by Mateusz Szkubel

Created on: August 14, 2008

This is an article study I did recently on the essence of all religions:

For thousands of years man has fought for his own beliefs and opinions on where we came from, why we are here and where we go when we die. All these thoughts have become known under one word...Religion. No one person carries the same belief in the depth of their mind on how we have come to be, but with all these different denominations and branches of philosophical opinion be unified into one? In many countries to make such a bold statement would surely be condemning yourself to death and whatever disputed scene comes after it, but I have decided to take on this research to enrich our minds and to see what else is out there and how past all the hate and anger we are one.

I have chosen 5 popular religions to explore on my study, and I will go to each of their places of worship and learn all I can from those who are most educated on their denomination of life. Here I list the 5 I will research:

Buddhists

Muslims

Christians

Jews

Hindus

I went to th Hindu temple first, to me it was a whole new experience from what I was used to in my own religion (which I will not share with you for the luxury of being on a neutral ground with all parties) There we chanted and called down the spirit of their Hindu God to a statue so we could use the statue as an item on which to focus and better relate to, rather than trying to imagine the unidentifiable spirit. We then welcomed him and the priest made holy the ground in front of the God so we could feed him, we gave him food and then drank holy milk. We thanked and dismissed our guest chants and praise, then we were each presented an apple, symbolizing that we must feed others before ourselves, and we were expected to offer the apple to someone else before we ate it.

Next I went to the Muslim temple and watched them perform there service an prayer and then discussed the quality of life, its meaning, greed, hate, stereotypes and love among other things, with a educated Muslim elder, all the while enjoying a cup of tea. I learned a lot from this man and was greatly enlightened. I confirmed that not all Muslims are radical and that we all share one God in the views of Muslims, to be a Muslim one must first read and except all three of these holy books, the Qu'ran , the Torah and the holy Bible. Te Muslim believes Jesus to be a prophet and not the son of God, but also that we must listen to all the prophets teachings, he also believes Jesus will one day return to the

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