A religion is defined by its beliefs and believers, sacred texts, ethics, rituals and ceremonies; these combined create the characteristics of religion. Sacred texts and ethics hold great importance in giving meaning and providing guidance to adherents. These two characteristics are clearly evident in Judaism and Christianity resulting in lives which display goodness and compassion.
Religious texts are texts which adherents consider to be sacred and give meaning to religious traditions. Adherents believe these texts are divinely or supernaturally inspired, an example of one such text from Judaism is the Torah. It is believed that these are the laws of Judaism and they were presented to the prophet Moses on Mt Sinai. These laws are put in place to give …show more content…
The Torah is made up of 613 laws, an example of one such law is “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor” this helps adherents to live lives of goodness and compassion by staying honest not only to other people but themselves. Similarly to the Torah, Christianity centers religion around a sacred text known as the Bible. An inner temple of goodness and compassion is displayed in ‘The parable of the prodigal son’ (Luke 15:11-32) by the forgiving of wrongs. A man has two sons, one of which he gave early inheritance to, this boy then went off and spent all the money, returning poor knowing he had wronged his father. On his return the he says to his father “Father I have sinned against God and have done wrong to you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son” to this the father replies by demanding his servants to gather the greatest clothes and to kill the best calf for a meal. The eldest son gets jealous and questions his father's actions the father replies with “Oh
Religious texts are texts which adherents consider to be sacred and give meaning to religious traditions. Adherents believe these texts are divinely or supernaturally inspired, an example of one such text from Judaism is the Torah. It is believed that these are the laws of Judaism and they were presented to the prophet Moses on Mt Sinai. These laws are put in place to give …show more content…
The Torah is made up of 613 laws, an example of one such law is “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor” this helps adherents to live lives of goodness and compassion by staying honest not only to other people but themselves. Similarly to the Torah, Christianity centers religion around a sacred text known as the Bible. An inner temple of goodness and compassion is displayed in ‘The parable of the prodigal son’ (Luke 15:11-32) by the forgiving of wrongs. A man has two sons, one of which he gave early inheritance to, this boy then went off and spent all the money, returning poor knowing he had wronged his father. On his return the he says to his father “Father I have sinned against God and have done wrong to you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son” to this the father replies by demanding his servants to gather the greatest clothes and to kill the best calf for a meal. The eldest son gets jealous and questions his father's actions the father replies with “Oh