RSTL 001

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The Roman Catholic priest Georges Lemaitre A) was the first scientist to propose a theory of the expansion of the universe B) enthusiastically endorsed the pope's public comments on his work C) struggled to reconcile his religious beliefs and his scientific knowledge D) regarded scientific discoveries as confirmation of Divine wisdom E) was the first scientist to produce a biological definition of a species

The Shia doctrine of deep occultation of the twelfth Imam A) functioned as survival strategy B) became the ideological basis of the institution of the caliphate C) is also embraced by Sunnis D) indicates relative optimism about the human capacity for obeying God's law E) derives from Hadith literature

The canonical gospels A) are those gospels included in the New Testament B) were written during the lifetime of Jesus C) are the gospels of Thomas, Judas, Mary, and Barnabas D) were written by Paul E) are the 60 or so known biographies of Jesus

11. In Upanishadic Hinduism, one attains liberation (moksha) through A) knowledge of the unity of atman and Brahman B) personal prayers offered to Agni C) valor and bravery on the battlefield D) performing one's social duty without error or laziness E) perfect performance of religious rituals

In the traditional forms of Buddhism, broadly speaking, women A) are more restricted in their practices than men B) enjoy a status identical with that of men C) are less restricted than men D) are prohibited from practicing Buddhism E) enjoy a superior spiritual status to that of men

Kumbha Mela A) is the largest gathering of people in the world B) is a spring festival in which people frolic around a bonfire C) celebrates the triumph of light over darkness D) takes place at a sacred mountain once every 5 years E) is a spoken sound that facilitates spiritual transformation

Most Hindus A) are vegetarians B) congregate at a local temple once a week C) devote themselves to both Vishnu and Shiva D) worship on or near sacred mountains E) worship cows

Mt. Hiei A) helped defend Kyōto from the "demon gate," i.e., the NE direction B) is a gourd-shaped mountain located in the sea C) was the location of the emperor's palace D) is located precisely in the center of Kyoto, the ancient imperial capital E) is not very tall, but it is home to the shrine of Japan's solar deity Amaterasu

Muhammad's flight to Yathrib (later called Medina) in 622, the hijra, became so important in the narrative of Islamic history that A) 622 became Year 1 of the Islamic calendar B) it is often re-enacted in passion plays during the holiday of Ashura C) Medina became the geographic center of Islam D) a special body of religious literature, the Hadith, is devoted to describing this event E) Muslims are required to make a pilgrimage to Medina once in their lives

The division of a united Hebrew kingdom into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah was a result of A) social tensions owing to a clash of urban culture and older tribal organization B) partitioning by Alexander the Great after he conquered the region C) King Solomon's wisdom in splitting the centers of power to prevent easy conquest D) the dying out of the of the Davidic line of kings E) disagreement about how to conduct temple sacrifices

The highest ideal in most forms of Mahayana Buddhism is A) enlightenment for all sentient beings B) relief of one's own suffering C) worship of Vairocana, the solar Buddha D) the merging of the power of government with the power of Buddhist temples E) strict adherence to the original sermon of the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama)

In the typical Chinese popular view, ancestral spirits are A) the yin soul or spirit of deceased ancestors, which resides in the heavens B) the yang soul or spirit of deceased ancestors, which resides in this world C) so dangerous that they must be housed in special temples D) imaginary entities that do not really exist but which can help provide a sense of family coherence E) deities residing in the kitchen that send reports about the family up to the higher deities

Jewish prophets A) issued warnings that never came true in the Bible B) often criticized idolatry and corruption C) were always welcomed by the Jewish people, along with their messages D) remained active until the 3rd century of the Common Era E) often criticized the drinking of wine and other intoxicants

King David A) wrote the Torah B) made Jerusalem both the political and religious capital C) received the 10 commandments from God and inscribed them in stone D) built the first temple E) conquered Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq)

One feature of the cities of the Indus Valley Civilization was A) approximately 20% of the land set aside for graveyards, featuring elaborate tombs B) well-engineered drainage canals C) sophisticated military foundries for making weapons D) large stone houses in the city center where elites lived and smaller houses of common people farther out E) no use of a writing system

One key idea in the early Vedas was that A) everything in the universe is a manifestation of Brahman B) there is a vast cosmic order that human social institutions must help uphold C) our goal is to re-unite our individual selves (atman) with the fabric of the universe (Brahman) D) attachment to worldly matters causes suffering E) we are constantly reincarnated

One key idea in the early Vedas was that A) our goal is to re-unite our individual selves (atman) with the fabric of the universe (Brahman) B) there is a vast cosmic order that human social institutions must help uphold C) everything in the universe is a manifestation of Brahman D) attachment to worldly matters causes suffering E) we are constantly reincarnated

The basic, most common religious transaction throughout human history has been A) worship of or sacrifice to higher powers in return for enhanced artistic vision B) worship of or sacrifice to higher powers in return for material benefits C) the expenditure of effort and thought in return for spiritual insights D) worship of or sacrifice to higher powers in return for reincarnation E) intellectual effort to understand the cosmos leading to deep happiness

The doctrine of the Trinity A) was formally abandoned by most Protestant forms of Christianity in the 16th century B) came into Christianity from the Ebionites C) is unique to Christianity and bears no resemblance to any other religious tradition D) has always been easy for most Christians to understand E) arose from a perceived need to regard Jesus as divine but also to preserve monotheism

The ideal value in Mahayana Buddhism is A) frugality B) compassion C) cheerfulness D) labor E) personal enlightenment

The most common form of Hindu worship service is A) Kumbha Mela B) a puja (ritual offering to the deities) C) group meditation D) a ceremony in which worshippers venerate a cow E) yoga

The order of agents in the classical Chinese production cycle is A) water, fire, earth, air, wood, and then back to water B) wood, fire, earth, metal, water, and then back to wood C) fire, metal, wood, earth, water, and back to fire D) air, fire, earth, wood, water, and then back to air E) earth, fire, air, wood, water, and then back to earth

The prophet Jeremiah A) led a rebellion against Rome B) Stated that God would create a "new covenant" with Israel in the future C) anointed David as king D) predicted the coming of a messiah, who would usher in a kingdom characterized by righteousness and justice E) preached a reassuring message that God would ultimately deliver the people of Judah from their enemies

The term dukkha in the first of the Noble Truths indicates A) acute suffering and agony of one's physical body B) a wide range of suffering, including a nagging sense that life is unsatisfactory or not quite right C) the process by which the physical body declines with age D) a deep sense of contentment, peace, and calm E) desires and grasping for permanence

The term tanha in the second of the Noble Truths indicates A) attachment to social norms and hierarchies B) desires for personal or private gain C) a desire for enlightenment D) samsara, the cycle of reincarnation E) the totality of our desires

The word "pagan" A) was a Greek term for the phenomenon of religious mixing and blending B) originated as a derogatory label meaning "rustic" C) was the term by which Pythagoreans, who regarded mathematics as scared, called themselves D) was a label for those who refused to participate in state religion in the Roman Empire E) was an ancient label for those who today would be called "atheists," that is, those who not believe in the existence of any deities

What enabled Fuxi to organize and regulate society? His A) deep knowledge of sacred scripture B) knowledge of underlying patterns C) divine power derived from the Supreme Ultimate D) discovery of the principles of hydraulic engineering E) detailed observations of the movements of the stars and planets

A common—but misguided and ineffective—way of dealing with our desires is A) endeavoring to stop harmful thoughts and sensations from arising within us B) to strive to satisfy them C) to strive to eliminate inappropriate ones D) meditation E) to strive to understand them

A popular early Daoist metaphor for the dao was a A) well-regulated irrigation system B) tall, straight, hardwood tree C) great white tiger D) nameless uncarved block E) nebulous salted slug

According to Confucius, the ideal method for putting his Way (dao) into practice was A) formal laws issued and enforced by the government B) ritualized behavior (li) C) studying books D) a return to the most ancient period of human history E) frequent prayers offered to Heaven

According to the Marcionites A) our mission in life is to liberate the divine sparks within us B) the god of the Old Testament and the god of the New Testament were different gods C) owing to Jesus' righteousness, God adopted Jesus as his son D) Paul's understanding of Christianity was wrong E) this world is an illusion, so do not become attached to it

According to the traditional account, Abraham A) received 10 commandments from God and inscribed them in stone B) travelled from Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) to Canaan C) fathered ten daughters who became the matriarchs of the ten tribes of Israel D) became the first king of a united Israel E) travelled from Canaan to Egypt

In classical Chinese thought, the Supreme Ultimate was a A) willful deity and lord of the universe who intervened in human affairs B) foundational cosmic principle that informed the workings of yin and yang C) true self, much like the idea of atman in Hinduism D) paradise to which someone might go to reside after death E) book of Holy Scripture that Heaven revealed to humans through ancient sages

In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna was able, briefly, to see Krishna as Brahman by means of A) insight gained through the performance of religious rituals B) his knowledge gained from extensive study of the Vedas C) receiving a special "divine eye" D) insight meditation E) a demonic force that granted him special powers

In the Buddhist Eightfold Path, one component of "right view" (or "right understanding") is to know that A) each person possesses a soul or essence that will be reincarnated unless the person enters nirvana B) the world is a constant flux of conditioned phenomena C) the deities (devas) are ready to help those who reach out to them D) the ends never justify the means E) we sometimes encounter suffering in the course of human life

In the Scopes Trial of 1925, A) Clarence Darrow represented the prosecution B) the judge insisted that the trial focus on the narrow question of whether Scopes was guilty of teaching evolution C) William Jennings Bryan represented the defense D) William Jennings Bryan brilliantly cut down the arguments of Clarence Darrow, which is mainly why Jennings' side won the case E) William Jennings Bryan impressed the news media with his eloquent and convincing defense of fundamentalist Christian ideas

In the apocalyptic view, which emerged in post-Second Temple Judaism and carried over to Christianity, A) God's people suffer because sparks of the divine are trapped within our flesh B) God's people suffer because there are evil forces in the world hostile to God C) God's people suffer because God has permanently abandoned humanity D) the suffering of God's people is a divine punishment orchestrated by God E) God's people suffer when their faith is insufficiently strong

