Summary - HUMAN 40 – RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD

Discussion Prompt 1: “This [Smith’s previous point that satisfaction of the desire for worldly success is more substantial than pleasure] does not have to be argued for a contemporary Western audience. The Anglo-American temperament is not voluptuous. Visitors from abroad do not find English-speaking peoples enjoying life a great deal, or much bent on doing so – they are too busy. Being enamored not of sensualism but of success, what takes arguing in the West is not that achievement’s rewards exceed those of the senses but that success too has its limitations – that ‘What is he worth?’ does not come down to ‘How much has he got?’ (Smith, 15) Who are these ‘Anglo-Americans’ to which Smith refers? Do you agree with this characterization of Anglo-Americans as not “…enjoying life a great deal, or much bent on doing so – they are too busy. ”? Explain your view. Anglo-Americans refers to those people who speak English as their first language or their mother tongue. These people do not necessarily have to be whites but those people who move to the English speaking countries and begin to speak the English language and with time when they have offspring they learn English as their first or native language. The Anglo-Americans do not seem to be enjoying life but are viewed to focus much on their worldly success according to Smith. Also, these people are viewed to focus so much towards success rather than pleasure since they are mostly viewed be migrants who leave their native countries and settle in these countries with various reasons. These people also are believed to be living in those countries either due to job activities or as refugees who later end up having offspring’s who learn this language as they grow and become citizens of that state by birth because they were born in those countries. Discussion Prompt 2: “What is distinctive in Hinduism is the amount of attention it has devoted to identifying basic spiritual personality types and the disciplines that are most likely to work for each. The result is a recognition, pervading the entire religion, that there are multiple paths to God, each calling for its distinctive mode of travel.” (Smith, 28) What do we think about this claim, that there are multiple paths to God? A.The use of the singular (i.e. god v. gods) and capitalization, as with a proper name {i.e. (the) God v. (a) god} would seem to imply the same, identical, one and only one God…would that change your mind? B.The idea of many paths to the same goal (of union with God) might seem to discount the worth or value of the path itself, while some religions place more emphasis on the path than the goal…what do you think? According to Hinduism, there are many paths to God and these paths are attributed to the four personality types (Smith, 1994). The paths are such as through work, love, psychophysical, and knowledge. These paths are closely examined to have intrinsic values attached to them which ought to be followed in order to be on the right path. For instance, an individual can use any of the paths to God such as by use knowledge one gets to know God through learning and exchange of ideas. A The singular god and gods and the capitalization of the same words (God and god) would change my mind because according to Hinduism the god in small letters is used to refer to an idol or an evil image made to be worshipped instead of the true God with a capitalized letter “g”. Therefore, the singular god and gods means the same thing while the other God and god refers to the true and supernatural God compared to the false or evil idols. B I believe that the emphasis should be put on the goal and not the path because the goal is the primary objective while the path can be replaced with another if it does not yield good results regarding the goal. Also, the path should have emphasis although not too much so as to avoid less concentration towards the goal. It is important therefore for one to choose the correct path that does not interfere with the goal and one which helps one to focus on the goal withou