Report on the Religious Life of Planet Earth - Essay Example

Report on the Religious Life of Planet Earth I was very curious to visit planet earth to find out the religious nature of the people of planet earth,given its significance to our people and my reporting job back to my seniors. The vast scope of the issue at hand required me to decide some criteria to check the religious nature of various people; how they viewed religion and what meaning of the word “Religion” they derived. From my initial research, it was revealed that there were many different religions followed on earth but the leading religions represented by maximum number of people were three: Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism.

My research report about the religious dimensions led me to know the essence of religion, which was evoking of specific response over various aspects of life, taken to be pure as designed by traditional practices of religious bodies (Fisher, 2011). My criteria to examine the religiosity of the people on earth was philosophical related to the causal purpose of the universe; peoples’ adherence to religious rituals and moral code of conduct, as propounded by the leading religions.Starting from Christianity, I examined the people believing in this religion on the parameter of cause behind the creation of the cosmos.

Christians believed that there is one supreme power governing the affairs of the universe. Human beings are the final product of the creator to live on the planet with love and justice. They believe that the purpose of their existence is to love and serve God (Christianity Human Nature, 2012).My next stoppage to research and analyze the preaching of Islam revealed about the followers of Islam, the Muslims who adhere to five pillars of Islam, called the “pillars of faith”, which are critical religious rituals.

These are observing disciplined routine of confessing to the faith, strictly adhering to the ritual of prayer, paying the alms tax, fasting during the month of Ramadan, and Pilgrimage to Mecca. True Muslims are only those who follow the routine first four rituals and accomplish once in their life time a visit to the holy city of Mecca, their fifth ritual. This is a religious pilgrimage held in the last month of the Islamic year. While playing the ritual of donning a white sheet, they show their allegiance to the almighty by projecting that they have covered their wealth, culture, and class, as belonging to various corners of the planet to attain a feeling of equality and unity (Denny, 1987).

The religion of Hinduism was the third parameter to decide whether the believers in the Hindu philosophy of life were religious or not. My analysis of the Hindu belief system revealed their impeccable faith in the cycle of birth-rebirth, as based on one’s good and bad deeds in past lives. Their present lives, as they believe, are the outcomes of their past life deeds and their future birth after death is sure to happen according to their deeds (Karmas) or actions performed in past life. According to Hindu religion, we decide our lives ourselves through our deeds; if our past deeds were bad, we would be unfortunate in the present lives.

Therefore, religion guides them to do good deeds only to attain paradise or freedom from the cycle of rebirth (Mcdowell, 2002). There was one common element in the leading religions of the planet earth, which was their belief in the existence of God. All religions teach their followers to serve mankind and shower praise to the almighty. In total, the teachings of all the three leading religions inspire people to love and believe in the existence of God. ReferencesChristianity Human Nature and the Purpose of Existence. (2012). Retrieved from Patheos.

com website at http://www.patheos.com/Library/Christianity/Beliefs/Human-Nature-and-the-Purpose-of-Existence.htm Denny, F. (1987). The Realization of the Goal of Islam in Faithful and Observant Communal Life: The Five Pillars of Islam. Retrieved from MuslimGateway.com website at http://www.muslimgateway.com/library/rituals/Fisher, M.P. (2011). Living Religions. Pearson Education.McDowell, J. (2002). Handbook of Today’s Religions. Retrieved from Greatcom.org website at http://www.greatcom.org/resources/handbook_of_todays_religions/03chap01/default.htm