Course Outline

Introduction

Mr. Mac’s Approach to Teaching Comparative Religion:

·        “It’s a class, not a church. I’m here to teach, not to preach.

             My job is to make you think.”

·        A class is a social learning experience. You can learn as much from other  students - especially people you don’t agree with - as you can from the text, my lectures,  guest speakers, or videos. 

·        Importance of good Karma.  What is it? 

                 1) The cosmic law of cause and effect

                2) “What goes around comes around.”

·        Towards a definition of religion.  Can you define it? Why do people believe in religions?  What is faith?

·        GOD - Discussing the Ultimate, Infinite Abstraction

Did God Create man or vice-versa? What are the differences between

Theism, Atheism, and Agnosticism?

      Eastern Non-Dualism vs. Western Dualism

FIRST ASSIGNMENT:  Religious Autobiography

Pre-Write Questions - Write personalized answers to as many of the questions below as you can. Just write what comes into your head.  Then look over your answers and organize them into an essay. Please hand in an essay, not a list of answers.

We will discuss the meaning of all these questions in class before you write.

1. Do you attend any particular church, synagogue, or temple regularly? If so, what? Why do you attend?

2. If not, do you believe in the existence of some form of God or higher power? Why?

3. Are you an atheist or an agnostic? Why?

4. Are you an exclusivist, inclusivist, or pluralist? Explain your position.

5. If possible, describe What or Who you do believe in.

6. What (if any) religious doctrines are most important to you? Explain.

7. Do you believe in concepts such as eternal life, the existence of the soul,  the universal spirit,  and beings such as Angels, Ghosts, or Satan? Explain.

8. Have you gone through phases in which your religious convictions have changed? How long have you believed what you believe now?

9. Scan your memories to find incidents, experiences, and conversations  which have contributed to your spiritual position. Do a free-write on these memories. Write without stopping or judging, just putting down all the details which come into your mind.

10. Reread your free-write and underline those incidents which you believe have had the deepest impact on your development.

11. Explain as fully as possible, the effects of this impact, and why these particular experiences affected you so strongly.

12. Do you think your religious position has affected your behavior? How?

13. Have you ever had what you consider to be a religious or spiritual experience? If so, describe it in detail.

14. Do you feel that your present religious position is strong or weak?

15. Have you found your religion to be a help or hindrance in your life?

16. What important religious or spiritual questions have not yet been answered for you? Explain.

17. Why are you taking this class? What are you hoping to learn?

Hinduism

·        "We are all Hindus."

·        Historical Origins

·        Sacred Texts: Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, the Bhagavad-Gita

·        330 Million gods or One -  The Polytheistic-Monotheistic Paradox:

·        BRAHMAN and the concept of  ATMAN-BRAHMAN

·        Brahma(creator), Shiva(destroyer), Vishnu(preserver), Durga(warrior goddess), Kali(death), Saraswati(mother's knowledge), and so many more.

·        The Concept of Maya (Illusion)

·        Reincarnation or the Transmigration of Souls

Worn-out garments

Are shed by the body:

Worn-out bodies

                      Are shed by the dweller. (Bhagavad-Gita, 11:22)

·        Path of Desire

·        What people Want:

Physical pleasure

Worldly success: Wealth, Fame, Power

·        "Is that all there is?"

·        Path of Renunciation - a sanyasin

·        What people really want:

Infinite Being, Infinite Knowledge, Infinite joy

·        The Yogas (union) Ways to God through...

Physical Exercise (Hatha yoga)

Knowledge (jnana yoga)

           Love (Bhakti yoga)

           Work (Karma yoga)

           Psychological Exercises or Meditation (Raja yoga)

·        Non-Dualism and Self-Realization

·        Avatars and Cults

·        The Stages of Life and The Stations of Life(Caste System)

·        Do you know the differences between Brahman, Brahma, & Brahmin?

·        Jainism - Ahimsa - non-injury to any living beings

       Buddhism

• Siddhartha Gautama, (circa) 500 B.C.

• Are there similarities with Jesus?

• The Four Passing Sights

                          *Sickness

                        *Old Age

                        *Death

                        *Asceticism

• Middle Path - the line between extremes

• The Bodhi Tree meditation - Why is there suffering?

• Buddha means “I am awake.”

• The Four Noble Truths - Buddha was a “physician” treating suffering:

                        1)  Life is Dukka (the suffering of dislocation).

                                    “The pitiful confusion of life”

                        2) Suffering is caused by Tanha -ego craving, attachment, or

                            “The desire for private fulfillment”

3) If the cause of suffering is selfish craving,  the cure lies in “the overcoming of narrow self-limitations and release into the vast expanse of universal life.”

                        4) How?  Follow the Eightfold Path.                            

Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Mindfulness,                         Right Effort, Right Livelihood, Right Concentration

“We move in the direction of our dominant thoughts.”

• GOAL- Nirvana (Etymologically means “to blow out” or “to extinguish” as a fire ceases to draw when deprived of fuel.)

• The Problem of Pride and Ego

• Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism

• Tibetan Buddhism- The Story of the Dali Llama

• Zen - The Secret of the Flower

            Koans: “What is the sound of one hand             clapping?”

