The World's Religions By Huston Smith

With being humans, no one is alike even if they try. This alone can create distinct and contrasting ideas of religions and how they relate. In The World’s Religions, Huston Smith gives three ways that people tend to lean towards to for viewing the world’s religions, which through this class, I can now pinpoint these methods in individuals (including myself) who have try to relate to religion. According to Smith, the first way to relate to religion is what Smith tries to avoid in the book. This way of relating is thinking “one religion is superior” than the other (Smith 337). With studying new religions, people are more likely to compare their religion or beliefs to what they have learn and unknowingly (or knowingly) to find ways to believe that their religions are better. When I was younger, I did the same thing and every once in awhile, I will start comparing to see if my faith was better than the others. It especially did not help with family members (have quite a …show more content…
The third way states that God is view differently according to person (338). Each individual has a different mindset, so the way he or she understands a situation will be slightly if not completely different from the next person. This applies to how different beliefs are form from a single religion like how Christianity was derived from Judaism. Out of all the three, Smith seems to favor this idea more since this allows him to write about each religion and their distinct features. This allows us to interpret how we view the beliefs ourselves without trying to compare them. Overall, I gained a better understanding for the world’s religions through this class with the help of Smith’s book, and I actually enjoyed for an online class. The book itself is really beneficial for someone who only knows about the different beliefs through what the close ones have told them, which was originally