Universal Religions In World Together, Worlds Apart

Universal religions actively pursue new members, they welcome all. They consist of many members and are usually of different backgrounds, thus the term universal. The definition of Universal according to Merriam-Webster is “done or experienced by everyone: existing or available for everyone” and “existing or true at all times or in all places”. Oddly enough the Greek word for universal is katholikos (Catholic) which roughly translates to “universal” from the Greek words: kata “with respect to” + holos “whole.” The appeal of universal religions is that you can convert at any time because anyone is welcomed.

In the text “World Together, Worlds Apart”, Robert Tignor refers to Christianity, Islam and Buddhism as the "universal religions". He further

Siddhartha became Buddha through enlightenment. Buddhism is grounded in the Four Noble Truths (Life brings suffering, Desire causes suffering, and suffering can be overcome and nirvana achieved through an 8th Path, which are: rightness of belief, resolve, speech, action, livelihood, effort, thought, and meditation). Buddhist believe in one of the two gods, Mahayana or Theravada. Theravada is the original form of Buddhism until the Mahayana split from it about 2000 years later. Later in the distant future another branch of Buddhism, Zen was created in China. Although Buddhism did not diffuse quickly from its origins it spread through Asoka, from the Magadha Empire, when he converted his empire to Buddhism. Asoka would send missionaries to the surrounding area that include modern day Burma, Sri Lanka and India. They would move through trade routes that stretched as far as China and introduce a variation of Buddhism called

Islam traces its origins to religion of Judaism and Christianity in the Bible. Muhammad was born in Mecca in 570 AD and received revelations from God (Allah) through the Angel Gabriel. Muslims would organize these revelations of God through Muhammad in the Quran. The basis of the religion is the Five Pillars of Practice (profession of faith, prayer, charity, fasting during Ramadan, and completion of the hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca). Upon the death of Muhammad, Islam split into two sects: Sunni (Others outside Muhammad’s family can become a successor) and Shia (Only family descendant from Muhammad’s family can be a successor). By the time of Muhammad’s death, Islam had diffused over much of the Palestine, the Persian Empire and India by either Hijrah (migration or journey) from Mecca to Medina or from person to person conversion. Although most Islam converts came by the way of force, most local converted to align with the new rulers or to