Comparative Religion

Reflective Essay

In the Western world, religion has become something that is part of a person’s life. It can be something that we “do” on Sundays, it may determine the people that hang out, or it can affect the way that in which we view politics. For some, it is simply a choice that someone has made to be listed next to the “religious views” tab in the biographical section on Facebook. It is often used by celebrities to appeal to fans, or by businesses to increase profit. This is quite the change from what it has been in the past where religion was vastly important to people; religion once guided entire lives.

A look at the past reveals how truly important religion has been throughout the history of mankind. Over it, countries have united, wars have been fought, genocides have been conducted, and ethnic groups have been identifiable. A look at religious views from across the world shows us how deeply complex and rooted in human culture they have become. It also teaches us that there are many different (perhaps an uncountable amount) of views in which people choose to tackle life with. Some religious claim to be the final authority on God’s will, others choose to follow many different gods, many choose to follow a religion in which the existence of god is not acknowledge or discussed.

Judaism is a religion that believes in one God. According to Prothero, it is the religion that started the trend of belief in a single god (Prothero, 2010). It is religion that believes that God is the creator and the one that makes the laws for mankind. It begins its string of stories with the creation of the heavens and the earth. It also offers hope with the coming of a “chosen one”. Jewish people practice their religion through sincere rituals and atonement of sin (Prothero, 2010). Forgiveness is a gift that must be earned from God, by seeking righteousness and doing the right things. It would be hard to imagine a world that has not been heavily impacted by this religion because it is the beginner of two of the world’s largest religions. This religion has quite literally changed the world and has become a part of what the world is today.

The Hebrew tradition is quite interesting because it is so vastly diverse. There seems to be no certain code or belief that all Jews must possess in order to be considered Jewish. It was until the 12^th century CE that Jewish Rabbi Maimon attempted to establish a core set of beliefs for all Jewish people (Parsons, 2015). Interestingly enough, many Jewish people today do not believe in all of these principles, but still call themselves Jews (Rich, 2011). It seems that there is more than the set of beliefs that “all Jewish people” have in common that unites these people under a single umbrella. This seems to imply that the Hebrew people are accepting of others’ viewpoints. It would make sense that Jewish people have an understanding of their own sinfulness because they spend much of their religious time looking to God for approval of their actions.

Initially, it was difficult to grasp the fact that Jewish people were calling themselves Jewish even when they had known and acknowledged differences in belief and theology. It seemed odd that there could be disagreement about a belief that is as fundamental as the nature of the one that was responsible for the creation of mankind and the world that it inhabits. The disagreements about this fundamental fact seems to suggest that Jewish people don’t really know the nature of God. This realization was a scary one at first, but comfort came after realization of the truth that this implies. Perhaps Jews take comfort in the fact that God is unknowable, which would imply that he is infinite and beyond the understanding of humankind. Perhaps it is comforting to them that such an infinite and unknowable being is responsible for the creation of the universe.

Christianity is monotheistic religion that has become vastly important to mankind because it currently accounts for approximately 30% of the world’s population today (PewResearchCenter, 2011). It is a religious movement that spawned from a man Jewish man named Jesus. He was of divine nature and he was to be the “ultimate sacrifice” for mankind. He called himself the “messiah”, the ones that the Hebrew people had been waiting for. He attracted a small gathering of people around the first century CE; this movement subsequently led to the largest religious group in the world.

This religion stresses the depravity of mankind and the need for a savior, Jesus. Through Jesus, Christians believe that man can be saved from his own evil. What’s interesting is that many Christians believe that there is nothing that can be done to earn the forgiveness that Jesus offers. It is simply a gift. This seems to open all sorts of possibilities for the men and women to take advantage of the free gift that God has given them. What is stopping a person from going out tomorrow and sinning one day and asking for forgiveness tomorrow? This is probably a common question for people who do not consider themselves Christian, but it is still an interesting one. Perhaps that is why this religion is so popular; it offers forgiveness for all sins.

Unlike the previously discussed religions, Hinduism is a religion that believes in many different deities. According to Prothero, “Hinduism is the least dogmatic and the most diverse.” (Prothero, 2010). The religion boasts probably the widest expanse of deities in the world. There seems to be a god for everything. This is in deep contrast the monotheistic religions that many Westerners are exposed to on a regular basis. For the Jewish person or the Christian, God is all encompassing. He is love, he is justice, he is anger, and he is joy. In the Hindu religion, there seems to a god of happiness, a god for anger, a god for sexual desire, and a god of war. Each of these are quite different in nature and each of them is to be worshipped separately.

