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Compares and contrasts different religions
Compare and contrast different religions
Compares and contrasts different religions
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As the world becomes increasingly more interconnected, differences among the many religions prove to be obstacles to the global society. In an effort to overcome these obstacles, religious authorities propose the essential sameness of all religions (that all religions point towards the same goal); however, this hypothesis oversimplifies all religions to an arbitrary base. On the other hand, Stephen Prothero’s, the author of God Is Not One, proposal for the acknowledgment of the differences preserves the multidimensional aspects of religions. By rejecting the hypothesis of a basic and similar structure of religion, Prothero allows for them to exist as complete entities; however, Prothero also creates false barriers that over differentiate religions. …show more content…
It is not possible that these religions cannot share some commonalities, since all religions are formed by members of the same species. Although he claims all religions to be different, Prothero still easily forms a four-part study to them all, identifying in all religions a problem, a religious goal, a technique to reach this goal, and exemplars who chart the path to this goal (14). Though Prothero created this method in order to show that all religions have different motivations behind them, he also shows that all religions have a similar structure in which they approach the problems that they identify. Later, Prothero creates a sports analogy in order to highlight the different aims of each religion. In this analogy, he asks which sport is the best at scoring runs, and says the answer “is baseball, because runs is a term foreign to basketball, tennis and golf alike (22).” Although the specific term runs is particular only to baseball, the idea of scoring points is the same in all of the sports he listed. Similarly, in religions, though the specific names and the attributes of the problems and religious goals that different religions propose may be different, the base ideas behind these things are similar, since humans asked these
Just as there is a variety of identities involving race, gender, and class, so too are there a range of religious identities. Byzantine Catholics, Hindus, born-again Evangelicals, atheists, agnostics, and Buddhists are only a few religious identities I have encountered in America. This environment, at best, allows religious variety to be understood and embraced—and at worst, divides us. In Acts of Faith, author Eboo Patel discusses his belief that the “faith line” will define conflict and concord in the 21st century.
Molloy, Michael. Experiencing the World's Religions. 5th Edition. New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 2010. 320-322. Print.
In a chapter of Disputed Questions, entitled "Jews, Christians, Muslims: Do We All Worship the Same God?" Hick evaluates the plausibility of the claim that all religions worship the same God and merely refer to him by different names. He notes that the difficulty with this position is that the various descriptions must be compatible. The same criticism Hick applied against that position can be applied to Hick's own hypothesis. The differences between religions are far too great for his hypothesis to be plausible.
There are three different perspectives towards all religions: Excluivism, Pluralism, and Inclusivism (lecture notes, 1/12). These views towards religions vary greatly and determine the parallels or disconnects between all of them. In brief, excluivism determines that whatever faith is outside their belief system is false. Pluralism is on the other side of the spectrum. Pluralism express the fact that though there are many different religions and practices they are all equal in truth. Catholicism takes the perspective of Inclusivism. This point of view stresses the fact that all religions have some grasps of objective truths but, to do not have the universal truth.
The growth of religious ideas is environed with such intrinsic difficulties that it may never receive a perfectly satisfactory exposition. Religion deals so largely with the imaginative and emotional nature, and consequently with such an certain elements of knowledge, the all primitive religions are grotesque to some extent unintelligible. (1877:5)
One of the needs for a civilization is to have a structured religion. Due to this there have been countless religions that have formed and also fallen throughout history. When religions are compared similarities can almost always be found, but they also have very drastic differences throughout their beliefs. The Hindu, Christian, and Islam religions all have many things of their beliefs that one can consider a similarity, but the differences overpower the similarities.
There is not phenomenon can prove that religious represents all, because the god is not one. Prothero pointed out that even though all religious are fundamentally the same, they still have some small differences. Different religious have different tenets, however they represent all meaning of life. Philosopher always did some meaningful things to show religious, and they have referred some tendencies to separate them to seven ““dimensions” of religious: the ritual, narrative, experiential, institutional, ethical, doctrinal, and material dimensions.” (Prothero, Stephen, God is not one: The Eight Rival Religions the Run the World. New York: Harper-Collins, 2010. P13). Although human beings have different religious, they still looking for same purposes and same goals in their
Religion, “part of the human experience that has to do with a god or gods, a higher power, or the ultimate values of life” (Cason & Tillman 6-7), is one of the most controversial and interesting subjects for humanity. It has been around for as long as anyone can recall and they have difference and similarities in their founders, beliefs, and history. Religion has served to give some sort of a meaning to life and everything around it. In modern society, some religions have grown and expanded significantly. These larger religions have been classified as world religions. In addition, these world religions have been split into two categories known as Eastern and Western religion.
Oxtopy, W., & Segal, A. (2007). A concise introduction to world religions. (1st ed., p. 258). New York: Oxford University press.
The World’s Religions by Huston Smith is a novel based on the different religions found around the world. The main area of focus within this book was to expand the knowledge of different cultures and their religions. The chapters that were specified to focus on include Islam, Judaism, Christianity and the Primal Religions. Go into detail about each religion. Smith goes into great detail about each religion, concentrating on the teachings and essential elements of each religion, important people that helped form the religion, and traditions. He specifically discusses how these three religions are very similar rather then how different they are, with the main studies on Moses, Jesus, and Mohammad. Finally he discusses the Primal Religions – meaning the traditions that are passed down through oral communication.
Smart, Ninian. "Blackboard, Religion 100." 6 March 2014. Seven Dimensions of Religion. Electronic Document. 6 March 2014.
Oxtoby, Willard G., and Alan F. Segal. A Concise Introduction to World Religions. Oxford, Canada: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Oxtoby, Willard Gurdon., and Alan F. Segal. A Concise Introduction to World Religions. Don Mills, Ont.: Oxford UP, 2007. Print.
There are many religions today that people worship and adapt into their daily lives are their creed. Some may have a lot of gods, while some only have one god. But three of these religions are considered as the major religion practiced by most people in the world today. Although different in some senses in terms of history and other teachings, they all have things in common that most of their followers do not seem to realize. The similarities are very important to understand each religion better and be able to determine which parts they vary. In this paper, I like to discuss the similarities found in the three major monotheistic religions of Judaism, Islam and Christianity.
When first looking at the relationship between philosophy and religion, I found it easier to explain the differences rather than the similarities. I began this paper the same way I do others. This generally involves a profound amount of research on the topic at hand. However, in contrast to the other papers I have done, the definitions of philosophy and religion only raised more questions for me. It was fascinating how the explanations differed dramatically from author to author.