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Religion in western asia
Eastern Vs. Western Religion
Eastern Vs. Western Religion
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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.
Eastern religions have originated from the east side of the Earth from countries such as: China, Japan, and India. The Eastern religions have different histories some of which include a founder like Buddha in Buddhism and others without a founder like Shinto. Most of the Eastern religions have similar belief systems which must be applied into their way of life. According to the authors of World Religions, “These religions profess living in harmony with nature and seeking a balance between the spiritual world and reality.” In addition to balance and harmony, these religions also share the belief in the use of meditation, treating nature as sacred, and most importantly a polytheistic universe.
As the Eastern religions grew and expanded throughout history, their beliefs and cultures began to mix and blend with others. This created tolerance and acceptance between religions. A great example of this is Hinduism because, it accepts any belief that has a different philosophy on how to reach salvation, as long as it does not divert from the core beliefs. In addition...
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... expanded successfully in peace. On the other hand, the Western religions have a very violent and bloody past during their growth and expansion. As mention by Cason and Tillman “A defining theme that runs through the history of all three Western religions is that they arose out of conflict.” And still to this day they are in conflict.
In conclusion, the process of growth and expansion for both Eastern and Western religions has been a great journey. As mentioned before Eastern religions expanded in a very peaceful manner, while the growth and expansion of the Western religions was more violent. They both went through many changes and adaptions which included some blending of cultures and beliefs. In some cases the result was a new religion. In the end, both religions had to go through as process of great growth and expansion to become the World religions of today.
Religion is considered as a pervasive force in this world. It shapes people as to how they behave and interact with almost everything present in the society. Influencing behavior, character formations, ideals, policies, standards are just among the dimensions and societal perspectives affected and impacted by religion. Because of these applications and implications in human lives and existence, religion should be understood deeply, particularly, on how it affects the world. Looking at the American perspective of the term "religion," it could be simply
In today’s society, there are roughly around 4,200 religions that exist on this planet. Some define "religion" as a cultural system of behaviors and practices that help people make important decisions in life. Out of the many religions, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism have many similarities that connect them to one another. Themes of morality, justice, love are found through both the Buddha's teaching and the Hebrew and Christian Bible.
Between 200 B.C.E and 800 C.E., there was a large development and spread of Universal Religions. The definition of a universal religion is a religion that has these characteristics: believes in one God, promises a type of salvation or after life, and a religion that is open to all people no matter what social class, race, or gender. Two of the large universal religions, Christianity and Buddhism were spread because of Syncretism. Syncretism is the adaptation to a religion by the religious leaders so that their beliefs are close to those of the local population. Although Syncretism is arguably the most important factor for the spread of these universal religions, there were other key reasons as to why these religions spread.
for the success in the spreading of each respected belief. Although both faced many hardships, the two religions overcame and prevailed through their problems and continued to find ways to attract new believers every day.
Dennis, George T. "The East-West schism." Christian History 9, no. 4 (November 1990): 20. MasterFILE Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed March 3, 2014).
Religion has throughout history has always been an important part of countries across the world. The world’s first religions were founded hundreds of years ago, yet they still hold an important role in today’s society. It is important to look at how religions were like in the past, especially in the Middle Ages several centuries after the major religions first formed in order to find out why religions are still relevant in the present. Without finding out the history behind religion in the past, we would never know how and why the practice of religion is still going on. Both the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic Caliphates were two of the most powerful states at the time before the 1450’s. In the Byzantium Empire most people followed a form of Christianity similar to today’s Eastern Orthodox while in the Islamic Caliphates the dominant religion was Islam.
The five Eastern religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Shinto have some similarities when it comes to the their beliefs on death. Hinduism and Buddhism both believe in karma and reincarnation, while Daoism and Shintoism revolve their beliefs around nature. Confucianism chooses not to focus on things we do not know, so their beliefs on death are limited. In deciphering the different beliefs on death associated with each religion, it is important to understand the different belief systems and their origins. While some religions merged the views of the other religions, some came from the views of an originating founder. Each religion has their own view on life after death and whether or not their followers should be concerned
The two largest religions in the world are Islam and Christianity and they have several facts of contact. Both inbred from Judaism an acceptance of one God, the creator of the world and cares about the beliefs and behavior of human beings. In spite of having some points of principle in common, Christianity and Islam have enormous differences, not merely in beliefs regarding salvation, Christ and forgiveness but in several other fields affecting human attitudes, behavior and daily life.
