African Traditional Religion Essay

What is religion? According to (Muzorewa), “Religion is a set of beliefs in a higher being, God, or Gods or higher principle.” All religions come with characteristics such as a set of doctrines, rituals to celebrate certain occasions, sacred literature, and concern for life-after death. African Traditional Religion, or ATR for short, is the world’s oldest religion. African Traditional Religion originated on the continent of Africa because Africa was the only location for human beings to live comfortably during that era. African Traditional Religion has approximately one hundred million supporters. The phrase ‘traditional’ stems from the word “tradition” which is simply defined as long established or “doing” (Muzorewa). Judaism is one of the

Jews have specific dietary laws, which allow them on only eat kosher foods that were properly cleaned and prepared (Rich). The aim of this paper is to compare and contrast, African Traditional Religion to Judaism.
Being the oldest religion in Africa, African Traditional Religion is a very spirited religion. The supporters of African Traditional Religion believe there is no founding prophet, God revealed himself to his people. The central belief of African Traditional Religion is monotheism, the belief in one God. The Africans believe that God consist of three attributes: God is self-existent, God is merciful and God is everlasting (Muzorewa). “ATR has no sacred writings” (Nnyombi) all sacred teachings are

The father of Judaism is Abraham; believed to be called by God. The central belief amongst Jews is also monotheism. Jews believe that God assigned them to be “his chosen people in order to set an example of holiness and ethical behavior to the world” (“Judaism: Jewish Beliefs”). Judaism is a theocratic religion, a system of government ruled by God. To date, there are approximately 14 million Jews around the world. The Holy Scriptures can be found in the Tanakh. The Tanakh consists of the three sections: Pentateuch, which is the five books of Moses – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, The Prophets and The Writings (Muzorewa). The Decalogue, also known as The Ten Commandments of Judaism are: worship one God, do not worship idols, do not use God’s name in vain, remember the Sabbath day and keep it Holy, honor your father and your mother, do not commit murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not lie and do not covet. The primary beliefs of Judaism are: faith pervades all angles of life, religion, history, culture and politics are combined as one and praying, trusting and being faithful leads to holiness. According to (Rich), “Kashrut is the body of Jewish law dealing with what foods we can and cannot eat and how those foods must be prepared and eaten.” This law lists foods that are “kosher”, which means fit or proper for Jews to eat. Passover is a weeklong memorial holiday in