Religious Exclusivism : A Universal Plan For Eternal Salvation

Stephen Prothero’s “God Is Not One” is a survey of world religions, comprising vital information on a vast array of different sets of belief. As someone who has never studied religion before, nor belongs to a particular faith, the variability within these religions is staggering. One might be satisfied to define religion as “how a person goes about believing in God,” but soon finds that even that definition has its holes. Thankfully, “God Is Not One” does an amazing job of cluing its reader into the nuances that are sometimes forgotten about the religions it approaches.

People within multitudes of societies are constantly searching for fulfillment in life. Many look towards an omnipotent God for guidance and security. Some might claim that without a purpose, there would be no reason to have morals in the first

During the Crusades, there was a fair amount of religious tension. Muslims and Christians fought for Jerusalem. Muslims had it, and at the end of Crusades, Muslims controlled the territory. During the Spanish Inquisition, Christians sought to rid Spain of other religions (like Jews). This reflects a power struggle because Christians strived to gain absolute power. Important people involved included Richard the Lionhearted (central figure in the third crusade), Pope Urban II (first crusade), and Saladin (second and third crusades). This power struggle continued as a result of the Crusades, and it truly influenced the era because it changed the geopolitical landscape of the Middle East.

Christianity is one of the dominant religions on the planet, and Christian Theism has played a major role in shaping the development of Western culture. Thanks to the pioneering efforts of Christian missionaries, Christian doctrine has even influenced the views of non-Christians. Nevertheless, the contemporary world is a pluralistic and diverse one, and postmodern perspectives have arisen to challenge the wide-ranging influence of Christian Theism. The purpose of this paper is to show how a belief in Christian Theism can help one understand the nature and meaning of life, and this paper will show evidence that this belief brings both uniformity and order to everything.

How might these questions about human nature, purpose, and flourishing, be answered by those holding a Pantheistic or Atheistic (choose one) worldview?

One of the fundamental questions that religions seek to answer is that of origin. How was man put on earth? Why and from what was he created? Who created him? What does his creation imply about the status of human beings? Some or all of these questions are answered by a religion’s creation stories. Every religion’s creation myths attempt to give solutions to problems present to that religious society. Because of this, each religion may have one or more creation stories, each of those different from one another in the questions they ask and the answers they give.

The wars of religion, which were disputes between Catholics and Protestants about the religion of a territory, took place in Germany, France, and England from 1500-1628. These arguments consisted of several disagreements between the leaders of a particular country and its people. In all three countries a law or settlement was passed that was intended to serve as beneficial to religious minorities, mostly of which were Protestant. However, after these laws were passed to help the Protestants there were residual issues. These issues were either due to the fact that the Catholics, or the majority, were upset because they lost too much religious power or that the Protestants, the minorities, were still unhappy about “sharing” religious territory with the Catholics.

Differences in culture, history, geography, and collective temperament all make for diverse starting points. . . . But beyond these differences, the same goal beckons” (Prothero 1). This is a great approach because it puts the differences in religions in perspective while still showing they all show a common goal. The second scholarly approach is the ‘4 Step Process’ which is also by Stephen Prothero. First, there must be a problem. Second, there must be a solution to this problem, which also serves as a religious goal. Third, there must be a technique for moving from this problem to this solution. Fourth, there must be an exemplar who chart this path from problem to solution. This is a great approach because it helps to point out the differences across and inside religious traditions. The third scholarly approach is the ‘Question of Ultimate Meaning’. William Portiers approach deals with the deep or great questions about the human condition that we can only answer ourselves. “Why are we here? What becomes of us in the end? What is our final purpose? What is a human being and how ought we to behave toward one another?” (Portier 17). This is a great approach because it makes you personally come up with answers to those questions and to answer those questions, you must look at many different religious traditions. The fourth scholarly approach also written by William Portier deals with ‘The Dialectical

Many of the ancient and historical conflicts are believed to be connected to religion in a various ways and proven that religion can be used as an excuse for violence. For instance, The Crusade Wars ended in the brutality of both Christians and Muslims during the mass dispute (Burton 1984). The Jews have perpetrated massacres through nations for the solitary reason to attain their belief. During the reformation of Christians thousands of people were killed because of their religion. In Yugoslavia, the war in 1991 pitted Orthodox Christians, Muslims, and Catholics against each other in a brutal combat (Avalos 2005). Also, thousands of monks were being persecuted in Burma

She explains how academic studies consistently challenge the link between religion and war and rarely find a connection. Some of the reports that she showed in her articles found that having less religion in a country doesn’t make it more peaceful. In fact, some countries with the highest levels of atheism such as North Korea and Russia are one of the top ten least peaceful counties in the world. The most important question in her article is why does religion so often rise to the surface during wars and conflicts? And she argues even during the so called ‘wars of religion’ during the 16th and the 17th century religion is an important factor, but if you dig beneath the surface, issues like dynastic influence, power, and economics are a big

The Question of meaning or purpose is answered in two opposing views. The Christian Worldview believes that "Christianity is about relationship with God and not simply following the tenants of a religion" (Weider & Gutierrez, 2011). While the Hinduism Worldview sees everything around us is an illusion, and that you have to have good karma to get out of the same lifecycle.

Religion has its shares of promoting violence. Many will argue that a cause of religion wars is for economic and political reasons, but others argue that those who start wars are, by definition, not religious. In reality, separating religion out of economic and political motives can be involved in such a way finding religious motives innocent of much. Excuses for Christianity responsibilities cannot be accepted whether the person has misappropriated the message of Christ. The primarily set of doctrines is not Christianity, but by living through past background it personified the visible actions of Christians. In other words, Christianity, Islam or any other religion has no intention of excusing from survey. Given certain conditions,

Since the dawn of human life, people have eternally been searching for the purpose of existence. Humans are innately curious beings, and are blessed to have the capabilities of higher thought processes. Humans use these thought processes to ponder the question of existence. Unfortunately, the evolution of man has not brought the human race any closer to actualizing its purpose on earth. In fact, this issue is such that the more one feels he or she understands it, the more questions concerning it arise. This problem perpetuates itself by the confusion of religion and spirituality, and the roles they hold in society. As the human race evolves, it feels the need to designate structure to its world. As

One could also use the conflict theory to look at Religion as well. The conflict theory is

The accounts of the actions by the 'enemies of true religion' throughout the ten year period of