The Problem, Solution, And Technique

The indigenous tribes of North America have much in common with the indigenous religions of Africa but there are also many differences in the belief of an afterlife, supreme deity, and the daily practices of each. Today many of these lesser known religions are hardly ever studied but they exist and are still practiced all over North America and Africa. We will discuss how these religions differ in their main beliefs and practices, and we will also discuss how they correlate with one another on smaller aspects.

While both Christians and Muslims agree on a life after death of either Heaven or Hell, the differences in their views of the afterlife reflect on how they each see God and what their main goal was to accomplish on earth. Both Christians and Muslims have a Holy Book to follow. Christians have the Bible and Muslims have the Qur’an. Both religions use these books as a guideline to eventually get to Heaven. Where the differences start to affect the afterlife is who each religion prays to. Christians pray to Jesus as God’s Son but Muslims pray to Muhammad. Because of this, Muslims say that Christianity is faulty (Schirrmacher). In the Bible, Christians are assured Salvation when they accept Christ as their personal Savior. Muslims are not assured

Through Zoroastrianism these religions set up the basis for many of their ideals like heaven and hell, judgment, everlasting life, etc. without Zoroastrianism as there basis they would never share the commonality or universal theme throughout them all which is the afterlife. Although they may not agree on where they go, they do agree that there is life after death which never would have been a commonality between the three without the influence of Zoroastrianism.

When most western people think about Native American or African religions there is a certain stigma that comes with the topic. This is in part because there is a lot of misinformation in the world about Native American and African religions. When most westerners think of African religions they think of voodoo and black magic. Likewise, the view of Native American religions is still looked at through the lens of the pilgrims who wrote about Native Americans as being savages and less than human. These stereotypes were all formed from a lack of accurate information. African and Native American religions are very similar. It is difficult to find a lot of accurate information on African and Native American indigenous religions because of the lack of written history but there is a lot of oral history that has been passed down from generation to generation. From this information, it is clear that Native American and African religions have many more similarities than they do differences. Three of these similarities will be discussed in this paper. The first topic of discussion is the similarity between African and Native American people when it comes to their perception of the spirit world. Following this topic are the similarities between Native American and African views on the afterlife and finally, the diversity of beliefs within African and Native American religions.

Like in any religion the people have certain beliefs. In the african religions there is no single religion. Researchers try to identify similarities in world views and ritual processes across the african boundaries. African Religions are polytheistic; which means they believe in more than one god. They believe in one overall god, but also ancestral spirits. Most African religion’s creation story reveal the creation of humans more than

This will be based on the chapter 4 Religion as "Truth-Claims", posted on Blackboard. First of all, Dianne L. Oliver makes a preface about her writings saying that religions claim to get the truth, and followers of diverse religions say that their truth is the only one true, and cannot be compare with any other. Also, she remarks that many of those religion followers use violence to uphold their own version of truth. Moreover, she let us know that she is going to consider the "True-Claims" of different religions, and show how those claims can influence the practices, behaviors, and ideas of religion followers. Next to the introduction, she considers that religion is very essential for understanding the fundamental questions in our daily lives.

Since there is an afterlife, people will be judged for their deeds. If they lived a good ethical life, they will go to Heaven. If they did not live a good ethical life, they will go to Hell.

What happens to a person at death is a belief we acquire from our religion and culture. In Christianity we believe heaven is our reward for living a meaningful life. On the other hand as Christians we were taught to preserve life and avoid intentional death to selves or others.

​The afterlife of an individual depends on the life that they live on earth. Between Catholicism

The Buddha went in between to extremes to find the middle way. The middle way consists of the four noble truths and the eightfold path. The four noble truths are the most commonly shared belief between Buddhists. They are ways to eliminate desire, which will eliminate suffering. Number one says, “ life consists of suffering.” Number two says, “everything is impermanent and ever-changing, we suffer because we desire those things that are impermanent.” Number three says, “ the way to liberate oneself from suffering is to eliminate desire.” And number four says, “ desire can be eliminated by following the eightfold path.” The eightfold path is a group of statements, they are not sequential things, they are just attitudes and actions. The eightfold path consists of right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right live hood, right effort, right awareness and right meditation. By following these attitudes and actions, you can achieve a life without suffering#.

In this essay, two world religions will be compared to see how similar and/or how different they are; these two religions are Confucianism and Buddhism. Confucianism speaks about the wise thoughts that Confucius came across throughout his life. Buddhism speaks about how to acquire great knowledge throughout life. Confucianism was founded by a Chinese man, but Buddhism was founded by an Indian man. These quick comparisons show how the religions differ, but more detailed comparisons will be seen throughout the essay.

Buddhist teachings consist of teaching others how to end suffering in their own lives. Buddha teaches that if you follow an eightfold path, then you are moving toward reaching nirvana. This is the end of all suffering and the goal of all Buddhists.

The Eightfold path is the treatment to cure all desires of the heart. Briefly, they are having the right attitudes towards life, in a Buddhist way. It consists of having the Right Knowledge, Right Aspiration, Right Speech, Right Behaviour, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Absorption. It is taught that Buddhism "is a way of living, not merely the theory of life, the treading of this Path is essential to self-deliverance" .

     According to the American College Dictionary, religion is a noun defined as the quest for the values of the ideal life. This definition is vast and general, allowing for a variety of interpretations by people from all cultures. There is no single path to follow in order to lead an ideal life, only personal beliefs and experiences. Religion is non-finite so there is no way of determining a boundary (Smart, 5). In my quest for a true understanding of what religion is I explored my own traditions and religious beliefs as well as life experiences. Slowly, with the added insight from the text and videos, my own definition of religion has begun to take shape.

One great benefit that faith in religion has had to mankind is that religion answers all of the “big questions”. No matter how farfetched the answers may seem, followers of a religion feel assuaged and even motivated by the answers. The concept of “live after death” and “bad luck for bad actions and good luck for good actions” assuage many individuals who are uneasy about the mysteries of life. For example in the religion of Hinduism there exists a concept of Karma, which basically states that what goes around comes around. This simple concept motivates millions of Hindus to perform good deeds and also discourages them from committing sins as the concept of Karma stands to offer great rewards as well as great punishments. Likewise in Christianity there exists a concept of “Heaven” and “Hell”, Heaven being the luxurious destination for afterlife and Hell being the horrible and abject one. The Christian concept of “A record of good and bad deeds”, also motivates millions of Christians to make the right choices and decisions. Although beliefs in afterlife are completely due to faith and lack no scientific proof, there are great benefits as it is proven