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Christianity and Islam Comparative Essay
Comparing Christianity & Islam
Introduction for islam and christianity
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Recommended: Christianity and Islam Comparative Essay
Cameran White
World Religions
Dr. Schultz
December 2017
The Value of Studying World Religions in Our Contemporary Society
Individuals and communities are inspired by their religious identities to take action in the world. Those actions can have effects on the world that can be positive or negative. The positive ones can range from social outreach programs to providing a sense of community to believers. The negative effects can include violence against the out groups and intolerance for others. The fact remains that their actions are often rooted from religious ideals or their worldview. The principle of interfaith is to expose differences in those worldviews so that we may understand beliefs and practices of a wide variety of cultural religions.
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The world we live in is multicultural and global, more than ever before. Studying religion doesn’t make the student become Christion or Buddhist or Muslims, it is to desire to understand the world’s inhabitants and cultures. When a person studies religion, they are trained to read closely, think deeply, write convincingly, and analyze the important and decisive roles that religion plays in the lives of people across the globe. If Christians are the only people who understand Christianity, or Muslims understanding Islam, then we are deemed to be in a world of misunderstandings and conflicts. If we surrender understanding of religious ideas to religious individuals, we lose the capability to comprehend the motivations behind the thoughts and actions of anyone beyond our own religious traditions. Civic goods are the processes that affect people’s beliefs, commitments and …show more content…
I appreciate this religion because their beliefs are similar to Christians beliefs even though they expressed in different way. In today’s society, humans everywhere are prejudice towards Muslims. Acquiring knowledge about Islam gave me insight on Muslims’ beliefs. I learned that their main goal is not terrorism. This religion was a special religion because I have a family member that in this religion and I needed to find a way to take to that person without offending him. During this section, I noticed that Islam was similar to Christianity in the sense that both religions are monotheistic. Each religion has one God, Muslims believe in Allah and Christians believe in God. Also, I notice that the Prophet Muhammed and Jesus were similar. Both men declared that their followers love them more than their families. They were different in their own way also. What Jesus preached was way more peaceful than what Muhammed preached. All in all, they both were great leaders of their faith in their God. Another religion I enjoyed learning about was Zen. I appreciate this religion because the practices of this religion will ultimately lead to peace. The core of Zen is an attempt to understand the meaning of life without being distorted by logic thought or language. I loved this section because I notice that Zen was compatible with other faiths. I realized that the ultimate goal of Zen is freedom. You need to focus and it must be done
Religion reinforces the beliefs of individuals within a society. Additionally, religion has played a vital role in society since it influenced the way they lived and the rituals they may or may not have practiced. Different regions of the world during ancient time held a distinct set of beliefs, each based on different or similar principals. Deriving from the polytheistic set of beliefs, monotheism came in place of many Gods, holding just one god accountable for the creation and the existence of mankind. Christianity and Buddhism share similarities and differences, but most importantly the impact that each had on the culture is what is mostly referred to.
1.) Explain the main differences between Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, and discuss the advantages/disadvantages of each for Buddhism’s missionary expansion.
Compare and Contrast Nation of Islam with real Islam. The Islamic religion is referred to as the original faith. Their holy text is the Koran and the followers of the Islamic religion are called Muslims. They worship God and the prophet Muhammad. However, in the early 1900s, a new religion, the Nation of Islam, began.
Like all Buddhism, Zen is a means by which one can achieve Buddha-consciousness, or in effect "total-consciousness." "Total-consciousness" means being aware of the true self and its role in regard to the infinite cosmos of all existence. This awareness allows one insight into or perhaps understanding of the Tao, the essential singularity to which all things belong. Understanding the Tao, for Taoists and Zen Buddhists alike, is the equivalent of Nirvana, loosely described as the utmost fulfillment of one’s existence.
Religion is intertwined with culture, economics, politics, and modern social relationships on every dimension. Whether you attend a cathedral, a synagogue, or a mosque, habitually, intermittently, or abstain entirely, you simply cannot escape religion.
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 a phenomenon that has caused wars, death and love. With almost every culture worldwide having some form of religion, there are many different types of religion all around the world, some similar streams and others vastly different. Every religion has four main aspects: Belief and believers, sacred texts and writings, ethics and rituals, and ceremonies. These form the basis of each religion and set them apart from the rest: each branch of religion vastly different.
