What The Great Religions Believe Analysis

In What the Great Religions Believe, by Joseph Gaer, the author uses comparisons to develop the theme of each religion is quite similar even though they seem entirely different. There are about 8 billion people on this Earth and almost each one has a belief system. Our faiths help us through the hardships of life, as well as the good times. Religion not only helps us define who we are but it also helps us to live a fulfilling life by doing what we believe makes us ‘good people.’ Most people at first glance think each religion is different, this assumption is completely erroneous. Almost every religion is in fact, the same story with different characters. In showing how the religions are similar, I will provide some examples from the five major world religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity and New Age. All of these religions except for Buddhism and New Age believe in a higher power. Hindus worship one ‘ultimate power,’ known as Brahman, through an endless amounts of representations of gods and goddesses. The manifestations of gods and goddesses become embodied

These two religions are similar in the fact that neither believes in an almighty god or divine power. Buddhists do not worship any gods or God. People outside of Buddhism often assume that Buddhists worship the Buddha. Which in fact, the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, never thought of himself has divine, but rather he is viewed by Buddhists as a teacher, they use is guidelines to achieve spiritual enlightenment and reach Nirvana. With Nirvana comes freedom from the continuous cycle of life and death. New Age promotes the development of the person 's own power or sanctity. Instead of seeing god as a messiah or savior, they view god as a higher consciousness within themselves. A New Age follower would view and think of themselves as God, the cosmos, the universe. This brings the quote “we are in the universe and the universe is in us” by Neil deGrasse Tyson to