Five Major Religions and Its Influence on People’s Behavior

高晓博 郭红梅

（昌吉学院 外语系，新疆 昌吉831100）

1 Religion as a World View

As everyone knows that our world view originates in our culture. In every culture we can unavoidably see the shadow of religion. Religion, as Nanda observes, “deals with the nature of life and death, the creation of the universe, the origin of society and groups within the society, the relationship of individuals and groups to one another, and the relation of humankind to nature.” There are numerous kinds of religions in the world and here we just talk over the five major ones that have lasting traditions for centuries, influenced on and gained respect from millions of people. They are Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.In the following part, we will discuss some aspects of them.

2 Five Religious Concepts

Judaism： is the “religion, philosophy, and way of life” of the Jewish people. Originating in the Hebrew Bible (also known as the Tanakh) and explored in later texts such as the Talmud, it is considered by Jews to be the expression of the covenantal relationship God developed with the Children of Israel.

Islam： it’s one of the major world religion founded by Muhammad in Arabia in the early 7thcentury AD. The Arabic word Islam means“submission”—submission to the will of the one God, called Allah in Arabic. It’s a strictly monotheistic religion, and its believers, called Muslims.

Hinduism： is the predominant religious tradition of South Asia.Hinduism is often referred to as Sanātana Dharma(a Sanskrit phrase meaning“the eternal law”)by its adherents.

Buddhism： a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha (Pāli/Sanskrit “the awakened one”).philosophy. (3)Our goal is to illustrate some aspects of religious clarifications and its influences on people’s behavior.

Christianity： They believe in a God who is manifest in the Trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Examples of the link between religion, perception, and behavior：

●They believe strongly in organized worship to proclaiming God’s message--they have a keen of social activities, they may participate a lot of religious clubs and associations beyond their family unit.

●They believe it is the God who created human beings and gave them the power to dominate the nature--they are future-dominated people and possess the spirit of exploration.

●They believe “The central ethic Jesus taught was love”--they try to make charitable contributions by playing the “world police” role to improve the lives of other countries.

Judaism： They believe that God’s providence extends to all people,they also hold to the notion God entered into this special covenant with them so that they could carry God’s message by example.

Examples of the link between religion, perception, and behavior：

●They believe they are God’s “chosen people”--they reserve their beliefs even go through sufferings such as Holocaust.

●They believe learning is the power and obligation that given by God--As long ago as the first century, Jews had a system of compulsory education.

●The Ten Commandments weigh a lot in their life--they can’t relieve the suffering when they betray the Ten Commandments but to obey and bear it.

Islam： They accept that Muhammad was the heir to the religious mantle passed down by the prophets of the Bible. Their god Allah spoke to human beings many times in toe past and concerned with establishing a new social order as well as delivering a religious message.

Examples of the link between religion, perception, and behavior：

●The wisdom of the Koran claims that religion is the whole of life--they taught Islam to everyone from the time when he was born.

●They believe they should submit to the will of Allah--they pray five times a day to show their submit.

Five Religious Similarities

3 Five Religious Clarifications and Its link with People’s Behavior

We should keep in mind three points before discussing the major religions of the world：(1)Everyone has his world view, even the person who does not believe in God. That is to say, religion is only a kind of world view；(2)It is difficult to draw a line between religion and a subtle manifestation of religion. Someone may call religion another might call

●They should show their devotion to Allah--Everyone should try his best to make a pilgrimage to Mecca in his lifetime.

Hinduism： The material world is not the only reality. There are other realities that reveal the true nature of life, the mind, and the spirit.

Examples of the link between religion, perception, and behavior：

●They believe that the world is so fantastic that every creature is governed by a god --they treat animals such as monkeys and cattle kindly to show their respectful towards that god.

●They believe that satisfaction in the material and physical world might gratify us, but finally they will “wear out”--they spend much of their lives to experience Nirvana in search of realms.

●They believe in various paths can adapt to diverse needs--they have distinct spiritual paths such as jnanayoga, bhkti yoga, karma, and rajayoga.

Buddhism： They believe that life, for a host of reasons, is suffering.

Examples of the link between religion, perception, and behavior：

●They believe there is a life after death--they do not kill animals.

●They believe that life is dukka (suffering)--they try to seek the causes of their suffering while enduring them.

●They believe the impermanent nature of all things both good and bad, which are always changing--they believe in karma.

4 Conclusion

From the above we can see that religion not only reflects our world view, but also influences our conduction. Therefore we should keep an open mind when concerning people’s perception and behavior.

［1］Cao Xianghong.(2010). An Introduction to Intercultural Communication[M].Beijing： Science Press.

［2］Samovar, Larry A., Porter, R E., & Stefani, Lisa A.(2000).Communication Between Cultures (3th ed.)[M].Beijing： Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.

［3］http：//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page[OL].