...Abstract Humanity and the study of Humanity gets its basis and theories from the bible and science, In Buddhism they believe we are victims of our own devices, that we worshiped and were slaves to Satan. Thus giving us the Christian View vs. the Buddhism View, the branch of theology devoted to the study of the human race is labeled "anthropology", though it has little, if anything to do with the scientific study of humanity which goes by the same term. One definition of this theological topic is, "the examination of the origin, nature, and destiny of the human race from the perspective of its relationship to God." Perhaps a better way of looking at it is to say that anthropology is the study of the eternal questions of life: "Who am I?", "Why am I here?", and "Where am I going?" These three questions will form us a basic outline of our views on Humanity by viewpoints given of views by Christians and Buddhist. Christian Worldview of Humanity VS. Buddhism Worldview of Humanity The “Christian View” according to Bishop Ussher and Genesis 1:31 records that people were created on "the sixth day" of creation. Beyond that, we can't be certain. Bishop Ussher, basing his reckoning on the genealogies of Genesis, postulated that the world began in 4004 BC - in October, to be precise. If there are no gaps in the genealogical record of Genesis, then Ussher's date is appropriate. But a gapless genealogy is highly unlikely. What was the purpose of these genealogies...
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...Week 2 Notes: Cosmogonic myths pick up the action at a point just before the divine touch creates time and space. Before this critical moment, though there are often gods or a god preceding the world or the physical universe, the only thing that exists is the infinite potential of chaos. Not unlike the Genesis account of creation, most of the world’s creation myths begin with an eternal being sleeping within or hovering in contemplation above the infinite abyss of a primeval sea. These waters represent the “chaos” of a world without physical form, where no height, no depth, no breadth, no time, and no created beings exist. All is quiet; everything rests in a state of infinite potential. At the decisive moment, potential universes give way to the one in which we actually live. * Maclagan suggests, in Creation Myths: Man’s Introduction to the World, that Cosmogonic narratives are patterned after the following themes: (1)inner and outer; (2) horizontal and vertical; (3) something from nothing; (4) the conjugation of opposites; (5) world order and the order of worlds; (6) descent and ascent; (7) earth body and sacrifice; and (8) death, time, and the elements. In these various schemes, we see areas of overlap, which suggests that a finite number of motifs are at work in creation myths. * Weigle’s Creation and Procreation: Feminist Reflections on Mythologies of Cosmogony and Parturition presents the most nuanced typology of creation myths. Building upon Eliade and Long...
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...Search For Buddha's Footprints Introduction Siddhartha Gautama who became saint, later known as Buddha which means 'enlightened one' or 'awakened one'. Buddhism was founded on the teachings of Buddha. He was born in Nepal, India and lived his 29 years of his life in Kapilavastu district of Nepal. After escaping from his palace he saw an old diseased man and many corpses on his way out. Seeing this he started thinking to fulfil subjects of his life and to understand why humans are like this? While meditating for seven continuous days under a Peepal tree later known as "Bodhi Tree", he attained enlightenment. After that, with all his other companions travelled the whole world including Sri Lanka to spread his teachings to the people and to awake them from several myths of life. The places where he went and spread his teachings were the proof by his footprints on those places. He also left his footprints to many places so that people...
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...include a belief system, community, central myths, rituals, ethics, characteristic emotional experiences, material expression and sacredness. These various religions all have special traditions that honor the sacred to which its followers believe. Although, there are key critical issues in the study of religion, there are also many benefits. Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam are three examples of religion types that are practiced throughout the world. However, there are also different varieties of these religions practiced. In Christianity, the Orthodox churches of Greece, Russia, Romania and elsewhere are closely related to each other, but are rather different from western Catholicism. There are also numerous forms of Protestant Christianity such as Methodism, Baptist, and Pentecostalism. Different types of Buddhism include Theravada Buddhism which is practiced in Sri Lanka and in South East Asia. Mahayana, Tibetan, and Shingon are other examples of Buddhism. The most prominent division in the Islam religion is between the Sunnites and Shi’ites. The first of the eight elements that these religions share is their belief system. They have a common belief or worldview of the universe and what place the human being’s have in it. Community means that this belief is shared and practiced by all its members or group. Central Myths are stories that express the beliefs of the community and are retold and often reenacted. An example of a Central Myth is the birth of Jesus Christ. In Christianity...