Judaism and Islam are known to be two of the main religions that are found throughout the world. They each have similar traits and many more differences. They both are monotheistic, which means they only believe in one god. Muslims worship the God called Allah, which means in Arabic “the God”. And Jews worship the god called Yahweh, which means the God of Israel. Their differences include their core beliefs, rituals, symbols, and history.
Judaism, Islam, and Christianity are some of the religions that most individuals can relate to, being the three largest religions in the world. Like many religions they share many differences and also some similarities. One difference that these religions hold is their view of Jesus Christ. Similarities are surprisingly common to find among some religions because of the basis they put on one another. Some similarities between these religions include: belief of monotheism and the influence of Zoroastrianism had on each religion. Also another similarity carried out by these three religions would be the significance of Abraham. Some other differences include: religious texts and also how they approach God in prayer.
The sociological approach looks at religious belief and practice in relation to the society. Sociologists are interested in two themes, the centrality of religion in society and the diversity of forms it inhabits (Hamilton 1995/2001:1). It regards religion as a social fact subject to empirical observation, which produces empirical evidence (Dillon 2003:7). The sociology of religion is a product of the enlightenment, from which it inherited a tendency to dismiss religion as incompatible with rationality (Dillon 2003:6). This dismissal has had significant impact on the attitude towards religion and it is the basis for the most influential paradigm in the history of the field; secularisation. The secularisation theory claims that religion is or will be on the decrease in society. So profound was its impact that modern sociology often aims to account for the continued presence of religion in society and has generally held a rather negative view of religion as being an unworthy subject of study(Davies 2007:2).
Islam and Christianity have a vast amount of similarities and differences. Islam searches for guidance from the Qur’an and Christianity depends on faith in Jesus. Islamic faith believes in the God, Allah. Above anything else, all religious Muslims obey Allah and his commandments to obtain peace. However, Christianity puts faith in Jesus who is the son of God.
The definition of religion changes all throughout the world. A neighbor, a coworker, a traveler, a student studying abroad would provide all sorts of different views and opinions on what religion means to them. It can be difficult at times to relate to other religions and provide factual information that has no bias and fully demonstrates the religion but it is important to find a common ground between factual and bias to create a better perception of what religion has to offer others. When narrowing in on three certain religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, there are similarities in beliefs or doctrines but they may symbolize for completely different things.
Ideologies creates a sense of community, purpose and order. Similarly, I find that my religion provides me with the conceptual frameworks in which to ground my life. My life revolves around my Islamic commitments, even school and work is set around my Islamic timetable. So to me, Islam is not just about praying, fasting and so on. Yet, it’s also about my moral conduct, the education that I seek and my worldly actions. Growing up in a community that practices an Islamic lifestyle and culture has convinced me that Islam is one of the exceptional religions which stress the development of the positive moral and ethical. I was taught to live peacefully, help each other and also tolerate with other religions. Not only that, Islam also governs all facets of my life such as moral, spiritual, physical, intellectual, social and economic via the Quran and the Hadith. I also learnt the true values of my faith which is Islam is not only for the Muslim world, it is to be practiced wherever I am.
I think form many this religion is difficult to grasp because of the events done by some people who are/claim to be a part of this religion. Similar to Judaism and Christianity, Islam believes it is the one true religion of god. However, the prophet for this religion is not Jesus, similar to Judaism. The prophet is instead Muhammad who taught from the revelations given to him by Archangel Gabriel. Muhammad even had his own book called the Hadith that explained his life and his choices. This book is not a divine scripture but it looked at for answers if the Qur’an does not provide what a person seeks. Once Muhammad’s new successor came about the people of Islam split into two groups Sunni and Shi’a. Today, this religion is seen as a very violent religion because of terrorist attacks around the world but there are followers out there that live their lives without a single drop of blood on their hands. I think people forget that we should not judge an entire religion based on who claims to be a part of that religion. Even in Christianity people fought and they killed over land for their God. It is not fair to the sincere followers of this religion to be judged. It is unacceptable when a person of this religion comes to the United States, and is treated less than dirt. I myself am not a very religious person but even I have proper moral to respect another person’s
It has been an outstanding five weeks. This was the course that I've been waiting to take since I started Capella back in April of 2004. Finally after weeks of reading World Religions by Huston Smith, I have developed an understanding of some of the world's religions. I can never be an expert in this field, and I don't want to, but at least I have an idea where these religions originated and have a general concept of the beliefs behind each religion. Each of the religions we covered have one thing in common that stick out, and that is promoting peace and harmony.