Hinduism And Buddhism: Tylor's Definition Of Religion

Belief deals with issues of individual perception or conviction and provides the backbone for many aspects of society beyond just religion, such as art, philosophy, and politics. Tylor’s definition of religion “the belief in spiritual beings” encompasses three components, of which the first is belief, which is a constituent of every religion. Thus, both Hinduism and Buddhism undoubtedly fall within this first bound. The second component addresses the word “spiritual” and connotes the metaphysical realm that most all religions believe exists. This realm could include the belief for anything that is non-physical or anything that cannot be explained by the natural laws of this world, two very prevalent components of Hinduism and Buddhism. Moreover,

As they derive from common roots, Hinduism and Buddhism actually share a fair amount of common beliefs. They both believe in cycles of rebirth, in the significance of accumulating of karma, and the stratification of different life forms. In Hinduism, it is believed that individuals, over the course of many lifetimes, can be born into different castes, and the specific caste that one is born into is determined by how well one has lived in previous lives. For Buddhism, the concept is similar except that it does not differentiate status between human forms (i.e., stratification of the different classes), but instead differentiates between various life forms, which fall along their own spectrum. Buddhists believe that individuals can fall into six realms of rebirth, which include hell, animals, ghosts, titans, humans, and gods (Keown 36). It is the belief in these different forms that drives the practices of both religions. Practitioners of Hinduism and Buddhism both strive to live honorable and dutiful lives, upholding their Dharma, in order to be reborn into a higher status or higher form of life and ultimately, to obtain release from those life forms in

For Hinduism, this involves the ritual worship of the gods, and for Buddhism, it involves the acknowledgment of a rich pantheon of gods (Keown 25). However, Buddhist practices do not focus on paying reverence to a certain set of gods in the form of ceremonial worship, as is seen with Hinduism in their Bhakti practices. In Hinduism, there is an emphasis on worship or paying loyalty to gods like Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu, whereas no analogous deities exist in the Buddhist doctrine. Keown notes that “If the belief in God in this sense is the essence of religion, then Buddhism cannot be a religion” (Keown ..) While he points out that Buddhism would not fit some definitions of religion, he also notes that “Buddhism recognizes the existence of supernatural beings such as gods and spirits.” Thus, the Buddhist spiritual acknowledgments still distinguish it as a religion, at least according to the second component of Tylor’s definition. While Buddhists merely recognize the existence, Hindus take this a little further and believe that the supernatural can manifest in various ways and that their interaction with these manifestations holds great importance. For example, they believe the divine can inhabit physical objects or icons which they call murtis (Knott 51). These additional spiritual components suggest the extent to which Hinduism truly