Muslim Religion example essay topic

1,268 words
... pray to God for guidance and read the Bible because it is the 'handbook' for life. The largest denominations in Christianity are Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Protestant. At one point in time the church was not separated but in 1054 CE the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church split because of a dispute over the use of religious icons. The total number of Christians in the world are is than 1,955,229,000. Eighty-seven percent of North Americans identify themselves as Christian. Around 33 percent of the world's population regards themselves as Christian.

Through missionary activity the Christian religion is currently active all over the world. Islam Islam is one of the three major monotheistic religions. It was founded in Arabia by Muhammad between 610 and 632. Muhammad was dubbed the prophet of Allah, the only god.

He was considered last in line of prophets they went from Abraham to Jesus. Islam spread fairly fast, it went from Spain in the west to India in the east only a century after Muhammad's death. Muslims believe that Muhammad was visited by Jib reel (the angel Gabriel) and given the duty of converting his countrymen from their pagan ways. There are two mains texts that used Qur " an and Hadith. The Qur " an are the words of god and the Hadith are the words of Muhammad. The Muslims have five duties known as the Five Pillars of Islam.

The first is to recite the shahada h at least once during their lifetime. Most Muslims say it everyday. The second is to perform the sal at, which is prayer, five times a day. It's done during the morning, noon, mid-afternoon, after sunset and just before sleeping. The third is to donate through the, which is a 2.5 percent charity tax.

The fourth is to fast during the month of Ramadan. The fifth and final is if physically and financially able, to make one pilgrimage to Mecca. The Muslim's are strictly monotheistic, there is one true God that is merciful. They believe that Satan drives people to sin and they also believe that Jesus was only a prophet, nothing more. They also believe that Jesus was not executed on the cross and the Christian concept of Jesus is blasphemous. There are three main types of Muslims.

The Sunni Muslims are 90 percent of the Muslim believers and main stream traditionalists. The Shi " it Muslims split from the Sunnis over a quarrel over Muhammad. They have their own translation of the Qur " an which they enforce. The final group is Sufism they took ideas from Christianity and Buddhism but they are more of a different style rather than a different school. The Muslim religion has about 1,126,325,000 members. They represent about 22 percent of the world's population and are the second largest religion.

The largest concentrations of Muslims are in Africa and Asia. Buddhism The Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, founded Buddhism in Northern India. He left his family to search for the truth and later reach enlightenment. The most important individual was Siddhartha Gautama, he had many disciples and that is how the religion was able to spread. Buddhists believe in reincarnation, life is a cycle.

As soon as a person releases their attachment to desire and self they can attain Nirvana. The Buddha's Four Noble truths are 1. To be fully understood: the universality of suffering 2. To be abandoned: the desire to have and control things, which causes suffering 3.

To be made visible: the supreme truth and final liberation of nirvana, which is achieved as the cause of suffering is eliminated. The mind experiences complete freedom and liberation. 4. To be brought into being: the truth of the eightfold ariya path leading to the cessation of suffering. The path leading to the termination of suffering is the eightfold path. The eight steps are: 1. right understanding 2. right thinking 3. right speech 4. right conduct 5. right livelihood 6. right effort 7. right mindfulness 8. right concentration The Buddhist religion is not set in stone, many local rituals and customs.

There was a split after Buddha's death creating three different systems of thought. The first is Southern Buddhism that is in Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. Being the largest of the three, it has over 100 million followers. The second is Eastern Buddhism, which predominantly occupies China, Japan, Korea, and most of Vietnam. The third is Northern Buddhism, which is in China, Mongolia, Russia and Tibet. There was conflict when it entered Tibet because of Tibet's native religion of Bon but Buddhism underwent a revival in the 11th century.

Currently there are 325,275,000 people subscribing to the Buddhist religion. They make up 5.6 percent of the world's population. The main concentration of Buddhists are in Southeast Asia. Mormonism Joseph Smith founded The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1830 with five other members.

Joseph Smith was visited by an angel and given golden tablets containing the Book of Mormon. He also claimed to be the next prophet. He was known for his drunkenness and practices of polygamy. He also made many failed prophecies of Christ's Return and the fall of the American government.

Smith's following grew quickly due to the amount of missionary work done by him and his followers. The followers moved to Utah and began an agricultural community called Salt Lake City. From that center is spread further in the west. The Mormons believe that there are many gods 'and that we can become gods and goddesses in the celestial kingdom' (Doctrine and Covenants 132: 19-20; Gospel Principles, p. 245; Achieving a Celestial Marriage, p. 130). Which is a direct contradiction to Christianity, which teaches: 1. DEUTERONOMY 4: 35, 39 - Unto thee it was shown, that thou might est know that the LORD he is God; there is none else beside Him.

(39) Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the LORD he is God in heaven above and upon the earth beneath: there is none else. Mormon doctrine also teaches that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three different gods. Mormon doctrine also teaches that Mormonism is the only true way. They also say that the book of Mormon is the 'most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book' (History of the Church, 4: 461).

However, over grammatical 4000 errors were found in the Book of Mormon. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints call themselves a Christian Denomination but their beliefs contradict the bible which is the cornerstone of Christianity. There aren't any divisions within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It's hard to tell exactly how many Mormons there are because they are filed under Christianity but there are about 10 million members in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The center of the church is in Utah but the religion is spread worldwide with at least once church in 160 countries.