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Question:


animallover
Student
High School - 10th Grade

Name one holy destination and its importance to the religion for each of the following belief systems.

The belief systems are:

Christianity

Islam

Buddhism

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Posted by animallover on Monday November 9, 2009 at 9:24 PM and tagged with history, world history.


Answers:


  1. pohnpei397 Teacher
    Community / Jr. College

    eNotes Editor

    Best answer as selected by question asker.

    Christianity -- a major holy destination is Jerusalem.  That is the site of, among other things, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.

    Islam -- the major holy destination is Mecca, in Saudi Arabia.  Mecca is holy because that's where the Prophet Mohammed received his revelations and where he spent the first years after the start of Islam as a religion.

    Buddhism -- a major holy site is the tree under which the Buddha is supposed to have attained enlightenment.  That is called the "Bodhi Tree."  It is in the city of Bodh Gaya or Gaya in the state of Bihar in North East India.

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    Posted by pohnpei397 on Monday November 9, 2009 at 9:32 PM

  2. readerofbooks
    readerofbooks Teacher
    Doctorate

    eNotes Editor

    Here is another perspective. Christianity does not have important holy sites. Why? They believe in the ubiquity of God, that is, God's omnipresence. Most Christians would probably agree with this, especially now. This is why most Protestants and Catholics today do not consider certain places more holy than other places. Or think about the Christian classic, Pilgrim Progress. Christians are wanderers in the world. If anything for many Christians there is a separation of time. Certain times of the year are important - Christmas, Easter, Lent, etc. This makes more sense in view of the expansiveness of the church. Also I would argue that the church will continue to go in this direction. In this way, Christianity is different from Islam and Judaism.

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    Posted by readerofbooks on Tuesday November 10, 2009 at 1:59 PM