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...There are an abundant amount of religious and glorified explanations of how our world has become present day. Society refers to these narratives as myths or legends. Mythology spreads all across the world reaching different cultures, which in their own have ideologies to the present common rituals beliefs that have brought their culture to present form. Although there has been much development in the culture of Chinese mythology, this culture can be traced back 4,000 years to the oldest of myths (Willis 88). Mythology tries to answer the question of earth’s origin through beliefs and cultural myths. In Chinese mythology the earth is said to have formed when chaos ruled the universe, from this chaos a cosmic egg formed for 18,000 years. A divine beast formed within the egg creating a perfect balance known as Yin and Yang. The divine beast burst the egg apart and separated Yin from Yang to create earth and sky. The Yin or light parts formed the male skies while the opaque Yang parts formed the female earth. The beast Pan Gu then lies down and dies so that he may rise up to keep the earth and sky apart. His body parts then become sun, earth, moon, wind, water, and clouds. The symbolism of complementary opposition is a representation of their duality and oneness and is represented in Chinese culture through the Yin and Yang symbol and is a staple in Chinese culture. Mythology has a strong belief in deities and supernatural beings. Pan Gu is a supernatural divine creature...
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...will continue to be in the future one of the main forces that has constantly shaped and drives the world. Throughout many centuries, wars were fought, laws were made, towns and countries were built and broken down all in the effort to make known or protect many of the different religions that exists in the world today. In this paper I will be comparing and contrasting the different western religions which are Hinduism and Buddhism and the eastern religions which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The country of origin for Hinduism is India and Southeast Asia. Hinduism was originated from the word “India” which has the very similar spiritual and cultural practices; this was developed in India more than one thousand years ago. There are several societal and cultural influences that made the religion of Hinduism vital to the region in which it originated. The Hindus of India tends to follow several traditions and social standards. When it comes to culture, the Hindus have several myths indicating that there are multiple faces of the divine, and also myths indicating that the divine interacts in many forms with the believers Hinduism is a religious belief system that lacks unity; it is also referred to as the Santana Dharma. The Santana Dharma means the “eternal religion” (Fisher, 2005). The Hindu religion is made up of several religions that were placed under the same or one category. In the Hindu religion, the people or the believers can be the followers of multiple...
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...High God of African and the High God of Native Americans are strangely similar. In West African Nation, Nigeria, there are some that believe in the Yoruba myth. The Yoruba myth talks about a High God name Olorun. Olorun had two sons and he gave them the tasked in creating the world, and they both failed. Olorun decided to create the world himself; afterwards, he retired and some say he never came in contact with his creation. However, the Nuer of the Sudan believe in a God name Kworth Nhial and is a guardian of moral law and plays an active role in the lives of people; punishing those who disobeys his moral values and rewarding those that follow. (Hopfe & Woodward, 2012, pg.50-51) The Native American also have more than one belief in their High God. In one of the belief is their High God shows no concern to earth and he leaves it to the lesser spirit and he is only called in extreme emergency;it is as almost the same characteristic as the African God Olorun who does not intervene with the earthly matters. Another Belief with Native Americans of a High God is called Wanka Tanka and is the creative force found in all of us beings and spirit. (Hopfe & Woodward, 2012,pg.29-30). This belief seems to show more interaction with the creation of the world just as the God of Kworth Nhial; however the complexity of this...
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...religions would be excluded. So even though the word religion is said everyday, it is a lot harder to define than one would think. If you were able to go back in time to first century Rome and ask a roman “What religion are you?” they would look at you puzzled. But if you were to ask them “Are you religious?” they would immediately respond with “Of course!” Religion and culture were two sides of the same coin, there was no difference, it was just part of life. However, with the Abrahamic religions, religion and culture were separated. This happened because monotheism created secularism, or a distinction between humanity and God. Many religions have myths and rituals. A myth is a symbol of stories about the origins of humanity and their destiny in the world. Rituals are actions that often involve symbolic reenactments of such stories. Myths convey the essential truths while ritual connects an individual and the community to the sacred. When religious, one is either orthopraxy or orthodox. When orthopraxy you are suppose to practice rituals by following them precisely. When orthodox, written words like the Quran, and the bible are taken literal. For orthopraxy the word in such ancient text is only symbolic. While religious language is primarily symbolic, it can be taken literal, but once this happens it becomes fundamentalism. Morality is the blueprint...