In early Daoism, human culture and civilization A) should be the basis upon which rulers create systems of laws B) are a glorious inheritance from past eras and should be preserved C) function like poison, and they lead us to an early grave D) have steadily gotten weaker and less influential as time has gone by and are on the verge of fading away E) are of no real significance because most people are living out in the woods and mountains, just like the other animals

In the Bhagavad Gita, Bhakti Yoga refers to A) single-minded action B) daily meditation C) devotion to a personal god D) scrupulous performance of religious rituals E) the discovery of knowledge within one's self

In the Buddhist Eightfold Path, one specific component of "right speech" is to A) spend each day in a state of mindful silence B) refuse to give complex academic lectures C) avoid idle gossip D) avoid singing and other forms of vocal music E) avoid pointing out anything unpleasant, even if it is true

In the Buddhist Eightfold Path, the basic idea behind "right intention" (or "right resolve") is to A) strive to improve one's rebirth by enhancing one's social status B) abandon hope of being able to bring about one's own enlightenment through effort C) channel thoughts toward kindness and compassion D) actively identify one's self as a member of the Buddhist religion E) strive to attain happiness and heightened self-esteem

In the Japanese Pure Land Buddhism of Hōnen and Shinran, women A) became high-ranking members of the clergy B) could not enter the Pure Land because Amida's vow applies only to men C) could enter the Pure Land, but only after being turned into men D) were prohibited from entering major temples E) could enter the Pure Land as women

In the realm of science, one alternative to Darwinian evolution that was popular among scientists during the nineteenth century was A) natural selection B) young earth creationism C) Lamarckian evolution D) Mendelian genetics E) higher criticism

In the traditional biography of the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama), Mara's demonic attackers represent A) anatman, the idea that we do not possess individual souls or essences B) nirvana C) our desires, emotions, and attachments D) the notion that Buddhist truths cannot fully be explained in words E) ascetic practices (mortification of the flesh)

The most fundamental issue in early Buddhism was A) the proper role of mortifying the flesh through rigorous ordeals B) living a morally upright life C) suffering D) the nature of the supreme deity E) the way(s) in which Buddhism differed from Hinduism

The term Torah refers to A) another name for the Tanakh B) a large body of collected rabbinic commentary on the Bible C) the first five books of the Bible D) the Hebrew Bible (= Old Testament) E) comments and teachings by thousands of rabbis on such matters as law, ethics, history, and more

The written texts of the gospels developed from A) Jesus's own autobiography B) the letters of Paul and other apostles C) oral tales about Jesus that had been circulating for decades D) accounts of Jesus's life found in official Roman government records E) recorded eyewitness accounts of Jesus's activates

Which defining characteristic do all religions share? A) possession of sacred scriptures revealed by a higher power B) explaining the workings and structure of the universe C) belief in deities or some kind of supernatural beings D) nothing—no single characteristic applies to every religion E) providing rules for ethical social behavior

Which of the following encapsulates the description by the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) of the nature of the human condition? The A) Noble Eightfold Path B) Five Wrong Livelihoods C) The Four Noble Truths D) Four Noble Sights E) Five Aggregates (skandhas, "heaps")

Which of the following is NOT a contribution of the Indus River Valley civilization to Hinduism? A) special status of cows, oxen, and other bovine animals B) water and bathing rituals C) the concept of Brahman (ultimate cosmic reality) D) goddesses E) practices such as yoga and meditation

Which of the following is NOT a core belief or practice in Islam A) giving assistance to the poor B) daily worship C) the divinity of Muhammad D) fasting during Ramadan E) rigorous monotheism

Which of the following is NOT correct about William Jennings Bryan? A) He was a popular speaker who began a public lecture tour soon after World War 1 ended B) He served as secretary of state under Woodrow Wilson C) He was a prominent advocate of applying historical criticism to the study of the Bible D) He served in the House of Representatives E) He was the Democratic and Populist party presidential nominee in 1896.

Which religion has no significant role for deities or other supernatural beings? A) Judaism B) paganism C) original Buddhism D) Hinduism E) Christianity

William Jennings Bryan A) objected to Darwinian evolution on scientific grounds B) thought that government should not attempt to regulate society morally or economically C) objected to Darwinian evolution on ethical grounds D) was originally trained as a scientist and understood Darwinian evolution very well E) argued that Lamarckian evolution was a superior theory to Darwinian evolution

Yahweh was A) originally a deity of healing and medicine, closely related to Asclepius B) a relative of the Greek-Egyptian hybrid deity Serapis C) a vengeful tribal war god in many early books of the Bible D) the Babylonian war god E) originally a storm deity of great importance to agriculture

Indra is A) an Indo-Aryan deity with a human body and the head of an elephant B) the author of the Upanishads C) an Indo-Aryan deity who personified warrior ideals D) a fermented beverage popular among the Indo-Aryans E) the demon-like tempter

One basic step in Buddhist meditation is A) counting one's heartbeats until 100, then starting again B) chanting prayers rhythmically C) stilling the mind by ceasing to talk to one's self D) selecting one's favorite music to play in the background E) sitting in a comfortable chair

One classic Chinese intellectual argument against the existence of ghosts as that A) Heaven would not permit ghosts to exist B) nobody has ever seen a ghost C) if people could become ghosts after death, there would be ghosts everywhere D) after death we are reincarnated as beings with corporeal bodies E) ancestral spirits cannot become ghosts

One feature of Passover is A) eating meals in temporary booths B) fasting C) a special meal called seder in which the food items each have symbolic meaning D) blowing a ram's horn (shofar) 100 times E) lighting the candles in a distinctive a nine-branched menorah

One legacy of King David's fame was that A) later prophets all claimed to be his descendants B) the kingdoms of Israel and Judah stopped fighting each other and united C) later generations assumed that a future great king or liberator (messiah) would be descended from David's family D) later generations assumed he wrote the Torah, although that was not the case E) the content of the Bible became standardized

The early Protestant Christianity of Luther and Calvin A) recognized the importance of good works in securing a person's salvation B) argued that there were multiple paths to God C) regarded the Bible as the sole source of correct Christian doctrine D) rejected the idea that human history unfolds in accordance with the will of God E) recognized seven sacraments

The general Daoist approach to the issue of death and what happens thereafter was A) to say that we will be reincarnated B) to assume that all people would be reborn into a miserable underworld C) not to die D) to say that we will live on in spiritual form in a paradise E) to say that we will undergo Divine judgment and reside either in heaven or in hell

The main event that caused Rabbinic Judaism to develop was A) the conquests of Alexander the Great B) the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel C) defeat by Rome and the destruction of the Second Temple D) the Babylonian exile E) the rebellion of Judah Maccabee

The main reason for a shift in the geographic center of gravity of Christianity around the year 1000 was that A) Christianity died out in Africa B) Eastern Orthodox Christianity flourished in Russia C) Christianity was in decline relative to Islam in most of the Eastern Mediterranean D) the Scandinavian countries became Christian E) the Indian subcontinent had become predominantly Christian

One way that Hinduism deals with the tension between social duty and renunciation is A) the creation of a wide variety of devotional practices B) embracing an endless multiplicity of representations of the divine C) karma yoga: acting but renouncing the results of that action D) pairing all the major male deities like Shiva or Vishnu with female counterparts E) advocating a society without social classes or status distinctions

C? NOT B

Basic knowledge of the world's religions is A) of little practical benefit because only one religion can be true B) too difficult for any one person to acquire C) essential for personal happiness D) essential for cultural literacy in a pluralistic world E) common—survey data show that 80-90% of U.S. residents possess high levels of religious literacy

The Vedas A) argue that religious rituals are of little or no value for society B) have a central message: attachment to worldly things causes suffering C) describe religious rituals but never explain their significance D) were originally part of an oral tradition E) began as philosophical texts written by scholars

The basic meaning of jihad (struggle in the name of God) is A) the effort to convert of non-believers to Islam B) intense study of religious scripture C) military battles D) the battle to adhere to God's law E) fasting during the month of Ramadan

The basic story of Jesus's birth, death and resurrection resembles A) accounts of famous kings found in the Old Testament B) accounts of prophets found in the Old Testament C) the vision of the messiah as a great king D) well-known regional stories of gods and heroes E) the vision of the messiah as a charismatic temple priest

Which of the following statements is accurate? A) Only religion can provide a moral or ethical code. B) Only religion can provide a sense of purpose in life. C) All religions is that they all possess sacred scripture revealed by a higher power D) Defining what constitutes a "deity" is not a simple matter. E) All religions value rituals.

William Jennings Bryan A) represented the defense at the famous Scopes Trial in Dayton, Tennessee B) was an enthusiastic supporter of "social Darwinism" because he opposed government welfare programs C) regarded World War 1 as a horrible but necessary event that would lead to a better world in the future D) clamed that Darwinian evolution was a major cause of World War 1 E) was an enthusiastic supporter of unbridled capitalism

the Council of Chalcedon in 451 A) held that God the Son (Jesus) was subordinate to God the Father B) declared that Christ was fully human, albeit perfect C) declared that Christ was fully and exclusively divine, with no human nature D) endorsed the idea of hypostatic union of Christ's two natures E) declared Christianity to be the official religion of the Roman Empire

A highly advanced Buddhist practitioner who attains to and abides in the 4th meditative absorption (jhana), which is neither suffering nor bliss, will probably A) be reborn as a deity (deva) or saint B) look with disdain and scorn on the masses of unenlightened people C) become a great conquering general D) become famous as a great Buddhist sage E) not be reborn

A major goal of this course is to A) serve as a forum for the practice of religion B) encourage you to believe in the teachings of a religion C) criticize backward or primitive religions D) enhance your personal spirituality E) acquire a moderately sophisticated understanding of the phenomenon of religion in human societies

For Confucius, li (ritualized conduct) was A) a method for enhancing one's spiritual wellbeing B) less important that genuine feelings C) inferior to laws as a means of social organization D) inferior to personal prayer as a means of spiritual development E) a form of modeling

