Intro to World Religions and Belief Systems

1. Understanding
the Nature of
Religion
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2. Essential Question
• What does it mean to be religious and
spiritual?
• Why is religion linked to humankind’s
quest to search for the real meaning of lif
e and death?

3.  When one prays, he or she actively seeks an
affinity to divine beings or supernatural
entities that are beyond the purely natural
world.

4.  follow a set of prayers in the form of :
o chants, mantras, or creed
 Whether you pray or not, you may have
witnessed the influential roles being played
by religions all over the world.

5.  Religion is the pursuit of transformation
guided by a sacred belief system.
 Spirituality reflects one’s integrative
view of life while affecting the human
soul.
What is the difference between RELIGION
and SPIRITUALLY?

6. UNDERSTANDING BELIEFS AND
WORLDVIEWS
• Every individual sees and interprets the
world quite differently from one another.
(BELIEF)
• The overall perspective is a collection of
beliefs about life and the universe being held
by people . (WORLDVIEW)

7. UNDERSTANDING BELIEFS AND
WORLDVIEWS
• social environment and upbringing are critical
in the development of a religious life. (for an in
dividual)
• people organize their beliefs and ideas while
eventually creating a comprehensive narrative
through which they look at the world and
interrelate with it. (an effect)

8. UNDERSTANDING BELIEFS AND
WORLDVIEWS
• Belief in god or gods is found in almost all
religions.
 existed during prehistoric times and this
has continued to the modern day.
 Human life may have produced hundreds
of religions and belief systems.

10. Modern Religion

11. RELIGION
Monis
-tic
Mono-
theistic
Poly-
theistic
Agnos
-tic
Atheis
-tic

12. Kinds Description
1. Monism - there is no real distinction
between god and the
universe
2. Polytheism - the belief and worship of
many gods
3. Monotheism - the doctrine or belief in
one supreme god
Different Kinds of Belief Systems or
Worldviews

13. Kinds Description
4. Atheism - disbelief in or denial of
the existence of a perso-
nal god
5. Agnosticism - god cannot be known
Different Kinds of Belief Systems or
Worldviews

14. Theism
• synonym to monotheism
• defined as “a belief in the existence of one
god viewed as the creative source of the hu
man race and the world who transcends ye
t is immanent in the world” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary 2014).
• “there is only one God who could have de-
signed and created the universe/everything
”
ChristianityJudaism Islam

15. Polytheistic Religions
• common among early people, recognize
many principal gods among whom no one
is supreme.
Egypt Greek and Roman Hinduism

16. Monism
• asserts that there is no genuine distinction
between God and the universe. Two
implications arise from this belief.
 it contends that God is dwelling in the
universe as part of it
 the universe does not exist at all as a
reality but only as a manifestation of
God

17. Atheists
• deny the existence of God
Agnostics
• deny the possibility for man to acquire
knowledge of the existence of God.

18. Different Characteristics
that are Common to Most Major
Religions
“Can you give some concrete examples?”

19. Religion
belief in a deity’s rela-
tionship with the world
places and people be-
lieved to be holy and
sacred
rules followed as a re-
sult of beliefs
ways to worship a
deity
belief in a deity