Final Exam
1 Final Exam Instructions: This is an open-book final exam worth a total of 50 points. Your answers will be graded based on accuracy, completeness, clarity of expression, and insight. Write in your own words. If you do draw on outside sources to help support your answers, be sure to provide proper citation. Because not all computers share similar software, it is important to format your written work as either a Word document or as an .RTF file. The final exam is due by midnight Friday of Week 8. This exam is to be uploaded in Blackboard, through the Final Exam submission link and the exam will be submitted through SafeAssign. Questions: 1. As discussed in Unit 1 of this course, all religions provide answers to a set of big fundamental questions. The most important are:  What is god/divine and what is it like?  Where did the world and people come from and what are they like?  What is the problem of life?  What is the solution to the problem?  What is the reward/afterlife? The different religions provide different answers to these questions; some are similar, some are very dissimilar. For this question, create a document that correctly captures how each of the six religions that we have studied this semester answer each of these big questions. Do not over write. You should be able to summarize each answer in no more than a couple of sentences. (30 pts.) 2. Because of time limits and the sheer bulk of information, the typical class on world religions largely presents religion as a thing-in-itself, isolated from the rest of social, cultural, and political life. But is this reality? Are religion and society related? If not, why not? If so, give examples of a real events or situations that illustrate the relationship between religion and society. (10 pts.) 3. Over the course of these eight weeks, you have had a chance to study a range of different religions. Now that you have done so, would you say that religions are more alike than they are different, or more different than they are alike? Provide concrete examples to illustrate whichever perspective you take. Also, how would you respond to the typical conversation that says, on the one hand, that this or that specific religion is the only true way, and, on the other hand, that there might be truth in other religions? Finally, what does your answer imply about the chances for peaceful coexistence among the world’s religions? (10 pts.)