At first glance, many may mistake Buddhism for a simple philosophy behind life because it does not discuss God or extraterrestrial topics. Instead, it seeks to solve the problems of humanity through “human effort and morality” (Guthrie, 2015). When compared to other religions, it becomes clear just how different this concept is. Christians look to God for their salvation; Jewish people look to God for approval; Hindus pray to their Gods; Buddhists look to themselves to stop the suffering in their own lives and in the lives of the people that are around them.

Buddhism stresses the importance of an enlightenment experience, in which they have come to a totally complete understanding of life and human suffering; from this understanding, human suffering can be stopped in their own lives (Prothero, 2010). Interestingly, this is an individual experience. It cannot be done for someone; an example of this individualistic concept can be seen when one takes a look at the Zen master’s relationship with his disciples (Design, 2015). The enlightenment must be undertaken as an individual and truth will be reached by the person; it is not given, it is not revealed by some higher power, it is derived from mediation and searching.

The individualistic sense that comes from Buddhism is quite appealing because it offers a way for an individual to end his or her own suffering. It offers the possibility of gaining true happiness here on Earth, within one’s own power, and inside of a lifetime. Often times, other religions stress the importance of the afterlife and the importance of actions because of the impact that it will have on that life after death; Buddhism seeks to give answers within the foreseeable future. Enlightened ones can be seen here on earth, in the flesh. It seems to take the necessity of faith out of the question and gives its practitioners a tangible goal to reach. Even more appealing, that goal is simply to be fully understanding and entirely happy in the face of human suffering.

Each of these religions offer a very different philosophy to life. Christianity stresses the importance of God’s love and grace in the face of human depravity. Judaism stresses the importance of seeking God’s approval. Hinduism looks to many different gods. Buddhism looks to oneself. These differences have impacted the world in incredibly complex ways; most of which are so subtle and fundamental that they cannot be detected, some of which have become quite evident in the religious and cultural struggles that have plagued human history since the time that it was born. Understanding the world’s great religions, and how they relate is a vastly important piece to the bigger pie that is human culture, human nature, and human philosophy. An education in the world’s religions will provide a good base for which I will be able to go out and encounter other people’s beliefs and philosophies and try to truly understand them and how they impact the people that carry them.

Bibliography

Design, B. (2015, May). Kodo Sawaki. Retrieved from Zen-Buddhism: http://zen-buddhism.net/famous-zen-masters/kodo-sawaki.html?headerbar=3

Guthrie, D. M. (2015, May 3). Zen Buddhism.

Parsons, J. (2015, MAy 4). Sheloshah-Asar Ikkarim-The Thirteen Principles of the Jewish Faith. Retrieved from Hebrew4Christians: http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Scripture/Shloshah-Asar_Ikkarim/shloshah-asar_ikkarim.html

PewResearchCenter. (2011, December 19). Global Christianity- A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Christian Population. Retrieved from Pewforum: http://www.pewforum.org/2011/12/19/global-christianity-exec/

Prothero, S. (2010). God Is Not One. New York: HarperOne.

Rich, R. T. (2011). What do Jews Believe? Retrieved from JewFAQ: http://www.jewfaq.org/beliefs.htm

Buddhism in China

Summary

Buddhism a religion that is able to accommodate many different foreign ways of thinking and concepts. Because of this, it was able to move from India into China in the 1st century. From then on, it has been able to make a lasting impact on the country and its way of thinking. It eventually went through a period of time, now called the Golden Age of Chinese Buddhism between the 6th and 9th centuries. This is a discussion of Buddhism in China.

Caste System in Hinduism

Summary

The Caste System in India is a religiously grounded hierarchical scheme that seems to impact the lives of all Indian people. It is a very old system that classifies people based on the environment in which they were born. Men and women that are born into the lowest caste tend to stay in that caste for their entire lives. It was initially spawned from the belief that all men and women are born with differing levels of emotional character, intelligence, and skills. In an idealistic sense, each caste is considered to be equal; in practice, their has been heavy discrimination based on the Caste system.