In classical China, dragons A) were associated with hot, dry qualities B) were deities, often worshipped in temples C) assisted Daoist immortals by destroying their enemies D) were a type of demon E) often served as a vivid metaphor for the Daoist way

In early Buddhism, the practice of "rain retreat" eventually led to A) the spread of Buddhism to Tibet and China B) insight meditation C) Mahayana teachings D) deep-trance meditation E) long-term monastic communities

In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna could both do his social duty and reduce worldly attachments by A) single-minded devotion to the performance of religious rituals B) discovering liberating knowledge within nature C) performing Hatha yoga, the yoga of effort D) single-minded devotion to a deity E) fighting hard in battle without concern for the results of that fighting

The Vedas A) began as philosophical texts written by scholars B) describe religious rituals but never explain their significance C) have a central message: attachment to worldly things causes suffering D) argue that religious rituals are of little or no value for society E) were originally part of an oral tradition

The ancient genre of literature known as apocalypse typically featured A) poignant tales about the suffering of oppressed people B) biographies of famous people, heroes, or deities C) fantastic imagery, understood as literal truths D) the triumph of evil forces in the end E) fantastic imagery, understood in symbolic terms

In the Roman Empire before 313, A) there was systematic, empire-wide persecution of Christians B) approximately 50,000 Christians died as a direct result of their faith C) Christians united under a central leader, in part for protection against persecution D) Christianity had little appeal and thus did not spread far beyond the region of Palestine E) Christians sometimes appeared suspicious and disloyal in the eyes of local officials or communities

One reason for the Puritan prohibition of Christmas in New England was that A) the celebration of Krampus is inappropriate for Christians B) Jesus was actually born in August C) giving gifts to children was inappropriate and tends to spoil them D) people should never enjoy themselves E) the holiday has no scriptural basis

Primary causation (or first cause) A) is the realm in which science operates B) depends not on faith but on careful observation and reasoning C) makes sense only in the case of an abstract, mechanistic understanding of the Divine (a position often called "deism") D) provides explanations of the cause and effect relationships at work in the universe E) is anything that God, however conceived, creates

The Anglican priest John Ray A) tended to see science and religion as occupying complementary but separate realms B) struggled to reconcile his religious beliefs and his scientific knowledge C) was the first scientist to propose a theory of the expansion of the universe D) regarded science and religion as contradictory realms of knowledge E) was the first scientist to produce a biological definition of a species

Gnosticism A) held that God has a special relationship with the Jewish people B) argued, contrary to Paul, that strict adherence to the Jewish law was a legitimate path to salvation C) argued that there is nothing superior to or loftier than the material world D) argued that the God of the Christians and the God of the Jews were two different entities E) was a set of ideas that intersected with Christianity, Neo-Platonism, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, and certain forms of Judaism

In Hinduism, karma ("action") is A) the name of a cycle of birth, death, and rebirth B) refers to seeking enlightenment through the pursuit of sensual and emotional pleasures C) a term referring to a person's social duties and obligations D) an advanced state of spiritual enlightenment E) an inescapable law or principle of cause and effect

In Upanishadic Hinduism, the term Brahman refers to A) the priestly caste B) a cycle of reincarnation C) perceptual limitations and illusions D) a transcendent entity that exists apart from humans E) a singular Ultimate Reality of the cosmos that transcends time and space

The basic, most common religious transaction throughout human history has been A) worship of or sacrifice to higher powers in return for enhanced artistic vision B) the expenditure of effort and thought in return for spiritual insights C) worship of or sacrifice to higher powers in return for reincarnation D) intellectual effort to understand the cosmos leading to deep happiness E) worship of or sacrifice to higher powers in return for material benefits

The major doctrinal development in the Council of Chalcedon in 451 was A) acceptance of the gnostic idea of the liberation of divine sparks B) providing a path to salvation through good deeds C) elevation of the Gospel of Thomas to canonical status D) rejection of the Trinitarian idea that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are equal E) a formula whereby Christ was both fully divine and fully human

The religions idea of American exceptionalism originated in A) the institution of slavery B) the temperance movement C) a belief that the people of the United States are inherently more virtuous compared with all other countries D) a belief that the system of government in the United States is so effective that it reflects Divine inspiration E) a belief that a preparatory millennium to pave the way for the second coming of Christ began with the founding of the United States

Which of the following is NOT one of the proper ends or goals of humanity in Hindu thought? A) moksha (liberation) B) kama (pleasure) C) artha (material wealth and power) D) dharma (duty, obligation) E) maya (illusion)

Wilfred Cantwell Smith A) argued that religion serves three main purposes: social cohesion, social control, and providing meaning and purpose B) argued that the very idea of "religion" was relatively new in human history and was a peculiarly European construct C) theorized that religion originated as a reaction to the fear of life's demands, the dangers posed by nature, and to death D) argued that the phenomenon of religion does not really exist E) regarded religion as a tool of the bourgeoisie (relative social elites) to keep the proletariat (the masses) content

Agni is A) an Indo-Aryan fire deity B) an Indo-Aryan deity who often assumes human form, such as Krishna C) a fermented beverage popular among the Indo-Aryans D) a demonic tempter E) an Indo-Aryan storm deity

Among other things, Judaism is concerned with the problem of A) people tending to forget God B) making burnt offerings to God in the absence of a temple C) the Original Sin of Adam and Eve D) repeated reincarnation E) personal enlightenment through trance-like meditation

Confucius thought that human society and civilization A) had emerged from a past in which people lived in a primitive state of nature B) had not changed significantly for many centuries C) was a corrupt realm that should be abandoned by people who are truly religious D) was the product of Divine creation by Heaven E) could prosper only if people recognized and worshipped the supreme deity that he called "Heaven"

In Judaism, one result of the increasing influence of Hellenistic culture in the wake of the conquests of Alexander the Great was A) that the Jewish people abandoned monotheism in favor of pagan polytheism B) the cessation of temple sacrifice in favor of prayer and the study of religious texts C) that Jerusalem became the geographic center of Judaism D) that Alexandria became the geographic center of Judaism E) translation of the Hebrew Bible and other religious texts into Greek

In Chinese popular religion and lore, one way to prevent ghosts from causing problems is to A) offer "protection money" to certain ghost-slaying deities B) capture them in jars of water C) keep the moving at all times D) feed them E) soothe them with certain kinds of music

In ancient Greece A) philosophers eventually found ways to accommodate their belief in a rational cosmos to challenges such as the discovery of irrational numbers B) most intelletuals regarded human beings as deeply flawed, just like the gods C) Plato and most other intellectuals regarded human beings as exact, perfect copies of the ideal forms that the gods embodied D) the discovery of irrational numbers caused the belief in a rational cosmos to collapse E) government-sponsored temple sacrifices were conducted in secret by state-appointed priests

One result of the Second Great Awakening in the United States was A) increased church attendance B) the establishment of religious universities and theological institutes around the country C) 1 in 3 Americans joining a communal living group D) the rapid spread of slavery E) decreased church attendance

The physical center of Islam is A) the Kaaba in Mecca B) Medina C) Alexandria in Egypt D) Antioch in Syria E) Jerusalem

Which of the following is NOT a classic symbol of Daoist immortality? A) an 8-spoked wheel B) peaches C) deer D) pine trees E) cranes

Which of the following was NOT an aspect of Zoroastrianism? A) the teaching that Humans do not possess free will B) a last judgment C) a resurrection D) a savior-like supreme deity E) the triumph of good over evil in the end

Which of the following was NOT one of the five agents or phases (wuxing) in classical Chinese thought? A) air B) earth C) water D) wood E) fire

One feature of the cities of the Indus Valley Civilization was A) approximately 20% of the land set aside for graveyards, featuring elaborate tombs B) sophisticated military foundries for making weapons C) well-engineered drainage canals D) large stone houses in the city center where elites lived and smaller houses of common people farther out E) no use of a writing system

In ancient Greece A) divine law regulated nearly all aspects of people's lives B) deities were abstractions without physical shape or attributes C) religion was too abstract and academic to be of interest to anyone but a small group of highly educated citizens D) citizen participation in public religious rites affirmed civic engagement and identity E) government-sponsored temple sacrifices were conducted in secret by state-appointed priests

A major contributor to dukkha (as described in the first Noble Truth) is A) happiness B) impermanence C) the existence of unnecessary luxury items D) meditation E) compassion

According to the traditional account, Abraham A) gave birth to a son, Moses, who led the Hebrew people to Egypt B) entered into a covenant with God C) demonstrated his loyalty to God by building a giant ship D) wrote the first five books of the Bible E) received 10 commandments from God and inscribed them in stone

As a technical term in science, which of the following is NOT correct regarding a theory? A) Theories have predictive power. B) Once established, theories can never change. C) Theories are unproven speculation and are not as reliable as facts. D) To become widely accepted, a theory must explain known facts better than competing theories and be repeatedly confirmed by observation or experiments. E) Theories organize known facts, observations, and experimental data into an intellectual framework.

