Comparison of religions essay

Everyone has different beliefs and cultures. Religion is important in our society and every religion is different.

Although they all have some similarities. All religions give us some kind of stress and anxiety reducing effect. They also impart us with an emotion of satisfaction and happiness. Religions offers hope that after we die there is another life. Christians believe that you go to heaven, Aboriginals believe that your spirit lives on and returns to significant sights within the country. Cherokee Indians have a similar belief to what happens after death – to Christianity beliefs. Cherokee Indians also believe that you rise up into a heavenly place, but God also gives you a choice of where you would like to go.

This written report will compare comparing the three above named religions, and proving and all religions have similarities and something in common. One of the things Christianity, Aboriginal beliefs and Cherokee Indian beliefs have in common is that they all have Sacred Stories. Sacred Stories are stories repeated for hundreds and hundreds of years, answering big questions of way of life and creation. Aboriginal Sacred stories are called Aboriginal Dreaming. Dreaming however is not a creation myth; the Aboriginal community refers to them as myth of formation.

Dreaming stories are stories of formation and how certain objects or places came to be. Here is an example of one creation (formation) dreamtime story; Life started when a creator woman called Warramurrungundjui came out of the sea and gave birth to the first people and gave them the languages. She carried with her a digging stick and a dilly bag holding yams, water lilies and other important plants. She planted the food and created waterholes with her digging stick on the ground. Other creator beings appeared… After completing her creative act, Warramurrungundj turned herself into a rock.

S. Breeden and B. Wright, Kakadu, Looking After the Country – the Gagadju Way http://www. cultureandrecreation. gov. au/articles/indigenous/dreamtime/ Another example of an Aboriginal Dreamtime story is “ Rainbow Serpent” story.

It is one of oldest religious belief story, dating back several thousands of years. Christianity for example has its two creation stories. There is the creation story of when God created the world in seven days. The story in book of Genesis 1-2: 4. The Christianity creation story begins with God creating the Heavens and the Earth. Then Gods spirit moved over the earth and God created light.

He then separated light from darkness. God had names the light “ day” and the darkness “ night”. God later created the sky and land. He called water around the land “ ocean”. God create things by commanding them to.

He then said, “ I command the earth to produce all kinds of plants, including fruit, trees and grain”. On the fourth day of creation, God “ separated day from night to show the time of seasons, special days and years. God also maybe two lights. One for the day called the Sun and one for the night called the Moon. They are both very powerful sources of light. Over the next few days, God also created animals, marine life and humans.

He created Humans in his own image and made us to rule over everything. On the seventh day, once God saw that it was good- he rested. Cherokee belief is somewhat similar to the Christianity creation story of Genesis. The Cherokee’s believe that, water covered everything in the beginning – just like in the Genesis story, darkness covered everything.

The creation stories states that living creatures existed, however they lived above the rainbow and it was extensively crowded. The animals then decided they needed somewhere else to live, where there would be more room. Therefore, the water Beetle was sent down below to look for some solid ground to live on. As the water beetle dived to the bottom, on the way up he brought up a tiny bit of soft and wet mud.

This created some land. Although it was still too wet to live on. Eventually it was dry enough and everyone came down to live on earth. The story expands further into talking about creation of light, mountains valleys and the underground world. Then later about the creation of mankind. From the three religions mentioned above each has a different creation story about how our world has been created.

They also have after life concepts. However, their life concepts aren’t all the same. Aboriginals believe that when you die, it is because an evil spirit has entered you. They also believe that when you die your spirit returns to a significant sight within the country.

While Cherokee Indians and Christians appear to believe in rising up to a holy place, e. . heaven. Aboriginals also have ceremonies, and they are all cherished by Aboriginals. They have been part of their culture for hundreds and hundreds of years and still are.

One of the most important ceremonies is the initiation ceremony. The main reason for this ritual is to teach young members of the tribe- both girls and boys- the law, and also a lot about their country. It is also intended to teach the young people about spiritual beliefs and for the Elders to pass on their knowledge. The initiation ceremony is often prolonged and sometimes take place over a few years. This is called the stage of “ learning” and “ proving”. Cherokee Indians also have ceremonies.

Cherokee ceremonies are held with the “ cycles of Mother Earth”. An example of a Cherokee ceremony is the Great Moon Ceremony. This ceremony is celebrated in October- at the first new Moon-, which then happens to be the season of autumn. They celebrate this ceremony in autumn, because according to them that’s when the world was created. This ceremony represents the new year celebrations. Each family brought some produce from their field to share, such as corn, beans and pumpkins. Ceremonies included dancing, purification by immersing seven times in water, called “ going to water”.

This ceremony gave the Cherokee an opportunity to give thanksgiving to the Great Spirit and the ancecestors for their blessings on us. It was a time to feast, and give thanks to Creator that the cycle would continue. http://www. echotacherokeewolfclan. com/id1. html Christianity also has significant ceremonies and rituals. Including; communion, baptism, masses and confirmation.

Baptism for example is a very traditional Christian ceremony. Baptism is the spiritual analogy to birth itself. Just as person in born into the world from protection within the water of the womb, a person is reborn spiritually by water in Baptism. To be baptized is to be spiritually reborn. The phrases often used in religion doctrine in the past are drown to the world and reborn to Christ”. The above-mentioned religions do have sort of similar ceremonies although they are not the same. For example, Cherokee Indians and Aboriginals have Initiation ceremonies which are a little bit similar to the Christian ceremony of Baptism.

Ofcourse there is also the scientific belief of creation. Scientists call this the Big Bang Theory. The Big Bang Theory is a lunar theory, about the early expansion of the universe. According to the theory, the universe expanded from an extremely dense and hot state. Science tells us about creation that it happened over a billion years. This theory has been proven accurate due to extensive research and evidence. In fact, the Bible and Scientific view of creation do not contradict each other.

For one, God does not reveal his entire creation process to us in the Genesis story. All we know is that he created the universe and that each day represents a certain time. Some believe that a lot of details have been left out of the bible because they would have been hard to write about in the Hebrew language e. g. about dinosaurs.

Although if you think about it closely, the Bible does tell the story of creation in much the same order as the scientific Big Bang Theory. In conclusion I believe that all religions have similarities but they also do have difference. Nevertheless we believe in one God, a creator of this Universe.