Belief Systems

What do we learn?

• Religion basics:

• fundamental beliefs, important rituals, and holy books

• Religious Beliefs:

• some of the most important beliefs of the world’s religions and how these messages are shared

• Religious rituals:

• here we talk about the rich variety of religious rituals that give color and taste, holidays and songs, structure and traditions to the world’s religions

• Religious ethics:

• the values and morals of a religion (the behaviors that spring from religious beliefs). We also cover some of the “hot topics” of our time and how religions are dealing with modern-day issues

Why?

• because most of us have had some contact with religion (we grew up as Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, etc.)

!

• because some of us have little to no knowledge of other religions of the world

• because some of us are skeptical of the whole religion thing

• because whether you are a believer or not, religion affects your life (your religion, your neighbor’s religion, religions within your culture, other cultures that interact with your culture, etc.)

What is religion?

• You can say it’s a belief, but not all beliefs are religions. (I believe my cat is the best cat in the universe).

• You can say it’s a belief in God.

• That works for monotheistic religions but not religions that believe in many gods (polytheistic) or religions that believe in a chief god and lesser gods (henotheistic)

• You can say it’s a way of behaving — being decent to others, caring for the environment, etc.

!

• But not all decent, caring people are religious

• You can say it’s a belief in the truth

•

• But what’s the truth? Different religions have different understandings of what is “true”

Definition of religion

• Basically, a religion is a belief in divine (superhuman or spiritual) being(s) and the practices (rituals) and moral code (ethics) that result from that belief.

• Beliefs give religion its mind, rituals give religion its shape, and ethics give religion its heart

Basic theology

• Every religion has a belief system

• Every religion teaches its own truths about the world and humanity and God (or gods) as seen by that particular faith

• These beliefs explain how followers achieve salvation or enlightenment, who the leaders in the faith are, etc.

The Western Religions

• Islam, Judaism and Christianity

!

• All three religions trace themselves back through Abraham

• Abraham was the first patriarch of the ancient Hebrew families and his descendants became followers of Islam and Christianity

• Because of this some people call them the Abrahamic religions

• Beliefs they share:

• all three religions believe that one single, all-powerful, all-knowing God created the world out of nothing

• Abrahamic religions believe that God gave human beings free will to decide how they would live and a moral code and commandments that would set a path for living a good and holy life

• Abrahamic religions believe that God will eventually redeem the world from all its sins and imperfections and bring in an age of universal peace