Assignment Directions: Respond to the assignment below. Be clear with your responses. Offer specific illustrations from the textbook and artwork to support your assertions. This essay is worth 50 points and the expected length is 3-5 pages.
Lessons 4 and 5 are very significant as they present how three major religions in the world - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - began. They also explore the beginnings of Buddhism and Hinduism, two Eastern religions which are still prominent today. How humans view their spiritual world constitutes a major theme of this course. Through your exposure to the foundations of these religions, choose one that most relates to your own spiritual views.
To start, briefly describe the chosen religion in your introduction. Then conclude your introduction with a thesis statement that links the religion to your personal views. This will be the focal point of your essay. As you structure your essay, find three specific areas at a minimum to which you connect, and those will become your body paragraphs. You may draw on any personal experiences from your upbringing to your current practice. If you have little or no spiritual connection to the religions presented in this lesson, then research another religion which aligns more to your views. There are over 4,300 religions in the world - accordingly, a reasonable fit can be found. As you research, make sure to properly cite your sources. Aim to incorporate selected course themes into your prose. You may certainly draw upon any other spiritual viewpoints presented in the earlier lessons as support for or components of your topic as well. There are many options for artistic illustrations, and composing this paper will encourage you to go back through the textbook and select different examples. The objective of this assignment is to further develop your own views of religion by assimilating the material you have learned so far in this course.