Classical Chinese creation myths are concerned mainly with the origins of A) human beings B) culture and civilization C) the universe D) Chinese people E) the earth

Confucius and his followers A) enjoyed widespread social respect, prestige, and influence owing to their vast store of knowledge B) articulated a political theory based on ancient ritual practice C) had a major impact on the politics of their own time D) frequently worked as advisors to powerful rulers E) decided to create a new religion

During the early Second Temple period, Ezra A) established Jewish communities established themselves in Rome and Alexandria B) began the practice of reading and explaining sacred scripture in public C) encouraged intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews D) likened the people of Judah to an unfaithful wife or rebellious children E) predicted the coming of a messiah

Hinduism A) recognizes a Maharaja residing in New Delhi as its supreme spiritual leader B) simultaneously monotheistic polytheistic, and non-theistic C) has strict rules about becoming a member of the religion D) originated in China and then spread to India E) is the world's largest religion in terms of total number of practitioners

In a novel interpretation of the Babylonian conquest of Judah in 586 BCE, some Hebrew thinkers concluded that A) Marduk was more virtuous than Yahweh B) Yahweh permitted the Babylonian conquest as a divine punishment C) Yahweh was no longer acting in history D) a messiah would arrive someday to restore the Davidic line of kings E) Marduk was more powerful than Yahweh

Isis was A) a Canaanite deity of storms and agriculture B) a deity of Egyptian origin, who restored Osiris's dismembered body to life C) a war deity in Babylon D) the sister of Horus E) a deity of Scandinavian origin often depicted with a boar

Upon becoming enlightened, the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) was initially reluctant to try to explain how he had accomplished it. The reason was that A) he did not want to offend the Brahmins (priests) of the established social order B) such a teaching might be too difficult for others to grasp or too demanding for them to practice C) explaining how to become enlightened was a burdensome task the Buddha hoped to avoid D) he lacked compassion E) he was afraid nobody would believe that he had become enlightened

The main task or goal for a Muslim is to A) advance human culture and civilization B) discover liberating knowledge trapped within one's flesh C) live her or his life in accordance with the divine revelation that Muhammad conveyed D) fundamentally re-structure his or her thought processes E) detach one's self from worldly affairs

The most divisive issue in early Christianity was the A) question baptism should take place in adulthood or childhood B) proper attire for priests and other clerics C) nature of Jesus D) number of sacraments E) authorship of the gospels

Which of the following is NOT characteristic of a painting influenced by Daoism? A) extensive mist or fog B) jagged mountains interconnected by water or mist C) portrayal of the ruler of a state performing sacrifices or rituals D) human beings and human structures minimized E) gnarled, twisted pine trees

The origin of the two major varieties of Islam, Sunni and Shia, lies in A) the use of different sacred texts B) disagreement about the status of Muhammad C) disagreement about dietary practices D) doctrinal disputes E) disagreement over the proper succession to the leadership of the Islamic community

Which of the following statements is accurate? A) All religions regard sacred rituals as symbolic action. B) Each religion has its own sacred language. C) Although the details differ, all religions make severe demands on their practitioners. D) All religions seek to spread their message and increase the number of people who practice them E) A key tension in many religious traditions is preserving the rigor of the tradition while also appealing to a large audience.

In the traditional biography of the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama), he preached his first sermon A) to an assembly of the rulers of local kingdoms, including his father B) to an assembly of local farmers and herders C) to an assembly of local scholars and theologians D) to five of his former associates with whom he had once practiced asceticism (mortifying the flesh) E) within a few minutes after becoming enlightened

In the traditional biography of the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama), his first profound meditative experience took place while A) roaming the splendid gardens of his father's palace B) collapsing from self-imposed starvation C) swimming in the Ganges River D) seated under an apple tree watching a farmer plowing a distant field E) dreaming of a white elephant

One characteristic of Abrahamic religions in their mature form is A) monopoly by a hereditary priestly caste B) monolatry C) polytheism D) monotheism E) temple sacrifice

One quality of a Daoist immortal is A) engaging constantly in a struggle with demonic forces B) high social status C) intellectual brilliance D) an extremely light body E) great physical strength

The significance of Jesus in Gnostic Christianity is that he A) made the ultimate sacrifice to cleanse humanity of its sins B) was an example of an ordinary person who lived a perfect life C) came to earth to convey divine grace from God to humans, thereby saving them D) was a divine emanation who came to earth to reveal saving knowledge E) revealed to people that the material world is not an illusion

The term dukkha in the first of the Noble Truths indicates A) acute suffering and agony of one's physical body B) desires and grasping for permanence C) the process by which the physical body declines with age D) a wide range of suffering, including a nagging sense that life is unsatisfactory or not quite right E) a deep sense of contentment, peace, and calm

One legacy of the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire is A) differing accounts of Jesus's life in the four gospels of the New Testament B) the belief that Christians have been, and continue to be, a persecuted group C) the centrality of Rome and the Bishop of Rome (the pope) in early Christianity D) conflicting ideas about the nature and significance of Jesus E) many different denominations of Christianity

A typical Hindu approach to representing the ultimate cosmic reality is A) embracing an endless multiplicity of representations of the divine B) to depict it as a giant old man up in the sky C) not to try because it is impossible D) to focus on a single master metaphor E) to avoid visual representations in favor of mantras, which are sounds embodying the deepest truths

D? NOT C

Daoist immortals A) are all female B) are always solitary and never congregate together for social or other functions C) are all male D) generally get heavier as the years go by owing to an accumulation of qi in their bodies E) were once ordinary human beings who then acquired seemingly supernatural qualities

In Islam, Jesus was A) a deity B) a great king C) a good man, but not otherwise special D) the son of God E) a prophet

One long-term effect of the Second Great Awakening in the United States is A) an overall decline in religiosity in the U.S. compared with the rest of the industrialized world B) a lack of interest in the Book of Revelation owing to the difficulty of predicting the date of the second coming of Christ C) a strict separation of religion and politics in American public life D) a tendency to reject the legitimacy of public education E) a strong tendency toward a confessional style in public life

One longer term significance of the Scopes Trial of 1925 was that it A) greatly weakened the political power of fundamentalist Christianity in the United States B) exposed key scientific weaknesses in Darwinian evolution, prompting the Roman Catholic Church to oppose it C) swept William Jennings Bryan into the U.S. presidency D) ruined the career of John Scopes, who died a few days after the trial E) hardened battle lines in a war between fundamentalist Christianity and Darwinian evolution

Rabbinic Judaism is based in large part on the A) rejection of an oral Torah B) belief that a military leader will emerge and restore the Davidic line of kings C) belief in an oral Torah D) the pursuit of mystical experiences through meditation E) centrality of temple sacrifices as a form of religious practice

Sigmund Freud saw religion as A) a dynamic, changing category that was the result of the accumulation and interaction of past traditions B) a beautiful expression of the human psyche C) a tool of the bourgeoisie (relative social elites) to keep the proletariat (the masses) content D) starting with an awareness or perception of something Holy E) a reaction to the fear of life's demands, the dangers posed by nature, and to death

The New Testament consists of 27 books, which can be grouped into four categories. Which of the following is NOT one of those categories A) Acts of the Apostles B) the Book of Revelation C) letters by leading Christians D) the gospels E) the Pentateuch

In the early part of the Christian era, one argument by many who insisted that Jesus was NOT the messiah (savior) of Jewish scripture was that he was A) not a king from the line of David B) not a temple priest C) not baptized D) born in the wrong place E) illiterate

NOT D NOT B A??

In classical Chinese thought A) ideas and emotions were part of the "10,000 things" B) humans had no free will or any ability to bring about beneficial outcomes in their lives C) one urgent and disputed issue was explaining how the universe came into existence D) the universe consisted of 1000 phases of 10 basic elements to create the "10,000 things" E) "Heaven" was, in all cases, a willful deity who intervened in human affairs

NOT D NOT E A?

Confucius thought that human civilization in his own time A) was undergoing a temporary setback in its development B) was so corrupt that the only viable option was to abandon it C) was more glorious than it have ever been in the past D) had not changed significantly for many centuries E) had been in steep decline for many centuries

NOT D NOT E C???

In some depictions, Fuxi A) is a turtle-like creature with a human head B) plays a music instrument C) rides on the back of an ox D) holds stalks of grains and various fruits E) holds engineering or carpentry tools

Which of the following would NOT be part of the typical vows of a Buddhist monk A) complete withdrawal from any contact with the world at large B) celibacy C) limited personal possessions D) a vegetarian diet E) a shaved head

A? NOT B

The Noble Eightfold Path is divided into three broad categories, namely A) wisdom, conduct, and meditation B) body, mind, soul C) physical world, metaphysics, transcendence D) birth, livelihood, death E) human world, world of the deities (devas), and enlightenment

The Pharisees A) believed in a just system of divine rewards and punishments B) thought that there was no room for free will because everything was predetermined by God C) were a small fringe group that lived in the desert D) rejected any possibility of resurrection after death E) denied the existence of an oral tradition

In Islam, Hadith refers to A) records of the words and deeds of the Prophet B) personal struggle to live in accordance with God's rules C) the first and most important chapter of the Quran (Koran) D) daily worship E) the duty of Muslims to make a pilgrimage to Mecca

People in medieval Japan typically imagined A) there are six major realms of existence (rokudō) into which one might be reborn B) that the laws of karma cannot possibly apply in one's present lifetime C) that the religion called Shinto was superior to Buddhism D) that the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) had actually been born in Japan E) that the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth had stopped

Saturnalia was a Roman festival that A) featured temporarily inverted social norms B) celebrated the power of the moon and stars C) coincided with spring planting D) honored the deity Serapis E) celebrated military valor

A major concern of Confucius and those who associated with him was A) refuting the ideas of Xunzi B) devising the best strategies for warfare C) preservation of the best of past cultural forms D) devising methods of efficiently administering a bureaucracy E) debating and explaining the nature of human nature

At the top of the varna social classification in ancient India was A) scholars B) warriors C) priests D) herders of cattle E) wandering religions practitioners

One result of the rebellion of Simon bar Kokhba was A) rejection of an oral Torah B) restoration of the temple C) the Jewish community in Jerusalem and nearby areas flourished after throwing off the yoke of Roman rule D) the geographic dispersal of most of the surviving Jewish population of Judea E) restoration of the Davidic line of kings

The tilak (forehead mark) of Shiva features A) a thick vertical line B) the shape of a coiled serpent C) a circle within a circle D) three horizontal lines E) a square with a dot in the center

A Bodhisattva A) bears no functional resemblance to Christian saints B) is the same as a Buddha C) seeks to establish a Buddhist kingdom on earth, ruled by a "Dharma ruler" D) motivated by compassion for the millions of other suffering creatures, withholds entry into nirvana E) is the highest ideal in Theravada Buddhism

A core insight discovered by the Buddha was A) the stability of our true selves (atman) over time B) the inevitability of death C) the usefulness of deep-trance meditation D) the idea of dependent arising E) that sometimes we suffer

According to legend, Fuxi created the institution of marriage by marrying his A) cousin B) brother C) teacher D) sister E) long-time girlfriend

The root value for Confucius was A) doing one's best B) moral empathy C) hard work D) trustworthiness E) filial piety (xiao)

Which of the following is NOT a form (variety) of Shiva? A) Nataraja—lord of the cosmic dance B) man carrying a trident staff with a cobra around his shoulders and neck C) Parvati's lover D) lingam (phallic symbol) E) a blue-skinned deity with multiple arms

Which of the following elements was not an ingredient in Daoism as it emerged by approximately the time of the Tang dynasty (ca. 9th century)? A) Correlative cosmology B) Laozi and Zhuangzi C) Buddhism D) the idea that good government was a function of correct ritual practice E) Herbal pharmacology

NOT A D?