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...A. Geography >China stretches some 5,026 kilometres (3,123 mi) across the East Asian landmass. China is bordered by seas and waters eastward, with the East China Sea, Korea Bay, Yellow Sea, Taiwan Strait, and South China Sea, and bordered by landmasses on its 3 other sides, from North Korea to Vietnam. China has been officially and conveniently divided into 5 homogeneous physical macro-regions: Eastern China (subdivided into the northeast plain, north plain, and southern hills), Xinjiang-Mongolia, and the Tibetan-highlands. Its physical features are multiples. The eastern and southern half of the country, its seacoast fringed with offshore islands, is a region of fertile lowlands and foothills with most of the agricultural output and human population. The western and northern half of China is a region of sunken basins (Gobi, Taklamakan), rolling plateaus, and towering massifs, including a portion of the highest tableland on earth (Tibetan Plateau) with lower agricultural possibilities and thus, far less populated. Traditionally, the Chinese population centered around the Chinese central plain and oriented itself toward its own enormous inland market, developing as an imperial power whose center lay in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River on the northern plains. More recently, the 18,000-kilometers coastline have been used extensively for export-oriented trade, making a power shift, with the coastline provinces becoming the leading economic center. With an...
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...tradition of a religion is surrounded by the Central Myths of a specific belief. Central Myths are stories that express the beliefs of a group and are often renenacted and retold. For example, these stories are the major events in the life of the Hindu god Krishna, the ressurection of Jesus, the exodus of the Isrealites from the oppression in Egypt, as well as the enlightment experience of Buddha. These stories are not historically incorrect but are central to the religion. These ritual beliefs are enacted and brought to life through ceremonies. Ceremonies often include use of different language, clothing, and architecture. Religions also make use of physical objects such as statues, instruments, flowers, incense, paintings, and often musical compositions known as “Chants”. Religion also includes emotional experisnces such as gulit, dread, devotion, liberation, bliss, “rebirth”, and inner peace. Any form of religious teaching is a way to teach someone to live or suggest that they follow these rules and live by the words spoken to them. Forms of religious teachings could be through books, music, or even art. It is just a way to teach the people of that religion right from wrong. Within most religions there is a sacred text. Hindus follow a scripture that divides into two parts which are the revealed and the remembered. Hindus put the Vedas and the Upanishads on a pedestal and believes the scriptures hold all authority. Buddhism follows the sermon by Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha...
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...Discuss a creation myth of either China or Tibet, pointing out similarities with those you have studied earlier in the course. The Chinese creation myth starts off with a huge primordial egg containing Pan Gu, the offspring of Yin and Yang. This egg is also seen in both the Vedic Hymns of India as well as the old myths of Tibet and Mongolia. From there Pan Gu grows for eighteen thousand years until the egg splits into the earth and the sky. This splitting and separation of earth and sky is seen in practically every myth studied so far. After another eighteen thousand years has passed the earth and sky solidify in their current positions and Pan Gu wearily lays down and dies. The story goes on to describe the division of his body parts to form the earth, wind thunder, moon, sun, etc., which is also seen in Babylonian myth where Marduk defeats Tiamat and uses one half of her body to form the sky and the other half to form the earth. The final element linking all of these creation myths is chaos. Whether its in the form of a chaotic sea (as seen in Indian Vedic hymns) or a great serpent (like Egyptian mythology portrays) the creation of the world is always linked to creating order out of chaos. Chinese mythology describes this portion of its story with the death of Hun Dun who was the emperor of the center of both the northern and southern seas. Describe the state of Nirvana and explain the difference between the early and later paths needed to reach it. What conclusions do...
