COMPARING RELIGIONS DBQ MR. TAYLOR | WORLD HISTORY

HISTORICAL CONTEXT A religion is defined as an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, practices, and worship that centers around one or more gods. Throughout the centuries, religion has guided the beliefs and actions of millions of people in patterned and predictable ways. ESSAY PROMPT  Using the information from the textbook and the documents provided, compare and contrast at least two religions.

MORE DIRECTIONS Write a well-organized essay that includes an introduction, several paragraphs, and a conclusion. Address all aspects of the task by accurately analyzing at least four documents. Support your response with relevant facts, examples and details. Include additional outside information. Using the textbook will be critical: See next slide.  No outside research is necessary. Use the documents, your textbook and class notes.  Compare the religions in at least three ways.  Follow the high school essay format expectations. 

WORLD RELIGIONS AND ETHICAL SYSTEMS Textbook resources 

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Use your textbook’s special section on “World Religions and Ethical Systems,” Page 282. Also      

Buddhism: pages 68-71 Christianity: pages 168172 Hinduism: pages 66-67 Islam: pages 263-272 Judaism: pages 77-80 Confucianism: pages 104105

Possible topics

Current locations  Origins  Sacred texts  Ritual  Leadership  Worship practices  Celebration 

POSSIBLE THESIS AND CONCLUSION TOPICS    

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Where are your selected religions common around the world? What basic principles do all of the religions have in common? What role does religion play in people’s everyday lives. Why do you think ritual and celebrations are an important part of all religions? What do you think people hope to gain from their religion?

Abraham Lincoln Nov. 19, 1863

HIGH SCHOOL

Fifth Hour

ESSAY FORMAT

 Name information  Title (not “essay”)  No word art

 Paragraphs  Indents  Double spaced  Textbook-style font  10-12 size font

Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this (document #3).

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground (Patterns of Interaction, Page 234). The brave men,

 1-inch margins

living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power

 CITE DOCUMENTS

to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here,

(usually parenthetically) No bibliography needed on a DBQ

but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

DOCUMENT #1

Document #2

HINDUISM QUOTES Proverbs  “There is nothing noble about being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.”  “True happiness consists in making others happy.”  “Hinduism, by virtue of its lack of an ideology and its reliance on intuition, will appear to be more plausible than those religions whose doctrinal positions petrified a thousand years ago.” Klaus L. Klostermaier, Professor, University of Manitoba 

BUDDHISM QUOTES

EMPEROR ASHOKA, 260 B.C. “Do not harm any living thing. Do not kill animals as sacrifices to gods. Festivals worshipping many gods will not be held. What matters is doing good deeds.”  “Respect your mother, father, and relatives. Do not harm one another. Be generous to friends. Doing good is hard, but rewarding.”  “Glory and fame are not important in life. Being rich and powerful does not matter. In fact, being right and powerful could do more harm than being poor and humble. Do good, give up wanting things that to not matter: Have selfcontrol and learn all that you can.” 

MORE QUOTES Confucianism: Confucius

“What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.”  “Men’s natures are alike. It is their habits that carry them far apart.”  “When anger rises, think of the consequences.” 

Christianity: Bible

“‘Men, what must I do to be saved?’ And they said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”  “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you.” 

MORE QUOTES Islam: Muhammad 

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“Those who are merciful have mercy shown them by the Compassionate One. If you show mercy to those who are in the earth, He who is in heaven will show mercy to you.” “No body which has been nourished with what is unlawful will enter paradise.”

Judaism: Torah 

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“And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.” And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing.”