Looking back at my initial questions: 1. How does faith shape a person 2. What does a person's religion and philosophy have to do with actions and lifestyle 3. Who are the religious leaders in each faith and what contributions did they make 4. What are the main beliefs of the major faiths 5. What role does prayer play in the major faiths 6. What role does faith play in the major religions and how is it defined in each; I have determined that in reality the ones that intrigue me most are questions 3-6. In this section, I will contrast the beliefs of Buddhism and Islam on the same questions that I addressed via the expert in the post on Christianity.
Islam--the term Islam means submission; believe that there is one god, Allah, and their purpose is submission to him. They follow the "Five Pillars of Islam--1. the Muslim profession of faith; 2. Praying 5 times per day 3. Fasting 4. Giving to charity; 5. Going on a pilgrimage to Mecca once in their lifetime"
The Muslim profession of faith comes through the Shahadah which is spoken morning and night "I witness that there is no God but Allah, and that Muhammad is the prophet of Allah." As is obvious from the Shahadah, Muslims submit to Allah and consider Muhammad the last prophet.
Prayer plays an obvious role since Muslims pray five times per day; in contrast to this the Christian Bible teaches that Christians are to "pray without ceasing." My personal interpretation of this is that we are to be in a constant connection with God so that our every decision is taken to Him. In regard to the afterlife, Muslims believe that "death is a time when they can be close to God. They do not believe that you will enter Paradise just because you have lived a good life. They believe that God will determine that." Christians believe that only faith in and acceptance of Jesus' righteousness with get them into Heaven. That good works are simply an outworking of their faith and trust in Jesus. "Not by works, lest anyone should boast."
Buddhism--do not, in reality have gods. Siddharta Gautama is, however, considered a major figure in the religion. Buddhists live by the Four Noble Truths: "1. suffering; 2. its cause; 3. its cessation; 4. the way which leads to cessation. The goal of Buddhism is Nirvana--"achieving a saintly condition on this earth." In contrast to this, Christians and Muslims believe that that is impossible on earth; only in the afterlife. Buddhists also believe in reincarnation which is not a belief that is shared by any of the other major world relgions except for Hinduism. Rather than prayer, Buddhist practice meditation. Since there are no gods or singular God in Buddhism, the question of faith's role is really relegated to faith in the tenents and beliefs.
Buddhism--
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Hello Shelly- you have really stepped it up in your last several posts- I am impressed. I thought that the pastor gave you an intelligent, reflective answer to your questions and I got the sense that he enjoyed answering them. I also really thought that the wiggling aspect of your inquiry was well done- I am going to investigate how you did that so as to try it on my blog. Part of this project I suppose is to learn from each other how to make our own blogs better and I thank you for having done that for me especially in your last three posts.
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