Ch 10: Religion

Thomas Aquinas was influenced by this in developing his five proofs of God's existence.

Aristotelian logic

This ancient Greek formalized logic as a method of thinking.

Aristotle

Zen

Austere and monastic form of Buddhism centering on the highly disciplined practice of meditating for very long periods of time; from the Chinese ch'an, meaning "meditation."

atheism

Belief that God cannot logically exist.

agnosticism

Belief that one cannot possibly know for sure whether God exists.

A foremost American proponent of atheism was this man who was deeply involved in a movement known as pragmatism.

Charles Sanders Pierce

Tao

Chinese name, adopted into English, for the moral order that rules the universe.

Islam shares its origin story to some extent with which two religions?

Christianity and Judaism

Hinduism

Generic term for religion of India dating back to c. 1500 BCE, based on the honoring of numerous deities and a belief in reincarnation.

The four Gospels of the Christian Bible all agree on this one point concerning Jesus.

He was the son of God.

Dante's Divine Comedy offers depictions of

Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory.

heresy

Here, belief held or statement made that challenged medieval Christian teachings.

Inquisition

High Christian court assembled beginning in the thirteenth century for the trial and sentencing of those convicted of heresy.

In this religion, a belief in the universal soul is its central tenet.

Hinduism

This primary belief system of most of India and Nepal is unlike major faiths in that it did not coalesce around a single historical figure like Jesus.

Hinduism

Western philosophers and writers have long been influenced by the concept, taken from this religion, of a unifying spirit behind the universe.

Hinduism

nirvana

In Buddhism, a state of bliss attainable to those who devote their lives to meditation and a transcendence of ego; adapted into English to mean a totally stress-free condition.

meditation

In Buddhism, the practice of sitting until one achieves a state of detachment from ego.

enlightenment

In Buddhism, the state achieved by Gautama of total detachment devoid of ego, in which one sees things as they really are.

moksha

In Hinduism, Sanskrit term given to the state of eternal bliss achieved after having successfully gone through many rebirths.

Brahma

In Hinduism, a godlike personification of the creative principle in the universe.

karma

In Hinduism, a moral summing up of one's deeds that determines where one will be in the next lifetime.

Vishnu

In Hinduism, a personification of the force balancing creation and destruction.

Shiva

In Hinduism, a personification of the principle of change, of destroying what Brahma has created in order to make way for the new; the second god in the Hindu trinity.

dharma

In Hinduism, the moral structure underlying existence; in Buddhism, the equivalent of Brahman, the universal soul; Chinese equivalent, Tao.

Brahman

In Hinduism, the name given to the spiritual force that governs the universe; the universal soul.

yang

In Taoism, the active component of existence, symbolized in art as the white crescent of a circle which also contains a small black circle. Both of the small circles symbolize the necessary working together of active and passive elements.

yin

In Taoism, the passive component of existence, symbolized in art as the black crescent of a circle which also contains a small white circle.

Walt Whitman was an American poet greatly influenced by the religious thought of this country.

India

The Vedas are the sacred books of

India.

creatio ex nihilo

Latin phrase meaning "creation out of nothing"; used in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam to describe the universe that God made.

Buddhism

Lifestyle, meditation practice, and religion based on the teachings of Gautama.

Who stated "God is dead," saying that the very question of whether God exists or not is a dead issue?

Nietzsche

pragmatism

Philosophy developed in America which holds that the truth of an idea is measurable by experiment and practical outcome.

wu wei

Phrase used in Taoism that translates as "to do without doing"; means that people who live their lives in tune with the moral order of the universe will always do the right thing.

What role does redemption play in the practice of Islam?

Redemption is unnecessary; followers should strive for moral perfection.

Which of the following statements is true with regard to life beginning at least 7,000 years ago in Egypt?

Religion and daily life were inseparable.

polytheism

Religion based on more than one god.

monotheism

Religion based on one supreme god.

Buddha

Sanskrit term for "the enlightened one"; used in Hindu prophecies as a reference to a special being who comes along once in 25,000 years and attains enlightenment without having to be reborn; as the Buddha, a reference to Siddhartha Gautama, who taught that anyone is potentially able to reach enlightenment.

bas relief

Stone wall carving, found in many ancient tombs.

According to this religion, the universe was created by the entwinement of the fundamental opposites.

Taoism

Fundamental to this religious tradition is the belief it operates through the continual interactions of opposites, such as joy and pain, birth and death, and male and female, to name a few.

Taoism

Torah

The first five books of the Hebrew Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy; attributed to Moses.

Ramadan

The ninth month of the Muslim calendar, determined by the phases of the moon; held sacred because of the belief that this was the month in which Muhammad received the Qur'an from Allah in the city of Mecca.

dialectic

The philosophical method used by Socrates involving question and answer.

Which of the following is true of Native American culture and the various religions practiced within it?

They are as diversified as any in the world.

Which of the following is true of the 12 gods and goddesses of ancient Greek mythology?

They were not all-powerful.

The first five books of the Hebrew Bible are known as the

Torah.

This Egyptian ruler, who succeeded Akhenaton, before his death at age 18, was responsible for overturning the radical monotheism of his predecessor.

Tutankhamun

Unmoved Mover

What Aristotle called the force that always existed and was responsible for setting the entire universe in motion but was not in itself set in motion by anything preceding it.

This describes a person who does not patently disbelieve in God but who asserts that nothing about God, including his existence, can be known for certain.

agnostic

In the Christian Bible in the book of Genesis, God is portrayed as

an angry God.

Which of the following words best describes Siddhartha's view toward living a good life?

balance

An agnostic is a person who

does not patently disbelieve in God but asserts that nothing about God, including his existence, can be known for certain.

Early religions practiced this, with ceremonial rituals honoring many gods.

polytheism

Augustine advanced this idea which states that, before birth, the course of human life is already determined.

predestination

The Vedas, the Qur'an, and the Tao Te Ching are all what?

sacred books

Which of the following is at the heart of a life lived in Islam?

service to Allah

To achieve moksha in Hinduism, one must

suffer.

This term refers to the blending of traditional beliefs with those of new religions.

syncretism

Though this building is a secular one, its architecture is an outgrowth of richly designed and decorated mosques, which are meant to bring the worshiper into closer touch with the next world.

the Alhambra

The first five books of the Hebrew Bible, traditionally attributed to Moses, are known as

the Torah.

Augustine defined evil as

the absence of good.

For Muslims, evil results from

the interference of Shaytan in the lives of human beings.

materialism

A philosophy that says only matter is real.

What do the novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky, Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, and Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy have in common?

All portray struggles with faith.

Who introduced the short-lived concept of monotheism to ancient Egypt?

Amenhotep IV

This Greek goddess brought love to the world in mythology.

Aphrodite

During the late Middle Ages, a tribunal of church officials conducted this, a high religious court in which heretics were tried.

The Inquisition

This movement saw Western artists and writers encountering a new kind of religious vision founded on nature and the natural rights of all people.

The Romantic Movement

predestination

The belief stated by Augustine that one's entire life, including moral and immoral choices, is already determined before birth; in Calvinism, the belief that one is born either for salvation or damnation.

pantheism

The belief that the universe, or nature, encompasses divinity, rather than a belief in a personal or anthropomorphic god or gods.

syncretism

The blending of traditional beliefs with those of a new religion.

Talmud

The collection of Jewish rabbinic discussion pertaining to law, ethics, and tradition consisting of the Mishnah and the Gemara.