Early Christianity A) was in agreement about the nature and significance of Jesus B) had a supreme leader, Nestorius C) was centered geographically in the city of Rome D) was centered geographically in Ethiopia E) flourished in parts of central Asia, China, India, and Africa

NOT B E?

A Bodhisattva seeks to A) to liberate all sentient beings B) dwell in a state of meditative concentration, without regard for the broader world C) attain enlightenment and thus enter nirvana D) establish a Buddhist kingdom on earth, ruled by a Dharma ruler E) enjoy his/her/its own enlightenment

A characteristic of religion in the context of the Second Great Awakening in the United States was the insistence A) on free will and the voluntary nature of both sin and salvation B) the need for formal rites of exorcism to cast Satan out of sinners' lives C) on a logical, analytical approach to theology and spirituality D) that everyone read the Bible literally E) on celebrating Biblical Sabbath (Saturday)

According to the Ebionites A) Jesus was born from a virgin B) Paul's teachings are correct C) Jesus was divine D) God has a special relationship with the Jewish people E) Jesus had no siblings

Confucius was A) a military leader who yearned for peace B) a prominent author and editor C) a prominent government official D) an antiquarian, deeply immersed in the lore of the past E) a temple priest

A PEW survey of the United States in 2006 revealed A) that while 41% of scientists denied the existence of any kind of divinity or higher power, only 4% of the public at large did B) scientists were much more likely than the public at large to regard scientific discoveries as confirmation of Divine wisdom C) that approximately 1/3 of the public denies the existence of God or any other kind of higher power D) a similar pattern of basic religious belief among scientists and the population as a whole E) that very few scientists denied the existence of any kind of divinity or higher power

A major source of worry for many medieval Japanese was A) mappō (the end of the Dharma) B) invasions from abroad C) rampant materialism D) being reborn in Amida's Pure Land E) the possible destruction of the country by earthquakes

According to the Buddhist Eightfold Path, which of the following would be a WRONG livelihood? A) brewery owner B) physician C) musician D) IT consultant E) massage therapist

According to the Buddhist Eightfold Path, which of the following would be a concrete effect of "right mindfulness"? A) realizing clearly that every mental and physical state is in flux and nothing is solid or enduring B) advancement in monastic rank C) the power to cause objects to levitate or otherwise move D) the ability to run or swim with amazing speed E) the unity of atman with Brahman (the cosmic deity-force)

As for Jesus the Christ, A) we know nothing about his physical appearance B) all of the gospels in the New Testament agree on the details of his birth and death C) he seems to have spoken frequently in support of social elites and the wealthy members of society D) he wrote an autobiography, which became the first book of the New Testament E) he was born in Rome and wrote extensively in Latin

Compared with the Shia variety of Islam, Sunni Islam tends to A) believe in spiritual egalitarianism B) celebrate charismatic holy women C) regard as a bad idea the former electing caliphs as leaders of the Islamic community D) hold that the leader of the Islamic community should be especially virtuous and spiritually advanced E) create holy sites at the graves of supreme religious leaders (imams)

During the month of Ramadan. Muslims should A) be especially mindful of their sins and the ethical quality of their lives B) not eat anything C) give gifts to family members and friends D) pray three times daily E) avoid all forms of work

The command of God to Moses, "You shall have no other gods before me," was a demand for A) correct interpretation of Holy Scripture B) military bravery C) monolatry D) monotheism E) eliminating corruption in the administration of the temple

Freyja (Fraujo) was A) a deity of love, sexuality, beauty, and fertility who was sometimes depicted with a boar B) the deity responsible for the enforcement of oaths and contracts in ancient Canaanite religion C) a solar deity celebrated on December 25 D) the punitive, demonic counterpart to the gift-giving St. Nicholas E) a hammer-wilding Norse thunder deity

Hinduism A) simultaneously monotheistic polytheistic, and non-theistic B) recognizes a Maharaja residing in New Delhi as its supreme spiritual leader C) has strict rules about becoming a member of the religion D) is the world's largest religion in terms of total number of practitioners E) originated in China and then spread to India

Holi is A) a spring festival, associated with colors and love B) a fall harvest festival featuring gift giving C) a large communal feast to celebrate the bounty of the hunt by consuming game animals D) the largest gathering of people in the world E) a festival celebrating the deity Kali

In 538 BCE Cyrus decreed that the Jews in exile could return to Palestine. As a result A) Some of the Babylonian Jews moved back to Palestine and began rebuilding the temple B) all Jews in Babylon moved back to Palestine C) the prophet Jeremiah warned against rebuilding the temple D) the prophet Isaiah predicted the coming of a messiah E) Ezra encouraged intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews

In Daoist inner alchemy, which of the following techniques would be best for a woman to cultivate and preserve inner (or original) qi? A) Sexual training B) Yoga-like exercises imitating the postures and movements of various animals (daoyin) C) Sunbathing D) Moonbathing E) Breath training

In Daoist-influenced paintings, the large areas of empty space in the background suggest that A) emptiness is the source of everything B) humans should abandon society C) we cannot know what will happen after we die D) social order is the source of all other virtues E) the proper performance of state rituals is the root of good government

In Hinduism, karma ("action") is A) an inescapable law or principle of cause and effect B) the name of a cycle of birth, death, and rebirth C) refers to seeking enlightenment through the pursuit of sensual and emotional pleasures D) an advanced state of spiritual enlightenment E) a term referring to a person's social duties and obligations

In Puritan New England in the early 18th century, A) social historians have determined that sexual activity among young people peaked during the Christmas season B) Christmas became a mandatory holiday and businesses were required to close on December 25 C) it became common to attend church on Christmas Day D) Christmas became a family-oriented holiday featuring gift giving E) the governor of Massachusetts, appointed by the British crown, enforced a strict prohibition on "Christmas keeping" as was the law in Britain at this time

In a painting influenced by Daoism, which of the following would NOT be typical? A) portraits of past sage kings and culture heroes B) gnarled, bent pine trees C) bamboo D) extensive empty space or space filled with mist or fog E) interconnected circular spaces

In sixteenth-century China, A) Jesuit priests like Johann Adam Schall von Bell sometimes became high-ranking court officials owing largely to their knowledge of science B) unlike the western world, religion and science were in a state of conflict C) Christian clerics were not welcome D) nearly well educated people believed in ghosts and local deities E) nearly well educated people were atheists and held to no concept of a higher power or principle in the universe

In the context of the Second Great Awakening in the United States, the "Burned-over District" was A) western New York State B) the region of Georgia and Alabama C) Maine D) Indiana E) eastern Kentucky

In the late Roman Empire (after ca. 400 CE), A) extensive cultural exchange between Christianity and the pagan traditions began B) most Christians became puzzled by the apparently delay in the expected second coming of Jesus C) Christianity adopted a mild attitude toward non-Christians, attempting to make converts only by non-violent means D) pagan festivals vanished because of state prohibitions of public festivities E) paganism enjoyed a revival of popularity

In the traditional biography of the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama), his life and situation in the palace symbolize or highlight A) indulgence in luxury, sensual pleasures, and ease B) the practice of meditation C) satisfaction with one's work and station in life D) ascetic practices (mortification of the flesh) E) the principle that only kings and priests can become enlightened

Nihon ryōiki (Record of miraculous stories in Japan) was: A) a book of folk tales arguing that karmic retribution could take place within a person's lifetime B) a book arguing society has entered mappō, the third stage of the Mahayana Buddhist cycle C) an explanation of the Buddhist doctrine of skillful means D) a book arguing that because the Dragon King's daughter had become enlightened, then women could attain enlightenment as well as men E) a book that situated the story of the Buddha's life in Japan as a way of making it easier for readers to understand

One problem in discussing the early history of the Hebrew people is A) a lack of useful sources other than the Bible B) that Abraham's sons sold their brother Joseph into slavery in Egypt C) the absence of any written narrative describing this time D) contradictions between the Bible and the accounts in the Midrash E) contradictions between Egyptian records and Roman records

One reason Darwinian evolution may have been emotionally objectionable to some Christians at the start of the twentieth century is that it A) afforded no special status to human beings B) claims that God did not create anything C) claims that Noah never built an ark D) supposes a competition for resources among creatures E) claims that God does not exist

One reason for increasing tension between science and religion during the nineteenth century in the western Christian world was A) that scientific advances began to outpace theology B) that the quality and focus of education changed, leaving most people less able to interpret Holy Scripture C) a sharp turn towards fundamentalism (rejection of modernity) on the part of the Roman Catholic Church D) that for the first time most Christians began to read the Bible symbolically E) that the quality and focus of education changed, leaving most people less able to understand science

One significance of Nehemiah's reforms during the early Second Temple period was to A) reinforce Jerusalem as the geographical center of Judaism B) encouraging intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews C) encourage the development of Rabbinic Judaism D) introduce Hellenistic culture into Palestine E) bring the era of prophecy to a close

When leading members of society in New York altered the nature of Christmas celebrations, their main goal was to A) reduce public drunkenness and rowdy behavior B) sacralize (make sacred) the holiday C) return Christmas to its Roman roots in the Saturnalia festival D) use Krampus to frighten children into better behavior E) invert the social order temporarily to promote goodwill

Which of the following statements is accurate? A) A key tension in many religious traditions is preserving the rigor of the tradition while also appealing to a large audience. B) Each religion has its own sacred language. C) All religions seek to spread their message and increase the number of people who practice them D) Although the details differ, all religions make severe demands on their practitioners. E) All religions regard sacred rituals as symbolic action.

