1 / 14

Intro to World Religions

Intro to World Religions. Why is there Religion?. Paint by French artist Paul Gauguin Title: Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?. Why is there Religion?. Reasons why religion exists:

duane
Download Presentation

Intro to World Religions

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Intro to World Religions

  2. Why is there Religion? • Paint by French artist Paul Gauguin • Title: Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?

  3. Why is there Religion? • Reasons why religion exists: • It serves many human needs. One primary need is having a means to deal with our mortality. • Religion can help us cope with death, and religious rituals can offer us comfort. • It helps us to respond to our natural wonder about ourselves and the cosmos • It’s a human attempt to feel more secure in an unfeeling universe. • It grows out of psychological needs • It is a way of life founded upon the apprehension of sacredness in existence

  4. Purpose of religion • Religion must provide answers to the great questions that people ask: • What should be our relationship to the world of nature? Why do human beings exist? How do we reach fulfillment, transformation, or salvation? Why is there suffering in the world, and how should we deal with it? What happens when we die? What should we hold as sacred? THE QUESTIONS DO NOT VARY, BUT THE ANSWERS DO.

  5. Meaning of “Religion” • Religion is “to join again,” “to reconnect.” • The Latin roots of the word religion are thought to be re and lig • Re means “again” • Lig means “join” or “connect” (as in “ligament”) • The word religion suggests the joining of our natural, human world to the sacred world.

  6. Why do we study religions? • First, we are not looking to validate them or to disprove them or to enhance our own belief or practice • As a result, we want to comprehend the particular religions as thoroughly as possible and to understand the experience of people within each religion.

  7. Why study the major religions of the world? • Each religion is interesting in its own right, as a complex system of values, relationships, personalities, and human creativity. • The study of religions require sympathy and objectivity. While it is true that being a believer of a particular religion brings a special insight that an outsider cannot have, it is also true that an outsider can appreciate things that are not always obvious to the insider. • In a multicultural world, tolerance of differences is valuable, but enjoyment of differences is even better. • The value of the study of religions is that it helps us recognize and appreciate the religious influences that are everywhere.

  8. Christianity and World Religions • “Matters of faith are serious for those whose faith matters” • The catholic church rejects nothing of those things which are true and holy in these religions.

  9. Will non-Christians be saved? • There are those who without any fault do not know anything about Christ or his church, yet who search for God with a sincere heart and, under the influence of grace, try to put into effect the will of God as known to them through the dictate of conscience: these too can obtain eternal salvation.

  10. World religions: same or different? • With the world religions we share a common respect for an obedience to conscience, which teaches all of us to seek the truth, to love and serve all individuals and peoples. • All hold conscience and obedience to the voice of conscience to be an essential element in the road toward a better and peaceful world.

  11. World Population (2009 Estimate): 6.69 Billion • Christians: Percent of World: 33% • Catholics • Other groups make up the rest (Orthodox, Anglican, etc). • Muslim: Percent of World: 21% • Judaism: Percent of world: 0.22% • Sikhism: Percent of the world: .24% • Hinduism: Percent of World: 14% • Buddhism: Percent of World: 6% • (Chinese traditional religion stats exactly the same, as is primal traditions) • non-religious”: Population of world: 16% • (Includes atheists, agnostics) • As cited in: http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html#Christianity

  12. “Religion is the substance of culture, and culture the form of religion”

  13. “Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

  14. We begin with the knowledge that at the end of every journey we are not quite the same as we were when we started.

More Related