The Five Major Religions Of The World

In an attempt to gain a better understanding of the surrounding world, a high value needs to be placed on gaining an understanding of different cultures and their respective religions. Religion in its various forms has been a driving force for humanity since the dawn of time. Religion has helped to define borders by providing common ground through belief systems and moral structure. The primary questions that separate the five major religions of the world are man’s origin, identity, meaning, morality, and destiny. Major conflicts throughout time have been the result of opposing opinions of these questions. Buddhism is one of the five major religions of the world and is prominent in many Asian countries, while Christianity is present in many

A Buddhist point of view would acknowledge their belief in reincarnation. This thought process would lead to the idea that any living thing could be an ancestor or someone close to them reincarnated into one of the 31 planes of existence. Subsequently, Buddhists would argue the logic of a hierarchy at all. They would see life in different stages of being or on different planes of existence. Similarly stated in the Law of Conservation of Energy, “energy cannot be created or destroyed, only changed”. In the Buddhist mindset, all living things are equal which strongly denies the hierarchy in which Christians hold as God’s

The topic of afterlife transcends borders or beliefs and has been (and still is) debated by people everywhere throughout history. Buddhist and Christian views of the afterlife are in stark contrast to each other. A Buddhist believes that after a person dies they either are reincarnated and return to earth, or enter nirvana which is considered a “final liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth” (Afterlife, 2015 p.2). Reincarnation (also known as transmigration) is defined as “the idea or belief that people are born again with a different body after death” (Reincarnation, 2016), and is frequently demonstrated by lighting sequential candles with the preceding candle. The successive lighting of candles illustrates how each candle is connected and is a continual