Which of the following would be the most appropriate visual metaphor for the Daoist dao? A) fog or mist B) a dam across a stream constructed by local farmers for flood control purposes C) ritualized behavior such as funerals and ceremonies marking the coming of age D) a library full of books E) a finely carved, ornate piece of furniture

n the context of basic Buddhist teachings, karma is A) a cosmic law of cause and effect similar to a type of energy, which propels us from one birth to the next B) the force or power of the Buddha's compassion for sentient beings C) another term for Mara's Attack D) a blissful state of mind brought on by proper meditation E) the constant cycle of birth, death, and rebirth

Charlemagne (Charles the Great) A) advocated religious freedom and tolerance B) created an empire that presaged the emergence of the Holy Roman Empire C) was a fierce champion of the European pagan traditions D) disagreed with the Roman pope about religious doctrine E) encouraged conversion to Christianity by peaceful means

Historical criticism (or higher criticism) A) was reassuring to the public because it upheld age-old certainties about Holy Scripture B) refers to the academic task of determining a text's original meaning in the matrix of its original historical context C) was the academic basis by which theologians criticized Darwinian evolution D) proved that the Bible consisted of a single, consistent underlying narrative E) was widely embraced by the public after the publication of Essays and Reviews in 1861

In Hinduism, one way of dealing with the conflicting demands of life's possible goals is to A) attain liberating knowledge through a study of the Vedas B) pursue different goals at different stages of one's life C) separate one's self from society at an early age renounce worldly attachments D) change ones social class (varna) E) devote one's self to a deity (bhakti)

In Hinduism, one way of dealing with the conflicting demands of life's possible goals is to A) change ones social class (varna) B) pursue different goals at different stages of one's life C) attain liberating knowledge through a study of the Vedas D) devote one's self to a deity (bhakti) E) separate one's self from society at an early age renounce worldly attachments

In Judaism after the Babylonian exile ended, A) a new round of prophetic activity began that continued for over a century B) Yahweh was not only the god of Israel, but had also become the only God in the universe C) Yahweh was thought to be more powerful than either Baal or Marduk D) temple sacrifice gradually replaced prayer and textual study as the main religious activity E) the prophet Samuel anointed David as king

In Mahayana Buddhism, the final age of a Buddhist cycle A) is a time when people go through the motions of Buddhism without deep understanding of it B) lasts 10,000 years C) is a time when the Dharma spreads and is practiced correctly D) lasts 500 years E) lasts 1000 years

In Upanishadic Hinduism, the term Brahman refers to A) the priestly caste B) a singular Ultimate Reality of the cosmos that transcends time and space C) a cycle of reincarnation D) a transcendent entity that exists apart from humans E) perceptual limitations and illusions

One result of the Protestant Reformation was A) rejection of the Chalcedonian Orthodoxy B) an increase in the custom of personal Bible reading among ordinary people C) decline in the practice of baptism D) greater toleration for different religions E) the end of attempts to predict the precise date of the Second Coming of Christ

One side effect of the temperance movement in the United States was A) a ban on the use of alcohol in hospitals and scientific laboratories B) the rise of the first women's rights movement C) the rise in popularity of Kellogg's corn flakes D) a ban on alcoholic beverages throughout the country in 1851 E) raising awareness of the evils of slavery

One significance of the Indo-Aryan social class system (varnas) is that it A) assigned a high status position to the non-Aryan peoples of the subcontinent B) later developed into a rigid caste system, whose influence persists even today C) became a way of permitting social mobility through mastery of Vedic texts D) valorized military arts by placing warriors (Kshatriyas) at the top of the social pyramid E) became the basis of social organization in other societies such as ancient Greece and ancient China

The Arc of the Covenant A) was a giant ship that Noah created in the desert at God's command B) was a chest containing the tablets on which Moses inscribed the Ten Commandments C) still exists in a temple in Jerusalem D) was the tent in which Abraham forged an agreement with God E) was a chariot Moses used while fighting on the battlefield

The Calcedonian view in the Christological debates held that Christ was A) human at birth but became divine after he was baptized B) both divine and human simultaneously C) entirely divine and any apparent suffering on earth by him was an illusion D) the Messiah, but was entirely human E) human at birth but became divine after God adopted Jesus as his son

The Roman Catholic priest Georges Lemaitre A) was the first scientist to produce a biological definition of a species B) was the first scientist to propose a theory of the expansion of the universe C) struggled to reconcile his religious beliefs and his scientific knowledge D) regarded scientific discoveries as confirmation of Divine wisdom E) enthusiastically endorsed the pope's public comments on his work

The Second Great Awakening in the United States A) took place mainly within the confines of churches B) favored heartfelt personal religious experience C) was not concerned with social transformations, only transformations of the mind or heart of individuals D) stressed that salvation was available to an elite few selected by God E) favored precise theological arguments in the context of intellectual debates

Which of the following is NOT correct regarding the Book of Revelation in the New Testament? A) Those who regard Revelation as describing the future often hold different versions of the precise sequence and details of the events that will unfold B) Some argue that Revelation is about something that already happened or was supposed to happen C) Revelation describes an event it calls "Rapture," and all Christians believe that they will fly up through the air to meet God when this event takes place at some point in the future D) Some see Revelation as an allegory of the constant struggle between good and evil E) Some argue that Revelation is about something that will happen in the future

Which of the following is major Daoist text? A) The Analects B) Zhuangzi C) The Bhagavad Gita D) The Rig Veda E) the writings of Xunzi

Arianism held that A) Christ was fully divine and had no human nature B) Christ was born human but became divine after his baptism C) God the Son (Jesus) was subordinate to God the Father D) Christ was both human and divine, and these two natures existed in a unified condition E) Christ was both human and divine, however these two natures existed separately

Basic knowledge of the world's religions is A) essential for personal happiness B) of little practical benefit because only one religion can be true C) essential for cultural literacy in a pluralistic world D) common—survey data show that 80-90% of U.S. residents possess high levels of religious literacy E) too difficult for any one person to acquire

Basic knowledge of the world's religions is A) too difficult for any one person to acquire B) common—survey data show that 80-90% of U.S. residents possess high levels of religious literacy C) essential for cultural literacy in a pluralistic world D) of little practical benefit because only one religion can be true E) essential for personal happiness

Compared with the Sunni variety of Islam, Shia Islam tends to A) look favorably on the practice of electing caliphs after Muhammad's death B) emphasize the need for an orderly community as the path to salvation C) regard people as needing the assistance of divinely favored holy leaders D) be optimistic about human capacity to find salvation through adherence to God's law E) deny the need for special intermediaries between God and the masses of believers

Darwin claimed that the mechanism of natural selection that he proposed A) was based on biblical sources B) should be applicable to human politics and social organization, in addition to biological populations C) was descriptive, not normative D) was as much moral as it was mechanistic because species that prospered or declined deserved such a fate E) was evidence of the brilliance of God's creation

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Jesuit order of Roman Catholic priests argued that A) Confucians worshipped the wrong god B) the Church should learn from Confucians regarding the conduct of elaborate rituals C) Confucianism and closely-related practices like ancestral veneration does not constitute a religion D) allowing for linguistic differences, Confucianism and Christianity essentially the same religion E) the ideas of Confucius are worthy of study, but not the ideas of Mencius

During the time Paul of Tarsus was active, A) there was no significant opposition to Paul's views B) Christianity had definitively split off from Judaism and existed as a separate religion C) the canonical gospels (those included in the Bible) had been written D) most followers of Jesus thought that Jesus would soon return to earth E) he wrote essays systematically laying out his ideas about religion

For Confucius, "the Way" was a product of A) the operation of natural laws B) random forces beyond anyone's control or understanding C) human effort and intelligence D) the Divine power of Heaven E) the combined power of a variety of deities and spirits

For Confucius, sages A) were numerous in his own day, thus giving him hope for the future B) were to be found only among kings and emperors C) influence the rest of society by means of moral charisma (de) D) had no effect on society because it had become too corrupt E) were divine, savior-like beings send to earth by Heaven

For Gnostic Christians, salvation comes from A) belief in the resurrection of Jesus B) following God's revealed law in the material world C) one's own effort: knowing what to do and then doing it D) accepting Jesus's sacrifice and being grateful for it E) divine grace

For Sunni Muslims, an imam is a A) a supreme interpreter of Islamic law B) term of respect for any highly accomplished or learned member of the community C) prayer leader in mosques D) someone who gives a sermon E) supreme religious leader descended from Muhammad

In Buddhist theory, the Five Heaps (skandhas) explain A) how and why things really exist independently, in and of themselves B) how we might enter nirvana C) how we came to have a sense of "I" or "me" as an individual self D) why the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) chose the Middle Path E) the usefulness of skillful means

In Chinese popular religion, the Jade Emperor A) is a rain and storm deity much revered by farmers B) is a deity of scholarship and culture, often found enshrined in schools C) rules all the deities in the heavens and all realms of existence D) originated as an actual person who, after death, assumed the role of protecting sailors E) resides in the kitchen of a typical Chinese household

In Daoist sexual training, the basic goal for men was A) to discover ways of making sexual intercourse more enjoyable B) to hold his breath while engaging in sexual intercourse, thus preventing the circulation of qi C) to absorb as much yin energy as possible without relinquishing any of his yang energy D) to exhaust his body temporarily, which would stimulate it to become stronger E) momentarily to exchange his yang energy for yin energy

In Hinduism, karma ("action") is A) refers to seeking enlightenment through the pursuit of sensual and emotional pleasures B) an advanced state of spiritual enlightenment C) an inescapable law or principle of cause and effect D) a term referring to a person's social duties and obligations E) the name of a cycle of birth, death, and rebirth

In Hinduism, one way of dealing with the conflicting demands of life's possible goals is to A) devote one's self to a deity (bhakti) B) separate one's self from society at an early age renounce worldly attachments C) pursue different goals at different stages of one's life D) change ones social class (varna) E) attain liberating knowledge through a study of the Vedas

One major change in Christianity that occurred because of the Council of Nicaea in 325 was A) the establishment of the city of Rome as the geographic center of the faith B) settling the Christological question by declaring that God the Son (Jesus) was subordinate to God the Father C) dropping the Jewish calendar for Church holidays and observances D) an attempt to re-establish a dialogue between Christianity and Judaism E) the election of a single bishop as the supreme leader of Christianity Table for Individual Question Feedback