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...By the time Buddhism entered Japan in the sixth century C.E., it had already become a world religion with a history of a thousand years. The form of Buddhism that from the start was dominant in Japan is known as Mahayana, the Buddhism of the Greater Vehicle, and it brought with it an enormous canon of religious literature, an elaborate body of doctrine, a well-organized priesthood, and a dazzling tradition of religious art and architecture - all of which Shintô lacked in the sixth century. Although its view of the world and mankind differed markedly from that of Shintô, it is important to understand that within the teachings of Mahayana Buddhism both differences from and similarities to the native tradition could be found. On the one hand, for example, Buddhism regarded the world as transient and saw it as a source of suffering for those who remained attached to it, a view that contrasts sharply with Shintô's ready acceptance of the world. On the other hand, however, there was an optimism in Mahayana Buddhism that meshed well with Shintô - an optimism about human nature, for it was committed to the belief that all human beings had the potential to attain the wisdom that brings an end to suffering, and an ultimate optimism about the world itself, since it taught that once human attachments are discarded, the world takes on a new and positive significance. At first the Japanese regarded the Buddha as simply another kami and were drawn to the religion by the beauty of its art...
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...Current Issues Paper: Buddhism Mark A. Fekete REL/133 04/18/2016 James Finch Current Issues Paper and Class Handout Religion is a cultural system of behaviors and practices, mythologies, world views, sacred texts, holy places, ethics, and social organizations that relate humanity to what an anthropologist has called "an order of existence". The world is comprised of a wide range of religions that impart regular practices and convictions to each other and this paper will inspect normal qualities that Buddhism offers with different religions and in addition examine how Buddhism has reacted to challenges in the current and what has changed about the roles of females in Buddhism after some time. Buddhism The History of Buddhism spans the 6th century BC to the present, starting with the birth of Siddhartha Gautama in Lumbini, Nepal. This makes it one of the oldest religions practiced today. Its roots started in India from the encounters noted by Siddhartha Gautama, a “mortal prince born miraculously to Maya who was kept from all the evil and misery of the world throughout his youth” ("Siddhartha Gautama," 1996). Siddhartha was forbidden to leave the royal grounds; in any case one day he defied those request given by his dad and went to a close-by town where he saw what is known as the four passing sights. The four passing sights were “an old man, crooked and toothless, a sick man, wasted by disease, and a corpse being taken for cremation. Then...
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...Khushan Empire emerged during the first century stretching from northern India into Central Asia and acting as an intermediary between Parthia and China. This made it possible to cross Eurasia from Spain to the Yellow River and spend most of the journey under the laws and protections of one of the major empires. • Rarely ever did a single merchant make the trek from one end of the Silk Road to the other during the first ages. • Goods were passed from hand to hand along the caravan routes and sea lanes that connected four empires. • The origins of the Silk Road were set for one of the great economic and cultural exchanges in human history. • The Silk Road brought China its first taste of Buddhism, Christianity, Manichaeism, and Islam. • The Silk Road spread Greco-Roman aesthetic ideas and even myths across central Asia and even to...
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...Buddhism current issues and class handout Current Issues and Class Handout Religion can be defined as “a system of thought, feeling, and action that is shared by a group and that gives the members an object of devotion; a code of behavior by which individuals may judge the personal and social consequences of their actions; and a frame of reference by which individuals may relate to their group and their universe” (Religion, 2013). The world is made up of many different religions that share common practices and beliefs with one another and this paper will examine common characteristics that Buddhism shares with other religions as well as discuss how Buddhism has responded to challenges in the modern and what has changed about the roles of women in Buddhism over time. Buddhism Buddhism is an ancient religion that originated in India from the experiences noted by Siddhartha Gautama, a “mortal prince born miraculously to Maya who was kept from all the evil and misery of the world throughout his youth” ("Siddhartha Gautama," 1996). Siddhartha was forbidden to leave the royal grounds; however one day he disobeyed those order given by his father and visited a nearby town where he witnessed what is known as the four passing sights. The four passing sights were “an old man, crooked and toothless, a sick man, wasted by disease, and a corpse being taken for cremation. Then he saw a sannyasin (a wandering holy man, a renunciate), who had no possession but seemed to be at peace”...
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