What’s the story

 

To understand people you must understand their story

 

In fact to understand yourself, you must understand your own story

 

For example, the conflict of religions, is the conflict of stories

 

Let’s start with religion

 

They are very easy stories to know, for they are repeated

 

As a Rabbi I am authorized to say the Jewish story (though obviously there are sub-stories but the universal Jewish story is) God made the world, at Mount Sinia, he obligated us to keep his 613 commandants, which the Rabbis clarify (through an oral tradition that also came from Mount Sinai) when we’re good, God blesses us – because we were bad, He sent us into exile – the messiah will redeem us and we will all live happily ever after (again there may be deeper dimensions but this is the universal story, for the past few thousand years.)

So for the Christian standpoint I did a google search for the Christian worldview and this is what I came up with

1) We are God’s creation, designed to govern the world and fellowship with Him (Genesis 1:27-28; 2:15). 2) We sinned against God and subjected the whole world to a curse (Genesis 3). 3) God Himself has redeemed the world through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ (Genesis 3:15; Luke 19:10), and will one day restore creation to its former perfect state (Isaiah 65:17-25). A Christian worldview leads us to believe in moral absolutes, miracles, human dignity, and the possibility of redemption.
Read more: http://www.gotquestions.org/Christian-worldview.html#ixzz3KwG9UIlF

 

Islam

 

“A Muslim is one whose outlook on life is permeated with this consciousness [of the pillars of Islam]. He is committed to the values of life given by the Qur’an and the Sunnah. He tries to live according to the guidance given by God and His Prophet and he strives to promote the message of Islam through his word and actions. This striving is known as Jihad which means a striving and a struggle in the path of God. It consists in exerting one’s self to the utmost in order to personally follow the teachings of Islam and to work for their establishment in society. Jihad has been described in the Qur’an and the Sunnah as the natural corollary of these pillars of faith. Commitment to God involves commitment to sacrifice one’s time, energy and wealth to promote the right cause. It may be necessary at times to give one’s life in order to preserve Truth. Jihad implies readiness to give whatever one has, including his life, for the sake of Allah.3

 

– See more at: http://www.allaboutworldview.org/islamic-politics.htm#sthash.AYWw62BC.dpuf

 

Islamic Ethics – The Five Pillars of Islam

The Five Pillars of Islam encompass the basic moral obligations for Muslims. The first pillar of Islam is the confession of faith: There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet. Under this pillar all other obligations are subsumed, for to believe in God and Muhammad as His prophet is to obey their teachings and the example of Muhammad’s life.

The second pillar is prayer: Muslims are expected to engage in prayer five times a day, facing Mecca. Prayer provides a daily rhythm to Muslim life. Muslims hope to please God by remembering him constantly with regulated prayer. Muslims also hope that systematic praying will help them avoid temptations to immorality.

The third pillar is fasting during Ramadan. Fasting involves refraining from such things as food, tobacco, and sexual relations during daylight hours, though they are not prohibited after sundown. These periods of fasting are to encourage and enable Muslims to develop self-control, to squelch bad habits, and to refocus their minds toward personal spiritual progress.

The fourth pillar is almsgiving wherein Muslims are required to give at least 2.5 percent of their annual capital to the poor, either directly or through Muslim charitable organizations. Giving to the poor is intended to achieve a generous lifestyle and a sense of caring for the Muslim community, especially those lacking physical and financial means.

The fifth pillar is pilgrimage. All Muslims are expected to make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetime, if their finances and health permit. During their pilgrimage, Muslims don white garments and remove all indicators of status or class. This practice is intended to help Muslims recognize that before God they are all equal. Racial, gender, and economic differences are muted as masses of Muslims from many nations bow together to worship Allah.

A sixth pillar, jihad, is sometimes added as an obligation for Muslims. Jihad has two facets: first is the battle against temptation and sin for the sake of self-control and the development of virtue. 5The second is the battle against any and all who oppose Islam. Jihad is seen as the most self-sacrificing action Muslims can undertake. Indeed, Muslims who die in jihad are guaranteed entrance into Paradise, where men have access to scores of perpetual virgins. Women, however, are not told what awaits them.
– See more at: http://www.allaboutworldview.org/islamic-ethics-and-the-five-pillars-of-islam-faq.htm#sthash.BqPokd7f.dpuf

 

As we know, the history of Islam as a faith is also the history of a state and a community of believers living by Divine law. The Muslims, jurists and theologians, have always expounded Islam as both a Government and a faith. This reflects the historical fact that Muslims, from the start, lived under their own law. Muslim theologians naturally produced a theology with this in view—it is a theology of the majority. Being a minority was not seriously considered or even contemplated. The theologians were divided in their attitude to the question of minority status. Some declared that it should not take place; that is to say that a Muslim is forbidden to live for any lengthy period of time under non-Muslim rule. Others suggested that a Muslim living under non-Muslim rule is under no obligation to follow the law of Islam in matters of public law. Neither of these two extremes is satisfactory. Throughout the history of Islam some pockets of Muslims lived under the sway of non-Muslim rulers, often without an alternative. They nonetheless felt sufficiently committed to their faith to attempt to regulate their lives in accordance with its rules and regulations in so far as their circumstances permitted. In other words, the practice of the community rather than the theories of the theologians provided a solution. Nevertheless Muslim theology offers, up to the present, no systematic formulation of the status of being a minority. The question is being examined. It is hoped that the matter will be brought to focus and that Muslim theologians from all over the Muslim world will delve into this thorny subject and allay the conscience of the many Muslims living in the West and also to chart a course for Islamic survival, even revival, in a secular society.5 – See more at: http://www.allaboutworldview.org/islamic-politics.htm#sthash.AYWw62BC.dpuf