One way that Hinduism deals with the tension between social duties versus non-attachment is A) by advocating the practice of meditation by people of all social classes B) by stressing the idea that good government depends on well-designed rites and rituals C) clearly defined stages of life, the last of which is renunciation D) by advocating hedonism (the pursuit of pleasure) as the ultimate goal in life E) by making it possible for people to move from one social class (varna) to another

Owing to the conquests of Alexander the Great, all residents of Palestine A) became Roman citizens B) became part of the Persian Empire C) became exposed to elements of Hellenistic culture D) began to practice Greek-style paganism E) began working on the Sabbath

Religion A) was closely connected with literacy and the spread of the written word B) originated in the early struggle by humans to enjoy the world's beauty C) is and has been a part of all human societies D) came into existence approximately 4,000 years ago E) deals with abstractions and therefore people have never assessed in terms of its pragmatic effectiveness

The Babylonian conquest of Judah in 586 BCE A) was interpreted by Jewish thinkers as a victory of the deity Marduk B) introduced Hellenistic cultural influence to the region C) resulted in the elite members of Judean society forcibly relocated to Mesopotamia D) established Jewish communities in Rome and Alexandria E) directly led to the area becoming a Roman province

The Chinese deity Mazu A) resides in the kitchen of a typical Chinese household B) is a rain and storm deity much revered by farmers C) originated as an actual person who, after death, assumed the role of protecting sailors D) is an all-powerful, transcendent God E) is the highest-ranking deity in a celestial hierarchy

The Islamic ideal of unity (tawhid) is best reflected in the A) Hadith literature B) relations between predominantly Islamic countries in today's world C) insistence on the singularity of God D) idea that Adam was one of God's prophets E) caliphate

The Japanese solar deity Amaterasu was regarded as a local manifestation of A) Yakushi (medicine Buddha) B) Kannon (Bodhisattva of compassion) C) Vairocana (solar Buddha) D) Amida (Buddha of compassion) E) Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha

The Mahayana doctrine of skillful means (upaya) maintains that A) when we die our spirit goes to heaven or to hell B) only people highly learned in Buddhist scriptures can become enlightened C) any device or technique, even a lie, which moves people farther along the path to enlightenment, is morally good D) the ends never justify the means E) one must never tell a lie under any circumstances

The Quran A) took well over a century after Muhammad's death to come into existence as a written text B) consists of descriptions of Muhammad's life and his conversations about a wide variety of matters C) consists of 114 suras ("rows," but essentially, chapters), roughly organized from longest to shortest D) clearly explains the doctrine of Original Sin owing to Adam's disobedience of God E) contains a biography of Muhammad

The Upanishads A) are texts of hymns, spells, myths, and rituals B) stress the importance maintaining social classes and adhering to social norms C) generally argue that attachment to worldly matters leads to suffering D) were brought into the Indian subcontinent from Persia by migrating Indo-Aryan tribes E) are religious texts featuring dialogues between the warrior Arjuna and his chariot driver, who is actually a manifestation of Krishna

By approximately 1900, one characteristic of the fundamentalist movement in Christianity in the United States was A) an all-out campaign to oppose Darwinian evolution B) preference for figurative or symbolic readings of the Bible C) the application of Darwinian ideas to social life to provide the intellectual basis for curtailing welfare programs ("the dole") and other forms of public assistance to the poor. D) a strong focus on the Book of Revelation E) was an attempt to harmonize Christian principles with the scientific and social advances and changes characteristic of the modern world

During the Mahayana Buddhist end times (mappō, the final stage of the Dharma) A) all sentient beings on earth die, and life on the planet re-emerges anew B) humans begin, for the first time, to experience a sense of suffering and uneasiness C) even the external forms of religious practice are in error D) the external forms of Buddhism continue, but people no longer understand what they mean E) the law of karma stops working

During the early Second Temple period, Ezra A) encouraged intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews B) established Jewish communities established themselves in Rome and Alexandria C) predicted the coming of a messiah D) began the practice of reading and explaining sacred scripture in public E) likened the people of Judah to an unfaithful wife or rebellious children

Emperor Constantine A) founded the variety of Christianity known as Nestorian Christianity B) proclaimed religious freedom for all Roman subjects C) was exclusively Christian throughout his life and from an early age D) convened the Council of Chalcedon in 451 E) made Christianity the official state religion of Rome

For Confucius A) social harmony was best attained through a thorough and well-enforced network of laws B) courage was the root virtue out of which all the others developed C) heartfelt prayers offered up to Heaven might influence the cosmic powers to benefit the person or group offering the prayers D) Li (rites, formalized behavior, ceremonies, etc.) was the means by which humans develop their moral excellence within society E) good government was largely a matter of technical skill in the management of laws, regulations, and the flow of revenues into the state treasury

For Confucius, li (ritualized conduct) A) was essential for securing the blessings of Heaven to create a prosperous society B) was inferior to laws as a means of social organization C) was best enacted in the form of public prayers to Heaven D) included an educational and socializing function E) was the best means of protecting society against demonic forces

For Xunzi, li (ritualized social forms, ceremonies, etc.) were A) ossified formalities of little or no practical importance B) a reflection of the innate goodness that constitutes human nature C) the primary means of training the body to attain immortality D) the primary means by which humans could train their inherently selfish natures and thus become beneficial members of society E) less important for regulating society than were laws and punishments

The Upanishads A) were brought into the Indian subcontinent from Persia by migrating Indo-Aryan tribes B) are religious texts featuring dialogues between the warrior Arjuna and his chariot driver, who is actually a manifestation of Krishna C) are texts of hymns, spells, myths, and rituals D) generally argue that attachment to worldly matters leads to suffering E) stress the importance maintaining social classes and adhering to social norms

In Daoist inner alchemy A) it is advantageous for women to practice sexual training techniques, but men would not benefit from such training B) yoga-like physical exercises (daoyin) were done to close the body's pores to prevent excessive contact with life-shortening forces. C) women should bathe in the sun D) one should strive to minimize the loss of "inner qi" through special breathing techniques E) one should strive to slow down or, even better, stop the flow of qi through one's body

In Mahayana forms of Buddhism, skillful means (upaya) A) are regarded as immoral because the ends never justify the means B) are a useful tool, but only for advanced Buddhist practitioners, not ordinary people C) have no important role to play D) are intended as provisional stepping-stones to be discarded after a person reaches a higher level of comprehension E) are limited to the various realms of Buddhist hell

In Vedic Hinduism, one way to improve one's karmic balance was to A) accept one's status in the current lifetime and faithfully carrying out the duties of that status B) meditate C) criticize social and religious corruption publically D) improve the social condition of untouchables E) perform pest control services for the community

In classical Chinese thought by about 200 CE, A) it had become inappropriate to try to represent cosmic forces in visual form because any such representation was bound to be incomplete B) moral laws and natural (scientific) laws are separate and unrelated C) the universe consisted of 1000 phases of 10 basic elements to create the "10,000 things" D) all known substances, phenomena, and processes of the natural and social world became associated with one of the five phases E) ideas, sensations, emotions and other intangible qualities had no relationship to yin-yang and the 5 phases/agents

In later Daoism, an important function of Daoist priests was A) serving as local government officials B) wedding and funeral planners C) collecting taxes and supervising bridge construction D) serving as exorcists E) serving as tutors for the local round of the civil service exams

In the ideal Hindu life course, after a person has raised a family successfully, the next stage in life is A) military service B) pursuit of music and the arts C) enjoyment and recreation D) pursuing knowledge as a forest hermit E) service as a government official

In the traditional biography of the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama), after he became enlightened, one basic decision that he had to make was whether to A) ordain priests to carry out Buddhist rites B) continue meditating C) continue with ascetic practices (mortifying his flesh) D) attempt to explain to others about how he had succeeded E) return to his father's house and become king

One characteristic of early (ca. 13th century) Zen Buddhism in Japan was A) people should be free to follow their feelings all the way to enlightenment B) that women could not attain enlightenment and thus could not become clergy C) that it appealed widely to ordinary Japanese, thus making Buddhism a truly popular religion D) that women could become high-ranking members of the clergy E) chanting of Amida's name to be reborn in paradise

One key idea in the early Vedas was that A) everything in the universe is a manifestation of Brahman B) our goal is to re-unite our individual selves (atman) with the fabric of the universe (Brahman) C) we are constantly reincarnated D) there is a vast cosmic order that human social institutions must help uphold E) attachment to worldly matters causes suffering

One reason for increasing tension between science and religion during the nineteenth century was A) a sharp turn towards fundamentalism (rejection of modernity) on the part of the Roman Catholic Church B) Gaps in scientific knowledge increased and widened owing to new data from much more sensitive instruments C) that scientists began to insist that some species of animals and plants had evolved from previous life forms D) science had increasingly less room for God, especially for a God that wilfully acted in or intervened in the world E) that the widespread acceptance of historical criticism (higher criticism) provided new insights into the deep meanings and structure of the Bible, thus reducing the need for scientific explanations

One result of Paul's ideas was the A) Jewish doctrine of Original Sin B) idea that good works are the best path to salvation C) belief that Jesus had completed his work and would therefore not return to earth D) Christian doctrine of Original Sin E) belief that Jesus was a divine being

One result of the Jewish revolt against Rome in 70 CE was that A) the Jesus sect of Judaism declared itself a separate religion called Christianity B) the Davidic line of kinds was restored C) the lineage of temple priests became especially powerful D) synagogues replaced the temple E) the prophetic tradition ended

One way that Emperor Constantine contributed to the development of Christianity was by A) prohibiting solar worship in the Roman Empire B) convening the Council of Chalcedon in 451 C) requiring Christians in the empire to believe that God the Son (Jesus) was subordinate to God the Father D) convening the Council of Nicaea in 325 E) making Christianity the official state religion of Rome

Paul of Tarsus argued that A) Jesus was a divine being B) there was no need for Jesus to return to earth C) good deeds was the path to right standing before God, and Jesus served as an example of how all people should behave D) belief in Jesus's resurrection was the only way to attain right standing before God E) following the Jewish law was a requirement for right standing before God

