Understanding of Differing Religious Beliefs About the Nature and Purpose of Life.
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- Date Submitted: 08/15/2011 04:44 AM
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Beliefs about the nature and purpose of life differ between Christianity and Hinduism. Hinduism teaches that life in an endless cycle of reincarnation so Hindus have great emphasis on how their actions and duties affect this process. However Christianity says that we only have one life on this earth so it is important that we show our commitment to God before we die.
Fundamentally Christians believe that we were divinely created in the image of God, ‘Imageo Dei’. We were not a product of chance but part of an ingenious creation. “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness’ (Genesis 1:26). This doesn’t mean we have to be a mirror image of God instead it’s our nature that must reflect him and therefore we have a responsibility to love and worship him. Humans are then aware of being created in the image of God and being part of God’s creation so are therefore able to interact with the rest of God’s creation eg. the world and animals. Humans are different to all other creatures because they were created with the ability to reason and so they make rational decisions which make them completely unique compared to animals. This gift of reasoning was tested by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. God insisted that they were forbidden to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge. However after careful consideration, Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the fruit from the tree. It is from this that we are all born with original sin. Literal Christians believe that God has pre-destined our life where as non-literalists believe that he gave us the gift of freewill so we have some ability to choose our own actions and must accept the consequences of those.
We are also different to animals as we were born with a soul and created in the image of God. Unlike our physical body with is finite and will perish after death, our soul is immortal, spiritual and regarded as the source of individuality that we contain. Our soul begins existence at conception/birth and...
Fundamentally Christians believe that we were divinely created in the image of God, ‘Imageo Dei’. We were not a product of chance but part of an ingenious creation. “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness’ (Genesis 1:26). This doesn’t mean we have to be a mirror image of God instead it’s our nature that must reflect him and therefore we have a responsibility to love and worship him. Humans are then aware of being created in the image of God and being part of God’s creation so are therefore able to interact with the rest of God’s creation eg. the world and animals. Humans are different to all other creatures because they were created with the ability to reason and so they make rational decisions which make them completely unique compared to animals. This gift of reasoning was tested by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. God insisted that they were forbidden to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge. However after careful consideration, Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the fruit from the tree. It is from this that we are all born with original sin. Literal Christians believe that God has pre-destined our life where as non-literalists believe that he gave us the gift of freewill so we have some ability to choose our own actions and must accept the consequences of those.
We are also different to animals as we were born with a soul and created in the image of God. Unlike our physical body with is finite and will perish after death, our soul is immortal, spiritual and regarded as the source of individuality that we contain. Our soul begins existence at conception/birth and...