COMPARATIVE RELIGION

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COMPARATIVE RELIGION

• Instructor
• DON FREDREGILL

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REASON FOR THIS COURSE

• This course seeks to raise awareness of the
  religious diversity within our midst.

• This course will encourage you to engage in a
  lifelong process of open-minded discovery of
  religious truths.

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• Identify the fundamental beliefs and practices of
  the religions we will study.
• Summarize the historical development of these
  religions.
• Describe the views of reality of these religions.
• Analyze the role of leadership in the worlds
  major faiths.
• The student will compare and contrast his or her
  own faith with two of the religions studied.

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• Analyze the ethical practices or codes of
  behavior of the worlds faiths.
• Examine pieces of their sacred literature.
• Analyze the social teaching and practices of
  these major faiths.

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THE ORIGIN OF RELIGION

• The earliest recorded evidence of religious
  activity dates from only about 60,000 B.C.E
  However, anthropologists and historians of
  religion believe that some form of religion has
  been practiced since people first appeared on the
  earth about 2 million years ago.

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CHIEF CHARACTERISTICS OF RELIGION

• Belief in a deity or in a power beyond the
  individual
• A doctrine (accepted teaching) of salvation
• A code of conduct
• The use of sacred stories
• Religious rituals (acts and ceremonies)

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THE SIX DIMENSIONS OF RELIGION

• The Ritual Dimension
• The Mythological Dimension
• Doctrinal Dimension
• Ethical Dimension
• Social Dimension
• Experiential Dimension

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THREE PHILOSOPHIC VIEWS OF A DEITY

• ATHEISTS DONT BELIEVE THAT A DEITY EXISTS
• THEISTS BELIEVE IN A DEITY OR DEITIES
• AGNOSTICS SAY THAT THE EXISTENCE OF A DEITY
  CANNOT BE PROVED OR DISPROVED

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World Religions we will study

• HINDUISM 800 Million
• JAINISM Unknown
• BUDDHISM 350 Million
• TAOISM (Daoism) Unknown
• CONFUCIANISM 6 Million
• SHINTO 4 Million

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• JUDAISM 14 Million
• CHRISTIANITY 2 Billion
• ISLAM 1 Billion
• SIKHISM Unknown
• AFRICAN Unknown
• ZOROASTRIANISM Unknown

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• CHINESE RELIGIONS Unknown
• BAHAI Unknown
• NATIVE AMERICAN RELIGIONS
• NEW AGE MOVEMENTS
• (TIME PERMITTING)

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Religions That Teach A Doctrine Of Salvation

• CHRISTIANITY
• ISLAM
• BUDDHISM
• HINDUISM

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Indigenous People

• Indigenous sacred ways by indigenous peoples the
  native people of conquered lands.
• They lack political power.

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NATIVE AMERICAN RELIGION

• Everything is Alive
• Sacred Symbols and Rituals
• The Sacred Pipe
• The Tipi
• The Drum
• Diverse Local Traditions

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• Hinduism began about 1500B.C. Central Asians
  called Aryans invaded and conquered India. The
  native people were known as Dravidians. Hinduism
  developed from a blend of the two cultures. By
  500 BCE. Hinduism was splitting into various
  schools of thought. Two of these schools -
  Jainism and Buddhism - became new religions.

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Jainism

• Also had its roots in India. It developed
  from one of the communities or regions there not
  so much as in opposition to Hinduism but more as
  a clarification of it.
• Only lately have people in the western world
  become interested in Jainism, otherwise it
  remained mostly confined to India.

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Buddhism

• Also began in India (Nepal) about mid-sixth
  century BCE.
• Buddhism origins lead to Siddhartha Gautama (the
  one they call Buddha), the enlightened one.
• Buddha did not consider himself to be a deity.

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TAOISM (DAOISM)

• Daoism had its beginning in China, perhaps as far
  back as 1750 BCE.
• To ancient Chinese the creative rhythm of the
  universe is called TAO which means way
• The same roots as Confucianism but with a
  different emphasis as they developed.

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SHINTO

• A Japanese religion whose actual beginnings are
  undated.
• It is closely tied to nature and the unseen
  world.
• Began as the local religion of agricultural
  communities in Japan.

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JUDAISM

• Judaism has no central founder and no central
  leader or group making decisions for them.
• Jews claim Abraham as their first patriarch.
• The Hebrew Bible is called Tanakh, which
  Christians call the Old Testament of their
  Christian Bible.

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CHRISTIANITY

• Based on the life, teachings, death and
  resurrection of Jesus Christ.
• The Christian Bible consists of the Hebrew Bible
  and a New Testament including four Gospels
  (Good News) as the first four books of the New
  Testament.
• The Christian religion is made up of many
  denominations.

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ISLAM

• The prophet Muhammad was born about 570 CE.
• Islam, also, traces its ancestry back to Abraham.
• The holy book of Islam is called the Quran.
• Second largest religion in the world.

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SIKHISM

• Another great teacher appeared from Northern
  India in 1500 CE, Guru Nanak.
• Eventually, there were a total of ten Sikh Gurus.
• They believe there is only one God and that God
  is the same one worshiped by different religions
  around the world.

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DISCUSSION

• The Complexities of Defining Religion.