What are the main beliefs of the world religions?

[timote]

I am considering other religions but what do they all believe? Just bullet points please answer only answer if you are actually gonna answer the question

[Josh]

Welcome to the forums! I hope to answer this soon, but my weekend is looking a bit busy. Perhaps others have thoughts?

[Josh]

Just a quick question to help clarify. What religious background are you coming from (if any?) Why are you considering something else?

[Josh]

The world's religions can be broadly separated into western religions and eastern religions.

Western religions, including Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, are:

• predominantly monotheistic (characterized by belief in one God)
  
• tend to emphasize the transcendence (or the separateness or otherness) of God.
  
• They tend to be based on historical events and tend to emphasize the importance of written, sacred scriptures.
  
• They tend to be world-affirming, grounded in the idea that physicality is a good, God-created aspect of reality.
  
• They tend to have a linear view of cosmic history (beginning (creation) through end (destruction or consummation of the universe).
  
• They have a strong concept of a final judgment and the afterlife (usually involving a future, single resurrection) though they disagree on the details.
  

Eastern religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism and others,

• are either polytheistic (believing in many gods) or even agnostic
  
• and tend to emphasize how God is within the world, within the things around us, within us (this is called immanence, the opposite of transcendence)*
  
• They tend to be based on ideas or insights or traditional mythology and not so much on historical realities.
  
• They have a circular view of cosmic history with the universe (and things within it) going through cycles of birth, death, and rebirth, though they disagree among themselves whether this is a good, bad, or indifferent thing.
  
• They tend to be world denying, often emphasizing the illusory nature of the things we experience in life.
  
• They have a karmic sense of paying for or being rewarded for your deeds not at a future point of judgment, but within the process of birth and rebirth.
  

All the world's major religions have some basic commonalities: they emphasize a virtuous life, they emphasize love, though they define those terms and the path to get to them quite differently.

The thing they most differ on is the means by which a person is "saved" or "enlightened". Many rely on either good deeds or enlightenment as the primary means of salvation. Christianity uniquely* emphasizes salvation as an act of God's prerogative, not earned, but a gift of grace/ mercy because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. This causes many Christians to feel that Christianity is more of a relationship (with God) than a religion.

Christianity also embraces a lot of paradoxes that bridge many of the gaps between other religions:

Just two examples of many: Christian belief makes room for both God's transcendence and His immanence and while monotheistic, most Christians believe in plurality within the Godhead (the Trinity).

I've read a lot about religions, talked to many individuals with a various religious viewpoints, but of course the best person to present a belief system is someone who has studied it thoroughly. It's always a good idea when you're investigating these things to go to the sources themselves in addition to looking at outside critiques.

Does that help? Maybe it sparks a more specific question?


*there are threads of this "grace message" in other religious systems, but not as part of the primary message of salvation as in Christianity.