 

Muslim minorities in Western countries often place themselves in positions where they seek to govern themselves under Shari’ah law, while simultaneously maintaining citizenship in their respective countries. To this end, many Muslims seek advancement in politics, education, and law, all with the hope of being better able to make their case. Typically they seek to implement Shari’ah in regard to education and family law, seeing Islamic law—in additions to being an obligation for Muslims—as superior to other law systems. Additionally, these Muslims seek to squelch any and all public criticisms of their faith. In our current politically correct culture, Muslims sometimes join hands with the political Left in opposing traditional Western values. Both are critical of the Christian faith and the Christian history of their respective countries. But at other points, especially with regard to family values, Muslims and leftists find little common ground. – See more at: http://www.allaboutworldview.org/islamic-politics.htm#sthash.AYWw62BC.dpuf

 

The vision of Muslims is that Islam will one day be global in extent and authority. Yet some people refuse to convert to Islam or to submit to Muslim conquest and rule. When this occurs, these individuals are deemed aggressors against Islam and are seen as legitimate targets for jihad if they seek to stop Islamic practice and growth.

When we understand this Muslim vision, especially in light of the fact that most Western nations have refused Islamic demands to establish Shari’ah (or even to permit Muslim ghettos to practice Shari’ah among their Muslim populations), then we cannot fail to see that Muslims view such refusals as aggressive toward Islam. These nations are deemed aggressors against Islam because they refuse to permit Muslims to live as they please—not only in regard to ruling their own subcultures, but also because of a refusal to adopt and propagate Islam (as Muslims believe they are commanded to do).

More fundamentally, though, because the world was created in submission to Allah and every human being is born a Muslim, to refuse Allah’s demands to seek to restore the world and its inhabitants to that state is to perpetuate rebellion against Allah. This sets such people or nations up in opposition to Islam itself and causes them to become a legitimate target for jihad. Jihad, while being called “defensive,” is nothing less than the offensive posture of Muslims intent on seeing the world Islamicized.”
– See more at: http://www.allaboutworldview.org/islamic-politics.htm#sthash.AYWw62BC.dpuf

 

Obviously there is a secular worldview which was associated with science but in truth was actually a rejection of religion to follow man’s sensual desires (limited of-course by the moral imperatives of religion; hence most scientists in fact are believers and religious people.)

 

The secular worldview of course is a rejectionist platform – not realizing that the principles of how it views society (at least in western civilization) of course are the judiac-cristian ethic.

 

However the obvious fault of this worldview is that while it mocks religion, it provides no meaning in life (which is why so many modern people are turning to God, religion etc.)

 

Another interesting worldview is democracy – now democracy is essentially not a worldview, it is a form of governance, but as usual, people have great difficulty in separating between a specific view and their worldview for we tend to see things in absolutes.

There are obviously many other worldviews one should be aware of:

Buddhism

“Buddhists do not much like the terms Buddhism or religion even if it is difficult in our culture to escape using them, these being Western words which define a religion as a set of beliefs – usually in a god and the supernatural.  Instead we prefer to speak of the Way of the Buddha or the Buddhist sphere of influence (SESANA)  Buddhists also reject calling the tradition a faith for it is not there to be “believed in” (like God, the Resurrection or the Soul) on the basis of equivocal evidence. Instead there are teachings and practices to be tested and examined until they are recognised for oneself as showing truth, reality – the way things actually are in the world.  This then is why it is prefered to describe the Way as a system of mental and moral training which emphasises practice. Practice has three elements:

1. Generosity, unselfish, compassionate behviour
2. Morality, responsible behaviour that avoids causing suffering, and
3. Mental Training, the cultivation of disciplined reflection, meditation or mindfulness.”

Hindu

“Hinduism is a collective term applied to the many philosophical and religious traditions native to India. Hinduism has neither a specific moment of origin nor a specific founder. Rather, the tradition understands itself to be timeless, having always existed. Indeed, its collection of sacred texts is known, as a whole, as Sanatana Dharma, “The Eternal Teaching.” It is thus a complex tradition that encompasses numerous interrelated religious doctrines and practices that have some common characteristics but which lack any unified system of beliefs and practices. Hinduism encompasses a number of major sects, as well as countless subsects with local or regional variations. On one level, it is possible to view these sects as distinct religious traditions, with often very specific theologies and ritual traditions; on another level, however, they often understand themselves to be different means to reach a common end. The Hindu worldview is grounded in the doctrines of samsara (the cycle of rebirth) and karma (the universal law of cause and effect), and fundamentally holds that one’s actions (including one’s thoughts) directly determine one’s life, both one’s current life and one’s future lives. Many, but not all, Hindus hold that the cosmos is populated by numerous deities and spiritual beings — gods and goddesses, or devas — who actively influence the world and who interact with humans. The tradition is typically divided into four major sects: Shaiva (devotees of the god Shiva), Vaishnava (devotees of the god Vishnu), Shakta (devotees of the goddess), and Smarta (those who understand the ultimate form of the divine to be abstract and all encompassing, Brahman).”
Read more: http://www.patheos.com/Library/Hinduism.html#ixzz3KwPcKlnr

All in all there is a single inescapable conclusion, that while Judaism, Christianity, Secularism, Democracy, Buddhism and Hinduism leave room for others, Islam at best will only tolerate others until they can either subjugate, but in point of fact usually annihilate them, and this conclusion is witnessed in the behavior of the world’s worldviews today!