Comparision of World Religions
Dixie Corbin
Christianity
- Started with Jesus Christ- developed out of Judaism (Palestine) formed in 33 CE
- 2 billion followers
- Christianity is over 2000 years old
- Holy Book - Bible
- Priests, ministers, monks and nuns were the leaders.
- Only one God (Jesus) monothestic
- Jesus died to save humanity from there sins.
- Basic beliefs- There is only one God. God knows all things. God is love, God is truth, God is Spirit.
- People considered to be "holy" : Jesus, God, Moses.
- A parable of Christianity is The Grain of Wheat from John 12:24. The parable says that anyone who serves Jesus must follow him. He also says that death leads to life, which means when we die to ourselves, we are reborn into the life of Christianity.
- Christianity spread from other people telling of the lessons and those people converting to Christianity.
- Christianity is organized by the General Followers and Spiritual Mentors.
Buddhism
- 362 million followers
- Neither monotheistic or polytheistic, Buddha is not considered a God.
- Buddhism has been around for over 2,500 years now.
- Founder- the Buddha (he is considered the holy one)
- It is said that Buddha achieved enlightenment while sitting under a tree in India at the palace.
- No sacred book, there is a sacred text; the Dhammapada.
- No God- Buddha did not teach a personal deity.
- Believed that a person could achieve Nirvana by eliminating their attachment to worldly things. Nirvana is achieved by following the Eightfold Path.
- Lead by Buddhist monks and nuns, who spread the lessons of Buddha, who also taught people of things such as The Four Truths and the path to enlightenment.
- Started around 534 BCE when Buddha first saw the holy man , the ill man, and the dead man. The holy man made him want to give up his riches to be a religious man.
- A story in Buddhism that is commonly known is "Rainy Day, Sunny Day." The story says that there was a lady who cried everyday since her daughters both had businesses requiring either sunlight or rain. One daughter was married to a umbrella maker, and the other was married to a noodle vendor. If there was no rain, the old woman would worry for her oldest daughters business selling umbrellas. If there was rain and no sunshine, then the old woman would cry for her youngest daughter, the noodle vendor's wife. A monk told the old woman to look on the brighter side of things and she started smiling everyday instead of worrying for her daughters.
Confucianism
- 6.3 million followers
- There is no special organization for Confucianism.
- Confucianism is approximately 1000-5000 years old.
- Founder- Confucius, the religion is Monotheistic.
- Holy Books- the Five Classics, and Analects
- Basic beliefs- The human life has a lot of suffering which is caused by greed. There is an end to suffering, which is by following the Middle Path.
- Five Basic Virtues: kindness, righteousness, sobriety, wisdom, and trustworthieness.
- Mainly people in China and the Far East practice Confucianism.
- Confucius went around spreading his ideas and political beliefs to others.
To have friends come from afar is happiness, is it not?
To be unperturbed when not appreciated by others is gentlemanly, is it not? "