Five Religions Journal
Alicia Thornton
REL2300 T/TH 8AM
Every religion in the world has its own unique view on morality, ethics, and standards for their practitioners. These codes include everything from how to act with others to what their followers should and shouldn’t eat. Each one of these religions, with their moral standings, have something that can be equated with a reward that they will receive for following their said moral codes. These “rewards” range from small favors from the gods to salvation. In a way, religions are just moral codes for people to follow that also require some sort of faith in things that humans cannot understand. One of the easiest religions to discuss in terms of morality is Confucianism. Its practitioners are in dispute over whether it is even a “religion” at all, instead preferring to refer to it as a moral code. Confucians main goal is harmony in all walks of life and believe this is accomplished through improving and perfecting themselves and consequently their community. Confucians have a large collection of moral rules—they support and encourage education and self-cultivation. They also have a specific code for relationships including but not limited to: father-son, siblings, husband-wife, and ruler-subject. In addition to all of these things, Confucians place great
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For the purposes of comparison, I will focus on philosophical and devotional Hinduism. Philosophical emphasized the importance of education and wisdom and believed that in order to live a fulfilling life, one had to be wise. They rejected wealth, power, and sex in favor of basic lives wandering around India to spread their beliefs. Devotional Hinduism was very inclusive. Like both Islam and Judaism, most sects of Hinduism included dietary restrictions; most Hindus were vegetarians. All sects of Hinduism are highly opposed to
Religions across the globe have their own distinctive rites and rituals, idols, traditions, and values. Each have in common a desire to explain something unexplainable by common wisdom, or attributing some aspect of life to some higher power. Many religions have at their heart etiological stories, which explain some sort of natural phenomenon through the physical manifestation of their deity or deities. From high winds and thunderstorms to love, fertility, and the sun, such religions focus on the physical world in this life. Other religions try to explain the "next" life or the afterlife. These religions usually give a moral code to live by, with stricter adherence to this code offering a better afterlife.
Confucianism has been a part of Chinese culture for over a thousand years. Many who have studied Confucianism would say that it is not a religion. It is better described as a philosophy or moral code. The philosophy of Confucianism comes mainly from the speeches and writings of Confucius, a great Chinese thinker and educator. He believed that Humanity, Rite, Neutrality, Virtue, Education, and Cultivation were the basis of human behavior. In addition, Confucius felt that this philosophy was the best way for people to behave and interact with others in society.
Hinduism, Buddhism Jainism, and Sikhism are all Eastern religions with similar philosophical beliefs. In Hinduism you embrace a great diversity of different beliefs, a fact that can be easy confusing to western religions which are accustomed to creeds, confessions, and carefully-worded beliefs of statements. In Hinduism you can believe a wide variety of things about God, and the universe. There are some beliefs common to nearly all forms of Hinduism that can be shown, and these common beliefs are generally regarded as boundaries outside which they are considered to be heresy or non-Hindu religion. The
Religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe. In today’s society there are many religious lifestyles people stand by. Popular ones consist of Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism. When looking at Christianity and Buddhism it is easy to identify some major differences. For instance, both the religions were started and founded by different people and in dissimilar ways. A second one would be what they believe in; number of deities, and what they base their knowledge around. A final difference between the two would be how they practice their religion and worship their “God.”
According to the definition of the Moral Compass text, moral compass is the reflective, international adoption of values and behaviors as a framework for realizing the good in oneself, in others, and in the social and material environment. My own moral compass is constructed mainly by my parents and the eastern social values and principles of relationships, which are largely influenced by the thoughts and ideas of Buddhism, Taoism and the Confucianism. Among them, Confucianism affects my country’s social values and furthermore my parents and my moral compass the most. In the contrast of Western culture, Confucianism puts a huge emphasis on the relationships between individuals in family, school,
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
Almost all religions around the world are based on a belief. Almost every religion have certain rules and principles that order together within a society: Many people misunderstand and misinterpret the holy texts the Bible, Quran, Torah, and others fabricate. Religion is defined as faith to a higher being who one believes has created us. It has also been used as laws through history to stop the committing of crimes. In many religions, the consequences of breaking rules and regulations of the religion are burning in the pit of hell. Religion is man-made and was created for many reasons but mainly to keep peace and justice in the world. But the words can be manipulated and used as an excuse to start wars on this planet. This caused many to believe that the world would be a better place without religion.
Mormonism fits the definition of a religion because they cover all the “bases” in terms of what it needs to have to be considered a religion. The black and white definition for religion is “the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power” If you apply Mormonism to that it already fits the definition because they don’t just believe in one superhuman being or in this case a God, they believe in multiple ones. But it goes way beyond just a simple definition, Mormonism also helps people deal with their mortality by offering the promise of an afterlife, it also allows opportunities for healing and companionship along with it also explaining where we came
Eastman, Roger (1999). The Ways of Religion An Introduction to the Major Traditions, 3rd edition. New York, Oxford University Press. Print
Many of these philosophies have been repeated through the ages, such as Jesus teachings of the golden rule “do unto others as you would like them to do unto you” (bible Luke 6:31). Confucius was a man who strived to be a public servant, but other than a few opportunties he was mostly unsuccessful, although still respected. He became a tutor and like many great men, the height of his recognition was not during his lifetime. Even though Confucianism is not a religion, on the basis that it lacks a higher being or God, it is more than just a moral compass to follow. Confucius philosophies have proven to be a set of values that have served East Asia invaluably We can all learn from the concept of Jen, or human goodness, that tells us that there is a basic good in everyone. From the concept of Chun tzu, or the Mature Person, Confucius shows us how a person should behave, respectful, relaxed and someone that others look up to. “Only as those who make up society are transformed into chun tzus can the world move toward peace” (Reid
Confucianism has been a predominant school of thought in China for ages and is a cornerstone of Chinese culture. Its influence on human relationships and ethical
The religion of Confucianism begins, of course, with Confucius whose Chinese name was Kong Qui and who lived from 551 B.C. to 479 B.C. Surprisingly Confucius was merely a low level government worker. He did not exactly view himself as the founder of a school of thought. Regardless, Confucianism is the most influential belief system in Chinese culture. It provides the rules which govern the social behavior of the individual. The basic teachings of Confucius are grounded in the Five Constant Virtues: humanity, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faithfulness. Confucius went on to define five basic human relations and
There are many different religions throughout the world, however, the five major world religions are Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. Although each religion has many differences from one another, there are a few similarities between one another. Each religion has one primary God or creator that they look up to. Even though in some religions there are more than one God, there is still one God above all the other Gods. In each religion, the primary God is a male.
God to the people of the big three monotheist religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) see god as an all-knowing, all-seeing, and all-powerful being.
Religion has been a powerful force in human history. Mankind has longed and searched for the answers to its purpose, the reason for being and the possibility of life after physical death. They reasoned that an afterlife would be a place of accounting and reckoning for the life they lived on earth. Religious belief systems seemed to give the answers as to how to prepare for the afterlife. Religion became the means of giving answers to those basic yet deep-seated questions of both life and death. Religion provided a format of rules and laws for conduct and treatment toward others based on the desires and wishes of a god or gods that people envisioned, imagined or invented. Religious belief systems have been a powerful force for good and bad...good in the sense that it provided a measure of individual behavior and order in society for the wellbeing of the whole, but bad in the sense that men of ambition who craved power and control over others would often use religion as a tool of manipulation and fear. A casual glance of history tells us that complete civilizations have been built, grown and maintained around elaborate religious systems, ancient Egypt being a prime example.