Dylan Guthrie

Judaism Essay

Jewish people make up a very small percentage of the world’s population, yet they are responsible for some of the most important and influential events that have ever taken place in the history of mankind. Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr were both Jewish people and are leaders of the major scientific revolution that took place in the 20^th century (Adherents.com, 2015). Bob Dylan, one of the most influential musicians of all time, was of Jewish descent. Jesus, the divine being of the insanely popular religious movement that we now call Christianity was a Jew. Many have asked: why have Jewish people been so influential throughout human history when they are so few in number?

It is a common thought that Jewish people are smarter than the rest of the world’s population. Some have tried to explain the disproportionately large number of people with high IQs by taking a look at Jewish history. Cochran et al. tried to explain “Jewish genius” with a scientific approach, stating that their unusually high level of intelligence is due to the fact that Jewish people were practitioners of selective inbreeding, where smarter individuals were highly sought-after mating partners (Cochran, Hardy, & Harpending, 2006). This is a scientific approach to the answering the question but it takes personal responsibility away from the men and women that happen to be of Jewish descent. It neglects the type of work that these men and women have done to earn the positions that so many Jewish people have throughout history.

Perhaps a better way to understand the reasons that Jewish people have been so successful and influential throughout history would be to take a look at how these people live their lives; perhaps the biggest part of their life, would be the religion in which they practice. That religion is known today as Judaism. It is a monotheistic religion, which stresses the importance of relationships with God with the people around them. Where Christianity stresses the importance of forgiveness and faith in order to receive grace, Judaism tends to stress the importance of ritual, work, and practice over faith (Prothero, 2010).

The tendency in their religion to practice (or to do) is central to their lives. People that practice Judaism are consumed with the need to celebrate Jewish holidays, atone for sin through rituals, and to do right by God. By its very nature, Judaism trains its people to be doers. It seems that this need to do, to practice…to perfect their lives has made its way into the professional lives of the Jewish people. It is well accepted that people are to work hard (endlessly almost) so that they can become the master of a respective field. Jewish people are workers, doers. They have allowed this to impact the way that they approach careers and the crafts that they choose.

In addition to being doers, Jewish people tend to be arguers. Not arguers in the sense that they are constantly bickering over pointless things, but they are constantly on the search for truth through debate, research and contemplation. According to Prothero, Jewish students in traditional schools (called yashivas) are constantly studying the religious texts and debating the meaning of each of the scriptures (Prothero, 2010).

The tendency to debate the meaning of scriptural truth with one another has been a part of Judaism for quite some time. Contradiction and debate has even become part of the scriptures themselves in the Talmud (Prothero, 2010). Debate and search for truth is another fundamental piece of the Hebrew tradition that seems to have made its way into the habits of many Jewish people. The search for truth and understanding is central to many different fields, such as science and mathematics. Coincidentally, Jewish people have become some of the most influential scientists and mathematicians (Einstein and Niels Bohr were list above). This constant search for truth and understanding must have played a vital role in the level of mental sharpness that these people achieved. It is not beyond reason to give partial credit to the type of tradition that these people were raised in for their intellectual abilities.

People who were raised amidst the Hebrew tradition were steeped in a religion that stresses the importance of intellectual debate, asking hard questions, and the importance of work ethic. Each of these things happen to be very important in the professional world. Engaging in intellectual debate is a vital part of politics, science, literature, and business. From debate, many of the great achievements that humankind has accrued have come. Jewish people are often taught to debate, to argue, from a very young age. Without a strong work ethic, Einstein would have certainly quit as he began to realize the magnitude of truth that would encounter when he pursued some of the most difficult questions that man’s curiosity had to offer. It is likely that, through his ethic and religious upbringing, he was well accustomed to the work that it took understand and to answer questions that had never been answered before his time. It is no coincidence that Jewish people have become so influential throughout history.

Bibliography

Adherents.com. (2015, May 4). The 100 Most Influental Jews of All Time. Retrieved from Adherents: http://www.adherents.com/largecom/fam_jew100.html

Cochran, G., Hardy, J., & Harpending, H. (2006). Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence. Journal of Biosocial Science, 659-693.

Prothero, S. (2010). God is Not One. New York: HarperOne.

Dylan M Guthrie

Zen Buddism

Presentation and Essay

Buddhism in China

While Buddhism is becoming more popular in the West, it still seems extremely alien to many westerners because it is a religion without gods, doctrine, or the belief in metaphysical realities. It is a religion that seeks to explain and overcome the problems that humanity suffers by practicing a moral code and gaining wisdom about the world through meditation and compassion toward humanity (White, 1993). It is more easily identified as a philosophy to westerners because it lacks a god or heavenly being; Buddhanet says that “Buddhism depends more on understanding than faith” (White, 1993). It that sense, Buddhism seems very rational and human. It focuses on the very real problem of human suffering and offers a way in which can be ceased through human efforts and morality.

