Worldview & Religion

1. Cultural Explanations of Life and Death
&RELIGION:

2. The worldview of a people is the way
they interpret reality and events,
including images of themselves and
how they relate to the world around
them.
(Bailey and Peoples 2011, p. 31)

3. Manifestation of Worldview
Worldview: shared assumptions about how the world
works. Expressed in things such as:
• View of nature: control of vs. harmony with
• Logic system: specific to general (inductive)
vs. general to specific (deductive)
• Views of capitalism

4. ORIENTATION VALUE AND BEHAVIOR CHANGE
Human nature Basically evil Mixture of good and evil Basically good
Puritans Taoist Confucianism
Humans and nature Subject to nature Harmony with nature Master of nature
India/South America American Indians Western cultures
From Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s Value Orientation

6. How Shinto Influenced Marie Kondo’s
KonMari Method Of Organizing

7. Manifestations of Worldview
1. Atheism as worldview
• rejection of God; finality of
death; role of individual; ethics
2. Spirituality as worldview
3. Religion as worldview
• supplies worldview for billions
• religion, perception & behavior
are linked

8. Spirituality as a worldview
• Self-discovery is important. Think not only
about what you are but what you choose to be.
• Learn to value silence, solitude, and quiet
meditation.
• Practice mindfulness. Learn to observe your
environment and how you behave when you
are in that environment.
• Engage in creative self-expression. Connect
yourself to activities such as yoga, dance,
music, and other such activities.
• Seek simplicity in your lifestyle.

9. Religion comes from the Latin religare which means to tie
back (i.e. the linking of human and divine)
• Religion and the sacred
• Helps explain the unexplainable
• Provides principles and beliefs for issues regarding the
nature of life and death
Religion as Worldview

10. Religion
Religion and personal conduct
• Establishes notions of right and wrong
• Responds to basic human need to
understand the purpose of life
Religion in the 21st century
• Globalization and religion – growing call to
separate religion from other areas of life
• Conflict and religion – growing violence
among people of various religious
convictions

11. Religion
Elements of religion
• Speculation – religions helps to explain
the unexplainable
• Scared writing
• Religious rituals – through rituals
members of a religion recall and reaffirm
important beliefs
• Ethics

12. Culture & Worldview
• What is the purpose of life?
• Is the world ruled by law, chance, or “God”?
• What is the right way to live?
• Is there a creation story?
• What happens when we die?
• Why is there evil and suffering?
• What is good and bad and right and wrong?
Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Judaism, Islam, Christianity

13. Hinduism

14. Hinduism
Origins
• No central founder
• Origins: four thousand years ago when
a group of light-skinned Aryan Indo-
European tribes invaded what is now northern India
• Aryans moved into the Indus Valley, a blending of
cultures took place, since as “they mixed with native
peoples, they shared customs, traditions, rites,
symbols, and myths”
• Movement spread by communication of sacred texts

15. Sacred Texts
• The Vedas
• The Upanishads
• The Bhagavad-Gita – three courses
The discipline of knowledge, jnana-yoga
The discipline of action, karma-yoga
The discipline of devotion, bhakti-yoga.
Hinduism

17. Core beliefs
• Divine in everything – interconnectedness
across time and space
• Ultimate reality – physical world is not the
only reality
• Brahman – the ultimate level of reality,
philosophical absolute, serenely blissful,
beyond all ethical or metaphysical limitations
• Multiple paths
Hinduism

18. Cultural expressions of Hinduism
• Complete way of life – pervades every part of a
person’s life
• Dharma – how people live and treat each other
• Karma – reaction and action can have good or bad
consequences
• Four stages of life
Student
Householder
Forest dweller
Ascetic

20. Notions about death
• The soul is immortal
• Reincarnation
• Hindus learn not to fear death or grieve
over the death of loved ones
• A person’s soul does not die but passes
into another reincarnation
Hinduism

21. Buddhism

22. Buddhism
Origins
• Buddha is “the person who has epitomized
the human situation
• Founded by an Indian prince named
Siddhartha Gautama
• Became known as the Enlightened One
• Until his death at 80 in 483 B.C.E., Buddha
traveled throughout the Ganges Valley
sharing his insights with anyone who
would listen

23. Core beliefs
• Buddha is not a God but a man
• All individuals have the potential to seek truth on
their own
• Four Noble Truths
Life is suffering
Much of our suffering is caused by craving, self-
desire, attachment, anger, envy, greed, ignorance,
and self-delusion regarding the nature of reality
Because suffering has a cause it can be
eliminated
The Remedy (the eight fold plan)

24. • Wisdom
Right view is achieving a correct understanding and
accepting the reality and origins of suffering and the
ways leading to the cessation of suffering.
Right purpose is being free from ill will, cruelty, and
untruthfulness toward the self and others.
• Ethical Conduct
Right Speech
Right Action
Right Livelihood
The Eight Fold Plan

25. • Mental Discipline
Right Efforts
Right Mindfulness
Right Concentration
Cultural expressions of Buddhism
• Use of silence
• Impermanency
• Karma

26. • Large portion of Buddha’s
teaching focuses on death
• It is inevitable
• A person is reborn
• Past Karma is rebirth itself
• A person’s past deeds play a
role how many times he or she
is reborn
• Once there is enough good
Karma a person will
experience Nirvana
Buddhist notions about death