In today’s world, there are various religions that are worshipped by millions of devout followers every year. Of these religions, two of these include Buddhism and Christianity, which have dated back for thousands of years. According to. Experiencing the World 's Religions and The World’s Wisdom: Sacred Texts of the World’s Religions, both Buddhism and Christianity originated through a single enlightened leader and were known as each religion’s teachers: Buddha and Jesus Christ. Both of these prophets became what shaped their respective religions and had a large influence on being bringers of hope to the world and proclaiming peace among the nations.
It is clear that there are more similarities than differences in all three ancient Eastern religions. The first point unifying all three trends is that the Brahman in Hinduism, Buddha in Buddhism, and Vardhamana Mahavira in Jainism were all sacred figures that used to be people who lived a comfortable and socially privileged life due to birth into a privileged family but then recognized the nature of the Universe, the wrongness of living in idleness, and started wanderings that lasted for many years until enlightenment and understanding of their true destination. After their enlightenment, they all started teaching and spreading what they had learned through the insight they had gained, attracting followers of both sexes, and continued to wander and communicate a religious truth, a religious way of living and the ways to achieve liberation from the wheel of life (McKay et al., 2008)
Religion is an ever-growing idea that has no set date of origin. Throughout history religion has served as an answer to the questions that man could not resolve. The word religion is derived from the Latin word “religio” meaning restraint in collaboration with the Greek word “relegere” which means to repeat or to read again. Religion is currently defined as an organized system of beliefs and practices revolving around, or leading to, a transcendent spiritual experience. Throughout time, there has yet to be a culture that lacks a religion of some form, whether it is a branch of paganism, a mythological based religion or mono/polytheistic religion. Many religions have been forgotten due to the fact that they were ethnic religions and globalizing religions were fighting to be recognized, annihilating these ancient and ethnic religions. Some of these faiths include: Finnish Paganism, Atenism, Minoan Religion, Mithraism, Manichaeism, Vedism, Zoroastrianism, Asatru, and the Olmec Religion. Religion is an imperative part of our contemporary world but mod...
Islam and Christianity both come from a common foundation as religions of peace, both of these religious traditions share the foundational element of peace of their beliefs. In both the sacred texts of Islam and Christianity peace is a virtue and is seen more as a sense of wellbeing than just the absence of conflict and violence. Overall peace is found in unity with God, for Christians and Muslims are taught to live a life a life of peace with others, not only in their own communities but the entire of human society. The Qur’an in Islam and the New Testament in Christianity are respectively the principal sacred texts for these religious traditions. The Qur’an and the New Testament both express the importance of peace and peacemaking as evident in Jesus’ Beatitudes “Blessed are the peacemakers”. The search for inner peace is the core message of the Qur’an and the New Testament and the adherents of both traditions are taught that inner peace will come through faithfully devoting yourself to God.
Throughout history it is evident that many religions have been tried, tested, and, for some, radically changed. Many religions have gone through periods of time in which the way they were run or enforced underwent changes in practice and leadership. In many cases disagreements and differing outlooks among members of certain religions were to blame for these changes. Christianity and Islam are two examples of religions that have experienced changes over the course of their existence. While these religions seem to have little in common at first glance, both have strikingly similar pasts that consist of radical splits due to disagreements among members of the Christian and Islamic churches, resulting in new branches within each religion.
Religion is big part of human life. Every area of the world has some kind of religion or belief system. Religion is defined as “a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices” (“Religion” Def.2). With such a large amount of religions today, religion is widely variegated, usually with divisions in each one. Despite the large amount of religions, I will only be covering only three religions: Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism.
Each religion has a different perspective but most important is where the religions generated from. Major religions started in various parts of the world.