            Zazen - “seated meditation”; Satori - sudden flash of enlightenment

• Why is  Buddhism inconspicuously absent in India?

Taoism and Confucianism

·   Yin and Yang - the identity of inner-penetrating polar opposites

·        Lao-Tsu, the Old Fellow, the Grand Old Master

·        The Tao: The way of ultimate reality,  the way of the universe,  the way of life

·        Naturalism:            "Blend with nature"; "Let nature take it's course"; "Go with the flow"; attunement with nature, not dominance - to be noticed in art, architecture, medicine, food, martial arts, etc.

·        Wu-wei, The Chi, and Taoist Mysticism

·        Confucius, Kung Fu-tzu, Kung Master, The First Teacher

·        His Background, Problem, and Approach

·        The Analects  of Confucius - Harmony in Society (jen)

·        The Middle Way; the Silver Rule

·        The Mandate of Heaven

·        The Five Relationships

*ruler/subject

*husband/wife

*parent/child

*sibling/sibling

*friend/friend

Ancestor Worship/Respect for elders

Judaism

·        Judaism as a "Religious Civilization"

·        The Religion of the Jewish people?

How do we know who is actually Jewish?

·        Meaning in God: "In the beginning God....

·        Transcending -Nature Anthropomorphic

·        Meaning in Creation: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth ... and pronounced it to be good." (Genesis 1: 1)

·        Meaning in Human Existence and History *God's direct intervention in history at critical points

·        A chosen people as recipients of God's unique challenges

·        Meaning in Morality and justice - The Importance of Behavior Ethical Monotheism - The 613 Commandments

·        Prophets: Those who speak for God

·        Meaning in Suffering

Historical Anti-Semitism

The Holocaust

·        The Messiah or a Messianic Age?

“They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears

into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

neither shall they learn war any more.” (Isaiah 2:4)

·        Orthodox, Conservative, and Reformed

·        The Authority of the Scripture and Revelation

Torah (Same as the first five books of the Old Testament)

Talmud("the Oral Torah"; 66 volumes of commentary)

·        Fact or Fiction?  Considering Scripture as Myth

 “Faith is not fact.” - Rabbi Ron Schulman

          Christianity

·        Christianity as a World Religion

·        The Search for the Historical Jesus

Scholarly controversy

Qumran - The Dead Sea Scrolls

Miracles of Jesus

The Four Evangelists

·        The Message of Jesus: The 'Good News"

·        The Two Great Commandments:

      1) Love God above all else

      2) Love your neighbor as yourself. (karma?)

·        The Incarnation, Redemption, and Resurrection

·        Why was Jesus Christ crucified?  Impact on the history of Judaism?

·        Pentecost and the Holy Spirit:

·         

“..... suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.  Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:1-4)

·        The Early Church/Heresy/ Roman Emperors/Church Councils and Politics

·        The Medieval Church and the Popes

·        Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodox, and the Protestant Reformation

·        Catholic Good Works vs.  Luther's "justification by Faith Alone"

·        Kierkegaard's "Leap of Faith"

·        The Problem with Fundamentalism

Islam

·        Islam as a "misunderstood religion" in the West

·        Muslim(Arabic for "one who submits to Allah)

·        Muhammad's Background: Influence of Judaism and Christianity

·        Ishmael (Issac's half-brother) went to Mecca

·        Muhammad's Epiphany on the Mountain

·        The Hegira and the Islamic Calendar

The Quran

·        The Five Pillars of Islam

1) Shahada "There is no god but God, and Muhammad is His Prophet"

2)   Pray five times a day facing Mecca

3)   Fast during the month of Ramadan

4)   Give alms to the poor

5)   Pilgrimage to Mecca once in your life

                                 God is most great God is most great.

Testify that there is no god but God.

I testify that Muhammad is the Prophet of God.

Arise and pray;

God is most great.

God is most great.

There is no god but God. (Islamic daily prayer)

·        Concept of Progressive Revelation

·        Jihad; the expansion and divisions within Islam; status of women Modern

·        Islam as a Political Force

New Age

·        Theosophy

·        Esotericism

·        Occult Mysticism, Channeling, Psychic-Paranormal Experience

·        Revelations: Edgar Cayce, Jane Roberts, The Urantia Book, A Course In Miracles;  Benjamin Crème

Religion and Ethical Issues

·        Abortion, Euthanasia, Genetics, Cloning

·        Religion and Gender Issues: Historical and Contemporary

An early Christian Church writer, Tertullian(in the era of St. Augustine and St. Jerome) castigated women as evil temptresses, an eternal danger to mankind:

Do you not know that you are each an Eve?  The sentence of God on this sex of yours lives in this age: the guilt must of necessity live too.  You are the devil's gateway; you are the un-sealer of that forbidden tree; you are the first deserter of the divine law; you are she who persuaded him who the devil was not valiant enough to attack. You so carelessly destroyed man, God's image.  On account of your desert, even the Son of God had to die.

Karen Armstrong, A History of God, p. 124.