Reform Judaism A) requires that all prayers be said in Hebrew, not the local language B) insists on holding fast to a literal interpretation of Jewish law C) seeks to preserve as many traditional elements of Judaism as possible D) seeks to reconcile Jewish law harmoniously with contemporary society E) does not ordain women as Rabbis

Steeples in Christian churches came from A) pagan sacrificial altars B) Greek (especially Neo-Platonic) ideas of ideal forms C) platforms used in solar worship around the Roman Empire D) the obelisks common in fertility worship E) Greek and Roman military vehicles designed for scaling walls

The Greek philosopher Plato A) was concerned only with human society and rejected speculation about metaphysics or cosmology B) discovered that the square root of 2 is a rational number C) claimed that the material world we inhabit is a stable, unchanging reflection of the Divine D) theorized that non-material ideal forms constituted the highest, most fundamental reality E) claimed that the underlying logic of the universe was so complex that humans could not hope to understand it

The Jewish Sabbath day is A) sundown on Saturday until sundown on Sunday B) sunrise to sundown on Friday C) sundown on Sunday until sunrise on Monday D) sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday E) sunrise to sundown on Sunday

The Shia doctrine of deep occultation of the twelfth Imam A) became the ideological basis of the institution of the caliphate B) is also embraced by Sunnis C) derives from Hadith literature D) functioned as survival strategy E) indicates relative optimism about the human capacity for obeying God's law

The cities of the Indus River Valley Civilization A) frequently fought wars with each other, which eventually caused the whole civilization to collapse B) contain dwellings of varying sizes and quality, indicating a rigid social hierarchy C) based their wealth mainly on maintaining large herds of cattle for the production of beef, leather clothing, and other leather goods D) traded with other regions of the world, including Mesopotamia E) were largely isolated and appeared to have had little contact with people outside of the Indus Valley

The cities of the Indus River Valley Civilization A) were largely isolated and appeared to have had little contact with people outside of the Indus Valley B) based their wealth mainly on maintaining large herds of cattle for the production of beef, leather clothing, and other leather goods C) frequently fought wars with each other, which eventually caused the whole civilization to collapse D) traded with other regions of the world, including Mesopotamia E) contain dwellings of varying sizes and quality, indicating a rigid social hierarchy

The main deity of Chikubushima is A) Amaterasu B) Amida C) Vairocana (Dainichi) D) Benten (Benzaiten) E) Penglai

The most popular form of Buddhist practice in the United States today is A) Theravada B) Tibetan deep-trance meditation C) mixtures of Judaism or Christianity and Tibetan Buddhism D) Zen meditation E) the intellectual study of original Buddhist texts

The order of agents in the classical Chinese conquest cycle is A) water, fire, earth, air, wood, and then back to water B) earth, fire, air, wood, water, and then back to earth C) wood, fire, earth, metal, water, and then back to wood D) fire, metal, wood, earth, water, and back to fire E) air, fire, earth, wood, water, and then back to air

The original language of the New Testament is A) Syriac B) English C) Latin D) Greek E) Coptic

Which defining characteristic do all religions share? A) explaining the workings and structure of the universe B) nothing—no single characteristic applies to every religion C) providing rules for ethical social behavior D) belief in deities or some kind of supernatural beings E) possession of sacred scriptures revealed by a higher power

Which of the following matters was a major issue during the time of Mencius and Xunzi but not during the time of Confucius? A) family values B) the questions of which books should be considered Holy Scripture C) the correct method for praying to Heaven D) the nature of human nature E) ritualized conduct

In the thought of later Hinduism, diverse visual representations of the Divine A) can provide a glimpse, hint, or other insight into the vast and profound quality of Brahman B) are appropriate, but only for uneducated people who cannot read religious texts C) demonstrate the teaching that there is no single Divine essence D) are appropriate for avatars (manifestations) of Shiva and Vishnu, but not for other deities E) are not really correct, and therefore are not appropriate

D? NOT C

For Confucius A) the preservation of ancient culture, while enjoyable as a hobby, was of little or no practical value to society in the present B) humans should live in harmony with the forces of nature, abandoning the artificial world of society and culture C) human society and culture had been in steep decline ever since the early part of the Shang dynasty D) a major goal of his life's work was to convince others that human nature is good E) law should not be the primary means of regulating society

D? NOT C, E,A,

According to the Ebionites A) Jesus was miraculously born to a virgin mother B) our mission in life is to liberate the divine sparks within us C) Jesus was entirely divine, and his human form was an illusion D) Christ was both divine and human simultaneously E) Paul's understanding of Christianity was wrong

According to the Ebionites A) this world is an illusion, so do not become attached to it B) the god of the Old Testament and the god of the New Testament were different gods C) Jesus was both divine and human simultaneously D) Jesus taught a method whereby people could liberate the sparks of the divine within their flesh E) to be right with God, one must be or become Jewish

According to the gospel accounts of Jesus, A) Mark portrays Jesus as unambiguously divine B) Matthew portrays Jesus as the misunderstood Son of God C) Justin portrays Jesus as a good shepherd D) John portrays Jesus as the Jewish messiah E) Luke portrays Jesus as a universal prophet

Approximately what percentage of the world's population is Buddhist in terms of their primary religious identification? A) 2 B) 30 C) 14 D) 20 E) 7

At the time Confucius lived, A) constant warfare had largely destroyed civil society B) China was unified under a strong central government C) the rulers of China practiced a religion called Daoism D) there was widespread popular yearning for a new religion E) China was divided into dozens of different countries of various sizes

By about 500 BCE, A) the Vedic Aryans had conquered and settled the entire Indian subcontinent B) the Vedic Aryans began migrating into (or possibly began invading) the Indus River Valley C) texts known as the Brahmanas first appeared, which de-emphasized the importance of religious laws D) under the influence of the Upanishads, social caste distinctions began to weaken and fade E) the Vedic Aryans had established themselves in the northern 2/3 of the Indian subcontinent

Compared with the Sunni variety of Islam, Shia Islam tends to A) be optimistic about the human capacity for obeying God's law B) celebrate the "rightly-guided" caliphs C) be heavily involved in politics, even in areas where Shiites are a minority D) regard religious scholarship as relatively less important E) celebrate charismatic holy women

Confucius' Way (dao) was A) roughly equivalent to the forces of nature or the cosmic forces B) a return to a pristine state of nature, unspoiled by social corruption C) a path one could follow that would lead to a better life in the next world after death D) a mystical path, which people pursued through meditation and the use of certain herbal hallucinogenic drugs E) created, upheld, and advanced by human effort

During the late Second Temple period, which of the following was NOT a belief or practice held by the vast majority of Jews? A) keeping the Sabbath B) circumcision C) the Law of Moses D) belief that humans have free will in all things E) belief in a God who acted in history

In the classic western Christian tradition, A) Science was useful for many purposes, but it provided no useful guidance for interpreting Holy Scripture B) members of the clergy typically had no understanding of or interest in science C) the realms of science and theology were entirely separate D) most scholars accepted the findings of science unless a particular claim contradicted a literal reading of the Bible E) seeking knowledge of the principles of harmony and geometry, i.e., to pursue science, was to seek to know God

In the ideal Hindu life course, after a person has raised a family successfully, the next stage in life is A) military service B) enjoyment and recreation C) pursuit of music and the arts D) service as a government official E) pursuing knowledge as a forest hermit

In the traditional biography of the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama), a major activity during his life after becoming enlightened was A) relaxing and playing music with friends B) serving as an advisor at the court of kings and other rulers C) writing theological essays D) wandering the forests alone, enjoying the bliss of enlightenment E) teaching, mentoring, and counseling

In the traditional biography of the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama), just as he was about to become enlightened A) he gave up meditation in favor of asceticism (mortifying his flesh) B) he understood that atman and Brahman are two distinct entities C) he dreamed of a white elephant D) he paused to preach a sermon to his former associates E) Mara sent a horde of demons to try to prevent it

Mencius' preferred rhetorical device in favor of the argument that human nature is good was to A) imagine the behavior of soldiers in a battle B) contemplate the excellent state of government and institutions during his day C) point to the existence of historical figures like King Wen and the Duke of Zhou as exemplifying typical human nature D) point out that Confucius argued vigorously that human nature was good E) imagine somebody suddenly encountering a child about to fall into a well

Muhammad A) lived all of his life in the city of Mecca B) died in Medina (Yathrib) in 622 C) was a scholar who wrote down his insights about religious matters D) passed on the leadership of the community of believers to his son E) eventually came to see himself as the last in a long line of God's messengers

Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi was a A) physician who studied human anatomy in detail B) mathematician who translated agree geometry texts C) geographer who mapped the entire world D) physician who discovered the germ theory of disease E) mathematician who explained and systematized algebra

One characteristic of Buddhism in the United States is that A) there is a strong sense of hierarchy among the clergy and ordinary practitioners B) there is little political or social activism among Buddhists C) the different schools of Buddhism rarely communicate with each other and tend to maintain strict doctrinal purity D) the forms of practice for men and women are often significantly different E) meditation is the main activity for the vast majority of practitioners

In Chinese popular religion A) people are reincarnated repeatedly B) ancestral spirits do not require any particular attention from their living descendants C) deities resemble humans and deities in a hierarchy D) deities are too lofty to care about the activities of people E) there is one, all-powerful, transcendent God

NOT D C?

The religious and military revolt against Rome now called the Reformation A) was mainly about opposition to the doctrine of the Trinity B) began in Switzerland with Huldrych Zwingli C) began in Bohemia (today's Czech Republic) with Jan Hus D) had no success in the German states because of the great power of the Holy Roman emperor E) was about power and leadership, not serious doctrinal issues

NOT D E?

In the traditional biography of the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama), soon after becoming enlightened he sang a song that included the verses "O housemaker! I have seen you! / You shall build no more houses for me!" It meant that the Buddha A) was liberated from the cycle of rebirth (samsara) B) renounced asceticism (mortification of the flesh) C) would never again enter a house or other physical shelter D) would be reborn in a heavenly paradise E) renounced his father's kingdom

NOT E

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