World History

Religions in Reading

Name______

Hour______

Date______

Directions: Answer the following questions using the reading passages below.

“God spoke, and these were his words: I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other god to set against me. You shall not make a carved image for yourself nor the likeness of anything in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth.”

1.  What term meaning belief in one God is described in this passage?

2.  To which belief system(s) does this passage apply?

a.  Buddhism

b.  Hinduism

c.  Judaism

d.  Confucianism

e.  Daoism

3.  What important “list” of rules includes two of the suggestions mentioned in the passage above?

“Then suddenly this also was clear to him: he, who was in fact like the one who had awakened or was newly born, must begin his life completely afresh. When he left the Jetavana grove that morning, the grove of the Illustrious One, already awakened, already on the way to himself, it was his intention and it seemed the natural course for him after the years of his asceticism to return to his home and his father. Now, however, in that moment as he stood still, as if a snake lay in his path, this thought also came to him: I am no longer what I was, I am no longer an ascetic, no longer a priest, no longer a Brahmin…Siddhartha stood still and for a moment an icy chill stole over him.”

Herman Hesse, Siddhartha

  1. The beginnings of which belief system is described in this passage?
  2. Buddhism
  3. Hinduism
  4. Judaism
  5. Confucianism
  6. Daoism
  7. What does the passage mean by “years of his asceticism”?
  8. To what does the term “Brahmin” refer? Why does the speaker believe this no longer applies to him?

“"The souls must reenter the absolute substance whence they have emerged. But to accomplish this, they must develop all the perfections, the germ of which is planted in them; and if they have not fulfilled this condition during one life, they must commence another, a third, and so forth, until they have acquired the condition which releases them from misery…”

7.  To which belief system(s) does this passage apply?

  1. Buddhism
  2. Hinduism
  3. Judaism
  4. Confucianism
  5. Daoism

8.  What term meaning the act of being reborn is described in this passage?

9.  According to Hinduism, what is the term referred to by “develop all the perfections”? Meaning, what term refers to your behavior and choices in this life?

10. According to Buddhism, what term describes reaching the end of this journey, or the “release…from misery”?

11. Using the map on the right, color the country in which Confucianism is primarily found using STRIPES. Color the country in which Hinduism is primarily found using DOTS.