The religion (or philosophy, as some would prefer to call it) was started when a man named Siddhartha Gautama was exposed to human suffering for the first time after being protected from it for his entire life in 500’s BCE (Prothero, 2010). After being exposed to suffering for the first time, he was on the search for answers to the problems that humans face. He eventually came to the conclusion that human suffering can be dealt with (or in some ways solved or overcome) through the Noble Eightfold path.

Fundamentally, the Noble Eightfold Path is a way to end human suffering. It is a moral code that stresses the importance of the love for others and understanding of the Four Noble Truths. The Noble Eightfold Path is central to the Buddhist tradition because it gives action and experience to the philosophy that guides Buddhist practitioners. The belief in the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path are the things that unite all followers of Buddhism.

Zen Buddhism is a sect of the religion that stresses the importance of the Eightfold Path, the Four Noble Truths, and that everyone can achieve true happiness through rigorous meditation  (Britannica, 2004). The stress of this sect of Buddhism is on the necessity to meditate to achieve true happiness and enlightenment. This has led many Zen Buddhists to live out a monastic lifestyle, where a follower is given a master so that they may learn how to truly seek out spiritual happiness.

Zen is a sect of the larger group of Buddhism. Among Zen, there are two separate schools of practice: Soto and Rinzai. These schools are alike in that they reject theories of gods or otherworldly influences in their lives and they focus on the practice of mediation and spiritual labor to achieve enlightenment or live through the experience that is Buddhist mediation.

While the two schools of Zen Buddhism are alike at the fundamental level, they do distinguish themselves when it comes to religious practice. According the Zen Buddhism website, those who follow the Soto school of thought tend spend hours practicing Zazen. Zazen is the simple practice of sitting mediation. The ones that meditate in this way are not directly seeking enlightenment or transcendence; they are practicing Zazen for the sole purpose of experiencing it. Soto followers also use koans, which are code phrases that used to trigger or lead a person to enlightenment. In the Soto school, these are ever-changing and less important to them that zazen and having the meditation experience (Design, 2015).

Koans are important to the Soto followers, but they are much more important to Rinzai school of thought. To the Rinzai, koans have the ability to “shock the mind into awareness” (Design, Rinazai, 2015 ). These words or phrases are used to validate the level awareness that one has achieved throughout their meditation. These phrases seem to be reminiscent of the many verses and rituals that Catholic Christians chant and repeat during religious practices; they are designed to bring the disciple closer to their religious goal.

Meditation is a lifestyle to the Zen Buddhist. It takes precedence over philosophy and good works (Zen Buddhism, 2015). It seems to make better sense to Westerners, whom have been exposed to theological religions like Christianity or Islam, because it stresses a religious practice and the need for spiritual guidance from a more experienced leader. The picture of Buddhism that often appears in the minds of Americans could be Zen monks that are sitting cross-legged as they meditate to achieve true happiness and fulfillment.

Zen Buddhism is attractive to many people for the same reason that Buddhism, in general, is appealing to many different people. It identifies a very human problem (suffering), describes it in a very humanistic manner, and offers a very humanistic approach to solving the problem that touches all human. Zen Buddhists reject deities and religious texts, so that they can focus on the issue at hand: human suffering. They simply choose to do so by meditation and the recitation of koan.

Bibliography

Britannica, E. (2004). Zen. Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service.

Design, B. (2015 , May 2 ). Rinazai. Retrieved from Zen Buddhism: http://zen-buddhism.net/two-schools-of-zen/rinzai-zen.html?headerbar=1

Design, B. (2015, May 2). Soto Zen. Retrieved from Zen Buddhism: http://zen-buddhism.net/two-schools-of-zen/soto-zen.html?headerbar=1

Prothero, S. (2010). God Is Not One: The eight Rival religions that run the world–and why their differences matter. New York: HarperOne.

White, B. (1993). Basic Buddhism Guide: A Five Minute Introduction. Retrieved from BuddhaNet: http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/5minbud.htm

Zen Buddhism. (2015, May 2). Retrieved from Religion Facts: http://www.religionfacts.com/zen