The city's event department, with whom I work, was tasked with organizing a ministerial conference that would accommodate the three major religions practiced in the area—Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. The conference seeks to honor the traditional beliefs of the represented religions and offers a forum for discussion between the groups and outsiders. To ensure that the three religious groups are fairly represented, a justification and conference description of the activity should be written.
The Three Main Religions Represented
The three main religions represented at the conference are Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity. The conference is targeting mainly the youth group and the preachers from the respective religions. The reason for targeting these two groups is; youth will be united to foster love and peaceful co-existence while the preachers shall be given a chance to profess their beliefs and stands. The significance of such celebration of cross-religion event is substantial.
Conference Program
The conference program shall give a chance for every religion to defend its relevance to the public spheres. It is the role of the religion from the public perspective to offer the divine image, legitimate concerns regarding "sensible accommodations," and the obligatory responsibility in the public representations and institutions such as training, religious reviews, political science, philosophy, as well as law.Despite the above facts, different religions should be celebrated and discussed differently. Different religions have diverse cultures and beliefs. As a result, when these religions come together might differ, a factor that may trigger differences among them. Hence, these religions should mostly discuss and celebrate their occasions objectively.
Conference Program Description
The event shall be guided by a program that will help to restrict and guard the meeting. The speakers are chosen from the three religions as the representatives of their respective religion. Each religion shall produce one speaker to represent it in the conference. For instance, Bhikkhu is the speaker proposed by the Buddhism religion. This is a male monastic that is ordained to undertake rituals and to teach beliefs and mythical standards of the faith. Islam gave out an Imam commonly known to be a worship leader both in Mosque and community. He is competent to be a speaker since he leads the Islamic services during worships, leads the community and offers the guidance on religious matters. Christianity religion ordained the priest to represent them. The priest is mandated to undertake all the sacred rituals and religious rites within the Christian religion.
Conference Sectional Description
Every speaker from the religions represented shall be given time to talk about his/her religion. First, a dense introductory description of the religion shall be done. The speakers shall be highlighting the major beliefs, practices, and faiths on specific topics like mythology, ritual, and the sacred, the impact of globalism in the last 20 years, and the commonalities among religions. The order shall start with Islam, Buddhist and later, Christianity.
Islam
According to Braidotti (2014), Muslims accept one omnipotent God, known as Allah unendingly better than and different from humanity. Allah is the maker of the universe and the wellspring of all great and abhorrent. Everything emerges through the will of Allah. He is an excellent as well as fair judge, whose mercy toward His supporters relies upon the adequacy of their life's acts of kindness and religious dedication. Despite the fact that a Muslim respects a few prophets, Muhammad is viewed as the final prophet whose words and way of life are that individual's power. For one to be called a Muslim has to fulfill the following crucial divine duties:
1. Occasionally repeat Allah's creed;
2. Recite the five times prayer daily using the Arabic language;
3. Offer support to the needful people;
4. Ramadan; one month fast from food, drinks, sex and smoking every year.
5. Pilgrimage worship of the shrine situated in Mecca at least once in the lifetime.Muslims believe that when one dies from his/her faithfulness to the above duties guarantees for paradise, however, when a Muslim fail to adhere to them, will be punished in hell for eternity.Globalization comprises of social, monetary and political modification grasped by individuals to exemplify their way of life and consolidate in the world. The idea influences financial, cultural and political backgrounds as well as its results. Islamic culture was presented with huge instructive, social and monetary bolster that made Arabian nations thrive nearby remote societies. The architectural, food and dressing code are some of the examples of the Islam global culture. This made the Islam culture a universal culture in which Arabs may come under its umbrella as equals.
