Requirements:
Participation 10%
Brief assignment stressing format  10%
Four tests: 10% each 
Seminar  20%
1500-word paper 20%

Text:                                           Mary Pat Fisher's Living Religions (4th ed.)On reserve for in-library use only is the 3rd ed.

Other References:
Cassells, Louis.  What's the Difference? Garden City, NY:  Doubleday, 1965.

Smith, Huston. The World's Religions.
 

Heart Sutra

Buddhism and Christianity are religions, but what does that mean?

A religion is the application of a system of beliefs to the way one lives. 
Any system of beliefs stems from the view one has of the universe.  This view may also be called a mythology.

Therefore, this course will approach the topic[s] from two perspectives: the mythology and the application of it.  That is, the belief system and how it is applied. 

We will look at each religion by first examining the circumstances surrounding its appearance and then how it has grown and evolved.  That is, its history and its evolution.  We will see the different ways the beliefs are applied.  Then we will compare and contrast Buddhism and Christianity.  But first, there are several concepts that need to be defined and discussed.

Since concepts rely on the use of terms or special words, we also need to examine briefly the nature of words themselves.  Any word denotes or points to something.  However, it also connotes or conjures up in our minds associated ideas. 

Two Realities:
In many cultures the world and the life of human beings is thought of as consisting of two categories.  Things having to do with religion are thought of as sacred or holy, and ordinary things are known as profane. 

There are a few groups of people who view all of life and everything around it as sacred in nature.   Most, however, see the ideal of a good life as one of trying to make every action or interaction sacred. 

Types of Religion: 

Generally a religion, sometimes referred to as a 'faith', falls into one of three categories:  Atheistic, Pantheistic or Theistic.

Atheism is defined as the belief that there is no god or gods.  A god is a being that conducts reality.  He, She, It (or They) is seen as the creator and controller, now or in the past,  of the unfolding of phenomena.  Simply explained, a phenomenon is anything that is thought to have existence.  Events are the activity of phenomena.  [Notice that words of Greek origin ending in -on have -a for the plural ending.] 

"... accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought or feeling can preserve an individual life beyond the grave ; that all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system. " 

                                                                  (Cassels 7)

Pantheists think that there are many gods and spirits acting in the natural world. 

People who think that all there is to reality is the matter that composes the [obviously] physical world are known as Materialists.