DQ#1 HUM

Learning about other religions has caused me to question my own religiosity . It reminds me of when I was a lot younger , when I would make an appraisal of myself based on my observations of other people . I used to gauge myself by what I saw in others . Today , reading about Islam , Judaism , Buddhism , and other religions has affected me the same way . To be frank , I was caught rather off guard by their experiences It 's ironic that we need to read about other religions and how their followers practice their faith

, in for us to stop awhile and take a closer look at how we practice our own religion

The knowledge about other religious practices prompted me to compare them with the practices of my own religion . One of the five pillars of Islam , for instance , the daily prayers , which requires Muslims to make time to pray five times a day wherever they are (Fisher . 2005 . Islam has made me realize how seldom I pray in a day . I was brought up by my parents to pray every night before going to bed , and that 's it . Now I wonder if I 'm not doing enough praying , or whether my own religion is merely less demanding . Another is the hajj , a pilgrimage to their holy sanctuary , the Ka 'bah , which was supposed to have been built by Abraham with the help of his son , Ishmael (Fisher . 2005 . Islam ) I bet that going to such a pilgrimage even once in one 's lifetime costs a lot of money - but the fact that Muslims are doing all they can to save for it speaks a lot about their piousness

In the case of Judaism , reading about the holocaust which killed around six million Jews during World War II simply overwhelmed me (Fisher 2005 . Judaism ) I can 't seem to get over the fact that a simple church membership got that many people killed . And yet the Jews remained steadfast in their faith . Confronted with such naked cruelty , I could not help asking myself the inevitable question : What would have I done if my parents were killed in that holocaust ? Would I have remained a Jew in spite of it ? Faith , I know , would still matter in the end

The foregoing observations about other religions have not diminished my faith in my own . If at all , it strengthened me . I have come to realize that faith in God conquers all

References

Fisher , M .P (2006 . Islam . Living Religions , Sixth Edition (pp .362-416 . Prentice-Hall

Fisher , M .P (2006 . Judaism . Living Religions , Sixth Edition (pp .226-283 . Prentice-Hall...