Buddhism
Buddhists they neither worship gods nor God as the non-Buddhists say that they worship Buddha. Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) is not claimed as a divine being; rather, Buddhists attest that Buddha is respected for attaining spiritual illumination that they, Buddhists are trying to accomplish as well (Goody, 2010). Through holy light, one gains the freedom against an unremitting sequence of both life and death rites of passages.Most Buddhists trust a man has many resurrections, which unavoidably incorporate enduring troubles. A Buddhist tries to put to an end such resurrections. Buddhists trust it's a man's desires, abhorrence, and fancy that influence these resurrections. This way, the objective of a Buddhist is to filter his/her heart and to relinquish all desires on erotic wishes and the connection to oneself (Goody, 2010). Buddhists take after a rundown of ethical standards and exceptionally devoted contemplation.What Christians and Islam refer as worship/prayer, Buddhists call it meditation. Against religion, meditation does not focus on god but rather is a kind of self-discipline. By practicing meditation an individual can achieve "Nirvana"; "the blowing out" of the flame of desire. Buddhism is a religion that offers the skills of disciplines, principles, as well as pieces of advice one, require living by.
Christianity
Christianity religion believes in one and loving God and the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Through the death and resurrection of Christ, Christians see no need for religious rituals since salvation is not gauged by performing good works but the personal relationship with God. Confidence in Jesus Christ himself, simply in his lessons, is the way the Christian encounters delight and an extraordinary life. While on Earth, Jesus didn't recognize himself as a God's prophet or an instructor of illumination, rather, Jesus guaranteed to be God in humanity frame. He has done marvels, pardoned individuals of their transgression and said that any individual who put stock in him would have an eternal life. He made explanations like, "I am the light of the world; he who fails me won't stroll in haziness, however, will have the light of life."
The Differences among Religions
After a deep study of the major religion belief systems, the following religious diversity was discovered:
- Hindus believe in many gods and goddesses.
- Buddhists never believe in a deity.
- Muslims acknowledge the existence of Almighty and mysterious God.
- Christians put stock in a God who is cherishing and receptive.
Essential Features of World Religions
World religions like Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Atheism comprise unique features cutting across. The following are some of the world religion features:
- World religions institute reality of life experiences; history, talks of gods, natural things, religions, cities and geography, triggered by the mind of the religionists. According to Hinduism, the mind perceives the future orders and the order get fulfilled.
- World religions are mythical in nature. They make statements on supernatural and sacred beings. Every religion has aspects like ritual performance, moral subjectivity, and theology among others.
- Eschatological and Deity belief is another feature. Description of the final destiny of the human race and the end time in the world.
Relationship between Culture and Religion
Culture and Religion are closely related but different. Butler and Van Antwerpen (2011) view religion to be the central aspect of culture. However, there are cultures that are non-religious. Through religion, people become controllable, for instance, derivative control-acceptance gained by adjusting the difficult conditions; a factor that strengthens social bonds within the religious society. Religion shapes the traditions and conducts of the world people; any religion comprises of a spectrum of teachings on social behavior, code of ethics and morality according to the spiritual traditions such as world peace.Religion is a socially-learned conduct; one of the culture component. Here religious convictions, ceremonies, and establishments are found out and go down starting with one era then onto the next, and religious organizations are an indispensable part of the social structure and texture of culture. As part of culture and social development, religion revolution is fundamental. The social components shouldn't be mistaken for the religious components. Consequently, individuals having contrasting convictions can participate in any case tail one culture and just can't help contradicting respect to religious components or conviction related.
Religion and Globalization
As indicated by Haynes (2016), globalization triggers cultural pluralism i.e. invention of various religions. These religions overlap but have personal moral principles and interests. The major world religions traditions like Islamic, Christianity, and Buddhism educate their believers about the aspects of dignity in humanity, egalitarianism, autonomy, tranquility, and unity; perspectives that shape the world cultures. Ultimately, such religious life values, globalization brings about superior religious forbearance in global sectors like politics, economics, and society.
References
Braidotti, R. (2014). Transformations of religion and the public sphere: post-secular publics. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Butler, J., Mendieta, E. & VanAntwerpen, J. (2011). The power of religion in the public sphere. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
Goody, J. (2010). Myth, ritual, and the oral. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Haynes, J. (2016). Religion, globalization and political culture in the Third World. Berlin, Germany: Springer.
