people have different spiritual beliefs and some of those beliefs are similar and some are completely different, such as , Christian and muslims belief that there is only one god. By contrast, Hindus belief that there are thousands of god and goddesses and each god has unique values and way of worshiping . Siilarly, budhist and hinhus belief on ahimsa( do no harm) while muslims practice slaughtering of animals and they only consume slaughtered meat.

Religion forms as a method for dealing with life and the world it makes up. It answers the questions that are beyond science and logic. It eliminates the question of "Why?", and brings the fellow believers together to cope with the community and personal problems. People come to religion to find stability, a sense of understanding, and help from other believers. These are the needs that religion fulfills.

It is defined as being a collection of beliefs, cultural systems and world views that can be related to humanity to an order of existence. Having that religion in place comforts people when they have fear in their hearts or confusion in their thoughts. When things go wrong, such as massive amounts of death or erroneous events, people look to their religion and question why things happen in that manner. They wonder what they have done wrong and how to go about pleasing their God. So if it were someone on the outside looking in, it can be viewed that religion is not something that can be seen as being helpful because with or without it, these types of events will not cease to exist.

Religion provides hope for those who are hopeless. It aims to welcome those who are alienated and feel that their life has no purpose. Religion served the same function in the Middle Ages and Renaissance as it does today. However, religion was embraced more during the Middle Ages by desperate

Religion can be defined as a belief in, or an acknowledgement of some superhuman power or powers (ex. a god or gods) which is typically manifested in obedience, reverence, and worship; such a belief as part of a system defining a code of living, esp. as a means of achieving spiritual or material improvement. Religion, in the early times, helped to explain natural phenomenon, for instance, the stars,

“Religion is meant to teach us true spiritual human character. It is meant for self-transformation. It is meant to transform anxiety into peace, arrogance into humility, envy into compassion, to awaken the pure soul in man and his love for the Source, which is God.” (Radhanath Swami)

People commonly view religion as set of beliefs. According to Yinger, J.M. Religion, "... a system of beliefs and practice by means of which a group of people struggle with the ultimate problems of human life." So far in the world, we cannot find a nation without religion. It is significant in creating human history and has played an irreplaceable role in establishing various cultures in different areas. Religions are spreading rapidly throughout the world because it serves as a crutch and gives support to the inner soul of human beings.

Judaism and Hinduism are two widely known and oldest religions in the world. Both of these religions have sacred texts and laws that are still used and followed today. Judaism and Hinduism both have social class systems that separate the higher religious followers from the average person (Hutchinson, 2017a) (Levinson, 2017). Judaism is a religion that is monotheistic, belief in one god (Hutchinson, 2017a). Those who practice the religion of Hinduism can be considered a “monotheist, polytheist, or atheist” (Levinson, 2017). Judaism and Hinduism share similar traits including celebrations and their followers being persecuted but have different sacred locations that their followers visit, texts, and founders.

There are many different religions in the world. Each religion has a vast array of beliefs and followers. There are aspects that most religions share in some way. Each group associated with these religions believe that they are worshiping and practicing the right thing in the right way. Every religion can be compared to find similarities and differences. Hinduism and Christianity are two religions seemingly very different. It is possible to explore the similarities and differences between Hinduism and Christianity on their belief in God or gods, if and what is after death, and their ethical beliefs.

It’s inarguable that Islam is not the same as Buddhism, just as Christianity is not the same as Hinduism. The multitude of religions in this world remain separate through differences in theology, culture, and sometimes conflict. Although the various world religions are diverse in their history and geographical origins, they all share the common goals of regulating, enlightening, and unifying groups of people.

Hinduism and Christianity are two of the largest religions in the world today with nearly half of the world’s population claiming one of the two as their own. Without a doubt, both religions have been extremely influential in the world. In the minds of most, this is about as far as the similarities between Hinduism and Christianity go; however, the fact is that the two religions actually have much more in common than is often perceived at passing glance. There are commonalities strung all throughout the two religions, from parallel texts of scripture to eerily similar view’s concerning the nature of the divine.