what common goal do all religions share? course hero

What is the best hope for promoting cooperation among different religions?

A clear-eyed understanding of our religious differences may be the best hope for promoting cooperation among different religions.

How do religions respond to different problems?

Different religions are responding to different problems, says Prothero , and therefore each religion offers a different solution. For example, Christians identify the problem as sin, and the solution is salvation; for Buddhists, however, the problem is suffering and the solution is nirvana. In addition, each religion has different techniques for moving from problem to solution, and different exemplars who show us how to get to the solution. Christians use the techniques of faith and good works, and Christian exemplars are saints or ordinary people of faith. But Buddhists use the techniques of the Eightfold Path, and their exemplars are arhats, bodhisattvas, or lamas.

What does the Dalai Lama believe?

In his new book, Toward a True Kinship of Faiths: How the World’s Religions Can Come Together, the Dalai Lama begins by saying that when he was growing up, he thought his own Buddhist religion was the best religion in the world: “I thought that there simply could not be any other faith tradition that could rival the depth, sophistication, and inspirational power of Buddhism.” But as he met serious practitioners of other religious traditions, particularly after he fled Tibet and went into exile, he changed his opinion.

What does Prothero believe about religion?

Though he assures us that religions have quite different goals, Prothero believes that “a clear-eyed understanding of the fundamental differences” between religions is our best hope for getting people from those religious traditions to be able to work together.

What is Prothero's four part approach?

I find Prothero’s four-part approach for differentiating religions—a problem, a solution, techniques, and exemplars —to be simple and memorable. Some people have criticized Prothero’s approach for being too simple; a recent review in The Christian Century takes Prothero to task because he doesn’t delve into his philosophical assumptions. But Prothero’s book isn’t a scholarly treatise; it’s a survey course in religion designed for the average intelligent layperson. It covers the broad field of world religion in one book, which means it skips over many details and leaves some topics out.

What did Patton do to promote eclecticism?

Beyond finding presumed commonalities, Patton advocated a creative eclecticism. His book describes how he incorporated innovative ideas into worship services, like a service that featured an interpretation of a pagan maypole dance as performed by a modern dance troupe. A Religion for One World details how Patton installed an expensive sound system in the Meeting House so he could use recordings of Western music, as well as ethnographic recordings of non-Western music. His eclecticism included science as a kind of religious expression: A painting of the Andromeda Nebula formed a backdrop for worship services, and a fanciful sculpture of an atom hung in the middle of the main hall of the Meeting House.

What is the fundamental conviction of compassion?

He came to believe it is compassion: It is my fundamental conviction that compassion—the natural capacity of the human heart to feel concern for and connection with another being—constitutes a basic aspect of our nature shared by all human beings, as well as being the foundation of our happiness.

What happens when religious leaders become preoccupied with what distinguishes them in terms of their beliefs, doctrines, viewpoint?

Whenever they do, which is most of the time, it isn't long before they begin insisting that their beliefs are right and by implication the beliefs of others are wrong. The inevitable consequence is disagreement, division and even destruction. Unless this madness ends, and soon, religious people will end up destroying the very world their religion has evolved to redeem.

What does the word "religion" mean?

To begin, it is not a little ironic to me that the literal meaning of the word religion is “to return to bondage.”. It comes from two words, the prefix re meaning, “to return” and the root legare meaning, “to bind.”.

Why is religion so disunity?

Instead of divine acceptance, religion is preoccupied with guilt and failure, and the depiction of God as a deity displeased about both. Instead of bringing unity to humanity, religion is the principle cause of most disunity, with its endlessly expanding hard-drive of beliefs, dogmas and doctrines around which little egos collect to argue, ...

What happens when you insist that your beliefs are right?

The inevitable consequence is disagreement, division and even destruction.

How do church leaders measure spiritual progress?

Church leaders measure spiritual progress in terms of the number of attendees, the size of their annual income and the square footage of their facilities. Furthermore, virtually every Christian leadership conference lauds the largest of these churches and their leaders as if they were role models for all other churches.

Is religion a circus?

Instead of peace and tranquility , religion is, for many its practitioners, a circus of endless activity, programs and meetings all of which are time-consuming and exhausting. Since I know other religions only as an outsider, I’ll reserve my observations to what I know best as an insider to Christianity.

Do churches compete with each other?

Churches actually compete with each other the way Las Vegas hotels compete for the best show in town. Since the mega churches can afford the more expensive talent, they have a manifest and unfair advantage over almost all other churches.