Jessica Irving

Suzanne Jacobs
Final Comparison Paper
April 27, 2015

World Religions Final Paper

Religion, simply put is, the belief in and worship of a superhuman
controlling power, especially a personal God or gods. Religion to many
people is the final word, it answers the deepest questions humans can
ask and also brings about confusions of puzzles that are impossible to
solve. It takes place within every community, country, town, home, and
from some within themselves. It has largely impacted everyday lives
and influences the behavior of how people think, act, and what they
become. Religion has the power to provoke and influence the way a
society runs, it can be used for the greater good as well as evil. Many
religions have symbols, and sacred histories that explain the meaning
of life, the origin of life, or the Universe. Religion is the air that we
breathe and is the key to understanding the human world.
Over the course of the semester I was able to attend many
diverse and altogether interconnected religions, for my final paper I
decided to write about Judaism, Buddhism and the Islamic religions. As
I was able to be apart of those religious communities, it was interesting
being able to observe and see how many of those diverse religions
around the world are very much similar in many aspects. Judaism,

Buddhism and Islamic religions all believe that everybody no matter

their wrongdoings, or infractions are in their lifetime, all deserve to be
treated as human beings under Gods will.
Buddhists don't pray to a Creator God, but they do have
devotional meditation practices, which could be compared to praying.
Radiating loving-kindness to all living beings is a practice, which is
believed to benefit those beings. As I became more familiar with each
religion, noticing similarities was exciting, it made me wonder, why
have the separation of closely similar religions? For example, both
Judaism and Islam are staunchly monotheistic, meaning in the belief in
one and only one God. The Quran, the Islamic sacred book, believes to
be the word of God as dictated to Muhammad by the archangel Gabriel
and written down in Arabic discusses many biblical figures such as
Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, Jesus, which in turn, makes in
abundantly clear, that the God of Muhammad, and God of Jesus, and
God of Israel are all the selfsame God.
This made me think of the community of these religions, Judaism
has a primary function of retaining a connection to God as well as the
community. Synagogue translated means a building where a Jewish
assembly or congregation meets for religious worship and instruction,
for over two thousand years synagogues has become a gathering place
for Jewish prayer. All synagogues have a lot of natural lighting and all
seats orient towards the east, following the custom that Jews pray

facing Jerusalem, which is the site of the Ancient Temple and their
spiritual home. The Jewish communities pray together such as the
Islamic people, the Kaaba is the cuboid building at the center of Islams
most sacred mosque, Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Wherever they are in the
world, Muslims, are expected to face the Kaaba when performing Salat
(prayer). The Buddhist likewise performs meditation, sometimes, in
groups, which are similar to the unison of Muslim and Islamic prayer
(Referencing from my Islamic paper).
Between these religions, supernatural beings created by God to
serve as his messengers are certainly clear, such as the revelation of
the Quran to Muhammad was facilitated by Gabriel the Archangel.
Angels to these religions are also ward off against regarding angels as
objects of worship. Buddhism although there is no belief in angels
their belief in the Vedas and the Brahmans is akin to treating these
spiritual figures with respect. Buddhism and Judaism are both deeply
anti-materialistic meaning that you cannot find truth within materials
that tie oneself to this world; the only way to discover truth in this
world is through spiritual essence. Buddhist achieve their selves
through asceticism while Jews find their outlet through separation, the
intent is similar. (Brenner, Michael)
As mentioned at the beginning the ties between Judaism and
Buddhism are the belief in human community, both religions believe
that anybody and everybody should be treated with love and kindness,

in most situations. When I attended the Jewish ceremony I noticed

their emotional and physical bond to their community which was the
same for the Buddhist temple whether sick, elderly, or of young age,
each are valued and make a contribution to their community. (Religion
Facts).
This World Matters: Buddhism and Judaism do have an afterlife.
But contrary to faiths, which focus heavily on the afterlife,
Buddhists and Jews do not see it as central to their teachings. In
Buddhism and Judaism, a person performs righteously in this life
solely because they live and for no other reason. -Anonymous.

All religions have an ethical path to follow when wanting to

achieve redemption, nirvana, afterlife, reincarnation this path usually
entails details to achieve such status, for the Jewish community it is
the Torah. The Torah is, the Jewish written law that consists of the five
books of the Hebrew bible that were given by God to Moses that
included the biblical laws of Judaism. This is the moral and ethical
guidepost for the Jewish people.
As for Buddhism it all begins with the founder, Siddhartha
Gautama, who took a journey casting away his royal heritage to find
the cause of human suffering. Buddha discovered the Four Noble
Truths after achieving the state of enlightenment. The Four Noble
Truths are: Suffering is inevitable in life, desire is the cause of suffering,

and suffering can end there is a specific path to end suffering.

