INTRODUCTION TO WORLD RELIGIONS

• Belief System refers to a set of principles that help in interpreting our daily reality.
• MONISTIC - There is no real distinction between God and the Universe
• POLYTHEISTIC - The beliefs and worship of many gods
• MONOTHEISTIC - The doctrine or belief in one supreme god
• ATHEISTIC - Disbelief in or denial of the existence of a personal god
• Worldview - It is the mental model of reality that signifies a comprehensive framework of ideas and attitudes about the world, ourselves, life, belief system, a system of personally customized theories about the world and how it works.
• Latin word “religare” or “religio” which means to tie or to bind
• Relegare which means to “tread carefully”
• Religion - Serves as a bridge that connects human beings to God.
• Theistic God - The concept of a being purely spiritual, all good, all knowing, and all powerful.
• Theism - Belief in the existence of Theistic God
• Henotheism - a polytheistic belief that each nation or country has its own god
• Dualism - The polytheistic belief in two conflicting

  deities, one good and the other belied.
• Monotheism - The belief in one God
• Deism - The monotheistic belief in a God who set the universe and thereafter left it alone.
• Pantheism - The monotheistic belief that God is identical with nature as a whole.
• Special Revelation - The divine revelation to humans is specific in content, and for a specific audience
• General Revelation – The divine revelation to humans is general in content and for a general audience
• Theology – The human attempt to understand special revelation.
• Natural Theology – Human attempt to understand general revelation
• Belief system or World View - Many beliefs that fit together in a system to make sense of the universe and our place in it.
• Community - The belief system is shared, and its ideals are practiced by a group.
• Central Stories/Myths - help explain the beliefs of a group
• Rituals - Beliefs are explained, taught, and made real through ceremonies.
• Ethics - Rules about how to behave
• Characteristic Emotional Experience - most religions share emotions such as awe, mystery, guilty, joy, devotion, inner peace, etc
• Material Expression - religions use things to perform rituals or to express or represent beliefs such as: statues, paintings, music, flowers, incense, clothes, architecture, and specific sacred location
• Spirituality - Described as the quality of being concerned with religion or religious matters.
• Spirituality - Deep sense of aliveness and interconnectedness with the nature, divine, or supernatural
• Spirituality - Derived from the latin word spiritus, its root word is spirare which means to breathe.
• Elements of Spirituality 1. Affectional 2. Devotional 3. Intellectual 4. Moral
• Spirituality – human person sees more than what he/she touches, seeing a better world not pillaged by human greed
• Christian = God
• For Hindus, soul is equivalent to atman which means self or consciousness.
• True: True or False - One cannot use the word soul without any reference to a body, the word spirit can be used without referencing a body
• Spirituality is an activity that deals with what has been lost from the original self
• Spirituality, in a modern sense is a personal quest of an individual without any influence from religion.
• Those who embark on a quest are called spiritual but not religious (SBNR) people
• Proponents of SBNR are also known as unchurched, eclectic, unaffiliated, spiritual seekers, and freethinkers
• Beliefs are systematically structured as a gauge to see things that make up reality