Compare and Contrast Essay on Religions

Introduction

Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, atheism, Buddhism, Judaism, and Shintoism are some of the common religions present in the contemporary world. Each of these religions has a different opinion and belief towards various aspects of human life. Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism perceive killing fellow humans as a great offense and sin. Christianity views murder as a sin in the eyes of God as it contravenes the sixth commandment in the Bible; You Shall Not Kill. Islam views killing as a major sin as it interferes with the sanctity of human life and contradicts God's compassion towards humans. Hinduism view murderers as worse criminals than thieves and defamers. Judaism also perceives killing as a great sin as murdering one individual is equated to killing the entire world.

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Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Judaism believe that abortion is a form of killing and is a great offense and sin before God. These religions believe that life begins at conception thus making abortion as one way of killing innocent life. Islam, Judaism, and Christianity indicate that murderers should be punished by death. In addition, these religions perceive that murderers will go to hell when they die. Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity prohibit suicide acts. Hinduism argues that suicide is a spiritually forbidden because it contravenes the principle of non-violence. Hinduism equates the act of killing oneself to killing other persons. Islam considers suicide to be a sin against God. The Quran cautions Muslims against killing themselves as God is compassionate. Christians also view suicide as a sin before God because Christians believe that only God has the right to take life. In addition, Christianity view life as sacred and hence killing oneself contravenes this view. The Bible also equates suicide to murder.

Confucianism perception of suicide differs from that of Islam, Christianity, and Hinduism. Despite Islam, Hinduism and Christianity prohibiting suicide and considering it sinful, Confucianism considers it worthy in some circumstances. For instance, Confucianism supports people who kill themselves as a way of expressing their sentiments against culture. Furthermore, Confucianism supports the suicide act of individuals who kill themselves to promote moral integrity. On the contrary, Hindus, Christians, and Muslims religions consider suicide immoral, sinful and cowardly regardless of the reasons for the act.

Christians strongly view abortion as murder and have been adamant to embrace it as it goes against the will of God and purpose. Christianity believes that God created people differently and no person should end the life of fetus because of its physical abnormalities. For instance, the Roman Catholic strictly forbids intentional termination of pregnancy as it contradicts with God's natural principles. Furthermore, killing an unborn child causes the mother psychological, spiritual and emotional pain. On the contrary, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Confucianism do not support the killing of fetuses absolutely but allow it under some conditions. These religions argue that a fetus should be terminated if it has complications that may risk the life of the mother.

Buddhism differs from Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, and Confucianism, which embraces capital punishment for individuals, accused of killing as it forbids punishing offenders by death. Buddhism strictly champions for non-violence and tranquility within the society thus opposing the death penalty. Despite Islam opposing the act of killing humans, it embraces capital punishments for people accused of murder as a way of delivering justice to the family of the deceased.

Bibliography

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"Killing And Murder In Judaism". 2009. Samsonblinded.Org. http://samsonblinded.org/blog/killing-and-murder-in-judaism.htm.

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