Following this guidepost is the only way to achieve enlightenment or
nirvana. Nirvana is the supreme state free from suffering and individual
existence. Literally translated as extinction it represents the
extinction of illusion or selfishness. Its the ultimate religious goal of all
Buddhists. The attainment of nirvana breaks the otherwise endless
cycle of rebirth. Buddhists call this nirvana "eternal bliss". (BBC
Religions).
Islamic people follow the strict teachings from the Quran; their
goal in life is to receive positive judgment from God when they die,
hopefully obtaining eternal paradise. This God has four purposes,
Creation, Sustenance, Guidance, and Judgment. The overall purpose of
humanity is to worship this God and to construct a moral life. Muslims
also are required to have faith in one God and in Muhammad as his
messenger (Shahada), pray five times daily (Salat), give a charity tax
yearly (Zakat), fast during the month of Ramadan each year (Swam)
and perform the pilgrimage to Mecca once in their lifetime (Hajj).
Although there are big differences that set apart Islamic religion, and
Buddhism, like life after death, and God, there are some similarities as
mentioned above that are interesting when tied together. As I see they
are interconnected because each have an end game for the life that
they live on this earth. (Religion Facts).

Each religion has a meaning behind the word and the meaning
behind the word really sets it apart from other religions. You wonder
why it would be named as such until you learn more about that religion
and say that it then makes more sense. Islam translated means
submission or the peaceful submission to God willingly. According to
the Islamic people there is no god but god and Muhammad is gods
prophet.
The word Buddha is a Sanskrit word, which means "The Awakened
One", one who is awakened to Reality, who understands true nature of
the mind, the world, and all sentient beings. The Buddha lived
approximately 3000 years ago.
Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live
without a spiritual life. Buddha. (Brainy Quotes).
A Jew is a member of the people and cultural community whose
traditional religion is Judaism and who trace their origins through the
ancient Hebrew people of Israel to Abraham. These labels have given
their practices a sense of purpose, when we hear the word Jew we
immediately think of the Nazis and how they have been oppressed for
centuries to fight for what they believe in. Over the years all of these
religions had to fight for what they believe in all because of what
society has constructed them to be and the label that was given.
Today Islam is the second largest religion in the world with 1.51.8 billion members worldwide. You find Islam today in every corner of

the world and it is the fastest growing religion worldwide with a 6%

annual increase. Why? The Islamic people believe that only God has
the ability to punish and no other force has the power to do so.
For the Buddhist temple it was interesting being able to
understand the reasoning behind one of the most renowned religions in
the world. It is an inevitable process that cultures take whenever a new
religion is introduced, to assimilate it and let it mold it in ways that
resonate with that cultures social and cultural needs. Buddhism being
a dandelion seeds that have spread and rooted itself into every country
that it has come into contact with. There are over 300 million Buddhist
the world making it the fourth largest religion.
The total world Jewish population is about 15 million, most of
whom live in the United States, Israel, and the former Union of Soviet
Socialist Republic. Judaism is the seventh largest religion in the world.
Size matters and without people you cannot make something grow, all
of these religions had leaders to look up to, prominent impactful people
to follow and with those people grew religion.
Religion became something that many could grasp onto through
prayers, meditations, pilgrimages, fasting, otherworldly practices, it
seems to give people a sense of purpose in this world to look up when
there seemed to be no hope to keep going, that you choose put your
faith in your God, or faith in yourself that there is an end to the
suffering that taints humanity. Giving everything that is your body and

your soul, that is a huge part of the Islamic, Jewish, and Buddhist faith.
Religion is part of the human make-up. It's also part of our cultural and
intellectual history.
Religion was our first attempt at literature, the texts, our first
attempt at cosmology, making sense of where we are in the
universe, our first attempt at health care, believing in faith
healing, our first attempt at philosophy.(Brainy Quotes)
That is what we strive for the mostthe interconnection that gives
humanity purpose; is religion.

Sources
Micheal Brenner, Demand Media, The Similarities & Differences
in Buddhism & Islam
BBC Religions: The Four Noble Truths
Access To Insight: Buddhism and the God-Idea
Http://www.hds.harvard.edu/life-at-hds/religious-and-spirituallife/peace-and-justice/prayers-for-peace-and-justice
https://slcc.instructure.com/courses/287856/pages/an-overviewof-judaism?module_item_id=2607493
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_religion.html
Anonymous. "Judaism and Islam." ReligionFacts. 8 February 2007.
[from "Updated:"2004-2015] Accessed 26, April
2015.<http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/holidays.htm>.