World Religions Final

Why is contemplating the reality of one’s death important in some religions?

The purposes that death rituals serve within religions and why they are important for understanding those traditions

Compare scientific explanations and religious interpretations of NDEs and which is more convincing

Mindfulness according to Jon Kabat-Zinn

The process of divorcing mindfulness from its spiritual origins

How mindfulness is practiced

The techniques used and the purpose of practicing meditation mindfulness in everyday life

Discuss whether religion is primarily about belief, behavior, or belonging

Religion: What is it? Where does it come from? What does it do? How does one study it?

Describe Indigenous religions, and why it is difficult to define them as a single category

The importance of land in Indigenous spiritual traditions

How Indigenous perspectives on nature differ from typical Western views

Describe the Indigenous concept of a relational worldview and the idea of reciprocity

How the ideas of a relational worldview and reciprocity might challenge “Western” ideas about individuality, ownership, and human dominance over nature

The function that creation stories serve in religions

The major differences between Genesis Chapters 1 and 2 and how these stories function as it relates to creation, the view of God and the role of humans

The Sky Woman story and its central meaning

What does the Sky Woman story teach about the origin of the world and humanity’s place in it?

According to Robin Wall Kimmerer, what are the key principles of Indigenous spirituality?

How does Kimmerer contrasts Indigenous ways of knowing with Western scientific or economic perspectives?

The key features of Chinese religious worldviews (yin yang)

Compare Confucianism and Taoism (origins, views regarding society, human behavior)

The concept of chi and why it is important in Chinese philosophy and religion

Explain how the ancient of chi might relate to contemporary science, health, nature, and the universe

The central ideas of Taoist thought and what it says about how we should live

Explain how Taoist ideas might challenge Western ideas about control, success, and knowledge

According to chapters 1 and 14 of the Tao te Ching, what is the Tao and why is the Tao difficult to describe?

Why is water used as a model for the ideal way of life and way to express the Tao?

Describe the importance of stillness and returning to the source as it is laid out in chapter 16 of the Tao te Ching

Explain how chapter 16 addresses the reality of life and death

What does Taoism offer about how to lead a happy life?