27. Confucianism

28. • No formal priesthood, almost no congregational life
• Confucius the man
Confucius was born in 551 B.C.E.
What Confucius taught grew out of his
observations about the human condition in China
during his lifetime.
Confucius asserted that government must be
founded on virtue, and that all citizens must be
attentive to the duties of their position
Three thousand people came to study under him
and over seventy became well-established
scholars
Confucianism

29. Core beliefs
• People are basically good and only have to learn
• By education a common man can become superior
• Deep commitment to social harmony
• Hierarchy of social relations & honoring upper members:
ruler-subject; husband-wife; father-son; elder brother/
friend-younger brother/friend
Sacred Writings – The Analects (sayings)

30. Confucianism
Cultural Expressions of Confucianism
• Jen (compassion for other humans)
• Li (rituals, rites, conventions)
• Te (using power for the common good)
• Wen (appreciation of the arts)
Confucianism and communication
• Confucianism teaches empathy
• Be aware of status and role relationships
• Be aware of social etiquette
• Confucianism encourages the use of indirect language

31. • Not interested in death or
after life
• Strive to live the best
possible life while here
on earth
• Confucius urged his
followers to engage in
formal practices ranging
from funerals to the building
of small family shrines to
honor the dead
Confucian notions about death
Confucianism

32. Judaism

33. Core Beliefs
• One universal and eternal God, the creator and
sovereign of all that exists
• Each person must be obedient to God-given
commandments in the Torah (the first five books
of the Bible)
• Humans are inherently pure and good and are
given free will
• Humans can live any way they choose and have
only to bear the consequences

34. Branches of Judaism
• Orthodox -retains as much as possible from the
traditional religious teachings found in classical
and ancient writings
• Reform - an attempt in the late eighteenth
century to modernize many of the long-
established Jewish practices so that Jews
worldwide could assimilate into non-Jewish
communities without losing their Jewish identity
• Conservative Judaism - believe many of the rules,
rituals, and traditions of Orthodox practice are
necessary if Jewish identity is to be maintained

35. Cultural expressions of Judaism
• History of oppression and persecution
• Stressed education
• Social justice – ensure moral treatment of others
• Family and community
• Strong sense of family ties
• “Children of Israel” - connection with Jewish
community around the world
• Jewish notions about death
• Death is a natural process
• The Torah has no clear reference to
afterlife at all

36. Christianity

37. Major beliefs
• Single God who created the universe and also gave
the world his only son, Jesus Christ who gave his life
on the cross.
• The gravest problem in human life is sin
• Christianity is a total worldview that includes both the
religious and the secular dimensions of life. Because
Jesus lived among the people and suffered, he
understands human pain, problems, and enticements.
• Man and woman are created in God's image.
• God is personal.
Christianity

38. • Christianity and community – importance of
gatherings: communion and fellowship
• Christianity and individualism – significance of
each person
• Christianity and doing – stresses hard work
• Christianity and the future – courage in the
face of adversity; forgiveness & new beginning
• Christian notions of death – heaven & eternal life
mentioned over 600 times in the NT
Cultural Expressions of Christianity

39. Islam

40. Eight students -- four American, four Moroccan -- embark on a cross-cultural journey
and address the stereotypes they have about American and Muslim cultures.

41. Islam
Origins
• Archangel Gabriel delivered a revelation from God
in 610 C.E.
• The messages were recorded in the Koran
• Messages established the social order that was
to become Islam: Community & religion were one
• Muhammad established the city-state of Medina
• Missionary zeal of Islam helped it spread

42. Islam
Core Beliefs
• One God –Allah
• Belief in angels
• The Koran – the sacred text of Muslims
• Submission – submit to God and his will

43. Islam
Core Beliefs
• Predestination - enshalla: if God wills
• God is aware of everything.
• God is the creator of everything.
• God has documented all that has happened.
• “Whatever God wills to happen
happens, and whatever He wills not
to happen does not happen

44. Core Beliefs
• Judgment Day
• And those who believe and do good deeds,
they are the dwellers of Paradise, they dwell therein
forever.” (Koran, 2.82)
• “And whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it
will not be accepted from him and he will be one of
the losers in the Hereafter.” (Koran, 3:85)
• “Those who have disbelieved and died in disbelief,
the earth full of gold would not be accepted from
any of them if it were offered as a ransom. They
have a painful punishment, and they will have no
helpers.” (Koran, 3:91)
Islam

45. Islam
Core Beliefs
• Five pillars of Islam
• Statement of belief
• Prayer
• Alms
• Fasting
• Pilgrimage
ACTION

46. Islam
Cultural expressions of Islam
• Message and response to Jihad
• A complete way of life – no distinction
between religion and society and governs
all affairs public and private
• Gender – gender roles are in a state of flux
in many Islamic countries

47. Islam
Cultural expressions of Islam
• Islamic notions about death
• Judgment, reward and punishment key themes
• Description of after life
• Day of Judgment (Day of Resurrection) when people
will be resurrected for God’s judgment according to
their beliefs and deeds.

48. The students talk about their communication styles and how their different
cultures respond to disagreement.

49. Summary
• Although all religions have some unique features, they
share many similarities. These include, among other
things, speculation about the meaning of life, sacred
writings, rituals, and ethics.
• The six most prominent religious traditions are
Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and
Confucianism. These traditions present their members
with advice on how to live life and they offer
explanations about death.